Migration, intercultural encounters and integration do not cease with death, but are taken with the deceased into cemetery grounds. This article explores the translocal dimension of cemeteries, where diverse expectations and practices are confronted by, engage with and respond to regulations and unwritten rules of a particular public space. This article looks at migrants who wish to be buried or have buried close kin or friends in Luxembourg, a small country in Northwestern Europe. Disposition of the dead in the host country instead of post-mortal repatriation is often seen as sign of integration or belonging. However, this choice must be understood in the context of a set of constraints that can be experienced in a variety of ways. Examining three contested issues at cemeteries (burial practices, cemetery and grave design, and grave perpetuity), we show how both the regulations and unwritten rules of cemeteries are negotiated and challenged by individual migrants and migrant communities, highlighting different practices of lived citizenship. Based on participant experiences and narratives, we argue for the necessity of valuing and managing cemeteries, less as bounded spaces that can foster integration during life and after, but as permeable and transformative contact zones in which translocal citizenship can be enacted.

Die Schaffung von Friedhöfen, Krematorien und damit verbundenen Dienstleistungen, die auf Diversität ausgerichtet sind, ist ein integraler Bestandteil einer inklusiven multikulturellen Gesellschaft, der sich alle zugehörig fühlen können, in der auf die Bedürfnisse jedes/r Einzelnen eingegangen wird und in der mit allen Verstorbenen respektvoll umgegangen wird. Dieser Bericht stellt die Ergebnisse einer vom HERA-Programm finanzierten Studie über acht mittelgroße Städte in sechs nordwesteurop. Ländern vor: Cork (Rep. Irland), Drammen (Norwegen), Dundee (Schottland, GB), Leeuwarden und Maastricht (Niederlande), Luxemburg-Stadt (Luxemburg), Eskilstuna und Umeå (Schweden).

Drawing on digitized newspaper archives and an enquiry conducted in 2020/21, this article examines changes in the ritualization of “Buergbrennen” – a communal event centered around the lightening of a seasonal fire on the first Saturday or Sunday of Lent in Luxembourg. A first finding is that the number of such bonfires has increased since the early 1970s from about 100 localities to 260 recorded instances in 2020. While most stacks continue to be cross-shaped, the (erroneous) etymology of “Burg” (castle) inspires some castle-shaped constructions. The type of combustible material that is used has changed, notably due to safety regulations and anti-pollution acts. A series of maps show distinctive regional characteristics in terms of organizers, which appear linked to older village-based traditions in the rural North and East, while the feast was generally introduced in the South and Center by associations and clubs. A certain eventisation (combining the bonfire with other attractions) is evident in urban settings and in the context of the Esch2022, European capital of culture, but even without any side-effects the sensory spectacle and sociability of a bonefire enjoys (renewed) popularity in the 21st century.

Ce rapport aborde les cimetières et crématoriums municipaux en tant qu’espaces et services publics qui ont un rôle important à jouer pour que tous les citoyens et tous les habitants se sentent inclus, et pour promouvoir le dialogue ainsi que la compréhension entre les différentes communautés laïques, religieuses et culturelles dans des villes et des sociétés européennes de plus en plus plurielles. Ce rapport présente les résultats d’une étude financée par HERA (Humanities in the European Research Area ; Les sciences humaines dans l’Espace européen de la recherche) qui porte sur huit municipalités de taille moyenne dans six pays du nord-ouest de l’Europe : Cork (République d’Irlande), Drammen (Norvège), Dundee (Écosse, Royaume-Uni), Leeuwarden et Maastricht (PaysBas), Luxembourg-Ville (Luxembourg), Eskilstuna et Umeå (Suède).

The CeMi research project highlights the varied cultural and religious funerary needs in north west Europe, the associated challenges and the different ways in which both communities and service providers (e.g. cemetery-crematorium managers, town planners and funeral directors) respond to them, potentially contributing to the EU inclusion strategy. This report shares the findings from a HERA (Humanities in the European Research Area) funded study of eight mid-sized municipalities in six north west European countries: Cork (The Republic of Ireland), Drammen (Norway), Dundee (Scotland, UK), Leeuwarden and Maastricht (Netherlands), Luxembourg City (Luxembourg), Eskilstuna and Umeå (Sweden). It highlights challenges and best practices.

In western Europe, municipal or otherwise state-commissioned cemeteries and crematoria are public spaces and services, open to all. Cemeteries and crematoria grounds are neglected in geographical, planning and policy debates about the character, design, management, use and accessibility of public spaces, and likewise debates about the social inclusion of migrants and minorities. This may reflect a tendency to situate cemeteries socially and geographically in the peripheries of contemporary European society, but they are, nonetheless, sites of vital public health infrastructure, as well as being highly significant symbolic, religious-spiritual, secular-sacred, and emotionally-laden places. Examining cemeteries-crematoria against a criteria of inclusive public space provides new insights into i) the nature of public space and its governance; ii) rights and barriers to shared public spaces and associated infrastructure in everyday multicultural contexts; iii) national-local negotiations of majority-minorities social relations and cultural practices in and through public spaces; and iv) the need to place municipal cemeteries-crematoria centre stage in scholarship and policy on public space which is culturally inclusive and serves all citizens.

To whom do the dead belong? The French Foreign Legion exemplifies a modern military conundrum: how to reconcile loyal and patriotic duty with mercenary service or, in neutral terms, military labour. This article investigates soldierly funeral culture in the long nineteenth century, with a focus on the entangled histories of Luxembourg and France. The Foreign Legion’s transnational recruitment makes this armed force a unique case study to explore military commemoration across state borders, honouring the dead and the living alike. Since its establishment to fight outside mainland France, rooted in the conquest of Algeria (1830–1857), the Legion has been the only branch of the French military whose members swear allegiance not to France, but to the corps itself: its motto is Legio Patria Nostra (»The Legion is our Homeland«). As a military parallel society and temporary »ersatz nation«, the Legion has elaborated a specific death cult, which has both a corporeal (body-centred, individual) and a sur-real (transcendent, communal) dimension. The two dimensions cannot be rigidly delimited: they clearly overlap and can be shared with other nations, as the case of Luxembourg demonstrates.

We identify and analyse practices and management regimes around burial and handling of ashes across eight case study towns within six Northern European countries. We analyse management of cemeteries and crematoria gardens, majority practices and provision for minority communities, including various burial types, cremated remains, the re-use of graves, and costs for interments. Comparative data is drawn from analysis of national and local regulations, interviews with stakeholders, and observations at cemeteries and crematoria gardens. The findings show significant variation in national and local regulations and practices for burial and cremation particularly around the re-use of graves, handling of ashes and costs for grave space and cremation. We identify the opportunities and constraints of these variations in terms of accessibility, diversity and equality; and argue for national directions to avoid unequal treatment within nations. Furthermore, we stress the importance of a liberal and inclusive management of European cemeteries and crematoria gardens.

Luxembourg has celebrated its sovereign’s birthday since the 18th century. When Grand Duchess Charlotte (23 January 1896–9 July 1985) ascended the throne in 1919, the date for these birthday celebrations became 23 January, and this date was declared a national holiday in 1947. But on 23 December 1961, a Grand Ducal Decree set the date of 23 June as Luxembourg’s National Day, when the country would officially celebrate the monarch’s birthday. National Day has continued to be celebrated on 23 June during the successive reigns of Grand Duke Jean (1964-2000), born on 5 January, and Grand Duke Henri (since 2000), born on 16 April. National Day is one of the symbols of the monarchy, together with the coat of arms and the anthem of the Grand Ducal House.

Cemeteries have been viewed in opposed ways as ritual spaces that either mirror society or present an idealized model of society. In this article, we propose an analysis of cemeteries as ritual spaces, focused on the case study of municipal cemetery Tongerseweg in Maastricht, among the most important monumental cemeteries still in active use in The Netherlands today. Drawing on historical as well as interview material, spatial and ritual studies, the authors argue for a new “Arena Model” to understand cemeteries as dynamic ritual spaces. Cemeteries do not only form an ensemble of ritual spaces that are reliant on pre-existing communities, they also evoke, produce and maintain communities. Codeterminants are the physical layout and a wide range of ritual markers that variously underscore, mitigate or even contradict the communities created by the spatial layout. Important actors pertain to municipal politics and administration as well as the users, their respective allies and service providers. The article further analyses the wide range of competing values that help to shape a cycle of cocreating plural ritual spaces as well as communities

For the environment, humans and their way of life have become one of the most decisive factors of influence: their impact defines the geochronological era of the Anthropocene. These manmade changes include one specific type of sediments, namely that of human remains. In industrialized regions, the biologically degradable, organic matter of the human body is often altered by medical implants and pharmaceutical residues. Sepulchral practices may add other toxic substances. This article examines how the recent trend towards woodland burials of cremated remains in Luxembourg is embedded in ecological discourse and imagination, and asks whether it does provide an environment-friendly alternative to traditional full-body inhumations.

Gestorben wird immer. Das gilt auch für das Großherzogtum Luxemburg und seine Nachbarregionen. Doch was kommt danach? Wo und wie werden Verstorbene zur letzten Ruhe gebettet? Und handelt es sich dabei tatsächlich um die buchstäbliche »Ewige Ruhe«? Beileibe nicht. Tote gehen auf Reisen oder ziehen um – manchmal gleich mehrfach. Kein Wunder, dass der Tod und das »Danach« nicht nur die Religionen und die Rechtsprechung jahrhundertelang beschäftigten, sondern ebenfalls in Film, Literatur und Bildender Kunst ihren Niederschlag gefunden haben. Dieses Buch versammelt 49 Texte rund um die Themenkomplexe »Grabkunst«, »Der Tod im Bild«, »Der Tod in der Literatur«, »Glaube und Recht« sowie »Tote unterwegs« und gibt einen Überblick über Begräbnisse und Bestattungsgepflogenheiten von der Frühzeit bis heute, auch im Hinblick auf die verschiedenen Glaubensrichtungen und ihre spezifischen Riten.

This article offers a close reading of the parliamentary debates of July and October 1978, regarding the partial liberalisation of abortion in Luxembourg. It highlights rhetorical strategies and underlying moral, ethical and ideological lines of argumentation of MPs in a key legislation of the Liberal-Socialist coalition of the late 1970s.

A founding figure of Luxembourg, half-fish and half-human, Melusina has a long history. This article provides an overview of the origins of the narration and its many, sometimes contradictory, strands.

This article uses a novel quantitative methodology to examine sepulchral material culture. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of social spatialization and art as agency, the authors contend that variations in grave designs and materiality cannot simply be explained in terms of changes in fashion and mentality. Other factors also need to be taken into account. Using a digital data collection tool, the Cemetery Surveyor Application (CSA) developed at the University of Luxembourg, they compile a set of data encompassing all the material aspects of each grave in a cemetery in Luxembourg (Western Europe), the setting of their case study. The graves are dated from the 1850s to 2015. |The authors compare the chronological evolution of the most recurrent material features with a GIS-based spatial analysis of the same features. The results of the spatial analysis not only largely confirm the chronological study, but also allow them to be more precise (dating is often problematic) and include undated graves (a third of the sample). The digital data collection tool also allows them to compare cemeteries and to highlight variations in these that cannot merely be imputed to chronology, but also to spatial proximity and material agency.

A partir de deux exemples du Luxembourg - les vieux quartiers et fortifications de la Ville de Luxembourg (patrimoine mondial depuis 1994) et la procession dansante d’Echternach (patrimoine culturel immatériel depuis 2010) - cette conférence se penche sur les arguments avancés en faveur de leur inscription et les critères appliqués. Elle décrit trois types de discours qui relient patrimoine et identités. La conférence sera diffusée sur la radio 100,7.

Les frontières de l'indépendance. Le Luxembourg entre 1815 et 1839 - Die Grenzen der Unabhängigkeit. Luxemburg zwischen 1815 und 1839 (Sonderausstellung)

Wie verlief der Prozess der Erinnerung an den Zweiten Weltkrieg in Frankreich, Luxemburg und Deutschland? Wie kam es, dass aus einer gemeinsamen Geschichte von Unterdrückung, Auflehnung, (Mit)täterschaft und Opportunismus nach dem Krieg eine getrennte Erinnerung wurde? Die im Titel des vorliegenden Bandes vorgenommene Gegenüberstellung von „histoire“ und „mémoire“ verweist auf die Diskrepanz zwischen erlebter Vergangenheit und überlieferter Geschichte. Es ist die „mémoire“, das im Nachhinein konstruierte „Gedächtnis“ in Form von nationalen „Meistererzählungen“, die den Akzent auf das Trennende, das spezifisch Nationale legt. Die vorliegenden Beiträge bieten kritische Analysen der Darstellung und Deutung der Vergangenheit. Im Fall des ehemaligen Gestapo-Lagers Neue Bremm in Saarbrücken konnten bisher unberücksichtigte autobiographische Quellen ausgewertet werden. Im Vergleich der drei Länder ergaben sich neue Sichtweisen auf die jeweils nationalen Entwicklungen und neue Antworten auf die Frage nach der ‚Europäisierung‘ der Erinnerungsarbeit.

Spatial and identity research operates with differentiations and relations. These are particularly useful heuristic tools when examining border regions where social and geopolitical demarcations diverge. Applying this approach, the authors of this volume investigate spatial and identity constructions in cross-border contexts as they appear in everyday, institutional and media practices. The results are discussed with a keen eye for obliquely aligned spaces and identities and relinked to governmental issues of normalization and subjectivation. The studies base upon empirical surveys conducted in Germany, France, Belgium and Luxembourg.

This article provides a short overview of political developments in Luxembourg since the 1990s

This analysis of the biography of the last queen of France, Marie-Antoinette, written by Antonia Fraser and the biopic directed by Sofia Coppola brings to the fore the multiple roles Marie-Antoinette was playing or was seen to play already during her lifetime. This allows to compare gender representations in the 18th and 21st centuries.

Dieser Beitrag untersucht Tankstellen als ein räumliches Element, das auf der einen Seite Luxemburgs staatliche Grenzen - und somit das Image des Landes selbst - prägt. Auf der anderen Seite haben Tankstellen mit anderen Orten anonymen Massentransits (wie Bahnhöfen, Flughäfen oder Supermärkten) gemein, dass sie »keine besondere Identität und kein besonderes Verhältnis, sondern Einsamkeit und Ähnlichkeit« schaffen. Sie entsprechen Marc Augés Beschreibung von »wirklichen Nicht-Orten der Übermoderne«. »Nicht-Orte« werden dabei nicht ontologisch definiert, d.h. nicht als Dinge an sich, sondern im Kontrast zum »relationalen« Charakter von »Orten«. Dieser Beitrag zeigt auf, wie Tankstellen - in Darstellung und Praxis - zwischen der Sphäre der Unpersönlichkeit und jener der Vertrautheit oszillieren und inwiefern dadurch neue Räume für (Inter-)Aktion eröffnen werden.

Die Raum- und Identitätsforschung arbeitet mit Unterscheidungen und Relationen. Diese sind als heuristische Instrumente besonders in Grenzregionen gewinnbringend, wenn soziale und geopolitische Markierungen auseinanderfallen. Die Beiträge des Bandes setzen hier an. Anhand empirischer Erhebungen in Deutschland, Frankreich, Belgien und Luxemburg untersuchen sie Raum- und Identitätskonstruktionen in grenzüberschreitenden Bezügen, wie sie sich in alltäglichen, institutionellen und medialen Praktiken manifestieren. Die Ergebnisse werden mit sensiblem Blick für quer liegende Räume und Identitäten diskutiert und an gouvernementale Fragen der Normierung und Subjektivierung rückgebunden.

Globalisation is not a new phenomenon; intercontinental connections of business, finance, trade and informational flow have been put in place even before the European expansion in the sixteenth century and the overseas colonisation took off. They have increased at a vertiginous rate in the wake of industrialisation and the related transformations in the domains of telecommunications and teletransportations. In this process, the increasingly global and extraterritorial elites (the “tourists”) provide a stark contrast to the locally bound, disempowered people, who have to move out of necessity (the “nomads”). Both constitute the focus of this book which seeks to examine how experiences of spatial displacement are being represented and communicated by self-made photographs or films.

Le deuxième volume des Lieux de mémoire au Luxembourg montre que la mémoire collective n’a pas uniquement un ancrage national. Elle se sert également de cadres locaux, régionaux ou transnationaux. Elle change selon le point de vue employé. Les auteurs ici rassemblés se réfèrent au Luxembourg actuel, mais essaient à la fois de voir plus loin et de regarder de plus près, en se penchant sur les différences internes de la société luxembourgeoise. Ils offrent ainsi un nouveau regard sur des personnalités connues (de Yolande de Vianden à Thierry van Werveke), sur les guerres et conflits, les mouvements contestataires et les pratiques de la vie de tous les jours. Les 40 articles montrent qu’un lieu de mémoire peut avoir plusieurs significations, parfois contradictoires. De St. Willibrord aux frontaliers, en passant par le Kirchberg, Cattenom et le Congo… tous les lieux de mémoire suscitent certaines images auprès du lecteur. Mais d’où viennent ces images ? Ce livre richement illustré donne des réponses … souvent surprenantes !

This book is divided into three main parts, dealing with historical narration, territory and language. Historical narrations have played a key role in ‘inventing’ national, gendered, ethnic and racial identities, and in presenting deterministic and essentialist conceptions of time and human action. The importance of (abstract and social) space in the production of history and the equal importance of the temporal dimension in the production of geography have been underlined by Doreen Massey. Her concept of ‘space/time’ abolishes the binary opposition of time and space and defines them as interrelated.This double process of spatial and temporal construction of identity is analysed here in a diachronic way from the late nineteenth to the early twenty-first century, comprising the period traditionally considered as key to nation-building processes as well as current trends towards de-and renationalisation. The scale of this study is limited to discourse in Luxembourg and concerns the production of internal and external borders. Part One retraces the ‘genealogy’ of the master narrative from the early modern period and examines its absorption into public expressions of political self-identity after 1919. It then looks at the dissemination of the master narrative by means of textbooks, celebrations, literature and popular culture. Finally, it highlights the transformations of this narrative, the opening of fields of possibilities and new trends. Part Two examines how representations of space complement the master narrative by embedding past experiences in a certain territory and within certain defined borders. Territorial delimitations are projected back in time and legitimised by reference to the same bounded space in the past. Two different discursive strategies for the creation of ‘collective identity’ are distinguished: the centripetal and the centrifugal. The former characterises the national master narrative, while the latter has more of a supranational, Great Regional or European focus. Part Three traces the evolution of Luxembourgish, which still is in full nationalisation mode. Once again, the watershed here seems to have come in 1919, when the language began to be seen not as a mere dialect of German, but as a distinctly different tongue. On first sight, a native language seems to be a constant of human existence, in the sense both of history and of an individual’s life. As its title indicates, however, this book seeks to deconstruct the notion of a natural language and focuses on the act of creation and on the social actors involved in this process. The evolution of the language is, moreover, placed in a broad context. Th e gradual codification of Luxembourgish was part of a larger movement which aimed to give the comparatively young state a sense of substance and meaning. As in most European nationstates, the state of Luxembourg existed before any systematic attempts at nation-building were undertaken. It was—and still is—heavily involved in this process. Thus, in recent years, Luxembourg has created new national institutions, such as the Central Bank in 1998, the University of Luxembourg in 2003, and the establishment of several Luxembourg-related research institutes between 1995 and 2008. This book investigates whether this nationalisation tendency may be confirmed by the study of the representations of the past, the territory and the language from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day.

Aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles la Contre-réforme catholique tente de reconquérir le terrain perdu et de renforcer l'autorité ecclésiastique. Au Luxembourg, province méridionale des Pays-Bas ravagés par luttes religieuses et guerres civiles, la Compagnie de Jésus s'attèle à raviver la piété populaire en développant le culte marial. En 1624 le père Jacques Broquart érige une statue de la Vierge au "glacis", devant les murs de la forteresse de Luxembourg. Le culte de la "Consolatrice des Affligés" se propage rapidement, soutenu par les récits de guérisons miraculeuses et les articles de piété (images et médailles) que les pères Jésuites distribuent. La carte montre la vénération de Notre-Dame de Luxembourg (Vierge consolatrice des affligés ou Consolatrix Afflictorum) dès le 17e siècle par l'exemple des chapelles, autels et statues qu'on leur a dédicacées.

Die Karte zeigt die Verbreitung der Verehrung Unserer Lieben Frau von Luxemburg (Trösterin der Betrübten oder Consolatrix Afflictorum) seit dem 17. Jahrhundert am Beispiel der Kapellen, Altäre und Statuen, die ihr gewidmet wurden.