About Back to Luxembourg

I grew up in South Dakota — which, like many South Dakotans, means I'm really a Minnesotan.

My family has been in the Upper Midwest for four generations. Somewhere in there, between the winters and the church basements and the gradual softening of accents, the Luxembourgish part got a little quiet.

I've spent the last few years getting it loud again.

I'm a board member of the Twin Cities Luxembourg American Society — an organization built around exactly this kind of rediscovery, connecting Minnesotans and Midwesterners with Luxembourgish heritage to each other and to the country their families came from. Through that work I've met people at every stage of the journey: some who grew up hearing Lëtzebuergesch at the kitchen table, some who just got their dual citizenship, some who just found out Luxembourg exists and that their great-great-grandmother was born there.

Back to Luxembourg started as a way to make something tangible for all of them. Apparel and goods that carry a little of the culture — the lion, the motto, the language, the food, the flag — in a way that feels contemporary and considered rather than dusty. Things you'd actually want to wear or put on your wall.

Luxembourg is a small country with an outsized story. It deserves better than a novelty magnet. That's what we're trying to make here.

— Matthew