Death of Grand Duchess Josephine-Charlotte

[Chanel]

My heart sank when i found out the grand duchess passed away. My heart not only goes out to her family but, to her countries as well. :(

[Reina]

I wonder will there be any internet sites showing the funeral

[Cathérine Bergeyck]

Originally Posted by chanel

My heart sank when i found out the grand duchess passed away. My heart not only goes out to her family but, to her countries as well. :(

At least there's come an end to her physical suffering now, she's held herself very strong these last months. She was an exemplary woman.

[Cathérine Bergeyck]

Originally Posted by Reina

I wonder will there be any internet sites showing the funeral

Try http://www.rtl.lu/tele/livestream/

[gaggleofcrazypeople]

But isn't the funeral a few days away?

[BMC]

Yes. The funeral is Saturday.

[gaggleofcrazypeople]

Now I'm confused.

[Nathalian]

Why?? The funeral is in a couple of days....

[Ephram]

Hallo everyone,

To all the Luxembourg posters who read this , I would like to ask you to describe the situation in Luxemburg right now as we are getting closer to the eve of the funeral of Grand Duchess Josephine Charlotte. From the information I read from the net, I noticed that all radio in Luxembourg are now playing classical songs and tv stations showing documentaries on HRH Grand Duchess (I'm now watching all the videos provided on the rtl site). Are they true?

Has anyone of you paid your last respect to Grand Duchess and how would you describe the situation there right now?

If anyone knows the details of the funeral particularly on the exact time of procession and requiem mass, please kindly inform us here.

Thank you.

[drimal]

Thanks rere for the pics!:)

@hillary_nuggent: According to my newspaper, the following members are burried in the crypt under the Cathedral: Grand Duchess Marie-Adelheid (Charlotte's sister and GD from 1912 to 1919); the mother of Grand Duchess Charlotte and Marie-Adelheid, Marie-Anne, Prince Charles of Luxembourg and Grand Duchess Charlotte.

@Ephram: Well I don't know if you know that I'm living in Luxembourg so that I can give you many background informations. :)
First of all on Monday, the 10th January, the radios were playing classical music, especially requiems and on RTL Tele Luxembourg (Luxembourg's main channel) there were reports the whole afternoon; the marriage of the Grand Duchess, a visit on Berg Castle in 1971, the description of the functions of Grand Duchess Josephine-Charlotte and Grand Duke Jean, a report showing her biography, and reports showing the emotions of the people in Luxembourg...
Here is a link were you some videos and pictures of the Grand Duchess:
http://www.rtl.lu/cms/news/newsdossier/

From Tuesday onwards, the radios were transmitting the usual music and the TV had no more special reports apart from the images of the ceremony rere posted here. And of course everybody can write a comment in the condolences book to show his respect to the Grand Ducal family. Up to now over 4000 people had written a comment in the books and were staying in a queue for many minutes outside in the rain. (There was nasty weather yesterday! )
Unfortunately I didn't have the time to go there and I'm living 40 kilometers from Luxembourg City and the public transport is not easy at all in Luxembourg. Apart from that there is actually nasty weather here.

Yesterday and today it was from 10 o'clock to 13 o'clock in the morning and from 14 o'clock to 17.30 pm. Tomorrow is the last chance from 10 o'clock to 13 o'clock.
On Friday were will be a special commemoration in the parliamant in honour to Josephine-Charlotte.

On Saturday at 11.30 am (GMT) will be a funeral with state occasion with important persons of Luxembourg and from other countries and afterwards the Grand Duchess will be burried in the crypt of the Cathedral in the close family circle.

There is half-mast in the whole county until Saturday 18 hours and offical days of mourning, the Grand Ducal has a mourning period of six weeks during which every special dinners or state visits are cancelled.

[GrandDuchess]

King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden will attend the funeral.

[Reina]

Originally Posted by Cathérine Bergeyck

Try http://www.rtl.lu/tele/livestream/

WOw! Thanks! Can someone provide thhe time of the funeral. I guess luxembourg time is about seven hours ahead of eastern standard time, so I will be able to subtrct from lu time.

[gaggleofcrazypeople]

Originally Posted by Nathalian

Why?? The funeral is in a couple of days....

Never mind.

[gaggleofcrazypeople]

Originally Posted by drimal

On Saturday at 11.30 am (GMT) will be a funeral with state occasion with important persons of Luxembourg and from other countries and afterwards the Grand Duchess will be burried in the crypt of the Cathedral in the close family circle.

Will it be on tv?

[Ephram]

Oh, hello drimal. I'm really happy to meet a person from Luxembourg here. Thank you very much for your information. Few days ago, I had a lot of difficulties to get news on Grand Duchess Josephine Charlotte from internet to know about the daily reports on the development of her funeral. The only source I have is royal MBs, rtl and your govt. official site but the problem lies on languages where I don't know French or your native language Luxembourgouise (sorry if I misspelled it).

Have you seen any picture showing Guillaume Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg and his siblings paying their last respects to their beloved grandma?

Is public allowed to enter the palace and file past the bier apart from signing and commenting on the condolence books? and what's the name of the palace where the mortal remain of Grand Duchess now lies in state?

I really understand about the nasty wheather currently in your country plus the transportation matters but would you plan to be in your capital tomorrow to witness the funeral or you just prefer to watch it via tv?

Thank you.

[Ephram]

11.30am Luxembourg time

[Ephram]

Does anyone know if Luxembourg government has opened a memorial website of Grand Duchess Josephine Charlotte so that people like us can sign the condolences on line?

[HMQueenElizabethII]

I know that Queen Margrethe,Prince Henrik,Queen Beatrix will also be there.

[norwegianne]

Queen Sonja and Princess Astrid Mrs Ferner will attend from Norway. Joséphine-Charlotte was the cousin of Princess Astrid, Princess Ragnhild and King Harald, and used to spend parts of the summers with them at their mutual grandparents' in Sweden before the WWII.

King Harald has declared a day of mourning at the Royal Palace in Oslo this Saturday.

[drimal]

Important informations around the funeral of Grand Duchess Josephine-Charlotte!

1) TV Broadcast

RTL Tele Lëtzebuerg will broadcast live from the funeral from 10:15 am (GMT) onwards until 13:15 pm (GMT). Before the live broadcasting, from 8.50 am onwards there will be shown a report of 1990 Zwee Liewen fier ee Land. From 10:15 onwards the RTL TV team is live broadcasting live from Luxembourg city, first the funeral procession until 11:30 am (GMT) and than the requiem in the Cathedral including a state occasion. This requiem will endure until 13:15 pm (GMT)

Here is a link to the website of Luxembourg's TV channel RTL and click on "Live Stream" :
http://www.rtl.lu/tele/
Apart from RTL Tele Lëtzebuerg the Belgian RTL-TVI will broadcast the requiem from 11:30 am onwards (according to my informations there will be no funeral procession shown on RTL TVI, but only the requiem!) on account of the close relationship between the two sovereign houses. This broadcasting will be in the French language!

2) The course of the event

The coffin of the dead sovereign will be carried by 10 police - and army officers: of Lieutnant-Colonel Fernand Guth, Lieutnant-Colonel Gaston Reinig, Premier commissaire divisionnaire Nico Hirsch, Premier commissaire divisionnaire Marc Zovilé, Lieutnant-Colonel Yves Kalmes, Premier commissaire divisionnaire Guy Stebens, Premier commissaire divisionnaire Jean-Marie Wagner, major Robert Kohnen, Lieutnant-Colonel Roland Bomabardella, Lieutnant-Colonel Carlo Simon, major Steve Thull and major Georges Eiden.
In front of the coffin will go as "Protecteur de décorations" Lieutnant-Colonel Serge Luca.
From 11:12 am onwards the funeral procession will start at the Palace (Palais) and will move through the Rue de Reine, the Rue du Fossé to the entry of the Cathedral in the Rue Notre-Dame. (Rue...= street names ). Up to the edge of the Rue due Fossé/ Rue Notre_dame the coffine will be carried from ten non-commissioned officers (NCO) and four police inspectors, than the ten officers will undertake this role.

The requiem with state occasion will start at 11:30 am and will endure less than 75 minutes and the archbishop is Monseigneur Fernand Franck. Around him will be court aumônier Georges Vuillermoz, vicar-general Mathias Schiltz, dean of the cathedral André Heiderscheid, vicar of the cathedral Joseph Morn and the priests (vicars) of Fischbach and Colmar-Berg.

The chants of the requiem are undertaken by a chorus of 150 singer, from the "Maîtrise Saint-Cécile de la Cathédrale", the "Chorale Saint-Michel", the "Madrigal de Luxembourg" the "Ensemble vocal Berdorf", and from the "Ensemble vocal Cantina." On part of the music there is cathedral organist Carlo Hommel ("aux grandes orgues"), the Philharmonical orchestra and the soloists Vladimir Spivakov (violin), Philippe Koch (violin) Philippe Gonzalez (oboe). The conductors are Pierre Cao and Jean-Paul Majerus.
Besides "O Mamm léif Mamm" and the national anthem (you remember the post in symbols and functions from me ) there will be played the works of Johann Sebastian Bach (Ach Herr lass dein Lieb Engelein), Georg Friederich Haendel (since by man came death) and Felix Mendelssohn-Bartoldy (Wohl dem, der den Herrn fürchtet). The final chant will be "Andante en re mineur pour clavier et orchestre" of J.S. Bach.

There will be a large screen on the "Place d'Armes" for the citizans, because the many guest of honours of nobility, politics and society have the major part of the seats in the cathedral, and this screen will send the images of the event live.

Large safety precautions are taken for this big event, 350 policemen, whose functions are to guarantee the safety for the Grand Ducal family, the honour guests and the correct order of the whole event. Which members of other Royal houses will be present are not yet known. But certainly every Royal house will be presented!
For the journalists, photographs and technicmen of the whole Europe, there was created a media centre on the conference centre Kiem of Kirchberg (Kirchberg is a district of Luxembourg city) with ideal conditions for working for 400 persons. On Kirchberg will be also the cars of the journalists and photographs and with the shuttle transport (we say "Park and Ride" in Luxembourg) these persons will be brought into the centre of the city. This is a mean to avoid more circulation problems, but however there will be many jams in my country!
However the broadcasting cars of the TV channels are on the "Knuedler" (Knuedler= place where the palace is).

2000 white roses, 300 white orchids and 300 white azaleas were yesterday in a transporter near the chorus room of the cathedral. During the funeral they will accompany the Grand Duchess Josephine Charlotte on "her last way". Roses were the favourite flowers of the Grand Duchess and white was her favourite colour...

PS: This text was published in German in my newsper Luxemburger Wort and I translated it in English!:)