Franz Servais

Luxembourgian writer and poet Franz Servais first studied civil engineering in Liège. He first worked in the family-owned ironworks in Weilerbach in Germany, before he turned over the management of the company to his brother Maurice and devoted his time to poetry, philosophy, mathematics, and geology.

In November 1940 Servais was imprisoned by the Nazis for a written protest, and was interrogated by the Gestapo, but he was released by feigning mental confusion, and was then sent to the closed psychiatric institution of Ettelbrück for three months. Servais experienced the consequences of the Battle of the Bulge in Echternach. After World War II, he joined the People’s Friendship and co-founded the Association Luxembourg-URSS and Amitiés Luxembourg-Chine Populaire. His entry Les Sports was subtitled “A scientific and sporting fantasy in verse”.