The Self-Made Man

Canals of Luxembourg, Luxembourg

So far in this course, I have learned how location greatly affects the identity of the various populations of the various Low Countries. Today I learned how this subject pertains to Luxembourg. During the city tour, I was excited to walk along remnants of the fortress walls that once guarded the city. This fortress along with Luxembourg's location between several large countries of notability including France, Germany, and what would eventually become Belgium, are the two primary reasons that Luxembourg was such a sought after country since the Middle Ages, an element of Luxembourg's history that would later contribute to the Luxembourgian identity.

I was surprised to learn that Luxembourg, like the Netherlands, has canals circumventing its city. These canals, I feel, possess significance relating to the identity of the Luxembourgian people. Due to the differing landscape and its uneven terrain, the survival of the city's people depended upon domestic and city development along the water's edge, or at least in very close approximation.

Palace, Luxembourg

It's interesting that this element, at one time so important to the city's survival, no longer poses a problem. In earlier times, Luxembourg was identified as a convenient country, ideal for control. Its fortress and multiple borders with major nations proved irresistible to many countries wishing to utilize its location. In a way, the country was recognized as its own individual entity, to be possessed, a commodity of sorts. During this city tour, Pit did not really mention the Luxembourgian people. Where the country possessed an identity, the people, in my opinion after learning about the various intrigues of the city, remained an additional bonus.

I believe this is very important to consider when thinking about the Luxembourgian identity. In its early history it seems that the country itself was desired, but not for its inhabitants. The inhabitants, the actual entities that could have an identity, did not due the emphasis on the land alone. I therefore find it necessary and unsurprising that the Luxembourgian people created an identity for themselves.

Along the canal, Luxembourg

But after contemplating this action, I wonder what it truly means to actively create a national identity. Is this how all countries gained an individual identity? Did each nation create something, whether this was a language, a cultural tradition, et cetera, to differentiate themselves from every other nation? And when does a national identity become embedded within the individual identity of its citizens? Since language is the most important differential aspect if the Luxembourgian identity, what does it mean when a non-native learns the language? From what I've learned, it opens the opportunity for citizenship, but what does this mean? Will this citizenship eventually lead to a Luxembourgian identity?

I like to think of these questions at a macro level, relating to national identity everywhere and not just Luxembourg or the Low Countries specifically. However, I do think Luxembourg provides the best starting place to think about this notion of what it means to be the product of a self-made identity, what I now see as the basis of each and every identity.

It had to start somewhere...

 

Sophia