Marcel Mart (10 May 1927 – 15 November 2019) was a

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

ish politician, jurist, and businessman.

Biography

Mart was born in

Esch-sur-Alzette Esch-sur-Alzette (, ; ; or ''Esch an der Alzig'') is a city in Luxembourg and the country's List of communes of Luxembourg by population, second-most populous commune, with a population of 36,625 inhabitants, . It lies in the south-west of the ...

. He studied law in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and at the

University of Montpellier The University of Montpellier () is a public university, public research university located in Montpellier, in south-east of France. Established in 1220, the University of Montpellier is one of the List of oldest universities in continuous opera ...

graduating in 1953. After university, he practiced law in Luxembourg for a short time. In 1955, he moved out of legal work to become the business editor for '' Agence Europe''. After five years in that role, he entered public service as an associate spokesman for the

European Coal and Steel Community The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was a European organization created after World War II to integrate Europe's coal and steel industries into a single common market based on the principle of supranationalism which would be governe ...

. He continued working with the European Community in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

and

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

for the next several years. He also contributed to the '' D'Lëtzebuerger Land'' for 12 years. In 1969, he joined the second Werner–Schaus cabinet as the Minister of National Economy, Middle Classes and Tourism and the Minister of Transport and Energy. He continued in his post in the Thorn Ministry after the 1974 elections. as the Minister of Transport, he introduced speed limits, mandatory seat belt laws and alcohol checks for drunk driving. During the

1973 oil crisis In October 1973, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) announced that it was implementing a total oil embargo against countries that had supported Israel at any point during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, which began after Eg ...

, he introduced car-free Sundays. He also advocated for the construction of a nuclear power plant near

Remerschen Remerschen () is a former Communes of Luxembourg, commune and small wine-growing town in south-eastern Luxembourg, belonging to the commune of Schengen, Luxembourg, Schengen, near the point where the borders of Germany, France and Luxembourg come ...

. In 1977, the

European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organisation created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisbo ...

formed the

European Court of Auditors The European Court of Auditors (ECA; French: ''Cour des comptes européenne'') is the supreme audit institution of the European Union (EU). It was established in 1975 in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg and is one of the Institutions of the European ...

by combining audit functions for both the EEC and the European Coal and Steel Community. Mart resigned from the cabinet to become Luxembourg's representative on the Court. In 1984, he was elected the president of the court and served in that role until 1989. After stepping down from the Court of Auditors, Mart entered into service of the Luxembourg royal court as the

Hofmarschall The ''Hofmarschall'' (plural: Hofmarschälle) was the administrative official in charge of a princely German court, supervising all its economic affairs. Historically, every civil service was regarded as court service (e.g. the Russian nobility i ...

for

Grand Duke Jean Jean (Jean Benoît Guillaume Robert Antoine Louis Marie Adolphe Marc d'Aviano; 5 January 1921 – 23 April 2019) was the Grand Duke of Luxembourg from 1964 until his abdication in 2000. He was the first Grand Duke of Luxembourg of French agnati ...

in 1990. He stepped down in 1993, but served the Grand Duke's court until 1996. In 1994, he was the president of the board of directors for Luxembourg's international exposition agency, Foire, now known as Luxexpo. He had stints in the banking field in his career including as a board member of the Luxembourg branch of

Dresdner Bank Dresdner Bank AG () was a German bank, founded in 1872 in Dresden, then headquartered in Berlin from 1884 to 1945 and in Frankfurt from 1963 onwards after a postwar hiatus. Long Germany's second-largest bank behind Deutsche Bank, it was eventually ...

and

Banque Générale du Luxembourg BGL BNP Paribas (formerly Banque Générale du Luxembourg or BGL) is a Luxembourgish bank founded on 29 September 1919. Since May 2009, the bank has been a subsidiary of the BNP Paribas group. It is the fifth-largest bank in the Grand Duchy of Luxem ...

Personal life

He had two children with his first wife, Daniel and Caroline. Caroline Mart is a journalist with

RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg RTL may refer to: Media * RTL Group, a European TV, radio, and production company *** List of RTL Group's television stations (including part-owned channels) *** List of RTL Group's radio stations ** RTL Lëtzebuerg, usually referred to simply ...

. He remarried to Liette Weber after the death of this first wife. Mart died on November 15, 2019, at the age of 92.

References

, - , - , - 1927 births 2019 deaths Ministers for the economy of Luxembourg Ministers for energy of Luxembourg Ministers for transport of Luxembourg Democratic Party (Luxembourg) politicians 20th-century Luxembourgian lawyers Luxembourgian businesspeople People from Esch-sur-Alzette {{Luxembourg-politician-stub