Who were the legionnaires from Luxembourg? What were they doing in France? Why did they decide to enlist in the French Foreign Legion? What does a Tour de France winner have to do with it? How many were there? How was the figure of the Luxembourgish legionnaire portrayed and how did it enter the collective memory?
The Legionnaires exhibition, produced by Musée Dräi Eechelen in collaboration with the University of Luxembourg/C2DH, focuses on the individual journeys of the legionnaires and integrates them into national and transnational history, while anchoring them in their social and cultural backgrounds. It traces the migration of these men that led to their enlistment, their experiences in the First World War and the consequences of the war on their lives and families. The memorialisation efforts surrounding the city of Luxembourg's most famous monument – the Gëlle Fra – and its least known – the tomb of the unknown Luxembourgish legionnaire and its political recovery in the post-war period – crystallise the end of this tragic experience.
In order to follow the fate of these thousand men, the structure of the exhibition and the multimedia production designed by Milan-based scenographers 2Farchitettura and Tokonoma immerse visitors in an interactive atmosphere through numerous animations and audio stories. To illustrate these journeys of war and migration, the exhibition brings together some fifty personal objects, as fragile as they are touching, which come either from the descendants of legionnaires or from national (ANLux, National Museum of Military History, Museum of the Resistance, etc.) and international (Museum of the Foreign Legion in Aubagne, Army Museum in Paris, the Museum of Sport in Nice, and the Archives of Nantes).
Exhibition from 1 July to 28 November 2021.