ABSTRACT
Before the sovereignty of the financial sector, the steel company ARBED (founded 1911) was considered the genuine backbone of the Luxembourg economy and was perceived as a company of “national identity.” This chapter argues that ARBED’s corporate image was strongly shaped through the 1921 corporate film Columeta. Carefully designed for a modular use to be presented to different audiences, the film compiled the right motifs at the right time in order to communicate the company’s claim of national and societal importance, making Columeta a stepping stone for integrating industrial motifs into the national iconography. The chapter will outline the circulation and interaction of corporate, national and social motifs in different media, and their subsequent inclusion into the national Luxembourgian self-presentation.
