Luxembourg, grand duchy, W Europe: The Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries

Grand Duke Adolf was followed in 1905 by William IV and in 1912 by Marie Adelaide. In 1914, Germany violated the neutrality of the grand duchy and occupied it for the duration of World War I. Grand Duchess Marie Adelaide abdicated in 1919 in favor of her sister, Charlotte, who married Prince Felix of Bourbon-Parma.

Germany again invaded (May, 1940) neutral Luxembourg in World War II. The grand duchess and her cabinet fled abroad, and a government in exile was established in London. Allied troops liberated Luxembourg in Sept., 1944. Luxembourg entered the United Nations (1946) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949, and it received Marshall Plan aid.

A constitutional revision (1948) abolished the perpetual neutrality of the grand duchy, a status that in practice had ended with the introduction of compulsory military service (1944–67). In 1958, Luxembourg joined with Belgium and the Netherlands to establish the Benelux Economic Union and became a founding member of the European Economic Community (now the European Union). In 1961, Prince Jean, son and heir of Grand Duchess Charlotte, was made his mother's representative as head of state; she formally abdicated in 1964, and Prince Jean became grand duke.

In 1995 Jean-Claude Juncker of the Christian Social People's party (CSV) became premier; he succeeded Jacques Santer, who became head of the European Union's European Commission. Grand Duke Jean abdicated in favor of his eldest son, Prince Henri, in Oct., 2000. Constitutional changes in 2008 ended the monarch's power to approve Luxembourg's laws. Juncker resigned in 2013 and new elections were called after a misconduct scandal involving Luxembourg's secret service; Juncker was responsible for the agency's oversight. Following the elections, Xavier Bettel of the Democratic party became premier of a coalition government. In the 2018 elections the CSV won a plurality, but the parties in the governing coalition won a narrow majority of the seats, and Bettel remained premier. A recent problem in Luxembourg has been the increasing number of aging citizens and a lack of population growth, both of which affect the economy and have led to a dependence on foreign workers.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• The Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries
• Through the Nineteenth Century
• Government
• Economy
• Land and People
• Bibliography

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