History of Luxembourg
The area of today's Grand Duchy of Luxembourg was settled one after the other by Celts , Romans and Franks .
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Prehistory and Romans
Traces of settlement in what is now Luxembourg go back to the Palaeolithic ( Oetrange ). The Neolithic settlement begins with the linear ceramic band . The rich grave of Göblingen - Nospelt dates from the late La Tène period and shows strong Roman influence. The Titelberg was the most important oppidum in Luxembourg at this time . About a hundred years later, Romans invaded the country when Caesar around 58–51 BC. Chr. Gaul and part of Germanien to Rhein limit captured. The area of today's "Luxembourg" was mainly inhabited by the Treverians , it became part of the Roman Empire .
In the 5th century AD, the Germanic Franks drove back the Romans. Wandering monks evangelized people to Christianity and built monasteries. The Echternach monastery was founded by the Anglo-Saxon missionary Willibrord in 698.
County of Luxembourg within the Franconian Empire
After the division of the empire among the grandchildren of Charlemagne in the Treaty of Verdun , it came first to the Lotharingian Middle Kingdom in 843, then to the Duchy of Upper Lorraine in 859 and with this in 925 to the East Franconian Empire , the forerunner of the Roman-German Empire .
For the settlement-political and cultural situation of the duchy, power and cultural centers were important, such as the cities with the right to coinage or the monasteries. Only the Abbey of Echternach was in what is now Luxembourg. The later Imperial Abbey of Echternach, however, was an imperial direct territory within the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation and thus did not belong to Luxembourg. The apparent continuity between the medieval county and today's nation-state, however, is an a posteriori construction of later national historiography. Important trade routes from Roman times also passed through Luxembourg. Luxembourg played a strategically important role, primarily due to its geographical location, and this until the razing of the Luxembourg fortress in the 19th century.
The later eponymous castle Lucilinburhuc (or Lützelburg ) (on the site of today's capital Luxembourg ) was first mentioned in a document in 963 when Count Siegfried I exchanged the Bockfelsen on which the castle is located with the imperial abbey of Sankt Maximin in Trier for land acquired in Feulen . Siegfried's descendants called themselves Counts of Luxembourg from Conrad I (1083) . Later the name of their castle was transferred to their entire domain.
After the older line of the ruling dynasty and its heirs, the Counts of Namur , died out, the county of Luxembourg came to the later Duke Walram II of Limburg through marriage in 1214. In the dispute with Brabant over the possession of Limburg, the House of Luxemburg was defeated in the Battle of Worringen in 1288 , but the two houses soon came closer together. Henry VII of Luxembourg married the daughter of the Duke of Brabant and in 1308 even ascended the German royal throne. This marked the beginning of the most historically significant era in the House of Luxembourg .
Duchy of Luxembourg within the Holy Roman Empire
With the acquisition of the Bohemian royal crown by the son of Henry VII, John of Luxembourg , and the subsequent establishment of a strong domestic power in the east of the empire and in Hungary , the ancestral land lost increasingly in importance for the dynasty. The Counts of Luxembourg were to provide four Roman-German emperors in the 14th and 15th centuries . Heinrich's grandson, Charles IV , raised the Luxembourgish ancestral lands to a duchy in 1354. Karl was even supposed to pledge Luxembourg to Kurtrier at short notice .
In 1441 Elisabeth von Görlitz , the last duchess of the House of Luxembourg, sold the land to the French House of Burgundy . But it remained a fiefdom of the empire under constitutional law . After the death of Charles the Bold, the last Duke of Burgundy, in 1477, Luxembourg passed the entire Burgundian inheritance to Charles' daughter Maria and her husband, the later Roman-German Emperor Maximilian von Habsburg .
At his solemn abdication in 1555, Maximilian's grandson Charles V proposed the entire Habsburg Netherlands , including Luxembourg, to his son Philip II , King of Spain . From then on until the extinction of the Spanish Habsburgs, Luxembourg formed part of the Spanish Netherlands within the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation , from which the northern, Protestant provinces split off from 1568 under the leadership of Holland .
Due to the Habsburg-Bourbon antagonism , Luxembourg was repeatedly drawn into the wars between France and the Habsburgs in the following 200 years. In 1659, Spain had to cede the southernmost part of the duchy to France as part of the Peace of the Pyrenees . As part of its Reunionspolitik king had Louis XIV. 1684 north of France, the country of the new frontier occupy .
In the Treaty of Utrecht , which ended the War of the Spanish Succession in 1714 , the entire complex of countries, which roughly corresponded to today's states of Belgium and Luxembourg, was assigned to the Austrian line of the Habsburgs within the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. The Austrian Netherlands existed within the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation until the conquest and annexation of the country by troops of the French Revolution in 1794. From 1795 to 1814, the previous Duchy of Luxembourg formed part of the French Republic as the Forêts Department and later the French Empire .
Grand Duchy of Luxembourg within the German Confederation
The Congress of Vienna made Luxembourg nominally an independent Grand Duchy in 1815 , which under the kings of the House of Nassau-Orange was linked in personal union with the Kingdom of the United Netherlands . However, it had to cede the areas east of the Moselle , Our and Sauer with around 50,000 inhabitants to Prussia. Around 2300 square kilometers, with places like Bitburg , Sankt Vith , Neuerburg or Igel , were incorporated into the newly founded Prussian province of Lower Rhine (expanded to the Rhine province in 1822 ).
In contrast to the other areas of the newly created Kingdom of the United Netherlands, Luxembourg became part of the German Confederation and in 1842 also joined the German Customs Union . As a German federal fortress , the capital Luxembourg received a Prussian garrison.
When Belgium fought for independence from the Netherlands during the Belgian Revolution in 1830/39 , it was awarded the Walloon west and north-west regions of Luxembourg at the London Conference . The new Belgian province of Luxembourg emerged from more than half of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, with around 4,300 square kilometers, 160,000 residents and cities like Bastogne and Arlon .
In return, Luxembourg was given more autonomy . Until then, Luxembourg had been governed more or less like a Dutch province, similar to the Duchy of Limburg from 1839 to 1866. In 1841 the country received an estates constitution , which was later revised several times in 1848, with census suffrage .
Between 1842 and December 1918 the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg was a member of the German Customs Union .
After the Prussian victory in the German War of 1866, the German Confederation dissolved. Under the leadership of Prussia, the North German Confederation was founded as a federal state, but it did not include Luxembourg; the Prussian troops remained in Luxembourg for the time being.
Luxembourg crisis
Before the war of 1866, the Prussian Prime Minister Bismarck had the French government under Napoléon III. signals that she can annex Luxembourg if she gives Prussia a free hand against Austria . In 1867 Napoléon III tried . , Luxembourg from King Wilhelm III. (Netherlands) to buy. The public in the Grand Duchy and in the other areas of the German Confederation was outraged and against the intended sale of the land to France: Luxembourg, the homeland of the Luxembourg dynasty, which had four Roman-German emperors , should not be given to France, the hereditary enemy at the time , fall. A strong protest movement pleaded with their petition to the King-Grand Duke Wilhelm III. for the status quo . The motto “I wish you bleiwe wat mir sinn” became popular among the Luxembourg population. The crisis culminated in the second London Treaty of 1867, in which the country was declared forever neutral as a compromise . The German federal fortress in Luxembourg was then razed . France did not get a chance and the Prussian troops withdrew.
Complete independence of Luxembourg
Luxembourg achieved complete independence after the death of King William III of the Netherlands . in 1890. Since his daughter Wilhelmina succeeded him to the throne in the Netherlands , but the Salian right of succession applied in Luxembourg , the personal union was dissolved. Thus, according to the rules of succession and the family pact already concluded in 1783, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg fell to the 73-year-old Adolph von Nassau-Weilburg as the next beneficiary. He came from the older, so-called "Walramischen" line of the House of Nassau ; the Dutch Nassau-Orange dynasty, on the other hand, came from the younger, so-called "Ottonian" line of the Nassau family. This gave Luxembourg its own hereditary dynasty , the House of Nassau-Weilburg .
Even after the creation of the North German Confederation and the German Empire , the Grand Duchy remained a member of the German Customs Union until 1919 .
Luxembourg in the First and Second World Wars
First World War
During the First World War , Luxembourg was occupied by German troops on August 2, 1914. An internal political crisis emerged during the war, which broke out openly after the withdrawal of the German troops in 1918. The public was divided over the political future of the country, and there are movements for affiliation with Belgium or France. These were discreetly supported by the respective governments (Belgium: government under Léon Delacroix , France: under Georges Clemenceau ); Belgium in particular laid claim to the Grand Duchy. The still incumbent Grand Duchess Marie Adelheid found herself isolated not only in her own country, but also with the Belgian and French governments because of the pro-German policies that were accused of her during the war.
Riots broke out on January 9, 1919. Because of the low pay , the small volunteer company refused to give orders . A “welfare committee” , composed of liberals and socialists, took the opportunity and proclaimed a republic in the capital. The French commander, Marshal Foch , who at the time had his headquarters in Luxembourg, had his troops disperse the crowd on the Place d'Armes to avoid riots. The republic survived almost six days, but without the support of the general public. On January 15, 1919, Maria-Adelheid's younger sister Charlotte took her oath as the Grand Duchess's successor, after she had renounced her throne in writing on January 9.
Referendum on September 28, 1919
The further fate of Luxembourg was decided behind the scenes in Paris. Because of Luxembourg's economic proximity to Germany (membership in the German Customs Union ), some foreign diplomats doubted the independence of the Grand Duchy.
On September 28, 1919, a double referendum was held in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, which should decide on the one hand on the political and on the other hand on the economic future of the country. The following questions were put to the vote:
Political orientation: I wish:
- Retaining the ruling Grand Duchess Charlotte
- The retention of the ruling dynasty under another Grand Duchess
- The establishment of another dynasty
- The introduction of the republic
Economic orientation: I wish:
- The economic connection to Belgium
- The economic connection to France
Despite a pro-Belgian or pro-French propaganda discreetly supported from abroad, the electorate decided with 77.8 percent of the vote in favor of maintaining the monarchy and keeping Grand Duchess Charlotte on the throne. Only 19.66 percent voted for the republic. This gave the constitutional monarchy of Luxembourg a democratic legitimation. However, there were strong regional differences. In some southern parishes, a majority opted for the republic.
After the end of the German Customs Union due to the provisions of the Peace Treaty of Versailles and thus also the membership of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in the German Customs Union, the question of economic realignment arose. In the referendum, 60.13 percent of voters opted for economic affiliation with France and 22 percent for economic affiliation with Belgium.
Relations with Belgium were then clouded, the mission of the "Prince de Ligne" to negotiate an economic union with the government, thus failed. However, to the horror of the Luxembourg government and people, the offer was rejected by the French. The French side then told the Luxembourg government that it should deal with the Belgian government itself on the customs issue. Luxembourg therefore asked for an economic union with Belgium .
So it happened that relations with Belgium were resumed and on July 25, 1921 an agreement on the Belgian-Luxembourg economic union was signed, which came into force on December 22, 1922.
Further reforms were introduced in 1919, including the introduction of women's suffrage . The country's political independence was enshrined in the constitution, and the monarchy's political power was restricted by the constitution .
Second World War
Main article: Luxembourg in World War II
During the Second World War , Luxembourg was occupied by the German Wehrmacht on May 10, 1940 . Grand Duchess Charlotte and the Luxembourg government fled to Great Britain and established themselves there as a government in exile. The country was placed under German civil administration. This exercised the Gauleiter of the NSDAP Gustav Simon (Gau Koblenz-Trier, later Moselland) based in Koblenz . As head of civil administration , he was directly subordinate to Adolf Hitler . In fact, the CdZ area of Luxembourg was treated more and more like Reich territory over the years , but it was no longer formally incorporated into the German Empire .
The civil administration initiated the so-called Volksdeutsche movement (VDB), which was supposed to bring about a formal connection to Germany under the motto " Heim ins Reich ". The climax of these efforts was the unsuccessful attempt to obtain such a vote for a Anschluss by means of a referendum disguised as a census on October 10, 1941. The people were asked three questions about " citizenship ", " mother tongue " and " ethnicity ", whereby the cleverly formulated explanations should suggest that the citizens could only profess to be German. The Luxembourg Resistance successfully spread the slogan “dräi mol lastebuerg” (“Three times Luxembourg”), so that the civil administration soon stopped the action as a failure.
After the Gauleiter had introduced the obligation of Reich Labor Service for Luxembourgers in the spring of 1942 , on August 30, 1942, he ensured that Luxembourgers were also forcibly recruited into the German Wehrmacht . They fought back with an almost spontaneous nationwide general strike on August 31, 1942. He was brutally suppressed by the Gestapo , 21 strikers were shot dead on the same day , and many more were deported to concentration camps. Up to the liberation by the US Army on September 10, 1944, 3,963 Luxembourgers were arrested and taken to concentration camps (mostly to the SS special camp in Hinzert ) or prisons; 791 people died. 4,187 people were deported in the resettlement campaign for Luxembourg, mostly to eastern areas of the German Empire such as Silesia or the Sudetenland . 640 people lost their jobs for political reasons.
The experiences of the Second World War and in particular the compulsive "integration" into the National Socialist German Reich later encouraged the increased acceptance of French-language expressions in the local Moselle Franconian language " Lëtzebuergesch ". The use of the language thus became a symbol of solidarity with the Luxembourg state. Many towns were destroyed in the World War - especially the north of the country was badly devastated during the Ardennes offensive (December 1944 / January 1945). Many young Luxembourgers who escaped being recruited as Wehrmacht soldiers by fleeing abroad joined the Western Allies and fought, for example, in a Belgian battalion that was also involved in the Normandy landings .
post war period
After the Second World War, the customs and economic union was gradually extended to the Netherlands ( Benelux countries ). In 1948 the " perpetual neutrality " that had existed since 1867 was formally abolished. In 1952, Luxembourg became the seat of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), also known as the coal and steel union.
Luxembourg became a member under the Dupong (1945–1953) and Bech (1953–1958) cabinets
- the United Nations (1945),
- of the Council of Europe ,
- the OEEC (forerunner of the OECD ),
- of NATO ,
- the coal and steel union ,
- the European Economic Community (EEC) and
- the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM).
Luxembourg is a founding member of the European Union . Today it is the seat of the EU Council of Ministers (meetings in April, June, October in Luxembourg), the European Court of Justice, the EU Commission , the European Investment Bank and the European Court of Auditors. On January 1, 2002, the euro was also introduced as the official means of payment in cash in Luxembourg .
See also
literature
- (J.-M.) Kreins: Histoire du Luxembourg. Des origines à nos jours, collection Que sais-je? n ° 3101, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris 1996 (2010, 5e édition mise à jour)
- Franz Petri, Ivo Schöffer , Jan Juliaan Woltjer (Hrsg.): History of the Netherlands. Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg , Munich 1991 (excerpt from the Handbuch der Europäische Geschichte , edited by Theodor Schieder; takes into account the history of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg since 1815.)
- Michael Erbe: Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg. History of the Netherlands. Stuttgart / Berlin / Cologne 1993, ISBN 3-17-010976-6 .
- Gilbert Trausch (Ed.): Histoire du Luxembourg. Le destin européen d'un 'petit pays'. Toulouse 2002.
- Pit Péporté, Sonja Kmec, Benoît Majerus, Michel Margue: Inventing Luxembourg. Representations of the past, space and language from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century. Leiden / Boston 2010, ISBN 978-90-04-18176-2 , hdl: 10993/2052 , review
- Michel Pauly : History of Luxembourg . Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-62225-0 .
- Denis Scuto: Une histoire contemporaine du Luxembourg en 70 chroniques , Luxembourg 2019, ISBN 978-2-919908-16-5
Web links
- Carlo Muller: Luxembourg in World War II
- Introduction to the history of Luxembourg
- National Military History Museum
- National Archives Luxembourg
Individual evidence
- ↑ Anne Hauzeur: Le RUBANE au Luxembourg. Contribution à l'étude du Rubané du Nord-Ouest européen . In: ERAUL , 114, 2006, ISBN 2-87985-590-X
- ↑ Jeannot Metzler, Catherine Gaeng, Isabelle Le Goff et al .: Goeblange-Nospelt, une nécropole aristocratique trévire . Dossiers d'archéologie du Musée national d'histoire et d'art, Luxembourg 2009. ISBN 978-2-87985-065-8
- ↑ "In the course of becoming a state, nationalist historiography in the 19th century constructed a historical continuity between the medieval county of Luxembourg and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg created at the Congress of Vienna in 1815." ( Michel Pauly , quoted from Renée Wagener : Raum instead of Nation . Woxx , December 23, 2011).
- ^ Michel Pauly: History of Luxembourg . Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2011. ISBN 978-3-406-62225-0 . P. 28
- ^ Franz Rothenbacher: The Societies of Europe: The European Population, 1850-1945 , Verlag Palgrave MacMillan, Basingstoke - New York 2002, ISBN 978-1-349-65611-0 , p. 459
- ^ Franz Rothenbacher: The Societies of Europe: The European Population, 1850-1945 , Verlag Palgrave MacMillan, Basingstoke - New York 2002, ISBN 978-1-349-65611-0 , p. 459
- ^ HRH abdication of the Grand Duchess Maria-Adelheid and taking of the oath from HRH Grand Duchess Charlotte. (PDF) In: Memorial of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg No. 5/1919. January 18, 1919, pp. 65-66 , accessed December 28, 2018 .
- ↑ Popular referendum of September 28, 1919. (PDF) In: Memorial des Großherzogtums Luxemburg No. 61/1919. September 20, 1919, pp. 1051 ff , accessed on December 28, 2018 .
- ^ League of Nations Treaty Series . Volume 9, pp. 224-245. Text (english)
- ^ Norbert Haase: From "Ons Jongen", "Malgré - nous" and others - The fate of foreign conscripts in World War II . (PDF) Lecture at the University of Strasbourg, August 27, 2011
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