20th-century Luxembourgian politicians

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).

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").

Marguerite Thomas-Clement (1886–1979) was a Luxembourg women's rights activist and politician. She was the first woman to serve in Luxembourg's parliament.
She was married to the socialist Xavier Thomas, and was herself a member of the socialist party. There was never any organized women's suffrage movement in Luxembourg: women's suffrage was introduced in 1919 without any debate, as a part of the project of the new democratic constitution, and women's rights organizations mainly focused on educational opportunities. However, in 1917-1919, Marguerite Thomas-Clement was one of the few who spoke in favor of women's suffrage in public debates through articles in the press.
In 1919, the first election after women's suffrage, she became the first woman elected to parliament, where she served until 1931. She remained the only woman parliamentarian until Astrid Lulling in 1965. During her tenure, she tried to defend the rights of female workers and prostitutes.

Pierre Dupong (French pronunciation: [pjɛʁ dypɔ̃]; 1 November 1885 – 23 December 1953) was a Luxembourgish politician and statesman. He was the 16th prime minister of Luxembourg, serving for sixteen years, from 5 November 1937 until his death, on 23 December 1953, and was also responsible at different times for the ministries of finance, the army, agriculture, labour and social matters. He founded the Christian Social People's Party (CSV) as the main conservative party after the Second World War, having been a founding member of the Party of the Right (PD) in 1914.
He was one of the founding members in 1914 of the Party of the Right, and was elected to the legislature in 1915. He served as Director-General for Finance from 1926 to 1937 and as Minister for Social Security and Labor in 1936 and 1937.
His first government was the Dupong-Krier Ministry (1937–1940). Between 1940 and 1944, Dupong then led the Luxembourgish government-in-exile, after Luxembourg had been occupied by Nazi Germany. He fled the country along with the rest of the Luxembourg government and the Grand Ducal Family of Luxembourg, settling in France. Once in Bordeaux, they were granted transit visas from the Portuguese consul Aristides de Sousa Mendes, in June 1940. Pierre Dupong, along with his wife Sophie, and their children Marie Thérèse, Lambert Henri, Henriette and Jean, followed the Grand Ducal family through Coimbra and Lisbon, settling at Praia das Maçãs after the Grand Ducal family had moved to Cascais. By August, the entire entourage had moved to Monte Estoril. The Dupong couple stayed at Chalet Posser de Andrade until 26 September 1940, while their children remained there until 2 October 1940. On 26 September, the couple boarded the S.S. Excalibur headed for New York City, arriving on 5 October 1940. Georgette and Betty Bech, the wife and daughter of Joseph Bech, the Foreign Minister of the Luxembourg government-in-exile, traveled with them.
Between 1940 and 1944, he led the government in exile in Montreal.He then presided over the Liberation Government, the National Union Government, and the Dupong-Schaus and the Dupong-Bodson governments. He is also notable for sending Luxembourgish soldiers in the UN mission during the Korean War, as part of the Belgian United Nations Command.
He was the father of Jean Dupong, who became a minister and CSV deputy himself.

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.