Did you know that if you search “Interesting Luxembourg facts” you get a page that says
“no” *chuckles* The funny thing is, I wouldn’t
be surprised if it were true.
You know what?
Let’s learn something about Luxembourg!
That’s better!
You probably don’t know much about Luxembourg, and I guess that’s fair.
It’s a tiny, little nation, tucked in between France, Belgium, and Germany, but there’s
more to it than initially meets the eye!
Luxembourg has three official languages: French, German, and a Germanic language called Luxembourgish.
What is Luxembourgish, well, here’s what it looks like on a sign, and here’s what
it looks like on another sign, and here’s what it looks like on a door of a Burger Kind,
and here’s what it looks like on a manhole cover.
Looks kind of like German, right?
Well, don’t say that out loud, they don’t really appreciate that here!
Now, what language should you brush up on before coming here?
Well, German works alright (and I’d assume English would, too) but the language I’d
actually recommend you learn before coming here is actually French.
Though, perhaps unexpectedly, 18% of Luxembourg’s population is actually Portuguese, and Luxembourgish
radio stations will actually play Portuguese songs at times to accommodate for this.
Now, Luxembourg is officially known as the “Grand Duchy of Luxembourg” — or “Groussherzogtum
Lëtzebuerg” in Luxembourgish, or “Grand-Duché de Luxembourg” in French, or “Großherzogtum
Luxemburg” in German (try to guess which one I actually speak) — Luxembourg is actually
the world’s last Duchy, which means that they are led by Grand Duke Henri.
So, why does Luxembourg have a Grand Duke?
Actually, why does it exist?
I mean, it is beautiful, but why isn’t it a part of one of its neighbors?
Well, first, be careful when asking that, people don’t tend to like being asked that
about their country!
Second…
Luxembourg was established after the acquisition of Lucilinburhuc, where a fort was established
in 963.
A town developed there shortly after, and it became a Duchy under the House of Luxembourg,
three members of which even reigned as emperors of the Holy Roman Empire.
Eventually, they didn’t have a male heir, so they sold off the fortress to
Philip the Good of Burgundy, who I’ve heard was a pretty chill dude.
After Napoleon steamrolled through Europe so hard he basically bulldozed the Holy Roman
Empire, the Congress of Vienna established Luxembourg as a Grand Duchy within the German
Confederation.
However, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, because European history never completely makes sense,
became part of a personal union, where King William I of the Netherlands was also Grand
Duke William I of Luxembourg.
He ruled Luxembourg as if it were a province of the Netherlands, and not as a separate
country that he still led.
Imagine what it would look like if personal unions were still a thing today?
Also, wir stimmen zu, dass Kanada ein Teil von Deutschland wird, aber es gibt ein Problem.
Sprechen Sie etwas Deutsch?
No, no, sorry about that.
Nein, nein, kein größer Problem, aber nur lernen Sie etwas Deutsch und versuch’s nochmal.
Perfect!
I’ll get the paperwork done, and we’ll get ourselves a double-double at Timmy-Ho’s!
Yeah, okay.
I just didn’t want to become America’s 51st state, it just seemed a bit of a cliché.
Ja, das kann ich verstehen.
Willkommen in Deutschland!
It should perhaps also be mentioned that Luxembourg was much bigger back then, but by the 1830’s,
that quickly became not so true, once a lot of that territory was ceded to Belgium’s
Luxembourg region.
So, basically, it’s a holdover of the old Holy Roman Empire, how cool is that?
Also, fun fact, Luxembourg technically has two flags it likes to fly.
First off, there’s their normal flag, which you will see if you go to any international
events featuring Luxembourg, but it looks a bit like that of the Netherlands.
And possibly in recognition of that, many in Luxembourg might also like to fly this
flag, which is definitely a bit more interesting.
It definitely screams “hey, look at us, we’re not the Netherlands!”
In the European Union, there’s a group of states called the Schengen Zone, which comprises
most of the EU (expect the British Isles, and the countries still yet to join), as well
as the microstates, and even Switzerland.
Do you know how much it takes for Switzerland to agree to do something?!
Schengen is an international agreement between most of the member states of the EU to basically
not have border checks between each-other.
Obviously, you still need to go through customs when going from the US to Germany, but no
passport or visas are needed to go from Germany to Luxembourg.
In an immigration sense, the whole bloc kind of acts as one huge super-country.
The name “Schengen” came from the town of Schengen, located on the tri-point border
between Germany, France, and Luxembourg, which was where the Schengen Agreement was signed
in 1985.
Luxembourg has been a very active member of the EU since the very beginning, which is
nice, since people would probably have noticed that gap in the map.
[Ha, gap-in-the-map!]
Luxembourg was one of the six founding members of the European Coal and Steel Community in
1951 (basically an alpha version of the EU), and six years later became a founding member
of the European Economic Community, and then the European Union, once the full release
came out.
They were also one of the first to join the Schengen Area (hardly surprising), and the
Eurozone.
Along with Brussels and Strasbourg, Luxembourg City is even one of the EU’s main administrative
centers (and admittedly, it is a lot nicer than Brussels) Luxembourg’s even home to
the European Court of Auditors, and the EU Court of Justice.
Luxembourg’s just one of those countries that, like, really likes
the EU.