Luxembourg On My Mind, Volume 2 Chapter: Political Disenfranchisement Excerpt: pages 70 and 71

1. Pages: 70-71
ISBN-13: 9781468188257
……. Under the new constitution of October 17, 1868, only the 3,851 wealthiest men in Luxembourg, i.e., those
paying at least thirty francs in annual taxes, qualified to vote. The right to vote continued to be based on the amount of
taxes paid (censitary suffrage), until the law of August 16, 1919, which also lowered the voting age from twenty-five to
twenty-one and granted voting rights to women, expanding the electorate from 34,171 in 1913 to 126,194 individuals1.
Until then the largest segment of the population was excluded from the political process. Politicians traveled
throughout their district wining and dining the few (voting) constituents, promising the predictable subsidies, bridges,
roads and rail connections in exchange for their votes. Throughout the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century,
the economic and political powers were concentrated in the hands of about two dozens affluent noble and bourgeois
families; Boch, Brasseur, de Blochausen, Collart, De Colnet d’Huart, de Tornaco, Dutreux, Eyschen, de Gerlache, de la
Fontaine, Laval, Le Gallais, Metz, München, Pescatore, de Prémorel, von Scherff, Servais, Simons, Tesch, Vannerus,
Willmar, Würth and another few. These families controlled Luxembourg’s economy and government. Taking a look at the
political structure in the year 1883, we find Félix de Blochausen as president of the government; Paul Eyschen director
general of the Justice Department; Paul Servais president of the State Council; François Würth, its vice-president. In the
Chamber of Deputies we find, among the forty-two members A. Brasseur, C. Collart, C. de La Fontaine, T. Dutreux, A.
Laval, C. Simons, Léon and Norbert Pescatore, Antoine and Pierre Pescatore and Caspar de Tornaco.
Naturally, scions of these families married only within their own ranks, with the result that over time the families
became interrelated. Marriages among cousins were customary and the absolute priority was to preserve the fortune and
the power within the family. The same families were found in all key positions in state government, Chamber of Deputies,
justice and municipal governments as well as in banking and in all industrial endeavors.
It is interesting to note that many nineteenth century notables had either a foreign origin or had not been born in the
core Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. . Case in point, the Pescatore (Pescatori) were originally from Broglio, Italy. Giuseppe
Antonio Maria, in Luxembourg known as Jules-Joseph-Antoine, (1711-1792) settled in Luxembourg in 1736. Over the
next 200 years the Pescatore descendants became allied through marriage with the most prominent families in the area,
Arendt (banking, politics); Boch (of Villeroy & Boch); Brasseur (finance, steel industry, politics); Collart (steel industry); de
Gargan (of the prominent French de Wendel steel conglomerate); Dutreux (politics, finance, industry); von Scherff
(politics); Lamort (paper industry and publishing, at one point one of Luxembourg’s largest employer providing over 400
jobs); de Prémorel (steel, politics); München (politics); d’Huart (steel works at Longwy, France, Lasauvage, Luxembourg,
Belgian finance minister from 1834 to 1839); Servais (crockery, steel industry, politics); Tudor (Henri Owen Tudor, the
inventor of the first accumulator plates similar to the type used in modern lead-acid batteries, residing at Rosport,
Luxembourg); Wehenkel (politics); Werner (Pierre Werner, on and off leading or in Luxembourg’s government from 1945
to 1985); Würth (politics, steel industry). Martha von Boch-Galhau (1880-1961), granddaughter of Marie von Boch-
Galhau, née Pescatore, was married to Franz von Papen (1879-1969), Adolf Hitler’s, vice-chancellor (1933-1934) and then
ambassador from 1934 to 19442. The Vannerus family was a local powerhouse in the Diekirch area since the sixteenth
century and the Vannerus married into all the right notable nineteenth century families3.
1 Statistiques Historiques, 1839-1989, Statec, Luxembourg 1990.
2 Chronique de la famille Pescatore, Antoine Wehenkel, Association Luxembourgeoise de Généalogie et d’Héraldique,
Luxembourg 2002.
3 Généalogie de la famille Vannerus (Wagner) de Diekirch. Ons Hémecht, 41. Jahrgang. Heft 1, März 1935.