Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

Starting point is 00:00:00 Sandwich between the nations of Germany, Belgium, and France is one of the smallest countries in the world. Given its location, it's a blend of cultures and languages. Likewise, its history has been defined by its neighbors. Yet, despite being surrounded by other countries for a thousand years, it has managed to survive into the 21st century as an independent country. Learn more about the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, and what exactly a Grand Duchy is on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong?

Starting point is 00:00:42 ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the Thurline podcast from NPR. Luxembourg is what I would categorize as a small country, but not a micro-state like Liechtenstein or Monaco. What is the cut-off you ask of a small country versus a microstate? Well, there really isn't anything official, but in my definition, it would be if you can see it on a world map. You can see Luxembourg. You can barely see it, but you can see it. In fact, I would go so far as to say that Luxembourg is kind of the cutoff for what is a small state versus what is a micro state.

Starting point is 00:01:33 And for those of you in the U.S., Luxembourg is only 82% of the size of the state of Rhode Island. So with that out of the way, the story of Luxembourg, as far as it becoming a country, goes back about 1,000 years. the year 963, the Count of the Ardennes, Siegfried, established a castle in what is today Luxembourg City. The castle was built on the rocky cliffs overlooking the river Elzette, and it was called Lucy Lin-Berhook, which means little fortress. And Lucy Lin-Burhook is the origin of the word Luxembourg. Siegfried was the origin of the House Luxembourg Ardennes, the Ardennes being the name of the dense forest hilly area which constitutes most of Luxembourg. The forest and the castle made Luxembourg a very different.

Starting point is 00:02:16 a difficult place to attack. As with almost every other part of Europe, over the next several centuries, it changed hands being ruled by the Duke of Burgundy in France, and then finally by the Habsburgs and the Holy Roman Empire. The House Luxembourg, one of the royal houses in the Holy Roman Empire, actually produced several emperors, including Henry V. Charles IV. The modern beginnings of Luxembourg began during the French Revolution when it was conquered by the Republic of France. It remained under French control until the defeat of Napoleon in 1814. Luxembourg at this time was much larger than it is today, well over twice the size. At the Congress of Vienna, which was convened to reorganize Europe after Hurricane Napoleon blew through it, Luxembourg couldn't go back to

Starting point is 00:02:59 being part of the Holy Roman Empire anymore because it didn't exist. Both Prussia and the Netherlands claimed Luxembourg. The compromise they came to was that parts of Luxembourg were to be given to Prussia. This was about 24% of the area of Luxembourg, and today most of that land is part of the German state of Rhineland-Faltz. The other compromise was that Luxembourg would be in personal union with the king of the Netherlands. That meant that the Dutch king would also be the monarch of Luxembourg as a separate title. This is similar to how Australia and the United Kingdom are in a personal union because they both have the same monarch as their head of state. To make up for having territory taken away, their status was upgraded from a duchy to that of a grand.

Starting point is 00:03:38 Dutchie. A Grand Duchy is just a region that's ruled by a Grand Duke. It's a title that wasn't used that often, but sometimes used in the past. Finland and Lithuania both used to be Grand Duchies. Today, Luxembourg is the only Grand Duchy in the world. The Belgian Revolution of 1839 saw the southern provinces of the Netherlands break away to form the new country of Belgium. Belgium claimed all of the Grand Duchy as their own. Most of the population of Luxembourg took part in the rebellion, but the citadel in Luxembourg city never fell. The end result was that Luxembourg lost 65% of its territory to Belgium, which compromises the Belgian province of Luxembourg today. This region, which is where the Ardennes Forest is, is where much of the Battle of the Bulge was

Starting point is 00:04:23 fought in World War II. With Belgium and Prussia both taking most of its land, that's the reason why Luxembourg is so small today. In 1867, a war between Prussia and France was almost started over Luxembourg. Both Prussia and France wanted Luxembourg. The King of the Netherlands, also the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, was going to sell Luxembourg to France, which Prussia didn't want. The end result was a treaty in London where Luxembourg was guaranteed its independence and neutrality. Known as the Luxembourg crisis, this was a lead-up to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. The Grand Duke of Luxembourg continued to be the king of the Netherlands through most of the 19th century. However, the Luxembourg monarch was bound by a different set of rules than the Netherlands monarchy was.

Starting point is 00:05:07 In 1890, Villam III, died without a male heir. His daughter, Willamina, became Queen of the Netherlands, a position she held until 1948. In Luxembourg, the crown couldn't pass down to a woman while a male relative was alive. So the Grand Dukedom was passed to Adolf, the Duke of Nassau. His son, William IV, got the law chain so his daughter could succeed him. and there were two Grand Duchesses of Luxembourg in the 20th century. The neutrality of Luxembourg didn't do them a whole lot of good during both World Wars. Luxembourg was occupied by German troops during World War I, despite being officially neutral.

Starting point is 00:05:42 The soft stance on Germany by the Grand Duchess Marie Adelaide resulted in her abdication in 1919 after the war. Just days after the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939, Luxembourg again publicly declared its neutrality. And again, it meant nothing. On May 10th, 1940, the Germans swept through the country, seizing the capital of Luxembourg City before noon. Nobody was killed on either side of the conflict. The government and royal family fled the country and ruled in exile, and the future Grand Duke Jean actually took part in the invasion of Normandy. The Germans declared Luxemburgers to be German citizens and conscripted 13,000 men to fight, of whom 2848 were killed. Over 2,000 Luxembourger

Starting point is 00:06:25 Jews were killed in the Holocaust, and a third of the bill. buildings in the country were destroyed during the Battle of the Bulge. After the war, Luxembourg removed its neutrality provision from its constitution. They became charter members of both the United Nations in 1945 and of NATO in 1948. In 1948, they also joined the Benelux Economic Union with Belgium and the Netherlands. This union has changed over the years, as the European Union has superseded many of the original terms of the agreement. Today, it focuses on cooperation in other areas, including police forces working together, recognizing academic degrees, and the promotion of cycling.

Starting point is 00:07:01 Luxembourg was also one of the original signatories of the Treaty of Paris in 1951, which established the European Coal and Steel community, which became the precursor to the European Union. On top of all these international organizations, which they've helped establish, they were also a founding member of perhaps the most important one of all, Eurovision. And they've won the contest five times in 1961, 1965, 72, 78.7,000. and 83. Only Ireland and Sweden have won the contest more. Most people might have heard of one

Starting point is 00:07:33 small village in Luxembourg, even if they didn't realize it, the village of Schengen. This was where the Schengen Treaty was signed, which allowed for the free travel of people within Europe without passports. Schengen was selected as the location to sign the treaty as it's the closest place to the tri-border of Luxembourg, Germany, and France. Today, Luxembourg has become a very successful country. It ranks near the top of almost every international index. It has one of the highest GDPs per capita in the world at $135,000. It ranks fifth in terms of economic freedom, in the top 20 of the UN's Human Development Index, and fourth in the Economist magazine's Quality of Life Index. And it's also one of the safest countries in the world. The murder rate per capita is 0.3,

Starting point is 00:08:17 which puts it just slightly behind Japan and Singapore. One of the odd things about Luxembourg is its language. The only official language in Luxembourg is Luxembourgish, which is a German that is heavily influenced by French. Luxembourg is similar to Swiss-German, in that it's mostly a spoken language. Laws and other administrative texts in the country are usually in French or German. That being said, German and French are also known by almost everyone, and English is widely spoken and taught in schools as well. One thing Luxembourg is not very good at is sports. Since it first participated in the Olympics in 1900, it has only won two medals at the summer games in its history, a silver medal in weightlifting in 1920, and the gold medal in the

Starting point is 00:09:01 men's 1500 in 1950. They did also win two medals in Alpine skiing at the Winter Olympics, but they were both won by Mark Geraldi, who was born in Austria and only moved to Luxembourg due to a coaching disagreement. And believe it or not, they have never qualified for the World Cup. I've personally visited Luxembourg twice, the first time I visited intentionally to explore Luxembourg City. And the second time I was in the city of Trier, Germany. On my way out of the city, I told my guide I had to get gas before I left, and he told me to go to Luxembourg for gas, as it was significantly cheaper. So I did, and it was. On a further personal note, my mother's mother's mother's family are Luxemburgers. My grandmother always said they were Luxemburgers,

Starting point is 00:09:43 but didn't know much beyond that, so I did some genealogy and found out that I am, in fact, part Luxemberger. And in addition, through totally different branches of my family tree, I'm also part Belgian and Dutch, so I have hit the Benelux Trifecta. Despite its early growing pains, several countries taking land from it, and having been overrun in two world wars despite being neutral, tiny Luxembourg has become a success story. Luxembourg is one of the few countries which has actually lived up to its national motto, which in Luxembourgish is Mirvella Blyva Vat Mirzinn, which means we want to remain. what we are.

Starting point is 00:10:23 Everything Everywhere Daily is an Airwave Media podcast. The executive producer is Darcy Adams. The associate producers are Thor Thompson and Peter Bennett. Today's review comes from listener Lama Ramba Banana over at Apple Podcasts in the United Kingdom. They write, Great podcast. This podcast does a great job of covering huge topics

Starting point is 00:10:41 in concise 10-minute episodes. As a saucer, my favorite is the fifth Beatles episode. I'd love to hear an episode on the history of my city at some point. Stay curious, Gary. Well, thank you, Lodon. I'm a ramba banana. I have been to your lovely city several years ago. I got my hair cut while I was in Liverpool and I had a conversation with my barber. To this day, I have no idea what he said, given how thick his scouse accent was. Also, I don't know if you're a Liverpool or Everton fan, but when I was in Liverpool, I did a tour of Anfield. I got to see the locker room, walk on the pitch, and learned about their history. And afterwards, I made Liverpool my Premier League team. They reminded me the most of my NFL team, the Green Bay Packers. I think there are some more Liverpool-themed episodes that are out there that I'll be doing in the future. Remember, if you leave a review or send me a boostogram, you two can have it read on the show.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

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