Mir wëlle bleiwe wat mir sinn

Façade of the Monkey's Bar on the Rue de la Loge, Luxembourg, bearing the motto Mir wölle bleiwe wat mir sin.

Mir wëlle bleiwe wat mir sin or Mir wölle bleiwe wat mir sin (Luxembourgish for "We want to remain what we are") is the national motto of Luxembourg. It refers to the ambition of the Luxembourgish people to remain separate from, and independent of, those neighbouring countries around it that have traditionally dominated it politically and militarily: Belgium, France, and Germany.

Origin

The phrase's origin can be traced back to De Feierwon, the Luxembourg national hymn of 1859; originally written to pay hommage to the first international (cross-border) railroad in the country, the hymn's chorus read:

Kommt hier âus Frankräich, Belgie, Preisen,
Mir wëlle Iech ons Hemécht weisen.
Frot Dir no all Seiten hin,
We mir eso zefriede sin.^{[1][? 1]}

In 1871, an anonymous poet, only known as M Tout-le-monde, changed the last two lines of this chorus to read

Mir welle jo keng Preise gin,
Mir welle bleiwe wat mir sin!^{[1][? 2]}

Due to its political incorrectness at the time, the duke forbade public singing of the hymn;^[1] nonetheless, the famous line survived.

Notes

1. ^ "Come ye from France, Belgium, Prussia/We want to show you our homeland/You can ask all around/how content we are here."
2. ^ "Look, we don't want to become Prussian/we want to remain what we are!"

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Putnam, Ruth. Luxemburg and her neighbours. Putnam's. New York, NY: 1918. p. 444f.