Speaker 1: You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
Speaker 1: and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Guess what Mango?
Speaker 1: What's that Will?
Speaker 2: So I was thinking about the Olympics this week. I
Speaker 2: don't know why I was thinking about the Olympics this week,
Speaker 2: because they're not coming up anytime soon, but I was,
Speaker 2: and was thinking about how strange it must be for
Speaker 2: those countries where there's only one athlete participating in the Games.
Speaker 2: I mean strange, but also super cool if you're that athlete, Like,
Speaker 2: it's kind of crazy to be the sole representative of
Speaker 2: a place in the world's largest stage, Like, have you
Speaker 2: thought about that before?
Speaker 1: I mean, I have, being from Delaware.
Speaker 2: Life, that's a good point. That's a good point.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you end up being the sole representative. But I
Speaker 1: imagine it's kind of a big point of pride for
Speaker 1: those folks, right, Like, as I view were is always
Speaker 1: so fun for me to see what sport those countries
Speaker 1: have qualified in.
Speaker 2: Absolutely And you know, I was looking at the twenty
Speaker 2: twenty four Summer Games and there were four countries with
Speaker 2: just one athlete, you had belize, which was kind of
Speaker 2: surprising to me. I actually thought they would have had
Speaker 2: more there Somalia, NHRU, and Liechtenstein, and of those four,
Speaker 2: Somalia is the only one whose national population is above
Speaker 2: half a million people. But of course Somalia has also
Speaker 2: been embroiled in a civil war since the late nineteen eighties,
Speaker 2: which might explain why a nation of nineteen million would
Speaker 2: still only be able to send one athlete. In fact,
Speaker 2: it's remarkable that even one athlete was sent, given everything
Speaker 2: that's gone on there.
Speaker 1: I know, you think about how intense the training and
Speaker 1: dedication has to be to get to the Olympics for
Speaker 1: like a stable country, so like it's insane, But I
Speaker 1: also imagine that there's a ton of pressure, right, Like
Speaker 1: everyone in the country is tuning in to watch you,
Speaker 1: so if you have a bad showing, there's no chance
Speaker 1: of being lost in the shuffle.
Speaker 2: That's exactly right. In fact, I read this interview with
Speaker 2: the BBC that they did with Liechtenstein's lone competitor. It's
Speaker 2: a twenty year old cyclist named Romano Penton, and when
Speaker 2: asked about the outpouring of support he'd received on social media,
Speaker 2: Pinener said, it felt like I got a message from
Speaker 2: every person living in Liechtenstein for me. It feels like
Speaker 2: one big town, which is, you know, pretty sweet and
Speaker 2: pretty cool at the same time. Now, spoilers in case
Speaker 2: you taped the Olympic Center, still waiting to watch. But
Speaker 2: Liechtenstein plays twenty eight out of thirty six in cross
Speaker 2: country cycling, so all those well wishes didn't exactly translate
Speaker 2: to Olympic victory. But here's the thing. Liechtenstein has won
Speaker 2: ten Olympic medals in the past. All of them were
Speaker 2: at the Winter Games, all of them were for the
Speaker 2: sport of alpine skiing, and that means the country actually
Speaker 2: has the highest number of Olympic medals per capita in
Speaker 2: the history of the Winter Games. It's like one medal
Speaker 2: for every four thousand people. That's not a bad ratio.
Speaker 1: First of all, it is amazing the idea that anyone
Speaker 1: would have taped the Olympics and is still waiting to
Speaker 1: watch it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, well you never know it's good.
Speaker 1: But that is an incredible fact.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it made me realize just how many
Speaker 2: countries there are out there that I still know virtually
Speaker 2: nothing about. So that's why we're here today today's episode.
Speaker 2: I thought we could chip away at that list by
Speaker 2: taking a closer look at Pentener's big hometown.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know you and I have asked Gabe to
Speaker 1: pick a spot in the world and send us there.
Speaker 1: And Lichtensigin is a place that I've just been curious
Speaker 1: about for a while now. Like, I know it's a
Speaker 1: tax haven, I know it's tiny, but beyond that, like,
Speaker 1: I really don't know anything about it. I even had
Speaker 1: no idea that they'd taken part in the Olympics.
Speaker 2: Yeah, same here, and you know, you know, it may
Speaker 2: be a tiny country, but there's still a ton of
Speaker 2: interesting facts to share about it, including one about their teeth.
Speaker 2: How about that for a teaser. So pack your bags
Speaker 2: and let's take a trip to Lichtenstein. Hey, their podcast listeners,
Speaker 2: Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as
Speaker 2: always I'm joined by my good friend mangesh Hot Ticketer
Speaker 2: and on the other side of that soundproof glass engrossed
Speaker 2: in a biography of pop artist Roy Lichtenstein. That is
Speaker 2: our friend and producer Dylan Fagan that kid loves to read. Now,
Speaker 2: I'm so sorry, Dylan. I know there was a miscommunication
Speaker 2: about this week's topic. Unless Roy Lichtenstein wasn't from Lichtenstein.
Speaker 2: Was he Mango?
Speaker 1: No, I think he's from Manhattan, And also his name
Speaker 1: is spelled differently.
Speaker 2: Well, in all fairness to Dylan, I also left out
Speaker 2: the extra e a few times this week. Lichtenstein is
Speaker 2: said to be one of the most misspelled countries in
Speaker 2: the world, right up there with Columbia and Kyrgyzstan. Of course,
Speaker 2: watching the name is such a common mistake that souvenir
Speaker 2: shops and Lichtenstein cell magnets with a crossed out list
Speaker 2: of all the various misspellers, which is a helpful way
Speaker 2: to remind tourists of the correct spelling while subtly shaming
Speaker 2: them at the same time. I kind of like it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, misspelling the name is just one of the
Speaker 1: many ways that outsiders might embarrass themselves while talking about Lichtenstein.
Speaker 1: So to help spare listeners that grim fate, I thought
Speaker 1: we should run through some of the basics to start with. So,
Speaker 1: Lichtenstein is a small alpine country. It's sandwich between Switzerland
Speaker 1: and south and west and Austria in the east and north.
Speaker 1: Its total area spans just sixty two square miles. That
Speaker 1: makes it roughly the same size as Washington, DC, but
Speaker 1: with only a fraction of the city's population. There are
Speaker 1: only about forty thousand Lichtensteiners compared to seven hundred thousand Washingtonians,
Speaker 1: and that's because roughly two thirds of Liechtenstein is mountainous.
Speaker 1: The Austrin Alps are to the east and the Swiss
Speaker 1: Alps are to the west, so most of the population
Speaker 1: is actually clustered in this thin strip of flat land
Speaker 1: that runs down the western edge of the country, which
Speaker 1: makes it feel even smaller. And since the plains are
Speaker 1: wider and lower up north, that's where most people tend
Speaker 1: to live, either in Vaduts, which is the country's capital,
Speaker 1: or right next door in Sean, which is the country's
Speaker 1: most populous city.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm starting to see why Romano punt in Earth,
Speaker 2: you know, thinks of it as one big town, like
Speaker 2: we were saying.
Speaker 1: Yeah. But that said, there are nine other municipalities between
Speaker 1: those two cities, and it seems like there are some
Speaker 1: clear distinctions between them. For example, even though German is
Speaker 1: the official language of Lichtenstein, there are roughly a dozen
Speaker 1: different dialects spoken throughout the country, and while you or
Speaker 1: I would have a tough time spawing the difference. Someone
Speaker 1: with a well trained ear could actually hear which part
Speaker 1: of the country someone comes from just by hearing them talk.
Speaker 2: It's pretty amazing to have that much variety crammed into
Speaker 2: such a small space. I mean, sixty two square miles.
Speaker 2: That's got to be one of the smallest countries on Earth, right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: Weirdly, it's the sixth smallest worldwide and the fourth smallest
Speaker 1: in Europe. It's also the second least visited country on
Speaker 1: the continent, just behind Moldova. It only has about eighty
Speaker 1: thousand tourists visiting each year, which is all.
Speaker 2: The more reason for us to go Mango. We're going
Speaker 2: to feel so special when we do it. But I
Speaker 2: did read a little bit about the country's tourism, and
Speaker 2: it seems like most of the visitors are day trippers,
Speaker 2: like people who are vacationing in Switzerland but pop over
Speaker 2: for a bus tour to grab some souvenirs, get a
Speaker 2: stamp for their passport and all of that.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's kind of a shame they only visit
Speaker 1: for the day because most people only stop off in
Speaker 1: the capital city, Vadutz and Vedus is like the political
Speaker 1: and business center, but it doesn't really give you a
Speaker 1: feel for the culture. That said, it only takes about
Speaker 1: six hours to walk the entire length of the country,
Speaker 1: so there's really no excuse not to explore more of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the country really tries to encourage that. You know,
Speaker 2: for instance, they have these signs posted all over that
Speaker 2: list a bunch of destinations with corresponding times anyway from
Speaker 2: thirty minutes to three hours. And although the signs don't
Speaker 2: specify it, they're actually walking times. Like that's how small
Speaker 2: this country is. It really does make me want to
Speaker 2: go there.
Speaker 1: I was gonna ask what the travel situation is, like,
Speaker 1: I mean, you mentioned there are tour buses from Switzerland,
Speaker 1: but can you fly to Lichtenstein or get there some
Speaker 1: other way?
Speaker 2: Not really, I mean, the country doesn't have an airport
Speaker 2: and getting there by boat would be a truly incredible
Speaker 2: feat because Lichtenstein is actually one of two doubly landlocked
Speaker 2: countries in the world, the other one being Uzbekistan. So
Speaker 2: not only is Lichtenstein itself landlocked, there are actually two
Speaker 2: countries that border it. You've got Austria and Switzerland.
Speaker 1: It's funny, I actually knew that Uzbekistan was one of
Speaker 1: the doubly landlocked countries because Joe Piazza's son is obsessed
Speaker 1: with geography and he was quizzing MEO, that's pretty like
Speaker 1: an idiot, because this eight year old knows which country's
Speaker 1: a double landlocked.
Speaker 2: And I didn't, but it's hilarious.
Speaker 1: I didn't know that Lichtenstein was the other, so I
Speaker 1: guess there's only one way to get in, right, it's weel's.
Speaker 2: Wheel or feet. I mean, there's a footbridge at the
Speaker 2: southern border that leads right into Switzerland. And since the
Speaker 2: two countries have a customs union, they don't even have
Speaker 2: border guards there. And if you decide to drive instead,
Speaker 2: that's just as easy. Because Lichtenstein only has one major road.
Speaker 2: It runs the length of the country and it kind
Speaker 2: of has the best name. It's called Landstrass or country road.
Speaker 1: Well, roads aren't the only thing Liechtenstein has in short supply.
Speaker 1: It also has just one hospital for the entire country,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't even include a maternity ward. Apparently the
Speaker 1: government's plan to modernize the ward had stalled out, so
Speaker 1: all the obgyns on staff walked out at the same
Speaker 1: time and it just never reopened. This was back in
Speaker 1: twenty fourteen, which means that for the last decade, hundreds
Speaker 1: of pregnant residents actually have to cross the border each
Speaker 1: year to give birth, either in Switzerland or in Austria.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's nuts, right, yeah, it is. It is bizarre.
Speaker 2: I mean, I guess it's just a few hundred babies
Speaker 2: each year, but still that's wild. Basically, have a generation
Speaker 2: of quote native Liechtensteiners who weren't actually born in the
Speaker 2: country is pretty interesting to think about. But it also
Speaker 2: feels like the type of thing that a government would
Speaker 2: want to fix asap, don't you think.
Speaker 1: I mean, since the country's so small and because of
Speaker 1: its open border with Switzerland, people really don't see it
Speaker 1: as that much of an inconvenience. So even though there
Speaker 1: are some plans to open a new maternity ward in
Speaker 1: the not so distant future, it doesn't seem that much
Speaker 1: of a top priority.
Speaker 2: Well, to put that in perspective just a little bit,
Speaker 2: I looked up whether they have a McDonald's in Liechtenstein,
Speaker 2: and like, that's really the judge of how big a
Speaker 2: country is, but it's how pretty much. I vet all
Speaker 2: the places that I visit, and it turned out they
Speaker 2: have exactly one location over in ved D's and so
Speaker 2: currently Liechtenstein is a nation with one McDonald's and zero
Speaker 2: maternity wards. So they've they've got their priorities.
Speaker 1: In the worries. Yeah. Completely.
Speaker 2: You know, another surprising thing about Lichtenstein is that it's
Speaker 2: the last country in Europe to grant women the right
Speaker 2: to vote.
Speaker 1: It feels like, with Austria and Switzerland right around it,
Speaker 1: it almost seems like such a strange thing. It feels
Speaker 1: like it would be more progressive.
Speaker 2: So how long ago was this You're going to be
Speaker 2: surprised by this. It was nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 1: It's just design.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it really is. The country didn't hold a national
Speaker 2: referendum on women's suffrage until nineteen eighty four, and even
Speaker 2: then it was only narrowly approved by the all male
Speaker 2: voting public.
Speaker 1: I honestly had no idea. That's crazy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's interesting because you know, when you hear a
Speaker 2: fact like that, you might assume that Lichtenstein is sort
Speaker 2: of down on its luck, but the country's per capita
Speaker 2: income is actually one of the highest in the world.
Speaker 2: It's around one hundred and eighty seven thousand dollars a
Speaker 2: year as of twenty twenty two. Now, according to the
Speaker 2: CIA's World fact Book, the country's national debt is zero dollars.
Speaker 1: Wow. I mean, it's so bizarre to think that a
Speaker 1: country that small could generate that level of wealth and
Speaker 1: not oh a single penny to any foreign power. How
Speaker 1: does that happen? You know?
Speaker 2: It comes down to a few things, as I was
Speaker 2: looking into this, So for starters, the population is small,
Speaker 2: which means the government doesn't have to spend much on
Speaker 2: social programs or infrastructure. And because Liechtenstein doesn't have a
Speaker 2: standing army, its military budget is virtually non existent. I Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: the labor force participation is exceptionally high. It's at about
Speaker 2: seventy one percent, while the country's unemployment rate routinely hovers
Speaker 2: around just two percent, and it's fewer than one thousand people.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: Plus, Lichtenstein's workforce is a money saver in its own right.
Speaker 2: That's because a whopping fifty one percent of its workers
Speaker 2: are actually foreign commuters who cross the border daily from Austria,
Speaker 2: from Germany and of course Switzerland. So for reference, Liechtenstein's
Speaker 2: workforce in twenty twenty two was a little over forty
Speaker 2: two thousand people, which is twenty five hundred more than
Speaker 2: its population. And because half of those workers live in
Speaker 2: different countries, Liechtenstein is able to benefit from their labor
Speaker 2: without having to cover their social program expenses like unemployment
Speaker 2: or social security.
Speaker 1: That is a crazy setup and obviously it's not scalable
Speaker 1: to bigger countries. I'm curious though, like where are those
Speaker 1: commuters working? Because I always see Lichtenstein labeled as a
Speaker 1: tax haven. So I imagine it has to do something with
Speaker 1: a financial sector, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, about seventeen percent of the total workforces either in banking,
Speaker 2: wealth management, insurance, trust services, things in that category, and
Speaker 2: taken all together, they contribute a little over twenty percent
Speaker 2: of the nation's GDP. As for Lichtenstein's reputation as a
Speaker 2: tax haven, that's because the country makes it super easy
Speaker 2: to incorporate a business and also imposes extremely low business taxes.
Speaker 2: It's a maximum of twenty percent, and so that allows
Speaker 2: foreign businesses to save money by nominally setting up shop
Speaker 2: in Lichtenstein, when in reality, all they've done is register
Speaker 2: a letterbox at a post office.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I know that trick because I'm from Delaware, but uh,
Speaker 1: that's right. Basically, companies save a bundle in taxes they'd
Speaker 1: owe in their home countries, and what little they do
Speaker 1: pay is basically free money for Licktenstein.
Speaker 2: Right, So we're at two Delaware mentions so far. Let's
Speaker 2: see how many we can we can get in. No,
Speaker 2: but you're exactly right. I mean, it's basically free money
Speaker 2: for Lichtenstein, and that loophole is so appealing that the
Speaker 2: country's letterbox companies outnumber its human inhabitants nearly two to one.
Speaker 2: And so, as you might imagine, other countries haven't been
Speaker 2: too thrilled with that arrangement, and some have criticized Lichtenstein
Speaker 2: for a troubling lack of transparency and its financial institutions.
Speaker 2: But to the nation's credit, it has taken measures to
Speaker 2: address those concerns. In more recent years. You know, they've
Speaker 2: been signing transparency agreements with other countries and trying to
Speaker 2: avoid tax disputes with them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's interesting. Okay, So before we move on from economics,
Speaker 1: we should at least mention Lichtenstein's other booming industry, which
Speaker 1: is false teeth.
Speaker 2: That's right. I know, I teased that at the top here,
Speaker 2: which is what kept everybody in the episode. But did
Speaker 2: you look into this with respect to the economy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so, Liechtenstein actually has a thriving manufacturing sector, and
Speaker 1: because his population is so small, the vast majority of
Speaker 1: his production is exported. So some of its chief commodities
Speaker 1: include small power tools. They make a lot of ceramics.
Speaker 1: They also make a lot of sausage casings, which I'm
Speaker 1: surprised to read about. But the country's leading export by
Speaker 1: far is cosmetic dentistry products and false teeth in particular.
Speaker 2: I do love that they don't have a hospital for women,
Speaker 2: but they've got more false teeth than anybody can handle.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So get this. The Ivaclar Vivident Company in Sean
Speaker 1: manufactures sixty million artificial teeth each year, accounting for twenty
Speaker 1: percent of all the false teeth sold worldwide. The company
Speaker 1: produces the teeth in more than ten thousand different shades
Speaker 1: and sizes, and according to Business Standard, they're especially popular
Speaker 1: in India, where Bollywood dentists use the teeth to give
Speaker 1: their patients whiter smiles for the big screen.
Speaker 2: All right, so I've pulled out the calculator here because
Speaker 2: this is just wild. Sixty million teeth annually divided by
Speaker 2: a population of forty thousand, that comes out to fifteen
Speaker 2: hundred false teeth for every Lichtensteiner. That's pretty amazing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's too many teeth.
Speaker 2: It's definitely too many teeth. Well, now that we've covered
Speaker 2: the basics of Liechtenstein's geography, the number of McDonald's and
Speaker 2: false teeth per capita, what do you say we look
Speaker 2: at how this high income sliver of a country got
Speaker 2: started in the first place.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's definitely a story we're telling. But before we
Speaker 1: get into it, let's take a quick break. You're listening
Speaker 1: to part time Genius and we're talking about Lichtenstein. So
Speaker 1: will We've covered a few things that make the country
Speaker 1: stand out from most other nations, but one of the
Speaker 1: big things we haven't talked about yet is actually that
Speaker 1: it is a principality, and that means that, unlike most
Speaker 1: other sovereign monarchies in Europe, Lichtensiein's head of state is
Speaker 1: a prince rather than a king or a queen.
Speaker 2: Which is actually pretty rare these days.
Speaker 1: Right. Yeah, there are only a few others in the
Speaker 1: world that still follow this arrangement. There's Andorra and Monaco,
Speaker 1: and both of those are actually European micro states.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm guessing none of those are young nations though, right,
Speaker 2: Like the idea of a principality feels like, I don't know,
Speaker 2: some sort of holdover from the Middle Ages or something.
Speaker 2: Maybe I'm just associating it with that.
Speaker 1: No, it's true, these principalities are Like many kingdoms used
Speaker 1: to be a lot more common in Europe, and particularly
Speaker 1: during the reign of the Holy Roman Empire, but over
Speaker 1: time most of them lost their sovereignty and were absorbed
Speaker 1: into larger territories. So you're right, these principalities were the
Speaker 1: ones that kind of flew under the radar and managed
Speaker 1: to hang on to their independence through you know, all
Speaker 1: these upheavals in Europe over the last few centuries.
Speaker 2: All Right, so I feel like you should take us
Speaker 2: back Mango, Like, how did Lichtenstein come to be? How
Speaker 2: did it manage to keep its autonomy despite being just
Speaker 2: two doors down from Germany?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so, the Principality of Liechtenstein was formed more than
Speaker 1: three hundred years ago during a period in European history
Speaker 1: called the Age of Absolutism. The large countries that make
Speaker 1: up the continent today didn't exist yet, and instead Central
Speaker 1: Europe was divided into this mix of kingdoms and principalities
Speaker 1: and other small states. And in practice each of these
Speaker 1: territories was ruled by its respective monarch or by wealthy
Speaker 1: local families, but on paper all of them were under
Speaker 1: this sway of the HRI.
Speaker 2: And so Lichtenstein was one of those self governing territories eventually, but.
Speaker 1: Not at first. So one of the wealthy families that
Speaker 1: I mentioned was the Princely House of Liechtenstein, and they
Speaker 1: were named for a home castle just outside of Vienna.
Speaker 1: And in sixteen twenty, Emperor Ferdinand the Second bestowed the
Speaker 1: rank of Imperial prints on Carl von Liechtenstein in recognition
Speaker 1: of his family's extreme wealth and all their landholdings. Right,
Speaker 1: but the Liechtenstein standing in the Empire was kind of incomplete.
Speaker 1: It turned out the various estates owned by the family
Speaker 1: in Bohemia, Moraviaslesia and Austria they were actually part of
Speaker 1: the Habsburg Kingdom, and because of that they were outside
Speaker 1: of the Emperor's jurisdiction. So this posed a problem for
Speaker 1: the Lichtensteins because only those in possession of territory that
Speaker 1: was in this imperial region were allowed the privilege of
Speaker 1: representation in the legislative body, which was called the Imperial Diet.
Speaker 1: So in order to claim the full benefits and the
Speaker 1: bragging rights of imperial princedom, the Lichtensteins would actually have
Speaker 1: to get their hands on some proper imperial territory.
Speaker 2: So what like they raised an army and invaded the
Speaker 2: territory we're talking about, or what.
Speaker 1: Well, that's another thing that sets Liechtenstein apart from these
Speaker 1: other nation states. Its territory wasn't taken by force or
Speaker 1: divvied up by a peace treaty. It was just purchased,
Speaker 1: like outright purchased. And it took a while for the
Speaker 1: House of Lichten's signed to find an area for sale
Speaker 1: that would meet all the requirements. But in late sixteen
Speaker 1: hundreds this opportunity finally presented itself. Down in the Alpine
Speaker 1: Rhine Valley, the Lordship of Shellenberg and the County of
Speaker 1: Vaduts were facing some tough times at the time, right
Speaker 1: like there was the plague, there was famine, there were
Speaker 1: witch hunts, and all of this had ravaged the region
Speaker 1: in quick succession. It left thousands dead, and the area
Speaker 1: was actually in the steep economic decline, and so all
Speaker 1: of this hardship was going to bankrupt the region's rulers.
Speaker 1: So in the sixteen nineties they decided to put the
Speaker 1: two troubled territories up for sale.
Speaker 2: And the Liechtensteins bought both of them. Like it seems
Speaker 2: like one of them would have been enough to claim
Speaker 2: a seat in this whatuld you call an imperial Congress
Speaker 2: or whatever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so the house did buy just one territory at first,
Speaker 1: the Lordship of Shellenberg in sixteen ninety nine, but that
Speaker 1: was deemed actually too small or insignificant to warn a
Speaker 1: seat at the table. It took another thirteen years to
Speaker 1: work out a deal for the County of the Dutz,
Speaker 1: but once the sale was finally complete, the family had
Speaker 1: enough territory to join this imperial diet. However, there were
Speaker 1: some other internal shakeups in the power structure there and
Speaker 1: it kind of delayed the union of these two territories
Speaker 1: for another seven years. So it wasn't until seventeen nineteen
Speaker 1: that the two parts were formally united by the emperor
Speaker 1: and declared a principality. The new state's name was taken
Speaker 1: of course, from the ruling house of Liechtenstein, and that
Speaker 1: actually makes it the only country named for the people
Speaker 1: who bought it.
Speaker 2: It's interesting, but there's so many historical things that happen, right,
Speaker 2: like what happened after the Holy Roman Empire was destroyed
Speaker 2: by Napoleon. How did Liechtenstein make it through in one piece?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so Lichtenstein saw the writing on the wall after
Speaker 1: Napoleon's defeat of Austria in eighteen oh five. So the
Speaker 1: following year, it and fifteen other states struck a deal
Speaker 1: with Napoleon, agreeing to willingly withdraw from the Holy Roman
Speaker 1: Empire in exchange for sovereignty. And that turned o to
Speaker 1: be a very very smart move because even though Napoleon
Speaker 1: was defeated just nine years later, it's that sovereignty he
Speaker 1: bestowed that endures to this day.
Speaker 2: Can you imagine what a crazy century that must have
Speaker 2: been for the people who actually live there, Like you're
Speaker 2: just minding your business over in veduts and trying not
Speaker 2: to catch the plague or get accused of witchcraft, and
Speaker 2: then some random family from Vienna comes along and buys
Speaker 2: all of your land for political gain. It's just such
Speaker 2: a strange thing to imagine. Then you're grafted on to
Speaker 2: separate territory or shuffled around from one empire to another,
Speaker 2: and the next thing you know, you're living in a
Speaker 2: new independent nation.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, it's a lot of change in a
Speaker 1: very short period, but I do think that for the
Speaker 1: most part, the people kind of welcomed it. Plus it
Speaker 1: probably helped that the new royal family took a pretty
Speaker 1: hands off approach to ruling. This is so incredible to me,
Speaker 1: but they allowed the inhabitants to keep the same land,
Speaker 1: the rights and freedoms they'd enjoyed under the previous owners.
Speaker 1: And for the first century and a half of the
Speaker 1: country's existence, none of it's princes even ever set foot
Speaker 1: in the principality. I mean, that didn't change until eighteen
Speaker 1: forty two, when Prince Alois the Second paid the first
Speaker 1: royal visit to Lichtenstein, and the first prince to actually
Speaker 1: reside in the country, Franz Joseph the Second, didn't move
Speaker 1: there until nineteen thirty.
Speaker 2: Eight, which is odd because it feels like if there's
Speaker 2: no ruler there, it should be easier for another nation
Speaker 2: to expand into it. You know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it feels like someone would have just like swept
Speaker 1: in and taken it. But you know, Liechtenstein actually protected
Speaker 1: itself by staying on really good terms with its closest neighbors,
Speaker 1: so that's Austria and Switzerland. And there was still the
Speaker 1: possibility that Germany might make a play for the country,
Speaker 1: but following the devastation of World War One, Lichtenstein was
Speaker 1: viewed as just too impoverished to be worth invading.
Speaker 2: So being poor kept the country from being targeted, which
Speaker 2: I guess in turn allowed it to stay independent, build
Speaker 2: up its economy, and eventually become one of the richest
Speaker 2: nations in the world.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's an incredible comeback story. And this is where
Speaker 1: lichten Sign's princes really started taking a more active role.
Speaker 1: So in the late nineteen sixties, the country's post war
Speaker 1: economy was struggling to find its footing, and at one
Speaker 1: point things got so bleak that the royal family actually
Speaker 1: started selling off its art collection just to keep the
Speaker 1: country going. For instance, they sold a portrait by Leonardo
Speaker 1: da Vinci to the National Art Gallery in Washington, d C.
Speaker 1: For five million dollars, and at the time that was
Speaker 1: the most anyone had ever paid for a single painting,
Speaker 1: but that cash infusion from the family's art sales actually
Speaker 1: bought the country more time. And then in the nineteen seventies,
Speaker 1: Prince Bronz Joseph the Second institute new reforms to spur
Speaker 1: economic growth, and some of those included the corporate tax
Speaker 1: cuts we talked about earlier.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's also worth noting that the country's current
Speaker 2: ruling Prince, Franz Joseph's son, Hans Adam the Second, has
Speaker 2: followed in his father's footsteps by actually living in the
Speaker 2: country that he rules, but that's occasionally led to some
Speaker 2: friction because Lichtenstein is a constitutional monarchy rather than an
Speaker 2: absolute one, so the Prince has to share his executive
Speaker 2: power with an elected parliament, and they don't always see
Speaker 2: eyed eye on how to run things. For example, back
Speaker 2: in the early two thousands, the Prince was pushing for
Speaker 2: constitutional reforms that would grant him more power, most notably
Speaker 2: the power to veto parliament and to appoint judges. Most
Speaker 2: of the public opposed the idea at first, but as
Speaker 2: the national debate intensified, the Prince signaled that he might
Speaker 2: just cut ties with the country altogether. If the referendum
Speaker 2: didn't go his way.
Speaker 1: So what happened then, like you just moved back to
Speaker 1: Vienna and let the parliament run without him.
Speaker 2: I know, more like he'd sell the country, and he
Speaker 2: was talking about selling it to you know, as he says,
Speaker 2: quote Bill Gates or anyone else who can afford it.
Speaker 1: That feels like such a poor sport. He's not getting
Speaker 1: his way, so he's just gonna sell off the country.
Speaker 1: But can you even do that?
Speaker 2: I'm actually not sure. I mean, the Prince was almost
Speaker 2: certainly bluffing about selling the country, but he was serious
Speaker 2: about possibly leaving it so that people had to vote
Speaker 2: to either give up some of the their own political
Speaker 2: power or risk losing their head of state. And in
Speaker 2: the end, Liechtensteiner's decided not to take that chance, and
Speaker 2: in two thousand and three the country voted to adopt
Speaker 2: the new constitution that granted these sweeping new political powers
Speaker 2: to the prince, including the right to veto parliament.
Speaker 1: So basically, over time, the country is inching back closer
Speaker 1: and closer to like an absolute monarchy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think the country is now considered
Speaker 2: a semi constitutional monarchy, and they still have a say
Speaker 2: through Parliament, but they can be overruled fairly easily if
Speaker 2: the Prince disagrees with them. But despite how it might sound,
Speaker 2: I do want to stress that Liechtenstein is a very
Speaker 2: stable country. The quality of life is high, the crime
Speaker 2: rate is low, people are making money, the views are gorgeous,
Speaker 2: and no one's being ruled with an iron fist, you know,
Speaker 2: so people didn't want to risk a good thing.
Speaker 1: Plus, you know, it's hard to rule with an iron
Speaker 1: fist when your country doesn't have its own army.
Speaker 2: That's a very good point. But they did have an
Speaker 2: army at one point, right, Like I read something this
Speaker 2: week about an army of I think it was eighty men.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that's another only in Liechtenstein's story that
Speaker 1: we should probably talk about. But before we do that,
Speaker 1: let's take another quick break.
Speaker 2: All right, Mango. So Lichtenstein is a neutral country and
Speaker 2: it doesn't keep its own standing army, but apparently that
Speaker 2: wasn't always the case. So I'm turning to you. What's
Speaker 2: the story here?
Speaker 1: Prior to the First World War, Liechtenstein's strongest ally was
Speaker 1: its next door neighbor, Austria, right, and that put the
Speaker 1: tiny country in a tough spot in eighteen sixty six
Speaker 1: when a war suddenly broke out between the Austrian Empire
Speaker 1: and the Kingdom of Prussia. The Seven Weeks War was
Speaker 1: a power struggle for dominance in Germany, and while Liechtenstein
Speaker 1: aligned with Austria, the country's size kind of meant that
Speaker 1: it couldn't help that much on the battlefield. Still, the
Speaker 1: country felt, you know, duty bound to do something to
Speaker 1: aid the war effort, especially once most of the northern
Speaker 1: German states and the Kingdom of Italy had pledged their
Speaker 1: support to Prussia. And so in June of eighteen sixty six,
Speaker 1: the Prince of Liechtenstein mobilizes the country's small military contingent,
Speaker 1: and as you said, eighty soldiers armed with rifles and
Speaker 1: bayonets get called a.
Speaker 2: Service, which doesn't sound like a lot, but given how
Speaker 2: few people lived there, that actually was probably a decent
Speaker 2: chunk of the male population, right Yeah.
Speaker 1: And remember these guys had never actually seen action before,
Speaker 1: since the country had always been neutral, So the public
Speaker 1: was pretty shocked when these men got their marching orders
Speaker 1: and when they found out the contingent was being deployed
Speaker 1: on the Austrian side. They initially thought their ally had
Speaker 1: betrayed them and that Liechtenstein was about to be invaded.
Speaker 1: The resulting uproar prompted twenty six year old Prince Johann
Speaker 1: the Second to actually make a rare visit to the
Speaker 1: country to rea shure his subjects, and he explained that
Speaker 1: these people were being sent to guard a strategically important
Speaker 1: alpine pass between Austria and Italy, and that they were
Speaker 1: doing it on behalf of their Austrian ally. So the
Speaker 1: goal wasn't to prevent an Austrian invasion, it was actually
Speaker 1: to keep Italian volunteers from invading Austria.
Speaker 2: And so how did that go? Were those few dozen
Speaker 2: guys able to hold the line?
Speaker 1: I mean technically, but that's mostly because they never actually
Speaker 1: saw any conflict. The contingent kept watch at something called
Speaker 1: the Brenner Pass for the better part of six weeks,
Speaker 1: but the Italians never showed up, and by the time
Speaker 1: the soldiers marched back to Liechtenstein, the war was over.
Speaker 2: And that's the country's greatest military claim to fame. That's wow. Like,
Speaker 2: they hung out in the Alps for over a month,
Speaker 2: they fought nobody, and then they turned around and walked home.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you put it that way, it doesn't
Speaker 1: sound that impressive, but it was still brave of them
Speaker 1: to march out there in the first place, and for
Speaker 1: all they knew the Italians would be waiting to wipe
Speaker 1: them out there. But weirdly, there actually was some controversy
Speaker 1: over how many sol did return to Liechtenstein.
Speaker 2: Like one of them got lost in the mountains or something.
Speaker 2: What happened here.
Speaker 1: No, they didn't lose a soldier, they actually gained one.
Speaker 1: So most ports it was an Austrian liaison officer who
Speaker 1: met them at the border, but other sources describe him
Speaker 1: as like an Italian friend. That could mean someone who
Speaker 1: was actually a defector. But it's also possible that the
Speaker 1: Austrian soldiers' ability to speak Italian just made some people
Speaker 1: assume he was Italian. So again, all of this is
Speaker 1: based on claims that have never been fully substantiated. And
Speaker 1: there's also the possibility that they just miscounted the eighty
Speaker 1: people and there was no eighty first man.
Speaker 2: Well, either way, it's nice to know that Liechtenstein made
Speaker 2: it through unscathed, but that campaign pretty much ended the
Speaker 2: country's military career.
Speaker 1: Right. Yeah, So Austria wound up losing the war with Prussia,
Speaker 1: and while Liechtenstein remained on good terms with Austria, it
Speaker 1: could no longer depend on the larger nation for financial
Speaker 1: or military security. I mean, the good news is that
Speaker 1: no one was particularly interested in fighting Liechtenstein, and all
Speaker 1: the tensions in its neighboring countries have been resolved for
Speaker 1: the time being. So in light of that, and because
Speaker 1: maintaining an army had proven both expensive and unpopular, Lichtenstein
Speaker 1: decided to officially disband its eighty man army two years
Speaker 1: after the war. At the same time, the country also
Speaker 1: adopted a policy of permanent neutrality, allowing Lichtenstein to focus
Speaker 1: on growing its economy rather than its military.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, that shift and focus has clearly paid
Speaker 2: off for them, though I did see that Liechtensteiner's today
Speaker 2: are allowed to serve in the Swiss Army if they
Speaker 2: want to.
Speaker 1: Yes, Switzerland eventually took Austria's place as Lichtenstein's chief ally,
Speaker 1: so in addition to that customs union that we talked about,
Speaker 1: they also have a mutual defense pact. But because Lichtenstein's
Speaker 1: lack of an army would make that pretty one sided.
Speaker 1: The inhabitants are encouraged to volunteer in the Swiss armed
Speaker 1: Forces as a way to help protect their own country.
Speaker 2: Which is pretty funny because, as far as I can tell,
Speaker 2: the only nation to ever invade Liechtenstein is Switzerland. But
Speaker 2: to be fair, though, that was only by accident. The
Speaker 2: Swiss military units often conduct training exercises along the Liechtenstein border,
Speaker 2: and on a few occasions, at least three by my account,
Speaker 2: those activities have mistakenly crossed into Liechtenstein territory. The most
Speaker 2: recent incident was in two thousand and seven, when one
Speaker 2: hundred and seventy armed soldiers marched a full mile into
Speaker 2: Liechtenstein before one of the residents finally called out, hey,
Speaker 2: this isn't Switzerland, at which point the soldiers turned around
Speaker 2: and immediately marched back across the border.
Speaker 1: I guess know one in Liechtenstein is too worried about
Speaker 1: these accidental evasions.
Speaker 2: No, it's an honest mistake when your borderline is nothing
Speaker 2: but a shallow ditch and a footbridge. And Liechtenstein's spokesman
Speaker 2: for the interior set as much. After the last Swiss invasion,
Speaker 2: he told the press quote, it's not like they stormed
Speaker 2: over here with an attack of helicopters or something. These
Speaker 2: things happen, that is amazing. So I think that just
Speaker 2: about wraps up our tour for the day. But we
Speaker 2: do have one last stop before heading home.
Speaker 1: I'm keeping my fingers crossed by hope it's the Vedutz McDonald's.
Speaker 2: If only we were that lucky today, Manda. But I
Speaker 2: was actually talking about the fact off almost as good.
Speaker 1: Okay, so we talked about Lichten signs many lucrative exports,
Speaker 1: but there's one commodity that residents actually keep all to themselves,
Speaker 1: and that is the wine. It turns out the principalities
Speaker 1: mild climate, top notched soil, and warm downslope winds make
Speaker 1: it one of the best wine growing regions in the
Speaker 1: entire Rhine Valley. As a result, more than one hundred
Speaker 1: different winegrowers call it home, including the nation's prints, who
Speaker 1: owns about ten acres just outside the capital city, and
Speaker 1: the country's specialty is a blue burgundy. But if you
Speaker 1: want to taste it for yourself, you'll actually need to
Speaker 1: make a trek over since the wine isn't sold outside
Speaker 1: the country except in a handful of specialty shots in Switzerland.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, speaking of the Prince, we kind of
Speaker 2: picked on him today. So here's the fact that highlights
Speaker 2: his softer side. Every year, to celebrate Liechtenstein's national holiday
Speaker 2: on August fifteenth, the Prince opens the gates of the
Speaker 2: Vaduts Castle, which is his ancestral home and the cliffs
Speaker 2: overlooking Va Dudes. The day begins with state speeches on
Speaker 2: the castle lawn, followed by free beer in this reception
Speaker 2: that happens in the Rose Garden, and then a big
Speaker 2: city wide party, culminating with a firework show. It sounds
Speaker 2: pretty awesome, but best of all, everyone in the country
Speaker 2: is invited to attend. You have to make a free
Speaker 2: reservation for the rose Garden reception as space is limited there,
Speaker 2: but those who miss out are still welcome to come
Speaker 2: party on the castle lawn.
Speaker 1: Oh I love that. Ain't no party like a lichten
Speaker 1: Sign Prince party. That's what they always say. So here's
Speaker 1: a weird one for you. Back in twenty ten, rapper
Speaker 1: Snoop Dogg was thinking of shooting a video in Lichtenstein,
Speaker 1: and to make the process as easy as possible, his
Speaker 1: team asked if they could just run out the entire country,
Speaker 1: and as wild as that sounds, it very nearly happen,
Speaker 1: and according to one property agent there, Kyle Schwarzler, he said, quote,
Speaker 1: it would have been possible, but Snoop Dogg's management did
Speaker 1: not give us enough time. The funniest part, though, is
Speaker 1: that the country continued toying with this idea, and the
Speaker 1: very next year, Airbnb teamed up with the Liechtenstein based
Speaker 1: marketing firm and launched a promotion allowing companies to rent
Speaker 1: out the entire country for corporate events for seventy thousand
Speaker 1: dollars a day. This is what you would get. You
Speaker 1: get accommodations for one hundred and fifty people, customized street signs,
Speaker 1: a symbolic key to the country, and a private wine
Speaker 1: tasting with the prints himself. Weirdly, no one took him
Speaker 1: up on the offer.
Speaker 2: I actually find that shocking. I'm not even kidding, Like
Speaker 2: it feels like there would be companies that would want
Speaker 2: to do that, or just.
Speaker 1: Like one hundred and fifty rich people, right, you would.
Speaker 2: Think it doesn't require that much, But first the prince
Speaker 2: wants to sell the country to Bill gates, then he
Speaker 2: tries to rent it out for business parties. You think
Speaker 2: he was hard up for cash, but in reality, Prince
Speaker 2: Hans Adam the Second is actually the wealthiest monarch in Europe.
Speaker 2: His net worth is somewhere in the neighborhood of five
Speaker 2: billion dollars, which for reference, is more than six times
Speaker 2: that of King Charles.
Speaker 1: Well, since Lichtenstegin has one of the highest standards of
Speaker 1: living in the world, the Prince isn't the only one
Speaker 1: who's rolling in it. But before you get any wild
Speaker 1: ideas about moving there, you should know it is a
Speaker 1: tough crowd to break into. The country issues just seventy
Speaker 1: residency permits a year, and it takes about thirty years
Speaker 1: to become a citizen. That said, there are two ways
Speaker 1: to speed up the process. The first is to marry
Speaker 1: a local, in which case you have to wait five years,
Speaker 1: and the second is to call for a community vote
Speaker 1: on whether or not you should be allowed to become
Speaker 1: a citizen early. If the vote goes forward and enough
Speaker 1: people agree that you'd be an asset to the country,
Speaker 1: then the thirty year rule is suspended and you become
Speaker 1: a Liechtensteiner. But there's one catch. You have to renounce
Speaker 1: your former citizenship because there are no dual loyalties allowed
Speaker 1: in Lichtenstein.
Speaker 2: All right, well here's a quick one. If you should
Speaker 2: ever find yourself at a soccer game between Lichtenstein and
Speaker 2: the UK, prepare to sit through the same song twice
Speaker 2: at the start of the match. And that's because Lichtenstein's
Speaker 2: national anthem up above the Young Rhine, is sung to
Speaker 2: the exact same melody as the UK anthem, God Save
Speaker 2: the Queen, And since the versions played at the sporting
Speaker 2: events are always instrumental, there's really no way to tell
Speaker 2: the two anthems apart.
Speaker 1: I love that, And then most people likely don't know
Speaker 1: that the linchten sign anthem, so I'm guessing everyone just
Speaker 1: thinks it's a mistake or it's on repeat. But I
Speaker 1: feel like you should take the trophy for that one.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you very much, and for tax purposes, please
Speaker 2: send it along to my po box in Lichtenstein.
Speaker 1: Of course I will, So that's gonna do it for
Speaker 1: today's part time Genius from Mary Gabe, Dylan Will and myself.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoy this podcast,
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Speaker 1: We're at Part Time Genius will be next week for
Speaker 1: another episode. Part Time Genius is a production of Kaleidoscope
Speaker 1: and iHeartRadio. This show is hosted by Will Pearson and
Speaker 1: me Mongage Heatikler and research by our good pal Mary
Speaker 1: Philip Sandy. Today's episode was engineered and produced by the
Speaker 1: wonderful Dylan Fagan with support from Tyler Klang. The show
Speaker 1: is executive produced for iHeart by Katrina Norvell and Ali Perry,
Speaker 1: with social media support from Sasha Gay, Trustee Dara Potts
Speaker 1: and Vinny Shorey. For more podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio,
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