Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Luxembourg)

Jean-Baptiste Auguste Liesch (18 August 1874 – 13 March 1949) was a Luxembourgish liberal politician, writer, and civil servant.
He held the positions of Director-General for Justice and Director-General for Public Works in the government of Émile Reuter from 28 September 1918 to 15 April 1921. A member of the Liberal League, Liesch resigned from the government along with Michel Welter in 1921 in order to hold to account the majority Party of the Right.After his departure from the government, he served as the Inspector-General for Customs and Assizes until 1939. On 23 January 1937, he was appointed to the Council of State of Luxembourg, in which he sat until 16 November 1945 (although only nominally for most of that period, due to the German occupation of Luxembourg in World War II).

Caspar Mathias Spoo (7 January 1837 – 17 March 1914) was a Luxembourgish industrialist and politician.
Spoo was born in Echternach in 1837. His parents were workers in the earthenware factory, and died early. He joined the civil service from a young age, to make a living for himself and his siblings. He gave up his position in the postal service in order to open the Société Duchscher Frères et Spoo with André Duchscher, his old friend. From 1886, he worked for two years as an accountant at the Dudelange foundry; he then struck out on his own in 1888 to open an ironmongery in Esch-Alzette with a workshop constructing ovens, cauldrons, etc.: the Maschinenfabrik Spoo & Co.
Additionally, he was politically active. He was elected to the communal council of Esch in 1893 and to the Chamber of Deputies in 1896. Along with Michel Welter, he was one of the first people to engage in modern election campaigning in Luxembourg, by drafting and publishing a manifesto and giving speeches. Politically, he belonged to the left-liberal middle-class. Influenced by André Duchscher, he campaigned for universal suffrage, progressive taxation and social security. He also called for the construction of an industrial school and a secondary school for girls in Esch, and demanded that the canton of Esch, whose economic and demographic importance had increased due to industrialisation, should receive more seats in the Chamber. His social campaigning, in the paternalistic tradition of the 19th century, earned him the nickname "Pappa Spoo".
He was married to Barbe Kiesel, and was the father of Armand Spoo. At his funeral in Esch, Michel Welter gave a eulogy, calling Spoo the "conscience of Luxembourgish socialism."

Dr. Michel Welter (21 March 1859, Heiderscheid – 22 April 1924) was a Luxembourgish politician, and former leader of the Socialist Party. A member of Luxembourg's Chamber of Deputies, he served as the Director-General for Agriculture, Commerce, and Industry from 24 February 1916 until 3 January 1917, during the German occupation.He was one of the fiercest defenders of Victor Thorn's National Union Government. Poorly implemented policies designed to avoid a food shortage back-fired, and the country only narrowly averted a famine. Welter, as the minister responsible for both agriculture and commerce, was held responsible; on 22 December, Welter was censured by the Chamber of Deputies. Although Thorn sought to avoid firing Welter, he was left with no choice, and replaced him with Ernest Leclère.
Born on 21 March 1859 in Heiderscheid to a family of modest means, he studied at several European universities, before settling in Esch-Alzette as a doctor. His work as a physician brought him into contact with the miners and railway workers there, and it was their poor living and working conditions which drove him to take up politics. He campaigned for women's right to vote, paid holidays, social security and decent housing for workers.In 1896 he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies for the first time, where his social campaigning soon earned him the nickname "de rouden Dokter" (= "the red doctor"). Yet Welter, seen as a radical by the middle-class Deputies, was criticised by the workers for his own middle-class background.In 1902, Welter moved to Luxembourg city, where he co-founded the Social-Democratic Party. He was Luxembourg's delegate at the Second International and came into contact with Jean Jaurès, Clara Zetkin and August Bebel.From 1896 to 1897 he wrote for the Escher Courrier, then for the Patriot, the Escher Volksblatt, the Escher Journal, and the Frankfurter Zeitung. From 1913 to 1916 he edited the Tageblatt. Throughout his career, he got into several fights with the conservative Luxemburger Wort.In the debate over the Education Law of 1912 he campaigned for a strict separation of church and state. In 1916 he was appointed to the Thorn government, as minister for agriculture, commerce, and industry. His time as a member of the government was brief and difficult. He was accused of having made an agreement with the German occupiers to allow the import of badly needed food supplies into Luxembourg. Such an agreement was impossible due to Luxembourg's neutral status. He was dismissed from the government on 2 January 1917 and became director of the medical section of the spa in Mondorf.
Towards the end of the war he was a member of the Luxembourgish Soviet, which called for the nationalisation of the iron industry, the introduction of the 8-hour day, the abdication of the Grand Duchess and the establishment of a republic. The question over the dynasty and the form of government was decided in the 1919 referendum; the same year saw the introduction of women's suffrage. Welter joined the Chamber of Deputies again in 1920, but was not re-elected in 1922.Two years later, he died of a stroke, in 1924.
The city of Esch dedicated a monument to him on 21 August 1927 in the park on the Galgenberg, with the inscription: À l'ami du peuple - la classe ouvrière reconnaissante ("To the friend of the people - the grateful working class").

Henri Kirpach (2 March 1841 – 25 April 1911) was a Luxembourgish politician and lawyer.
Kirpach was born in 1841 in Mamer. After studying in Heidelberg and Paris, he started business in Luxembourg City as a lawyer.
In 1870 he was first elected into the Chamber of Deputies.
On 6 August 1878 he became Director-General (Minister) for the Interior in the Blochausen Ministry. From 1885, he remained in this post in the Eyschen government, up until 1910.
His name is connected with the education law of 20 April 1881, also known as the loi Kirpach ("Kirpach law"), which made school attendance mandatory between the ages of 6 and 12. This reform provoked bitter debates over the role of the state in society and the relations between church and state. The law also provided for a single system of public schools, and made it the state's duty to organise education. At the same time, however, the church remained involved, since the local parish priest was an ex officio member of the local commune's school commission, and the schoolteacher was under his supervision.On 1 January 1910 Henri Kirpach became a member of the Council of State.
He died in 1913 in Luxembourg City.

Pierre Grégoire (9 November 1907 – 8 April 1991) was a Luxembourgish politician in the Christian Social People's Party (CSV), journalist, and writer. Before turning to politics full-time, he wrote for the Luxemburger Wort newspaper.
Before World War II, he organised the development of the CSV's precursor, the Party of the Right, along with Jean Baptiste Esch. He was a CSV Deputy from 1946 onwards, and was the party's secretary-general from 1952 to 1960. He was a member of the Council of Europe from 1956.
He also held several government posts: he was the minister for the Interior, Religion, Arts and Sciences and Transport from 1959 to 1964, then became minister for Cultural Affairs, Education and the Civil Service from 1964 onwards. From 1969 to 1974 he was the president of the Chamber of Deputies.

Gaston Diderich (18 June 1884 – 29 April 1946) was a Luxembourgish politician and jurist. He was the Mayor of Luxembourg City from 1921 until his death in 1946, making his the longest uninterrupted tenure in the city's history. In addition, Diderich was a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1918 until 1940, and again from 1945 until his death the following year.
Diderich started political life in the Liberal League, of which he was on the progressive wing. After the German occupation during the First World War, the Liberal League found itself in opposition for the first time and suffered ideological divisions. Diderich, being Mayor of Luxembourg City, took the role of leading the left-wing of the party, opposed to the leadership of the classical liberal Robert Brasseur, who had founded the party in 1904. The left-wing eventually triumphed, but only at the price of collapsing the party. The main party of the party, predominantly the left-wing, reformed as the Radical Socialist Party,. under Diderich's leadership.

Johannes Olav Fallize, Ph.D., D.Th. (9 November 1844, Bettelange, Luxembourg, Belgium – 23 October 1933, Luxembourg, Luxembourg), was the first Roman Catholic bishop in Norway since the Reformation. As the head of the Catholic Church of Norway for 35 years, he was the Prefect Apostolic of Norway from 1887 to 1892 and the Vicar Apostolic of Norway from 1892 to 1922.