Daisy Garner '21: Luxembourg 101

I think it is exciting that Die Zeitung is starting to look at other German-speaking countries more. Our classes are very focused on Germany. I mean, it’s not a surprise because Germany has the highest population of German speakers and is the root of the German language. 

I don’t know much about other German-speaking countries, but I do know that we cannot group them all together. I have been to Switzerland, Austria, and Belgium, and I find it interesting to hear how these other German-speaking countries speak German. Personally, I find it challenging to understand Swiss or sometimes even Austrian German, so I think that one might need to spend a bit of time in the country to really understand the German that they speak there fully. These countries also have their own unique cultures, histories, and politicals. For example, Switzerland’s neutrality and non-EU involvement is quite different from Germany’s powerful position in the EU. We have to take time to understand each of these countries and their linguistic habits and not simply mentally group them together. 

These are the countries where German is an official language:

-Germany

-Austria

-Switzerland

-Belgium

-Luxembourg

-Liechtenstein 

There are also several countries where German is a recognized minority language, like Romania. Also, in some dependent entities, German is a co-official language and used in administrative work. This includes some municipalities in Brazil, for example. There is a small town called Pomerode in Brazil that actually looks like a little piece of old school Germany! They even speak German with a 19th century Pomerarian dialect and perform dances wearing dirndls and lederhosen. 

Pomerode, Brazil: Amusing Planet

The last time I was in London, I met a friend of a friend from Luxembourg. I did not know much about Luxembourg, nor do I hear about Luxembourg in the news. I thought it was so cool he could speak multiple languages. We spoke in German and English, but people from Luxembourg usually speak 4 languages—German, French, English, and Luxembourgish.

Have you ever been to Luxembourg? Do you know anyone from Luxembourg? The answer, like for most people, is most likely no, which is no surprise because Luxembourg is a tiny country! I thought it would be cool to share some interesting facts about Luxembourg.   

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1. Luxembourg, officially known as the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is the second richest country in the world, behind Qatar. In 2018, Luxembourg had a GDP of $114,704 USD (for comparison, the United State’s is $65,118) and currently has the highest minimum wage in Europe at about 2,000 euros per month. With prices comparable to Swiss prices, this might be offset by the fact that some things in Luxembourg are quite expensive! According to Check in Price, a website for expats to get an idea of costs for living abroad, a pizza delivery is about $16.00, a cappuccino is about $3.90, and a one bedroom flat is about $1,400.00. However, a semester of university is only about $456 and public transportation is free, which brings us to our next point.  

2. In Luxembourg, all public transportation is (prepare yourself) free! 

Not only is public transportation in Luxembourg free, Luxembourg was also the first country in the world to pursue this initiative in 2020. In addition to wanting to promote the environmental benefits and having a healthy economy—which gives the Luxembourgish government the ability to sponsor this—this initiative was implemented because Luxembourg suffers from major traffic jams. The causes of these traffic jams brings us to the next two points.

3. Luxembourg has the highest rate of car ownership in the EU.

As of 2018, Luxembourg rated almost 700 cars per 1,000 people. Outside of the EU, but in continental Europe, Liechtenstein actually takes the cake of the most cars per 1,000 inhabitants with almost 800 cars per 1,000 inhabitants. According to CNN, Copenhagen and Helsinki have comparable population sizes to Luxembourg, but their inhabitants spend on average 9 hours less a year in traffic jams than drivers in Luxembourg City’s 33 hours a year in traffic jams. I wonder what drivers do when stuck in Luxembourg City’s traffic; maybe they listen to some Luxembourgish music. 

Eurostat 

4. About half of the people working in Luxembourg commute from another country. 

Again, another reason for Luxembourg’s high rate of traffic!  The workers who commute to Luxembourg are called “cross-border workers” and reside in Germany, France, or Belgium. It seems that these workers usually live across the border because they can find cheaper housing costs in their respective countries. According to an article from RTL Today, these cross-border workers, the number of which has increased yearly, are necessary “to keep up with the demand of businesses” in Luxembourg. About 45% of Luxembourg’s workforce are cross-border workers. 

Most of Luxembourg’s cross-border workers come from France. 1 in 5 of France’s cross-border workers are working in Luxembourg, and the other majority of France’s cross-border workers are commuting to Switzerland. The aforementioned article from RTL Today also talks about the negative effects cross-border workers are having on local jobs where they live, but positive effects on the real estate and facilities. 

Luxembourg Times 

     

5. It is the only remaining sovereign grand duchy in the world. 

A grand duchy is a country whose heads of state are titled Grand Duke or Duchess. Grand Duchies became more common in Europe after the abolition of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. Grand duchies were usually bigger than sovereign duchies, like those that were in Scandinavia, but smaller than the Kingdoms and Empires covering most of the rest of continental Europe. 

Other grand duchies historically include Saxe-Weimar, Baden and Transylvania. Luxembourg became a sovereign grand duchy in 1839. Some grand duchies were sovereign, some held in personal union, but only Luxembourg has remained a grand duchy to this day (although Luxembourg has been at various times under the control of or in union with France, Netherlands, Holy Roman Empire, Austria, and Germany). William I of the Netherlands was the first Grand Duke of Luxembourg, and today the Grand Duke is Henri, incumbent since 2000. Next in line is Henri’s son, Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume. 

The Royal Family of Luxembourg: The Telegraph

6. It is home to the German dialect (surprise, surprise) Luxembourgish. Luxembourgish is a mix of German and French and has similar grammatical qualities to German. For example, like German, Luxembourgish has 3 genders, but uses the 3 cases nominative, dative, and accusative, like German, but no genitive. Let’s look at a quick comparison:

Heute bin ich joggen gegangen. (German)

Haut sin ech joggen. (Luxembourgish)

So, the sentences are quite similar, but then there is also some direct borrowing from French:

Danke! (German) 

Merci! (French/ Luxembourgish)  

I think for a German-speaker these examples make it clear that knowing German would certainly help with learning Luxembourgish. However, knowing French and German 

would likely be the best combination for learning Luxembourgish. Listen to someone speaking Luxembourgish here.  

7. Luxembourg was one of the first countries to join the EU. 

The European Union was set up post-WWII, with the aim of establishing economic and political cooperation between member states, resulting in peace in Europe. The six founding countries of the European Union were Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Currently, the European Union has 27 member states. Luxembourg is also part of the geopolitical portmanteau Benelux, an economic and political union between Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. 

8. There are about 17km of tunnels below Luxembourg City. 

The Bock Casemates are the underground tunnels in Luxembourg City, dating back all the way to the 10th century and enlarged in the 18th century. The casemates are ruins from Luxembourg City’s historical district—located in the northeastern part of the city—and are a popular tourist attraction in Luxembourg. The surrounding defenses of the historical city had to be rebuilt over and over again as Luxembourg endured the attacks of European Great Powers from the Habsburgs to the Prussians, fighting over Luxembourg’s strategic location.

Stars and Stripes Europe

9. A euthanasia bill cause the revision of Luxembourg’s government structure in 2008. 

In 2008, Luxembourg parliament moved 56-0 to strip the monarch of his legislative role after Duke Henri refused to sign a euthanasia bill into law because of his religious convictions. Noted by scholars to be the natural evolution of monarchies in contemporary society, surveys at the time showed that a majority of Luxembourgers were in favor of having Henri as a “purely ceremonial” monarch. Similarly, in 1990, Belgium made their king Badouin a commoner for several days to pass an abortion law that the king would not approve.     

10. Luxembourg is the 58th smallest country in the world. 

Luxembourg is tiny, but it is not the tiniest! Luxembourg is smaller than countries like Trinidad and Tobago and Samoa, but larger than countries like Andorra, Tuvalu, Monaco, and Vatican City. Still, it takes a little over an hour to drive across the country. 

From free public transportation to a diverse population, Luxembourg still has great things to offer, even if it is tiny! 

Luxembourg Wortschatz 

das Luxemburg-the Luxembourg 

kleines Land/das kleine Land-small country/the small country 

die Bank-the bank

Vielsprachig-multilingual 

Großherzog von Luxemburg-Grand Duke of Luxembourg