Evening star., 1945-08-29
Toduy's War Story
PoyIess Liechtenstein Ruler
i Finds 1t Costly to Keep Job


one of the oldest units of royal blood
in the world.
The family, which now consists
OF go members, is closed business
corporation run on a communal
basis. 1t owns, or has owned UP
to the present, tracts of land
throughout Central Europe. Most
OF this land has been forested. The
family has derived its income chief
ly from numbering and paper manu-
featuring. Some of the properties
have been handled as concessions,
others through direct management.
Every member of the family has
had a job.
Franz Josef is the managing
director. He was chosen to this po-
sition, and to the title of Prince of
Liechtenstein, on the death of his
granduncle in 1888. His father who
still is alive, felt unequal to the
responsibility because of advanced
years. The family draws practically
no income from Liechtenstein it.
self. The Prince receives no salary
and gets no benefit from the very
light taxation. Up to the present
the principally has cost the family
more than they have gained from
it financially, although it has been
of inestimable value as a symbol of
family unity and of continuous
royal tradition. 1t was purchased
as a principality 200 years ago.
The largest holdings of the fam
lily are in Moravia-approximately
100000 acres of forest. The Czech
government has just announced
conflscation of this property as part
Of its campaign to "de-Germanize"
the country. Whether there will
be any compensation is not clear.
BY and large the government is
not paying for German property
which it confiscates In Prague 1
gathered that the Liechtenstein
estate was considered German prop
erty.
Prince Franz Josef and his fam
lily will not let go their holdings
without fight. They are not Ger
mans or Austrians, they say, but
Liechtensteiners and there never
was any quarrel between Czecho-
slovakia and the principality. They
had had no political association
with Austria since the last war. If
they are to be considered part of
any larger political unit this would
be Switzerland.
just now they are waiting for the
passion charged atmosphere in
Prague to clear. The family also
owns large properties in Austria,
the fate of which is uncertain. AS
chairman of the board the Prince
is in difficult position He never
has had authority to sell an inch
OF land without majority vote to
support him
How all this will effect the
Shangri-la of the Alps is difficult to
predict. Possibly the citizens will
not be at all effected.
When the family puts forward the
claim that they are Liechtensteiners
rather than Germans, Austrians or
Swiss, they are claiming member
ship in people which claims to
be very close to a distinct race.
The original inhabitants were Celts.
Although the valley has been over
run by other races for thousands of
years the basic stock. the people
claim, has remained Celtic. They
speak almost a language of their
own. 1t is German with strongly
Celtic pronunciation and many
Celtic words. The speech sounds
more like Welsh than German.
Traditions Are Celtic.
The traditions and legends of the
valley are largely Celtic. There is,
for example. the legend of the valley
of witches high in the mountains.
In the early 18th century Liechten-
stein had its witch burnings. While
at the stake one witch placed a
curse on her accusers-that they
and their descendants for Is gen.
erations should not leave this earth
when they died but would go to a
hidden valley in the mountains
where they would remain until
Doomsday Only two years ago a
hillsman coming into Vaduz saw a
funeral passing down the main
street. When told the name of the
dead person he said:
That's impossible I just passed
her climbing up into the mountains
with pack on her back"
Folks recalled that she was the
last of the 18th generation of the
witch accuSerS. The rocks in the
high mountains take on strangely
human shapes and human faces
appear in the confgurations of the
swirling low clouds around the
snowy mountainous.
There are approximately so
families of Liechtensteiners in the
United States and Canada. Their
biggest center is Milwaukee.