Educating future citizens in between Mischkultur nationalism and authorities: traces from teachers’ journals

By analysing teachers’ journals in Luxembourg from 1892 to 1939, this paper argues that the teaching press played an active role in the promotion of Luxembourg’s forthcoming cultural identification. Set amid the growing importance of their professionalisation and self-understanding, teachers became recognised as an essential force for the national coherence of the young multilingual nation-state. By identifying common themes in these discussions – the role of state, patriotism, and the hegemony of the church in particular – this paper asks the following question: Given the linguistic and cultural diversity of the country, what markers were used in education to construct national identity and which other identities were promoted alongside or at the expense of national identity? This study concludes by suggesting that Luxembourgish teachers went to great lengths to contribute towards and shape the concept of ‘mixed culture’ (Mischkultur), which was to become the foundation of the country’s image of cosmopolitanism.