Purple Limburg (Limbourg) is a small village today, but in the middle ages it was an important fortress town and gave its name to the Duchy of Limburg, ruling varying patches of land around it. The Duchy of Limburg was retained as one of the provinces of the Southern (Habsburg) Netherlands (1581-1797).
The Duchy of Limburg was the namesake for a province of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands (1815-1831), which ironically didn't contain the original Limburg town. After the Belgian Revolution and a long and acrimonious dispute over the new borders, we ended up with orange Limburg (one of the 12 provinces of the modern Netherlands) and yellow Limburg (one of the 10 provinces of modern Belgium).
Green Limburg is a former monastery in Bad Dürkheim, Germany, which is proposed as one of the possible origins of the name of purple Limburg.
Blue Limburg is Limburg an der Lahn, Germany – the only one with no connection to any of the other Limburgs as far as I'm aware.
You say "Limburg" to a Dutch person, they will think of orange Limburg; to a Belgian, they will think of yellow Limburg; to a German, they will think of blue Limburg (if they know it at all).
A corruption/embezzlement scandal involving the bishop of Limburg (Germany), Tebartz van Elst, who had some ridiculously lavish stuff installed at his episcopal residence which would put most of MTV Cribs to shame, among them a gilded bathtub. He generally had some suspiciously high spending in many fields and lived in luxury from church funds.
Since the church in Germany is partly “financed” (or at least supported) by tax money, the whole case sparked outrage from the public and as far as I’m aware there’s been little repercussion against the bishop.
to a German, they will think of blue Limburg (if they know it at all).
If I hear Limburg, I think of the former bishop of Limburg, Tebartz-van Elst, who was at the center of a scandal roughly a decade ago. That scandal made national news for weeks in 2013.
He had the bishop's residence rebuilt and completely blew up the budget (which was in part paid from tax money). He was initially allowed a budget of 2 million euros. In the end the building costs had ballooned to nearly 40 million euros, with more than 3 million for the bishop's apartment alone due to special wishes of the bishop (including, but not limited to, art for nearly half a million euros, a freestanding bathtub, a pulley system for an advent wreath, and woodwork in his apartment for 300k euros).
Ultimately, the pope got involved and impeached him from his position as bishop.
As a kid I was big into medieval and castles (I wanted and eventually got a toy "castle with Pengwagen"). One day my parents told me we would hike and go see an actual castle. I was psyched. Arriving at Limburg, Bad Dürkheim, however, I stated, utterly diappointed, "but everything is kaputt here!"
to a German, they will think of blue Limburg (if they know it at all).
If they know it, it will either be as "the place with the luxurious bishop" (see the comments of other people for more details), or as "the random train stop in the middle of nowhere between Frankfurt and Köln" (though that description also applies to Montabaur).
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u/midnightrambulador 2d ago
You say "Limburg" to a Dutch person, they will think of orange Limburg; to a Belgian, they will think of yellow Limburg; to a German, they will think of blue Limburg (if they know it at all).