Luxembourg ( ), officially
the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg ( , , ), is a small,
landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium
, France
, and
Germany
. Luxembourg has a population of under half a
million people in an area of approximately 2,586
square kilometres (999
sq mi).
Luxembourg is a
parliamentary representative democracy with a
constitutional monarch; it
is ruled by a
Grand Duke. It is the
world's only remaining sovereign
Grand
Duchy.
The country has a highly developed economy,
with the highest Gross Domestic
Product per capita in the world as per IMF
and WB. Its
historic and strategic importance dates back to its founding as a
Roman era fortress site and
Frankish count's
castle site in the
Early Middle Ages. It was an important
bastion along the
Spanish road when
Spain was the principal
European
power influencing the whole western hemisphere and beyond in
the 16th–17th centuries.
Luxembourg
is a founding member of the European
Union, NATO
, OECD, the United Nations,
Benelux, and the Western European Union, reflecting
the political consensus in favour of economic, political, and military
integration. The city of Luxembourg
, the capital and
largest city, is the seat of several institutions and agencies of
the European Union.
Luxembourg lies on the cultural divide between
Romance Europe and
Germanic Europe, borrowing customs from
each of the distinct traditions. Luxembourg is a
trilingual country;
German,
French and
Luxembourgish are
official languages. Although a
secular state, Luxembourg is predominantly
Roman Catholic.
History
The
recorded history of Luxembourg begins with the acquisition of
Lucilinburhuc (today Luxembourg Castle
) by Siegfried,
Count of Ardennes in 963. Around this
fort, a
town gradually
developed, which became the centre of a small state of great
strategic value. In the 14th and early 15th centuries three members
of the
House of Luxembourg
reigned as
Holy Roman Emperors.
In 1437, the House of Luxembourg suffered a succession crisis,
precipitated by the lack of a male heir to assume the throne, that
led to the territory being sold to
Philip the Good of
Burgundy.
In the following centuries, Luxembourg's
fortress was steadily enlarged and strengthened by its successive
occupants, the Bourbons, Habsburgs, Hohenzollerns, and the French, among
others. After the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, Luxembourg was disputed between
Prussia
and the Netherlands. The
Congress of Vienna formed
Luxembourg as a
Grand Duchy in personal
union with the Netherlands.
Luxembourg also became a member of the
German
Confederation
, with a Confederate fortress manned by Prussian
troops.
The
Belgian Revolution of 1830–1839
reduced Luxembourg's territory by more than half, as the
predominantly francophone western part
of the country
was transferred to Belgium.
Luxembourg's independence was reaffirmed by the 1839
First Treaty of London. In the same
year, Luxembourg joined the
Zollverein.
Luxembourg's independence and neutrality were again affirmed by the
1867
Second Treaty of London,
after the
Luxembourg Crisis nearly
led to war between Prussia and France. After the latter conflict,
the Confederate fortress was dismantled.
The
King of the Netherlands
remained
Head of State as
Grand Duke of Luxembourg,
maintaining
personal union between
the two countries until 1890. At the death of
William III, the Dutch throne
passed to his daughter
Wilhelmina, while Luxembourg
(at that time restricted to male heirs by the
Nassau Family Pact) passed to
Adolph of
Nassau-Weilburg.
Luxembourg was
invaded and
occupied by Germany during the
First
World War, but was allowed to maintain its independence and
political mechanisms. It was again invaded and subject to
German
occupation in the
Second World War
in 1940, and was formally annexed into the
Third Reich in 1942.
During
World War II, Luxembourg
abandoned its policy of
neutrality,
when it joined the
Allies in
fighting Germany.
Its government, exiled to London
, set up a
small group of volunteers who participated in the Normandy
invasion
. It became a founding member of the United Nations in 1946, and of NATO in
1949. In 1957, Luxembourg became one of the six founding
countries of the
European Economic
Community (later the
European
Union), and, in 1999, it joined the
euro
currency area. In 2005, a
referendum on the EU
treaty establishing a constitution for Europe was held in
Luxembourg.
Government and politics
Districts of Luxembourg
Luxembourg is a parliamentary democracy headed by a constitutional
monarch. Under the constitution of 1868, executive power is
exercised by the
Grand Duke
and the
cabinet, which consists
of several other ministers. The Governor has the power to dissolve
the
legislature and reinstate a new one,
as long as the Grand Duke has judicial approval. However, since
1919, sovereignty has resided with the
Supreme Court.
Legislative power is vested in the
Chamber of Deputies, a
unicameral legislature of sixty members,
who are directly elected to five-year terms from four
constituencies. A
second body, the
Council
of State (
Conseil d'État), composed of twenty-one
ordinary citizens appointed by the Grand Duke, advises the Chamber
of Deputies in the drafting of legislation.
The Grand
Duchy has three lower tribunals (justices de paix; in
Esch-sur-Alzette
, the city of Luxembourg, and Diekirch
), two district tribunals (Luxembourg and Diekirch)
and a Superior Court of Justice (Luxembourg), which includes the
Court of Appeal and the Court of Cassation. There is also an
Administrative Tribunal and an Administrative Court, as well as a
Constitutional Court, all of which are located in the
capital.
Districts, cantons, and communes
Luxembourg is divided into 3
districts, which are further divided
into 12
cantons and then 116
communes.
Twelve of the
communes have city
status, of which the city of Luxembourg is the largest.
The districts are1.
Diekirch
2.
Grevenmacher
3.
Luxembourg
Military
The contribution of Luxembourg makes to its defence and to NATO
consists of a small
army (currently consisting
of around 800 people). As a landlocked country, it has no
navy.
Luxembourg also lacks an
air force, though
the seventeen NATO
AWACS aeroplanes are for
convenience registered as aircraft of Luxembourg.
In accordance with a
joint agreement with Belgium, both
countries have put forth funding for one A400M military cargo plane, currently on
order. Luxembourg still jointly maintains three
NATO Boeing 707 model TCAs (for cargo and
training purposes) based at NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen
.
Geography and climate
Luxembourg is one of the smallest countries in
Europe, and ranked
175th in size of all the 194
independent countries of the world; the country is about 2,586
square kilometres (998
sq mi)
in size, and measures 82 km (51 miles) long and 57 km (35
miles) wide.
To the east, Luxembourg borders the German Bundesländer of Rhineland-Palatinate
and Saarland
, and, to the south, it borders the French région of Lorraine
. The Grand Duchy borders the Belgian Walloon Region
, in particular the latter's provinces of Luxembourg and Liège
, more in particular the German-speaking Community
of Belgium, to the west and to the north
respectively.
The
northern third of the country is known as the 'Oesling
', and forms part of the Ardennes
. It is dominated by hills and low mountains,
including the Kneiff
, which is
the highest point, at 560 metres (1,837 ft).
The
region is sparsely populated, with only one town (Wiltz
) with a
population of more than four thousand people.
The
southern two-thirds of the country is called the "Gutland
", and is more densely populated than the
Oesling. It is also more diverse, and can be divided into
five geographic sub-regions.
The Luxembourg plateau
, in south-central Luxembourg, is a large, flat,
sandstone formation, and the site of the
city of Luxembourg. Little Switzerland
, in the east of Luxembourg, has craggy terrain and
thick forests. The Moselle valley
is the lowest-lying region, running along the
south-eastern border. The Red Lands
, in the far south and southwest, are Luxembourg's
industrial heartland and home to many of Luxembourg's largest
towns.
The
border between Luxembourg and Germany is formed by three rivers: the Moselle
, the Sauer
, and the
Our
.
Other
major rivers are the Alzette
, the Attert
, the
Clerve
, and the
Wiltz
.
The
valleys of the mid-Sauer and Attert form the
border between the Gutland and the Oesling.
Luxembourg has a
marine west
coast climate (
Köppen: Cfb), marked by
high
precipitation,
particularly in late summer.
Demographics
Ethnicity
The people of Luxembourg are called
Luxembourgers. The native population has a
Celtic base with a
French and
Germanic blend.
The immigrant
population increased in the twentieth century due to the arrival of
immigrants from Belgium, France, Germany, Italy
, and
Portugal
, with the majority coming from this last
country. In 2001 census, there were 58,657 inhabitants with
Portuguese nationality.
Since the
beginning of the Yugoslav wars,
Luxembourg has seen many immigrants from Bosnia and
Herzegovina
, Montenegro
, and Serbia
.
Annually, over 10,000 new immigrants arrive in Luxembourg, mostly
from
EU states, as well and Eastern
Europe. As of 2000, there were 162,000
immigrants in Luxembourg, accounting for 37% of
the total population. There were an estimated 5,000 undocumented
immigrants, including asylum seekers, in Luxembourg as of
1999.
Language
Three
languages are recognised as official in Luxembourg: French, German, and Luxembourgish, a Franconian language of the Moselle region very similar to the local German dialect spoken in the neighbouring
part of Germany, except that it includes more borrowings from
French. So in principle Luxembourgish is a High German
dialect with the status of a national language.Apart from being one
of the three official languages, Luxembourgish is also considered
the
national language of the Grand
Duchy; it is the mother tongue or "language of the heart" for
nearly all Luxembourgers.
Each of the three languages is used as the primary language in
certain spheres. Luxembourgish is the language that Luxembourgers
generally speak to each other, but it is not often written down.
Most official (written) business is carried out in French. German
is usually the first language taught in school and is the language
of much of the
media and of the
church.
Luxembourg's education system is trilingual: the first years of
primary school are in Luxembourgish, before changing to German,
while in secondary school, the language of instruction changes to
French. However, as proficiency in all three languages is required
for graduation from secondary school, half the students leave
school without a certified qualification, with the children of
immigrants being particularly disadvantaged.
In addition to the three official languages,
English is taught in the compulsory
schooling and much of the population of Luxembourg can speak
English, at any rate in Luxembourg City.
Portuguese and
Italian, the languages of the two largest
immigrant communities, are also spoken by
large parts of the population, but by relatively few from outside
their respective communities.
Religion
Luxembourg is a
secular state, but the
state recognises certain religions as officially-mandated
religions. This gives the state a hand in religious administration
and appointment of clergy, in exchange for which the state pays
certain running costs and wages. Currently, religions covered by
such arrangements are
Roman
Catholicism,
Judaism,
Greek Orthodoxy,
Anglicanism,
Russian Orthodoxy,
Protestantism and
Islam.
Since 1980 it has been illegal for the government to collect
statistics on religious beliefs or practices. An outdated
estimation by the CIA Factbook for the year 2000 is that 87% of
Luxembourgers are
Catholics,
including the royal family, the remaining 13% being made up of
Protestants,
Orthodox Christians,
Jews,
Muslims and those of
other or
no religion.
According to the most recent
Eurobarometer
Poll 2005, 44% of Luxembourg citizens responded that "they
believe there is a
God", whereas 28% answered
that "they believe there is some sort of spirit or life force" and
22% that "they do not believe there is any sort of spirit, god, or
life force".
Economy
Luxembourg's stable, high-income
economy features moderate
growth, low
inflation, and low
unemployment. The industrial sector, which was
dominated until the 1960s by
steel, has
diversified to include chemicals, rubber, and other products.
During the past decades, growth in the
financial sector has more than compensated for the
decline in steel. Services, especially
banking and other
financial exports, account for the majority
of economic output. Luxembourg is the world's second largest
investment fund center (after the USA), the most important private
banking center in the
Eurozone and Europe's
leading center for reinsurance companies.Moreover, the
Luxembourgish government has tried to attract internet start-ups.
Skype,
Jajah and
eBay are only a few of the many internet companies that
have shifted their local or global headquarters to
Luxembourg.
Agriculture is based on small,
family-owned farms.
Luxembourg has especially close trade and
financial ties to Belgium and the
Netherlands
(see
Benelux), and as a member of the
EU it enjoys the advantages of the
open European market. Luxembourg
possesses the highest
GDP per capita
in the world (
US$87,995 as of 2006), the
eighteenth highest
Human
Development Index, and the fourth highest rated in the
quality of life index. As of March
2006, unemployment is 4.8% of the labor force. For the fiscal year
of 2005 and 2006, Luxembourg has run a budget deficit for the first
time in many years, mostly because of slower international economic
growth.
Transport
Luxembourg has efficient road, rail and air transport facilities
and services. The road network has been significantly modernised in
recent years with 147 km of motorways connecting the capital
to adjacent countries.
The advent of the high-speed TGV link to Paris
has led to
renovation of the city's railway station
while a new passenger terminal at Luxembourg Airport
has recently been opened. There are plans to
introduce
trams in the capital and
light-rail lines in adjacent areas within the
next few years.
Culture
Luxembourg has been overshadowed by the culture of its neighbours,
although, having been for much of its history a profoundly rural
country, it retains a number of folk traditions.
There are several
notable museums, mostly located in the capital; these include the
National Museum of History and
Art
(MNHA), the History Museum of the
City of Luxembourg, and the new Grand Duke
Jean Museum of Modern Art
(Mudam). The National Museum of Military History
in Diekirch is especially known for its
representations of the Battle of the
Bulge. The city of Luxembourg itself is on the
UNESCO
World Heritage List, on account of the
historical importance of its fortifications.
The country has produced some internationally known artists,
including the painters
Joseph Kutter
and
Michel Majerus, as well as the
photographer
Edward Steichen.
Steichen's The Family of Man
exhibition is now permanently housed in
Clervaux
, and it has been placed on UNESCO's Memory of the World
register.
Luxembourg was the first city to be named
European Capital of Culture
twice. The first time was in 1995. In 2007, the European Capital of
Culture was to be a cross-border area consisting of the Grand Duchy
of Luxembourg, the Rheinland-Pfalz and Saarland in Germany, the
Walloon Region and the German-speaking part of Belgium, and the
Lorraine area in France. The event was an attempt to promote
mobility and the exchange of ideas, crossing borders in all areas,
physical, psychological, artistic and emotional.
Media
For many people in other parts of Europe , Luxembourg is best known
for its radio and television stations,
Radio Luxembourg and the
RTL Group, Europe's largest TV, radio and
production company.
It is also the uplink home of SES Astra
, carrier of major European satellite services for
Germany and Britain.
Studies show that the country Luxembourg consumes the most alcohol
per capita, according to
Guinness
World Records 2008. In the year 2003, on average 2.8 gallons
(12.6 litres) of pure alcohol was purchased per citizen. This
however is a statistical phenomenon, not actual, as the low taxes
on alcohol, cigarettes and petrol in Luxembourg mean that Belgians,
French and Germans living close to the border buy these products in
Luxembourg, and increase the sales without being counted as
consumers in the statistical analyses.
See also
References
-
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/lu.html
Footnotes
- The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
- Emperor Charles IV elected Greatest Czech of all time,
Radio Prague
- Kreins (2003), p. 20
- Kreins (2003), p. 39
- Kreins (2003), p. 70
- Kreins (2003), p. 76
- Kreins (2003), pp. 80–81
- Kreins (2003), p. 81
- Kreins (2003), p. 84
- Timeline: Luxembourg - A chronology of key
events BBC News Online, 9 September 2006. Retrieved 8 October
2006.
- Luxembourg Presidency - Being a
Luxembourger
- CIA World Factbook: Luxembourg Retrieved 14
October 2007.
External links
- Government
- General information
- Travel
- Other
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