With the Kingdom of the Netherlands breaking down along Germanic and Frank lines the German area of Luxemburg was left shrunken and rudderless. This was righted by a Luxembourger politician and a new line of Germans. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
The new guy sure is old. That was okay. The day to day running of the Duchy was in the hands of the much younger prime minister, who is actually from Luxembourg. The old guy also had proved good in a crisis and had a male heir as nature intended. Long Live the Old Guy. No not viva el old guy. We are German. Do your Belching over the border in their um … Luxembourg province.
Today’s stamp is issue A7, a 10 Centimes stamp issued by Luxembourg in 1891. It was part of a 10 stamp issue in various denominations displaying Grand Duke Adolphe. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents in its cancelled state.
Luxembourg was left much shrunken in the 19th century. Prussia had taken a part and Belgium had taken the French, or Belch, speaking part. The small Duchy had as its Grand Duke William III. He was also the King of Holland, so that grabbed the bulk of his attention. When he died, he lacked a male heir so his empire passed to his daughter Queen Wilhelmina. The shrinking proved that having the Dutch rule was not working. Luckily there was a provision in the rules of the Duchy that disallowed a female to reign as long as there was a related male to take the job. For this reason the Duchy passed to a 7th cousin once removed. Adolphe was a German who had formally served as Duke of the German Duchy of Nassau in nearby Rhineland. Nassau had been absorbed by Prussia so Adolphe was out of a job.
Adolphe had proved adept in a crisis. In the insurrections of 1848, he quickly returned to Wiesbaden, Nassau from Berlin to find a crowd outside the palace demanding change. He walked alone in full uniform through the crowd in a friendly manner and entered the Palace. From the balcony, he announced that he accepted all their demands and the insurrection turned into a celebration. He did not actually enact the demands but survived.
For the country to survive and thrive was the job of Prime and Foreign Minister Paul Eyschen, an actual Luxembourger. He served for over a quarter century and kept the Belgians at bay by allowing the Germans to keep troops at the country’s large fort while paying lip service to Holland and maintaining neutrality in any conflict between Germany and France. This was obviously a tight rope to balance on. At the same time the economy was changing to a more industrialized model that required much economic and educational reform. Luckily Eyschen had spent much time in Berlin and had studied Bismarck’s reforms in these same areas. He enacted successfully the needed changes.
The balancing act ended when World War I broke out and Germany ignored Luxembourg’s neutrality and conquered it. Eyschen was allowed by the Germans to stay in office but he was heartbroken and took his own life. Adolphe’s granddaughter was by then Duchess and she openly collaborated with what were after all her fellow Germans. She was forced to abdicate after the Germans were defeated in World War I.
Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Luxembourg and it’s ability to stay on it’s own course. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018