Grand Duke Meets Estonian Prime Minister

Photo: Cour grand-ducale

Grand Duke Henri received the Prime Minister of Estonia, Jüri Ratas, for an audience at the palais earlier today. Mr Ratas is currently on a working visit to the Grand Duchy. Totally unrelated but in more interesting Estonia-Luxembourg news, the Grand Duchy is to host the first 'data embassy' on its territory, planning to store sensitive data for the Estonian government on servers in the Grand Duchy. More on that from Wort.

Grand Duke Celebrates

Photo: Cour grand-ducale / Claude Piscitelli

On Thursday last week, Grand Duke Henri was on hand to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Ënnerdaach a.s.b.l. Since its foundation in 1992, Ënnerdaach tries to combate homelessness by providing poor families with adequate housing at a modest price for a given period of time. Another picture of the academic session at the cour.

Hereditary Grand Duke Attends Music Competition

Photo: Kaupo Kikkas

On Sunday, Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume attended the final of the Grand Prix Anne et Françoise Groben. Organised by the Orchestre de Chambre du Luxembourg, one of the patronages of the Hereditary Grand Duke, the music competition rewards young musicians and singers from Luxembourg aged 15 to 30. Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume was accompanied by the state secretary for culture, Guy Arendt, for the occasion.

Grand Duke Henri Receives Ambassadors

Photo: Grand Duke Henri with Louis-Alkiviadis Abatis (Hellenic Republic) /
© 2017 Cour grand-ducale / tous droits réservés

On the 14th, Grand Duke Henri received six ambassadors for the presentation of credentials at the Palais grand-ducal: Jean-Louis Six, of the Kingdom of Belgium; Louis-Alkiviadis Abatis, of the Hellenic Republic (Greece); Bruno Perdu, of the French Republic; Antonio Guerreiro of the Federative Republic of Brazil; Mohammed Shadat Hossain, of the People's Republic of Bangladesh; and Ahmed Shiaan, of the Republic of Maldives.

The Grand Duke Expresses Condolences

Grand Duke Henri sent a letter of condolence to German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to express his sympathies over the death of former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who died earlier today aged 87. Mr. Kohl was the longest-serving German head of government of the 20th century acting as Chancellor for 16 years between 1982 and 1998. He was considered the architect behind the German unification and the creation of the Euro currency. During and after his years in office, Helmut Kohl visited Luxembourg a number of times.

The Grand Duke wrote:

Sehr geehrter Herr Bundespräsident,

Gemeinsam mit der Großherzogin möchte ich Ihnen hiermit mein tief empfundenes Beiland anlässlich des Todes von Altbundeskanzler Helmut Kohl ausdrücken.

Mit Helmut Kohl verlässt uns ein enger Freund Luxemburgs. Sein Engagement für die Völkerverständigung in Europa wird unvergessen bleiben.

In English:

Dear Mr. President,

Together with the Grand Duchess, I would like to express my heartfelt condolences on the occasion of the death of former Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

With Helmut Kohl we lost a close friend of Luxembourg. His commitment to the understanding among nations in Europe will not be forgotten.

Fashion Friday: May 27th - June 16th

We haven't seen a lot of the Lux Ladies these past two weeks so this Fashion Friday post will focus on one of the thing all the women of the family have in common : they love French brands!

But first, Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume and Hereditary Grande Duchess Stéphanie attended a reception on May 31st during the Games of Small States of Europe in San Marino. Stéphanie wore a new pink Paule Ka with Castaner wedges she first wore for Prince Liam's baptism.

Photo: Yann Hellers / Luxemburger Wort / wort.lu

On June 15th, Guillaume and Stephanie took part in events marking the 40th anniversary of the Kraïzbierg Foundation. Stephanie wore a new dress with her Sergio Rossi shoes and Lanvin yellow bag.

René Scho

But back to the French brands... Paule Ka is a very well-known brand founded in 1987 and is Stéphanie's favorite.

Over the years, Stephanie has worn a lot of Paule Ka outfits but she seems to have really favored the brand in the past few months and I hope she'll continue wearing Paule Ka more often. She chose Paule Ka for three big events in the past two months: the reception for the 80th birthday of the Norwegian Royal Couple, the official visit of the Duchess of Cambridge to Luxembourg and the reception during the Portugal State Visit to Luxembourg.

Princess Claire also wore Paule Ka for a very important occasion: the baptism of her daughter, Princess Amalia in 2014.

Claire's favorite brand is also a French brand: Maje! In fact, she wore a Maje dress for her engagement photos in 2012.

Maje was founded in 1998 by Judith Malgrom and has been a favorite brand for royals for quite some time now and Princess Claire wore two Maje dresses for photoshoots during her first pregnancy and with Amalia.

Sandro is another French brand worn by Stephanie and Claire. Sandro is Maje's sister brand and was founded in 1984 by the sister of Maje's founder. They haven't worn Sandro in quite some time but Stephanie wore a very popular Sandro dress in 2013 (Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie of York also own the same dress!)

The most recent addition to Stephanie's favorite brands is Tara Jarmon. Tara Jarmon is a Canadian-born, French-based designer who aims to dress women in "chic clothes with a modern and feminine twist". As far as we know, Stephanie first wore Tara Jarmon in October 2016 but she has worn two Tara Jarmon dresses last May, making us hope that we will see more Tara Jarmon outfits in the future!

Finally, there is a brand that both Grand Duchess Maria Teresa and Hereditary Grand Duchess Stephanie share: Weill. Weill was founded in 1892 and is the oldest French brand in activity!

As for French designers, they don't wear a lot of them but they do own some of their pieces. They all own Chanel bags or shoes, Stephanie owns Louis Vuitton shoes while Maria Teresa owns a Louis Vuitton bag.

What do you think of these brands? Would you like to see one French brand or designer worn by one of the ladies in particular?

Prince Alois Attends Privacy Conference

MZ/Volksblatt.li

On Wednesday, Hereditary Prince Alois attended a conference at the Universität Liechtenstein. The conference focused on compliance with the European Union's new privacy laws. Any business, agency or person who collects private date must comply with the laws. Even businesses based outside of the European Union must comply if they wish to continue to offer goods or services within the European Union. It was noted that while many businesses may find it difficult or burdensome that it is a necessary task and that must be preformed. 

Luxembourg and the First World War

Guy Jallay

The Grand Duke and the Hereditary Grand Duke visited the popular exhibit Lëtzebuerg an de Eischte Weltkrich (Luxembourg and the First World War). The exhibition features many photographs, artifacts, weapons and stories from the war. 

Luxembourg was occupied from August 1914 until the war ended in November 1918. The Grand Ducal Family faced much criticism during and immediately after the War. Grand Duchess Marie-Adelaide was erroneously viewed as pro-German and shortly before the end of the War her sister, Princess Antonia, announced her engagement to Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria. Shortly after the war Luxembourg held a referendum on the future of the monarchy and Grand Duchess Marie-Adelaide would abdicate in favor of her sister Charlotte. 

After vising the exhibit Henri traveled to Differdange to attend the 25th anniversary celebrations of Ënnerdaach a.s.b.l. Guillaume and his Stephanie were also in Differdange attending the 40th anniversary of the Kräizbierg Foundation.

Grand Duke gets Tattooed - Sort Of

Guy Jallay

Thursday was a busy day for Grand Duke Henri. One of his scheduled events was a stop at the Creative Hub 1535 in Differdange. While touring the venue he was given a tee-shirt that featured a photograph of himself; however, it was no ordinary photograph.

The designers at Sentinel City Clothing photoshopped the Grand Duke's face onto the body of a heavily tattooed man. The result was a unique and fun shirt, which the Grand Duke received with a genuine smile. Unfortunately, for those of us who would totally rock this fun shirt, it was a limited edition that sold out online in less than 2 hours.

Wort has a few additional photos of this part of Henri's busy day.

Guy Jallay

40 Years of Kräizbierg

René Scho

On 15 June, the Hereditary Grand Duke and Hereditary Grand Duchess took part in events marking the 40th anniversary of the Kräizbierg Foundation. Guillaume is a long time supporter of the foundation. His association with the Kräizbierg Foundation was one of his first positions after he was formally named Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg. He served as the actual President of the Board of Directors from 2000 until his 2011 resignation of those duties to become the Honorary President of the Board of Directors. At the time of his resignation, Guillaume noted that he enjoyed his role with the foundation and would continue to dedicate his time and support to the foundation in his new role as Honorary President of the Board of Directors. He has remained true to his word and continues to be an enthusiastic supporter of persons with disabilities. Since their marriage Hereditary Grand Duchess Stephanie has also enthusiastically supported of the foundation.

RTL has many photographs of the event.

René Scho

René Scho

René Scho