I wëlle bleiwe wat make sense to me

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The motto on a beer house at the fish market in Luxembourg City ...
... and on the town house in Esch an der Alzette
Text and melody of the song De Feierwon by Michel Lentz

Mir wëlle bleiwe wat mir sinn or in older spelling Mir wölle bleiwe wat mir sin ( German  We want to stay what we are , French Nous voulons rester ce que nous sommes ) is a popular word in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg .

origin

The phrase goes back to the patriotic Luxembourgish song De Feierwon (German Der Feuerwagen  =  steam locomotive ) from 1859. It was written by the Luxembourg government official, writer and poet Michel Lentz as a tribute to the first international (cross-border) rail traffic in Luxembourg . "De Feierwon" was premiered on October 4, 1859 at the ceremonial inauguration and opening of the Luxembourg railway station and the railway connection from Arlon in Belgium via Luxembourg to Thionville in France. The final line of the song Mir wëlle bleiwe wat mir sin could later be varied if necessary to mir wëlle jo keng prices gin (“but we don't want to become Prussians”) and thus gained a certain importance for the national self-discovery of Luxembourg, especially in the context of the Luxembourg crisis . It is falsely presented as the official motto of Luxembourg in many media and unofficial publications.

The final chorus of the song is:

Comes here from France, Belgie, prices,
I can tell me about Hémecht,
Free yourself from all the bars
I wëlle bleiwe wat me sin.

In German:

Comes from France, Belgium, Prussia,
we can show you our home
Asks on all sides:
We want to stay what we are.

literature

Guy Berg: I wave bleiwe, wat my sin . Sociolinguistic and language typological considerations on Luxembourgish multilingualism, Verlag De Gruyter 1993. ISBN 978-3-484-31140-4

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Oliver Wagner: 150 years of railways in Luxembourg. CFL celebrate anniversary with 13 events. In: Zeitung vum Lëtzebuerger Vollek. zlv.lu, October 27, 2004, accessed December 5, 2013 .
  2. De Feierwon (German presentation). The beginning of the railway routes in Luxembourg. In: New Years Agency. frequence-sille.org, October 27, 2004, accessed December 5, 2013 .
  3. Jean-Paul Hoffmann: “De Feierwon” in Seidenglanz and Gloria. (pdf) The Luxembourger in the mirror of old locomotive photographs. In: Ons Stad. onsstad.lu, October 27, 1997, accessed July 31, 2020 .