Staging the Nation in an Intermediate Space

Cultural Policy in Luxembourg and the State Museums (1918–1974)

Fabio Spirinelli

• Publisher: De Gruyter Oldenbourg
• Year: 2025
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9783112207420
• Subtopic: 20th Century History
• Index: History

In Luxembourg, the evolution of cultural policy remains underexplored despite its pivotal role in the nation-building process. This book investigates how national cultural policy evolved from the 1920s to the early 1970s, casting Luxembourg as a nationalized intermediate space between French and German influences. Featuring a case study of the history and art section of the State Museums – the precursor to today's Musée national d'archéologie, d'histoire et d'art – the book examines the interplay of structures, actors, and discourses and how a cultural institution was intertwined with cultural policy. The study exposes the tensions between adopting external models, on the one hand, and asserting a distinct national culture amid interventionist policies, on the other hand. By including the occupation period from 1940 to 1944, it illustrates how Nazi policies challenged Luxembourg's nation-building by seeking to integrate it into the Third Reich. Combining theoretical analysis with archival research, this work offers nuanced insights into nation-building processes and is highly relevant for historians, cultural policy scholars, and museum professionals.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 Theory, framework and methodology
• Chapter 2 Building the nation: Cultural policy until 1940
• Chapter 3 Neutralising the nation: Luxembourg during Nazi occupation (1940–1944)
• Chapter 4 Rebuilding the nation: Cultural policy in the post-war period
• Conclusions
• Index