Prince of Liechtenstein

Prince of Liechtenstein

Hans Adam II, prince of Liechtenstein

Hans Adam II, prince of Liechtenstein, German Hans Adam, Fürst von Liechtenstein, in full Johannes Adam Pius Ferdinand Alois Josef Maria Marko d’Aviano von und zu Liechtenstein (born February 14, 1945, Zürich, Switzerland), member of the ruling family of Liechtenstein who became prince (head of state) in 1989.

Hans Adam, the eldest son of Prince Francis Joseph II, spent his early youth in the castle of Vaduz with his brothers and his sister but he and his siblings were not isolated from the everyday life of the principality’s citizens. He attended primary school in the town, and, as a Boy Scout, he took part in camping and other activities. He received his secondary education at the Schottengymnasium (“Scottish Academy”) in Vienna and in Zuoz, Switzerland. After a brief period as a trainee in a London bank, in the fall of 1965 he entered the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, from which he graduated in 1969.

As crown prince, Hans Adam took a keen interest in the principality’s economic and financial development and in its relations with other nations. He was head of the Prince of Liechtenstein Foundation from 1970 to 1984. In 1972 his father entrusted him with the management of the princely estate, a task he performed with success. In a ceremony in Vaduz on August 26, 1984, his father handed over the greater part of his executive authority to Hans Adam. The transfer of the duties had been announced the previous July by the monarch, whose reign had begun on July 25, 1938; he had ruled longer than any other living monarch except Emperor Hirohito of Japan. After the death of his father in 1989, Hans Adam became Prince Hans Adam II.

Although Hans Adam had earlier expressed his firm belief in European unity, he announced in 1991 that Liechtenstein, which had maintained a long tradition of political and economic independence, would not seek membership in the European Union, though it did join the United Nations (1990), the European Free Trade Association (1991), the European Economic Area (1995), and the World Trade Organization (1995). Under Hans Adam, Liechtenstein enjoyed a continuation of the prosperity fostered by Francis Joseph.

The prince’s relations with Liechtenstein’s Landtag (parliament) were often tense. Hans Adam regularly threatened to move to Austria if he was not given wider powers, which eventually were approved in a referendum in 2003. In 2004 he turned over day-to-day governing power to his oldest son, Crown Prince Alois.

Francis Joseph II, prince of Liechtenstein

Francis Joseph II, prince of Liechtenstein, German Franz Josef, Fürst von Liechtenstein, in full Maria Aloys Alfred Karl Johannes Heinrich Michael Georg Ignatius Benediktus Gerhardus Majella von und zu Liechtenstein (born Aug. 16, 1906, Frauenthal Castle, near Deutschlandsberg, Austria—died Nov. 13, 1989, Grabs, Switz.), Liechtenstein prince who built the impoverished country into one of the wealthiest in Europe during his reign (1938–89).

Francis Joseph II studied forestry engineering at the Forestry and Agricultural University in Vienna. Soon after he was appointed to the throne by his great uncle Francis I (July 26, 1938), Germany annexed Austria. Francis Joseph II oversaw the formation of a national coalition government that kept Europe’s fourth-smallest nation neutral during World War II. In 1945 Liechtenstein refused Soviet demands to extradite some 500 Soviet citizens who had sought refuge there.

The production of high-technology goods in association with Switzerland built a strong industrial base. The family–owned bank in Liechtenstein—with branches in London; Zürich, Switz.; New York; and Frankfurt, Ger.—made the principality a desirable tax haven for wealthy individuals and an estimated 30,000 to 80,000 foreign companies. Among family holdings were forests in Austria, real estate in Vienna, and an estimated 1,400 paintings by such old masters as Rembrandt, Peter Paul Rubens, and Anthony Van Dyck. In 1984 women earned voting rights in the country, and Francis Joseph II transferred much of his executive power to his son and successor, Hans Adam II.