![]() 9 The teaching facilities, the classrooms, the dressing and locker rooms, and the workshop spaces corresponded to progressive norms of hygiene and were designed to create a positive learning environment. 8 Moreover, the architectural design of the school seemed to be the visible manifestation of the generous vision of its benefactress: entirely made of cut stone, the building testified to stateliness and stability, while the sturdy columns adorning the front entrance conveyed an image of monumentality and continuity. In popular texts, however, the new training institute established by Edmée Metz-Tesch was generally seen as a ladder of upward social mobility, and its progressive teaching methods were discussed at international conferences on reform education. Whether these aims have been truly met is a question that transcends the scope of this paper, and a detailed analysis of the corporate discourse surrounding the Institut Emile Metz and its impact on the workforce still needs to be written. To awaken latent intelligencies.” 6 “Of high lineage and a strong individualistic streak,” noted the same publication, “the daughter of Minister Victor Tesch was particularly well prepared to understand the part of contingency in happiness, and to conceive happiness as the emanation of one’s personality.” 7 The development of individuality and the achievement of personal fulfilment thus were important concerns in the creation of the Institut Emile Metz. To raise his physical and intellectual capacities. According to an official publication listing and describing arbed’s corporate welfare initiatives, her declared aims were, “To better the fate of the worker. ![]() ![]() Metz-Tesch instead conceived of a technological institute, with state-of-the-art facilities, bright, well-lit classrooms, clean workshops, a gym, even an indoor pool, to which would later be added a psychophysiological laboratory where the students’ skills and capacities were to be tested and developed. The idea appealed to her from the start, but it seems that Edmée Metz-Tesch had grander visions on how to contribute to the growth of the industry than merely training a largely unqualified workforce. The idea for a vocational school in honor of her husband’s memory was originally suggested to her by Emile Bian, director of the Dommeldange steel plant from 1900 until 1911. This commitment translated, tangibly, into the creation of the Institut Emile Metz. 5 Judging from the material objects that accompanied her life, Edmée Metz-Tesch thus appears as a modern, independent, and open-minded woman, with a keen interest in the betterment of society. Edmée Metz-Tesch also read Madame de Gaffigny’s epistolary novel Lettres d’une Péruvienne (1747) (Letters from a Peruvian woman), promoting the idea of the “noble savage,” and the writings of Anatole France, the French Academician and winner of the 1921 Nobel Prize for Literature, who was active in the social and political issues of his time. Among her bills, Luxembourg scholar Jean Lamesch discovered an order from a bookstore in Brussels featuring the Memoirs of Casanova and Mirabeau’s Lettres à Julie (Letters to Julie), as well as a copy of Marc de Villiers’ Histoire des clubs de femmes et des legions d’Amazones (1793) (History of women's clubs and Amazon legions), conveying progressive ideas on marriage, divorce, and female education. Most striking, however, was her reading list. She also appreciated the inventions and comforts of modernity: She had a driver’s license and had installed in her residence a phone as well as boilers that made possible more regular and continuous heating than the traditional fireplaces. 3 Her lavishly decorated hats came from a renowned milliner in Brussels. As a well-educated member of the upper bourgeoisie, Edmée Metz-Tesch liked to shop at exclusive places: bills from her personal archive show her as a customer of Hellstern & Sons, a famous store for bespoke fashion on Place Vendôme in Paris. 1 The Luxembourg publisher and writer Jules Mersch described her as the epitome of the Belle Epoque: as a young woman, she would be richly powdered and elegantly dressed, a stylish umbrella perfectly matching her gown, when she rode to town in her open carriage. The Institut Emile Metz was founded in 1913 in Dommeldange, a suburb of the city of Luxembourg, by Caroline Rosalie Laure Edmée Metz-Tesch, the wealthy widow of Emile Metz, one of Luxembourg’s leading industrialists.
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