A L L R I G H T S R E S E R V E D © 2 0 1 4 C A N A D A E X C L U S I V E
D e s i g n R A Y P H O T O s t u d i o, C r e a t e d b y WEB -
CANADA Exclusive
Mariánska 12
811 08 Bratislava
Slovak Republic
Tel.: +421 252 932
895
Fax: +421 252 932 896
Cell: +421 911 424 435
[email protected]
s p e c i a l
HANS ADAM LIECHTENSTEIN
THE RICHEST MONARCH IN EUROPE. HANS-
In 1969, Hans-
Prince Hans-
INTERVIEW with The PRINCE of LIECHTENSTEIN
People say the older you get, the clearer the images of your childhood become. What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of the past?
I have always been a person who rather looks to the future. The past is the past, it only matters if it influences the future. For example, I have been interested in history and archaeology for a long time; the personal, not so much. Only if I could learn from it. I believe the first memory I have from my childhood is the birth of my sister, Princess Nora.
You are 72 years old now. Some people only really start their life at the age of 70, they start doing things they have always wanted to. How is it for you?
I never thought about that. I have always planned for my future. When do I have to hand over my duties? When is the best time? For example, when should I hand over the regency to my oldest son? Something new basically always comes from this thoughts.
Would you like to start with something new now?
Whenever I hand over some of my duties, I always have more time. For example, I had
time to write my book. I also have more time to occupy myself with physics -
That’s a bit of an unusual pastime! How can we picture that?
There’s a lot we can improve when it comes to town planning. Many years ago, towns were built to serve the people, these days they are build to serve cars. How can you combine the character of nice, old towns with a high quality of living with the demands of our time? I work together with a number of Dutch experts. We try to find out how to be able to compete economically when building something. Before we start to venture in this field of work, I want all questions answered.
Your book “The State in the Third Millenium” has been translated into numerous other languages. Are there plans for another book?
No, there are not. I wrote to book because I saw many years ago that globalisation will question the way our states work. Interestingly, the book drew a lot of interest. I’m often invited to give a presentation or participate in a discussion about it. Of course it’s very time consuming but I think it’s worth it. In a globalised world we, as a small state, can only live in freedom, peace and prosperity when the rest of the world lives in freedom, peace and prosperity.
So no other book? Maybe about your life?
No, no, that would be much too boring.
When it came to the media, the Princely House drew a line very early on. Did keeping your distance prove to be successful?
Keeping our distance definitely proved successful. My parents already made sure to distance themselves from the media. I was shocked when Prince Charles and Princess Anne visited us for the skiing holidays. We were pretty much besieged by the world’s media. Charles and Anne were smuggled out of Schloss Vaduz with a delivery van, so we could go skiing on our own for a few hours. We wanted our children to grow up as normal as possible and for them to go to local schools. So we deliberately cut personal information to a minimum; to see as few pictures of our children in the media as possible. If you are not known, you are not interesting to the press.
Have you never had problems with the yellow press?
If you reach a certain level of recognition, a lot of money is paid for images of you and it becomes profitable to hire a helicopter to take pictures of you. A photographer has time for weeks to take the ‘right’ picture. The problems we had with the yellow press only arose during the visits of Prince Charles. They tried to bribe our employees with monthly salaries.
So you can go to the pharmacy on your own these days?
Yes, it’s quality of living if you can walk around without a bodyguard in tow. With my wife, I often go out to eat pizza or simply for a walk around Vaduz. Of course Liechtensteiners will recognise us but tourists mostly don’t. Even when I leave the castle and there is a tourist standing in front of it, they usually never know who walks past them in trainers and windbreaker.
Which was your favourite subject in school?
I always liked history. Archaeology also interests me.
Have you ever dug yourself?
My first teacher David Beck awoke my interest in archaeology. He was its pioneer
in Liechtenstein. He took us to excavation sites. That was fascinating to me. I saw
that in many developing countries a lot was destroyed by the construction of streets
and so on. So I established a Liechtenstein-
When you think back to your childhood, at what point did you realise that your life would not be like the life of your school mates?
Basically when I started school. We lived in the castle, did not speak dialect. As a result, my first friend was a German student, Uve Harder. My parents paid attention that we were not treated differently to the other students.
How can we picture it, did your father ever sat down with you when you were a child and told you that one day you would become The Prince and what it would mean?
No, there was no such day. A lot of things, you simply catch while growing up. You
see that there are receptions, talks with prime ministers, official visits and so
on. So an explanation wasn’t necessary. When I went to high school, my father asked
me what I wanted to study. I said physics or archaeology and he said to me, “Hans-
So everyone relied on you?
I had to build up our wealth again and so I studied law and economics in St. Gallen.
I think you liked it though, didn’t you?
It was interesting as I could already start to immerse myself in finding ways to build up the family’s fortune while still at university. I wrote by dissertation about the use of computers in banking.
In a time where there hardly were any computers.
My parents had contact with IBM Europe. My father had no insight in either our asset management or the bank. I had to change that. I knew that the bank thought about buying a new generation of IBM computers. Via IBM I then gained insight into our bank and could start to reorganise it. That was towards the end of my university studies.
How did you handle this responsibility and pressure?
I knew I had to solve the problems of our asset management. If our assets had collapsed, so would probably have the monarchy. I told my father, “Either we deal with it now and you give me the necessary authority over the bank or I go and work for IBM who had offered me a job. I have children now and I have to feed them. If all of this comes apart, we have to pack our bags and move back to Vienna.” So I didn’t have much to lose.
Did you ever wish to escape? Maybe as a teenager? Were you rebellious?
I was rebellious pretty much my whole life, already in elementary school. As a boy,
you are always a little rebellious. While in boarding school in Zuoz, I played ice
hockey -
But it had consequences.
Yes, back in those days it even went to the government. The Hereditary Prince tears
up the catechism! I was kept in after school to write lines. It was a beautiful summer
day, I was locked up on the third floor. I looked out of the window and discovered
the rain gutter. So I climbed out of the window and down the gutter -
What would your parents say about you as a teenager?
We were raised in an old-
Should…
That’s not the easiest thing when you live in the middle of the city in the Stadtpalais.
Three boys full of energy [Hans-
You had a pretty normal upbringing.
I am very thankful for my parents that they paid attention to it even though it was so different to their’s. My father did not go to school but instead teachers came to his home.
I planned to ask you what you would have become if not Prince. But you basically already answered that. Either you would have launched rockets into the sky as a physicist, developped the first tablet computers at IBM, or studied archaeology.
Indeed. Natural sciences always fascinated me: physics, technology…
But would you have still met your wife, Countess Marie Kinsky, if you hadn’t become Prince?
Yes, the distant relation would have still been there. The aunt of my wife, Princess Lilly, was married to Prince Hans who lived here in Liechtenstein. Thus the Kinskys often came here during the holidays.
Was it an arranged marriage?
No, we were free to decide ourselves. We were here during the school holidays and my mother learned that a number of young people were staying at Prince Hans’ house. She invited them to the castle, “Come and visit us, my children are bored and only have silly ideas.” (Laughs.) They came for dinner. Marie Kinsky walked into the door. I saw her and said, “She will be my wife!” If you will, it was love at first sight.
You were only 15.
Yes, and Marie was five years older.
At that age, five years are a lot.
Yes, A LOT. But I was persistent. My parents and parents-
What do you have great regard for in your wife?
After her parents had lost everything, her family lived very humbly. The parents
had raised their children themselves. That was a different family life than I knew.
But I liked it very much. I knew that Marie Kinsky wouldn’t only be a good wife but
also a good mother. It was clear to us that we would raise our children ourselves.
I changed nappies and that was before the time of Pampers [meaning in the time of
cloth nappies]. I gave them the bottle -
There were situations in your life as a head of state when you were greatly criticised. How do you handle criticism?
If there is a foundation for it, I think about what I should change. If there isn’t
any, I ignore it. It was clear to me, what I had to change: The asset management,
the foreign policy, the constitution, the justice system, the legitimation of the
monarchy -
You also like when the people of Liechtenstein don’t say ‘yes’ to everything. Something happens then. From physics we know that friction creates warmth.
Exactly. If I hadn’t created conflict, a lot of things wouldn’t have changed.
What do you think about the Demokratiebewegung (literally democracy movement, a political group in Liechtenstein)?
Especially for other countries the Demokratiebewegung is a sign that we have freedom of speech. Many abroad say that this isn’t the case in Liechtenstein. Of course you can criticise the monarchy in Liechtenstein. With a simple majority the monarchy can be abolished in Liechtenstein at any time. It shows that different ideas can always be implemented.
You are not only a father but also a grandfather. What relationship do you have with your grandchildren? Do you see them often?
I have the great luck to see my grandchildren often and that we have a good relationship.
What advice do you give them?
I do not meddle in their upbringing. My children and children-
Interview by Janine Knöpfli
