Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
Speaker 1: the show Ridiculous Historians. If you were hearing this, congratulations
Speaker 1: you have survived yet another eclipse. We're kind of talking
Speaker 1: about about nations that get eclipse, nations that don't get
Speaker 1: as much attention as maybe they deserve.
Speaker 2: Well, because there's a small that just get eclipsed by
Speaker 2: their bigger brethren, you know, like literally figuratively, they get
Speaker 2: all the attention. Those big guys just suck all the
Speaker 2: air out of the room, by the way, you know.
Speaker 2: And Viva Viva Las Vegas stories I am Ben.
Speaker 1: We're joined as always with our super producer, mister Max Williams.
Speaker 1: And you know what I was thinking about this, you guys,
Speaker 1: some of the bigger countries they have entire not just episodes,
Speaker 1: but podcast series about them, like China, the History of
Speaker 1: the US Russia. But what about what about the you know,
Speaker 1: the micro boys, what about what about what about the
Speaker 1: micro nations? No, what about Lichtenstein, Well.
Speaker 2: Liechtenstein, Lichtenstein, Lichtenstein. You know, what do we do with it?
Speaker 2: What you will? Whatever feels right to you. You know,
Speaker 2: I mentioned Viva Las Vegas because a I am coming
Speaker 2: to you from Las Vegas. I'm on vacation, and b
Speaker 2: it made me think of was it Monaco that we did?
Speaker 2: That was sort of another kind of micronation, right, and that.
Speaker 3: Was like a aura and an ara, you know both,
Speaker 3: But several of them kind of found their niche in
Speaker 3: like weird little micro tourism surrounded by gambling.
Speaker 2: Not the case necessarily with Lichtenstein, but I just made
Speaker 2: me think of that am on your mind, gambling is
Speaker 2: on my mind. I'm on a hot streak there, I
Speaker 2: gotta get those hot dice. But no, according to the
Speaker 2: Embassy of the Principality of Liechtenstein, the territory occupied by
Speaker 2: the Principality of Lichtenstein has been continually inhabited by settled
Speaker 2: farming communities since the later Stone Age.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we all remember the earlier Stone Age, you know.
Speaker 1: I like the earlier work.
Speaker 2: But that's about before they got the like prehistoric animals
Speaker 2: to act as you know, garbage disposals and taxi cabs.
Speaker 4: To get that joke that you wrote until you said
Speaker 4: out loud, I've read that three times before this recording,
Speaker 4: and I'm like, I don't get it. I didn't put
Speaker 4: the later part in Stone Age. I like the earlier work.
Speaker 1: Right, because the later Stone Age I earned that symbol,
Speaker 1: thank you guys. So four thousand to eight hundred BCE,
Speaker 1: that's the Later Stone Age, right, So people have been
Speaker 1: living there for quite some time.
Speaker 2: But by fifteen BCE, oh, those Romans just rolling around
Speaker 2: taking everything that they see, you know. Yeah, they incorporated
Speaker 2: into something called the Province of Racia. And after the
Speaker 2: Roman Empire, you know, did that thing that it did,
Speaker 2: were it kind of collapsed in the fifth century. Ratia
Speaker 2: was then incorporated into Charlemagne's Frankish Empire, and then from
Speaker 2: the tenth century forward was part of the Holy Roman Empire.
Speaker 2: Henceforth these redundants. But I had to say henceforth, I
Speaker 2: liked a Charlemagne thing to say that was tight. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I liked it. And so here's the thing.
Speaker 1: This area doesn't have a h it doesn't have a
Speaker 1: ton of natural resources. You know, there was something at
Speaker 1: the time, there was something called imperial imbediacy, which was
Speaker 1: like your little badge to be in charge of a
Speaker 1: given domain. Yeah, and the County of Vaduz gets this
Speaker 1: sovereign ability right to be suzerains essentially, and this idea
Speaker 1: that they have sovereignty and the right to independence begins
Speaker 1: so far back in time, you know, like thirteen ninety six,
Speaker 1: late fourteenth century. There's two counties. There's Vaduz and Schellenberg, right,
Speaker 1: and these are the origin points of modern day Liechtenstein.
Speaker 1: And they they went back and forth. They weren't always united.
Speaker 1: Between fourteen sixteen and sixteen thirteen there was all this
Speaker 1: call it aristocratic horse trading, and it wasn't until the
Speaker 1: counts of and I love this name, the Henymns got
Speaker 1: together and brought Vaduz in Schellenberg into a unified front.
Speaker 2: I'm just so glad we're dealing with some cow It's
Speaker 2: here for the record, because Vaduz just sounds like the
Speaker 2: most goth place ever. Shellenberg a little less so. But
Speaker 2: I'm just really glad we're dealing some counts. Also, the
Speaker 2: Indians sounds like that should be a house out of
Speaker 2: the Dune series. Just put them out there as well.
Speaker 1: Reminds me a little bit of like Eloheen. But that's
Speaker 1: just that's just our American accents, I think.
Speaker 2: But also true.
Speaker 1: So they bring this these two counties together, and at
Speaker 1: first that sounds super dope. However, during the rule of
Speaker 1: the Counts of Inion, you got to say it like that,
Speaker 1: like you've got a small coffee.
Speaker 2: You're coughing in a library, and it was like you
Speaker 2: you're a Vaduzian prince, and you coughed gently into your
Speaker 2: hanky and a little bit of blood comes out.
Speaker 4: I always go through these docks beforehand and like pronounce
Speaker 4: out some of the words of it look a little
Speaker 4: more complicated, and be like, oh, you know, go get
Speaker 4: a like pronunciation guide. And when I found in M's
Speaker 4: or however we're saying it, I was like, oh, they're
Speaker 4: gonna have fun with this one nice called here.
Speaker 1: We are having fun with it. It's got a good mouthfeel.
Speaker 1: I like you, it's got a good mouthfeel. I'll tell
Speaker 1: you who, uh tubercular. Who there it is who didn't
Speaker 1: enjoy this? The innocent people living in Vaduz and Schellenberg.
Speaker 1: Because under the rule of these counts of Hunem, the
Speaker 1: public had just a.
Speaker 2: Really crappy time. There were all these plagues over and over.
Speaker 1: There were witch hunts, and this came in the chaos
Speaker 1: of the Thirty Years War. The public wants someone to blame,
Speaker 1: so they pick on disadvantaged, isolated people in society, and
Speaker 1: they end up killing like around one hundred and eighty
Speaker 1: people for being witches and that at the same time,
Speaker 1: the rulers of the land are getting super in debt.
Speaker 1: They're super broke, and they have to have a fire sale,
Speaker 1: so they sell these two counties two wait for folks,
Speaker 1: the House of Lichtenstein.
Speaker 2: Wait a minute, or is a count just someone who
Speaker 2: presides over a county? Oh, you know, you might be right.
Speaker 2: I don't know, man, that's pretty If true, then galaxy,
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 1: The armchair etymologist to me is like vibing with you
Speaker 1: and saying right on.
Speaker 2: Brother, can either confirm nor deny, but would love for
Speaker 2: that to be true. So you know, yeah, one hundred
Speaker 2: and eighty people, you know, taken to the torch, as
Speaker 2: they say, perhaps there are other methods, probably likely equally barbaric,
Speaker 2: for being practitioners of the black arts. At this point,
Speaker 2: we are at the historical moment, the cross roads of history,
Speaker 2: wherein the place kind of changes names.
Speaker 1: One piece at a time. Just like the Johnny Cash song,
Speaker 1: Vadus gets sold to the House of Liechtenstein in sixteen
Speaker 1: ninety nine and then not too long. After less than
Speaker 1: two decades later, Schellenberg gets auctioned off as well. And
Speaker 1: if we understand reforming of this very tiny, very pleasant
Speaker 1: European nation, we have to dive into the name. The
Speaker 1: name is weird, right, A lot of Americans, I will
Speaker 1: pose it probably confuse Luxembourg and Liechtenstein.
Speaker 2: I certainly did that myself briefly. But who are these
Speaker 2: Liechtensteins And what was their deal?
Speaker 1: Yeah? What's their whole thing with these Steins anyway? So yeah,
Speaker 1: they have Okay, so they're a clan. They're like an
Speaker 1: aristocratic ruling clan. And think of them as a group
Speaker 1: of princes who are related by blood and sometimes, when
Speaker 1: it works out, they're related by geopolitical ambitions. So for
Speaker 1: a long, a long time, these guys were advisors to
Speaker 1: the Habsburg dynasty since like the twelve hundreds, the thirteenth century. Okay,
Speaker 1: as we know, it became more and more difficult to
Speaker 1: be an advisor to the Habsburgs as the incest accelerated.
Speaker 2: As it tends to do. So the House of Lichtenstein.
Speaker 1: Oh, hell Max also gave the saddest nod I know,
Speaker 1: we've all seen.
Speaker 2: The pictures it is s for sure. The House of
Speaker 2: Liechtenstein held lands in Moravia, Bohemia, which is, you know
Speaker 2: where the Bohemians came from, all those Hebcats and Lower Austria.
Speaker 2: All of these lands, however, were they were sort of
Speaker 2: like vassal lords almost because they were subject to the
Speaker 2: whims of more senior feudal lores. And although the folks
Speaker 2: in charge of Lichtenstein had been you know, kind of
Speaker 2: raised up, you know, ranked up to prince in sixteen
Speaker 2: oh eight, the princes they didn't really have nearly as
Speaker 2: much power as one might think a prince should have.
Speaker 2: They had to work pretty hard to gain what's called
Speaker 2: which were lands that were subjects to no other feudal
Speaker 2: rulers except for, of course, the head of the Holy
Speaker 2: Roman Empire itself, the Holy Roman Emperor.
Speaker 1: Right like the idea being in basic terms, we don't
Speaker 1: pay taxes or send soldiers to anyone but the Emperor.
Speaker 1: We direct as Corporate America would say, we are the
Speaker 1: direct We directly report to the Emperor.
Speaker 2: As does feel a little dunish in general, like in
Speaker 2: terms of the structure of it. You know, we got
Speaker 2: the houses that are given by the grace of the emperor,
Speaker 2: control of various resources and various lands. But at the
Speaker 2: end of the day, I mean, maybe this is just
Speaker 2: history and you know, royalty and all of that, but
Speaker 2: I don't know. For something, for some reason, I'm feeling
Speaker 2: a little Dune vibes from this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's because Frank Herbert reads a life read a
Speaker 1: lot of like Middle European history, I imagine. But so okay.
Speaker 1: So here they are on the come up, the princes
Speaker 1: of Liechtenstein and or Lichtenstein, however you prefer. So they
Speaker 1: have to make nice with this guy named Charlie. You
Speaker 1: might know him as Charles the sixth. At the time
Speaker 1: he was, in addition to other things, he was a
Speaker 1: Holy Roman emperor. So here's what happens. They make nice
Speaker 1: with this guy Chuck, and they say, hey, Chuck, do
Speaker 1: you know we control these two things that we bought
Speaker 1: in sixteen ninety nine and seventeen twelve. Can you just
Speaker 1: make this right because we only report to you, dude,
Speaker 1: We're loyal to you. And Chuck agrees. In seventeen nineteen,
Speaker 1: he says were uniting Vaduz and Schellenberg, were making a
Speaker 1: Facebook official or something to that effect, and he said,
Speaker 1: Now this is an imperial principality or Reich firstintem.
Speaker 2: Well done, yeah, nied, no notes ten out of ten
Speaker 2: I learned it from you. So okay.
Speaker 1: So this is big because this means that this new
Speaker 1: upstart country, this house that has become a nation, can
Speaker 1: be a sovereign member of the Holy Roman Empire. They
Speaker 1: get a seat at basically the Parliament or the Congress
Speaker 1: of the time. The imperial diet I'm sorry, the imperial
Speaker 1: diet is the imperial diet.
Speaker 4: It's basically makes me think of the diet that that
Speaker 4: what is it? Swedish Emperor eight and then slightly died afterwards.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for me, an imperial diet largely consists of giant
Speaker 2: shanks of meat with the greases dripping onto their bare chests.
Speaker 2: You like a turkey leg, long, cartoonishly large turkey leg.
Speaker 2: It's funny. You can also use it as a weapon
Speaker 2: if someone comes at you at the renfair and you
Speaker 2: never know, you never know. So this this is.
Speaker 1: Weird and it's tough to understand. You know here in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four as Americans, but the people in charge
Speaker 1: of countries at this time it was people at land holdings.
Speaker 1: It was not uncommon for them to have never visited
Speaker 1: the place. So the princes of Liechtenstein are Liechtenstein. They
Speaker 1: controlled this area, but they never visited until like eighteen
Speaker 1: forty two they decided to show up.
Speaker 2: That's very common, I think you said, throughout history governing
Speaker 2: from afar, and it usually involves a little bit of
Speaker 2: a disconnect, you know, when with the people who actually
Speaker 2: live there.
Speaker 1: Right, how are you going to govern a people you
Speaker 1: don't speak their language, et cetera, et cetera. Tail as
Speaker 1: unfortunately old as time. We're we're getting a lot of
Speaker 1: this again from the Embassy of Liechtenstein. Like the Prince
Speaker 1: of Pala of Liechtenstein's the official name. So the embassy
Speaker 1: points out that there are quite a few historical figures
Speaker 1: who pop in for some at times unpleasant cameos. I'm
Speaker 1: thinking of Napoleon bun real up and comer.
Speaker 2: That guy. Oh yeah, there was a period where you
Speaker 2: didn't want to see him strolling strident into your town.
Speaker 1: He was great in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. He
Speaker 1: was not as short as people say, but he kind
Speaker 1: of did some dick moves.
Speaker 2: That's right. At this point, the entire Holy Roman Empire
Speaker 2: was under his tiny iron fist. And when Napoleon dissolved
Speaker 2: the Holy Roman Empire and turned it into the Rine Confederation,
Speaker 2: Liechtenstein actually kind of got released from his previous contract.
Speaker 2: I guess let's call it this previous allegiance to the
Speaker 2: former emperor, and it was given its own sovereignty through
Speaker 2: the inclusion in the Confederation in eighteen oh six. An
Speaker 2: how we're starting to feel, little star Treking, aren't waybacks?
Speaker 2: Maybe that's a federation, I don't know, carry on, maybe not.
Speaker 1: Well, here's what we need to realize about this. This
Speaker 1: was a huge opportunity for the people of Liechtenstein because
Speaker 1: Napoleon was saving them from some regional rivals who wanted
Speaker 1: to take over those lands, most notably Bavaria. And so
Speaker 1: having Napoleon protect you and vibe with you is great
Speaker 1: so long as Napoleon is still in play. As history proves,
Speaker 1: Napoleon gets defeated once by a swarm of rabbits and
Speaker 1: then you know, later by humans. And when he is defeated,
Speaker 1: when he is sent to exile. The Rhyme Confederation dissolves
Speaker 1: in eighteen thirteen and so Liechtenstein goes to the Congress
Speaker 1: of Vienna and they say, hey, we want a seat
Speaker 1: at the table. So they become one of the thirty
Speaker 1: nine new member states of something called the German Confederation,
Speaker 1: which means they get to save their sovereignty. And they
Speaker 1: even you know, they mess around. They get a little
Speaker 1: constitution in eighteen eighteen. Nice, very cool, I mean very cool.
Speaker 2: It's a little constitution.
Speaker 1: It's like a limited cost It's like it's like constitution
Speaker 1: diet zero.
Speaker 2: I thought you meant it was like physically quite small
Speaker 2: to match the small stature of this micronation. But now
Speaker 2: I just didn't have that many pages. They weren't necessarily
Speaker 2: it was mostly emoji's. Yeah, fair, So it didn't include
Speaker 2: things like, oh, I don't know, basic rights. However, it
Speaker 2: did include some you know, groundwork for controlling taxation requirements,
Speaker 2: things like that, some vague suggestions in language the public
Speaker 2: well being, you know, quote unquote. And under this confederation,
Speaker 2: Liechtenstein would be able to maintain a small military force.
Speaker 2: And during the Austro Prussian War, where Austria got together
Speaker 2: with the German Confederation to fight against Prussia, this conflict,
Speaker 2: of course ended with the defeat of Austria and the
Speaker 2: disillusion of the very German Confederation that we're talking about.
Speaker 2: So this once again, right once, it's like a you know,
Speaker 2: getting acquired by another company. You know, if you're like
Speaker 2: a small little startup and you can get in pad
Speaker 2: We've been there, right, It's a thing. It's a weird feeling,
Speaker 2: but doesn't always go poorly. Sometimes things end up going
Speaker 2: for the better for your particular situation, and that seems
Speaker 2: to be the case here. Linchdenstein was once against released
Speaker 2: from its military obligations and gave Parliament the opportunity to
Speaker 2: refuse to fund any more military endeavors. So in eighteen
Speaker 2: sixty eight, Prince Johann the Second agreed to Parliament's requests
Speaker 2: and actually disbanded the eighty man army eighty minutes. That's
Speaker 2: barely an army. We'll get to the size of the
Speaker 2: of the country in a bit. But yeah, that's than
Speaker 2: everything but that. But I don't think eighty people does
Speaker 2: an army make?
Speaker 4: Is that less than the Swiss Guard in the Vatican.
Speaker 2: I think it might be.
Speaker 4: A cree phones backs and he dropped in the knowledge
Speaker 4: it's just for you, so good.
Speaker 2: There we go. It is you are correct, Let's be
Speaker 2: a Swiss Guard man. They're like serious. Those guys are
Speaker 2: like ninjas.
Speaker 1: You can tell by the hats. Yeah, they're all about
Speaker 1: the business and the pantaloons as well. Kidding, don't come
Speaker 1: for me, Swiss Guard anyway, I really need to get
Speaker 1: through customs in Italy. And funny story about the Nation
Speaker 1: of Liegtensteins. Their army did one of the coolest things.
Speaker 1: In eighteen sixty six, they had their last deployment as
Speaker 1: the army of the country. They had an amazing track record.
Speaker 1: They didn't lose any battles, they had no casualties. They
Speaker 1: actually didn't fight at all. They left with those eighty
Speaker 1: people that we just mentioned, and when they came home,
Speaker 1: according to the legend, they brought a buddy with them.
Speaker 1: They just met a guy who was a cool vibe
Speaker 1: and they brought him home and they were like this Larry,
Speaker 1: he's dope.
Speaker 2: Anyway.
Speaker 1: So yeah, they do disband the army, and this is
Speaker 1: cool because again, even though we're talking about a relatively
Speaker 1: small number of people, it's enormous to the public to
Speaker 1: not be beholden to fight in foreign wars. Liechtenstein is
Speaker 1: also landlocked, you know what I mean. They don't control
Speaker 1: any important ports or like ocean access points at this time,
Speaker 1: so they're in a good spot.
Speaker 2: You know. It's funny though, because it does seem like
Speaker 2: a lot of the prominence are of these migronations, or
Speaker 2: at least the interest in them comes from having some
Speaker 2: sort of military strategic position, and that's not seemed to
Speaker 2: be the case here. So you might be asking Max
Speaker 2: noel Ben, this is all well and good. We like
Speaker 2: geopolitics as much as the next guy, but what's it
Speaker 2: actually like in Liechtenshil. What do they do? Why should
Speaker 2: I care?
Speaker 1: Yeah, and look, we can get into the weeds in
Speaker 1: the history of this country, as you can with any
Speaker 1: European country if we're being honest. They are neutral during
Speaker 1: World War One, but they still they still have a
Speaker 1: tough time because they suffer from the sanctions levied against
Speaker 1: Austria Hungary because they're part of it. They get a
Speaker 1: new constitution, they strive, they're always trying. Like you said, no,
Speaker 1: I love the phrase vassal state. They're always trying to
Speaker 1: build a relationship with the larger partner, and so they
Speaker 1: get to please right, Yeah, SEMPI noticed me. And that's
Speaker 1: what they say to Switzerland. The Swiss fronk is the
Speaker 1: official currency today. I look, they chose correctly when they
Speaker 1: got with Switzerland, and not to uh, not to spout
Speaker 1: too much scuttle butt and stereotype about the nation of Switzerland,
Speaker 1: but they are known for their banking and UH and
Speaker 1: their neutrality. And Liechtenstein was right on that they are
Speaker 1: super active in their international financial sector, which is again
Speaker 1: a euphemistic way to talk about tax dodging and money laundering.
Speaker 2: I knew I'd heard of them somewhere there. It is, Yeah,
Speaker 2: but there's there's there's more to it than just that.
Speaker 2: Of course, after World War Two, linchdtin Student's economy grew
Speaker 2: a lot around some very specialty kind of industrial UH firms.
Speaker 2: So at you know, we basically up to this point
Speaker 2: it had largely been kind of this very poor, agrarian
Speaker 2: sort of vassal state. But at this point, after World
Speaker 2: War Two, which happened for other countries as well as
Speaker 2: we know, they started to modernize and kind of like
Speaker 2: you know, leap into what would be seen as more
Speaker 2: of the modern era of the micronation. They didn't have
Speaker 2: that many people actually living there, so their economy kind
Speaker 2: of ballooned to a level that wasn't being serviced enough
Speaker 2: by the people who actually lived there, so they had
Speaker 2: to outsource workers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they did, and that's something that kind of continues today.
Speaker 1: As we'll see the native population of this country is
Speaker 1: about two thirds of the people living there native born.
Speaker 1: So that's like the quick and dirty origin story and
Speaker 1: leads us to the modern day. If you visit today,
Speaker 1: and you very much should. The three of us would
Speaker 1: love to go. What we'll see is that it's in
Speaker 1: the Central Alps, probably like the two thirds of it
Speaker 1: on the eastern side if you're looking at a map,
Speaker 1: is a bunch of rugged foothills, and there are these
Speaker 1: beautiful forests, these beautiful alpine and flowers. You know, its
Speaker 1: snows and rains and winter. It's kind of it's still
Speaker 1: kind of ski cloudy. Yeah. Yeah, they've got a pretty
Speaker 1: much they've got a modest but growing ski industry.
Speaker 2: And those rugged foothills. Man that you mentioned so rugged
Speaker 2: belong to a mountain system known as the rete Kon
Speaker 2: I believe that's how you pronounce it, which is of
Speaker 2: course part of the Central Alps. You've got some pretty
Speaker 2: high peaks, including Grouse Spits, which goes as high as
Speaker 2: eighty five hundred and twenty seven feet or two thousand,
Speaker 2: five hundred and ninety nine meters, and much of the
Speaker 2: area is quite quite, quite quite above sea level, around
Speaker 2: six thousand feet up. The lower slopes of the mountain
Speaker 2: encompass a lot of these beautiful evergreen forests, kind of
Speaker 2: think of, you know, German black forest type situations. The
Speaker 2: hills are alive, they are with the sound of tourists. Yeah,
Speaker 2: there it is. I mean, yeah, it's a cool vibe.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: It is still a monarchy. It's a constitutional monarchy, which
Speaker 1: is not uncommon in this part of the world. But
Speaker 1: unlike unlike many other European countries, this country is interesting
Speaker 1: because it has no natural resources that are worth anything.
Speaker 1: So like, they have a bunch of forests like we
Speaker 1: were describing, but their forests are very heavily protected, so
Speaker 1: they have to import wood where they're want to build
Speaker 1: stuff with wood. There's no heavy industry. There are very
Speaker 1: few like they're like I would say the idea of
Speaker 1: agriculture in this country is somewhat endangered. Tourism is by
Speaker 1: far the official engine of the economy of Lichtenstein.
Speaker 2: So we all we did. We did mention briefly, they
Speaker 2: had a period of kind of specialized manufacturing or industrial
Speaker 2: processes that required them to start outsourcing some workers. That
Speaker 2: was largely around the war efforts at the time we
Speaker 2: mentioned World War Two, and then after that is when
Speaker 2: they started to kind of modernize, and by modernize we
Speaker 2: really are talking about them moving into their role as
Speaker 2: kind of an iron bank of sorts situation, you know,
Speaker 2: where they were able to do some dirty deals and
Speaker 2: hide some money for some very powerful people, and that
Speaker 2: kind of allowed them to continue to exist. And what
Speaker 2: that really means is that because of the relatively stable
Speaker 2: political situation in Liechtenstein, they were able to and also
Speaker 2: their amy, they were able to operate under something that
Speaker 2: we're calling here in the outline absolute bank secrecy. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the idea is for a while, you could
Speaker 1: be an anonymous foreign account holder and you would be
Speaker 1: you would be buttoned up legally, and that's the reason why,
Speaker 1: especially leading up to the late nineteen hundreds, this country
Speaker 1: became a center of money laundering to the point where
Speaker 1: they eventually changed the law and they said okay, look,
Speaker 1: you can't just be you know, Ben Bullen or Johnny
Speaker 1: Blue Jeans or some other made up name and open
Speaker 1: a bank account here. And the EU was cracking down
Speaker 1: on it. The US was super mad about it. So
Speaker 1: the country has been working for some time now to
Speaker 1: stop being regarded as a tax haven with mixed results, right.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, it does become a bit of
Speaker 2: a reputational kind of thing, right, or maybe we don't
Speaker 2: wanted to shake that, but you know, you're kind you're
Speaker 2: kind of known for what you're known for. It's not
Speaker 2: really up to you at a certain they kind Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's true. And as we mentioned a little bit earlier,
Speaker 2: what are known as ethnic Liechtensteiners make up around two
Speaker 2: thirds of the population. They are descended from the Alemanni tribe.
Speaker 2: They came into the region after around five hundred CE.
Speaker 2: The official language of the nation is Germany, but most
Speaker 2: of the population also still speaks a dialect of Alamanni,
Speaker 2: containing local kind of colloquial variations and pronunciations and vocabularies.
Speaker 2: Another ethnic group, called the Vostlers, are descendants of immigrants
Speaker 2: from the Swiss canton of the Valais, which settled in
Speaker 2: Treisenberg at the very end of the thirteenth century, and
Speaker 2: they continue to speak a very distinctive forum of the language. Finally,
Speaker 2: around four fifths of the population our Christian, with about
Speaker 2: three fourths identifying as Roman Catholic. Again a shout out
Speaker 2: to the Embassy of Liechtenstein for all of these handy bits.
Speaker 2: The principality thereof yes, excuse me, yes, thank you. It
Speaker 2: will get super mad.
Speaker 1: They might send eighty people out to get us, and
Speaker 1: then they would come back with eighty three people because they.
Speaker 2: See, I want to go how do I become? Can
Speaker 2: I immigrate to Liechtenstein? Seems like a real fancy place.
Speaker 2: It helps if you're.
Speaker 1: Swiss or very wealthy, like offensively wealthy dan so well
Speaker 1: on the way to be Swiss.
Speaker 2: Definitely.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're probably wondering about the size, folks. In terms
Speaker 1: of the great micro nation scale, which we have just
Speaker 1: made up as an official thing, Liechtenstein is like sixty
Speaker 1: two square miles all told, which for us in the
Speaker 1: US puts it about. A good comparison would be Washington, DC.
Speaker 1: It's about the same eyes as that city, but that's
Speaker 1: still you know, that's pretty big. Compared to things like
Speaker 1: Monaco or Vatican City or San Marino. But then you know,
Speaker 1: there are other there are other micronations that are much larger,
Speaker 1: like Andorra is one hundred and eighty one square miles,
Speaker 1: and that's still massive. That's three times the size of
Speaker 1: this country.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: And Luxembourg is six is still pretty big. It's nine
Speaker 1: hundred and ninety eight square miles. So this all, this
Speaker 1: just all means that Liechtenstein is the sixth smallest country
Speaker 1: in the planet.
Speaker 2: Yeah. It's essentially nestled into a valley, you know, that's
Speaker 2: the entirety of its land, kind of tucked between Switzerland
Speaker 2: and Austria.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it had some struggles, although we're making it
Speaker 1: sound like a really cool place, which it is. If
Speaker 1: you were a woman living in the country, you were
Speaker 1: not allowed to vote until nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, definitely probably some smissues there with their their
Speaker 2: catching up to modern times. There's a really I think
Speaker 2: this is a great way to sum up the paradox
Speaker 2: I suppose that is Liechtenstein. William Cook, writing for The Spectator,
Speaker 2: put it thusly, one of the smallest countries in Europe,
Speaker 2: is only twenty four kilometers from end to end and
Speaker 2: barely twelve kilometers across, squeezed into half a valley between
Speaker 2: Austria and Switzerland. Its monarchy is Austrian and its currency
Speaker 2: is Swiss. Like you said, it only grand women the
Speaker 2: rights to vote in nineteen eighty four, and it's national
Speaker 2: football stadium, the Ryan Park Stadio, and holds just six
Speaker 2: one and twenty seven spectators, less than the Takay Unites It. Torque,
Speaker 2: by the way, is a little seaside community in the
Speaker 2: United Kingdom where Faulty Towers the wonderful John Cleese brickcom
Speaker 2: takes place. And if you've seen the show, you know
Speaker 2: it is meant to be one of the sleepiest and
Speaker 2: tiniest little seaside in all the land. Let's call it this.
Speaker 1: Let's title this episode uh licktenstin the Delaware of Europe
Speaker 1: because it has more registered companies than people even today,
Speaker 1: there's twenty twenty four it's it has a railway, but
Speaker 1: it has the train station uh nor public airports. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but they are the biggest manufacturer of false teeth in
Speaker 1: the world.
Speaker 2: That's not true, is it?
Speaker 1: That's what William Cook tells us in the spectator.
Speaker 2: You serious, false teeth, that's their industry.
Speaker 5: That's that manufacturing you're asking about. Yeah, no, serious, the
Speaker 5: world's biggest fault. I'm sorry, that's mind blowing. And I
Speaker 5: feel like we buried the lead there. I we should
Speaker 5: have started with that one. We buried a lot of
Speaker 5: leads in this episode.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just like they buried a lot of a lot
Speaker 1: of dirty money. All right, Well it's said as it's said,
Speaker 1: and it is true.
Speaker 2: Uh Nola.
Speaker 1: I love that you point out this country does not
Speaker 1: have any public airports of its.
Speaker 2: Own, certainly private ones, though, the implication being because of
Speaker 2: all the mega rich there.
Speaker 1: Think about the implication, folks. So there's also there's also
Speaker 1: a fantastic opportunity here for us to talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about Wiki travel. Now, don't ever use Wikipedia for research,
Speaker 1: but Wiki travel if you're if you find yourself abroad
Speaker 1: or heading to an unfamiliar country, Wiki travel is a
Speaker 1: pretty cool primer on some very interesting things. Be aware
Speaker 1: that a lot of it is written by locals, so
Speaker 1: treat the treat the notes about safety and restaurants and
Speaker 1: hotels with a little bit of skepticism.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. I think one thing that's interesting that to be
Speaker 2: wrap this up about micronation in general, and it's certainly
Speaker 2: true of Liechtenstein considering its you know, dealings with perhaps
Speaker 2: ill gotten funds and hiding thereof and probably some private
Speaker 2: airports if anyone needed to like disappear. They are you know, sovereign,
Speaker 2: that's the whole thing. But they're so tiny that they're
Speaker 2: not really on the radar for a lot of bigger
Speaker 2: picture kind of issues. So it's a great place to
Speaker 2: go if you're someone that needs to like disappear or
Speaker 2: seek refuge and not be extradited. Because certainly a lot
Speaker 2: of these micronations have relationships with larger, you know, more
Speaker 2: militarily advanced nations, but a lot of times it's like
Speaker 2: sort of like, ah, you made it to Lichtenstein, kind
Speaker 2: of like a you know, you kind of got to pass, right,
Speaker 2: like tagging base. That's right, exactly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And this this may be the case for a while.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: If you are a ridiculous historian of dare I say
Speaker 1: a certain set of interests, this all sounds great. You
Speaker 1: might be saying, how can I move to this fancy
Speaker 1: central European paradise for paradise for fiduciary Shenanigans. Well, the
Speaker 1: answer is it's kind of difficult to live there as
Speaker 1: it's difficult to become a citizen if you're not already
Speaker 1: a Swiss or be wealthy because Liechtenstein is not a
Speaker 1: member of the European Union, so the government does not
Speaker 1: have the same EU obligations like if you know, if
Speaker 1: you grow up or if you're a resident of an
Speaker 1: EU nation, you can move to another European country, but
Speaker 1: you can't do that here. They don't have to let
Speaker 1: you in. It's kind of tough to get in there.
Speaker 1: Heads that's why the majority of people just visit or
Speaker 1: you know, start a company with a po address for sure.
Speaker 2: And I was wondering why there's something about this place
Speaker 2: that sort of rang familiar to me. And I maybe
Speaker 2: even mentioned that I was once a smaller gentleman boy
Speaker 2: because I grew up in Germany, because my mother was
Speaker 2: an opera singer and sang a lot all over Europe.
Speaker 2: And Liechtenstein is known for its love of the operatic arts,
Speaker 2: and they have quite a few for such a small
Speaker 2: place opera company, and they also have a festival called
Speaker 2: the Operettas in Vadus Baltzar's that is visited the world over.
Speaker 2: And you know, as we know, opera is one of
Speaker 2: the most kind of niche, bougie and expensive pastimes and
Speaker 2: art for us. So it did tracks that I would
Speaker 2: have heard of Lichtenstein. I don't know if my mom
Speaker 2: ever participated in the of these, but I would not
Speaker 2: be surprised if she did.
Speaker 1: And we hope that if you are hearing this, you
Speaker 1: will have adventures in this country or other micro nations.
Speaker 1: We're going to call it a day. Join us when
Speaker 1: we finally explain later on the what what exactly meant
Speaker 1: by this? The pleasure of gravity devices and so on.
Speaker 1: We've got a we've got a cooler history of roller
Speaker 1: coasters on the way, big big.
Speaker 2: Thanks any devices. I literally just clocked that. Man, I'm
Speaker 2: really excited about that episode. I think we're all we're
Speaker 2: all a bit of coaster heads here in the Ridiculous
Speaker 2: History group, and I look forward to it. I really
Speaker 2: want to go to Universe Studios again. They have this
Speaker 2: one coaster called the Hulk where it just shoots you
Speaker 2: out of a tube. Well you don't even realize it's
Speaker 2: gonna happen. It's not the slow climb. It's just a
Speaker 2: quick climb, and then I launched when you don't even
Speaker 2: know it's coming. Love a good.
Speaker 4: Coach, your top thrill Dregster. It is supposed to open
Speaker 4: later this year.
Speaker 2: It's six Flags the Point.
Speaker 1: Big big thanks to the super producer, mister Max Williams.
Speaker 1: Big big thanks to our research associate, also Max Williams
Speaker 1: and Alex Williams, who composed this amazing track.
Speaker 2: Oh it's such a bum Chris Fhrascio and it's here
Speaker 2: Spirit Eves, Jeff Coates, AJ Bahamas Jacobs, the Quiz, Sir
Speaker 2: Jonathan Stricklen. We're gonna get this too, to duke it
Speaker 2: out one of these days. But Aj will be back soon.
Speaker 2: We've been teasing Jonathan's eminent return. Uh and we will
Speaker 2: tease on my friend. Oh hang on, we'll get on.
Speaker 2: I'm getting a call from the principality. All right, we'll
Speaker 2: be here. We'll see you next time.
Speaker 1: Books.
Speaker 2: For more podcasts from My Heart Radio, visit the iHeart
Speaker 2: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
Speaker 2: favorite shows.