# The Chronicle of Liechtenstein: A principality bought into being, the last survivor of the Holy Roman Empire, ruled from afar before it found itself. History of Liechtenstein: A principality bought into being, the last survivor of the Holy Roman Empire, ruled from afar before it found itself. 5 eras… Canonical: https://terralore.co/country/LIE/chronicle Updated: 2026-06-13 Founding: Charles VI raises Vaduz and Schellenberg to the Principality of Liechtenstein — 23 January 1719. Liechtenstein was founded by an imperial stroke of the pen. The House of Liechtenstein, an old and immensely rich Austrian dynasty, had been raised to princely rank in 1608 but held all its great estates in Bohemia, Moravia and Austria as fiefs of the Habsburg crown, not directly of the Emperor, and so could claim no vote in the Imperial Diet. To gain that 'immediate' standing the family bought two small, indebted territories on the upper Rhine: the lordship of Schellenberg in 1699 and the county of Vaduz in 1712. On 23 January 1719 the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI united the two and elevated them to an Imperial Principality bearing the family's own name. It was the only state created within the Holy Roman Empire that has survived to the present day as a sovereign country within its original borders, though for more than a hundred years its princes governed from Vienna and did not visit at all. Liechtenstein is a tiny Alpine state that owes its existence to ambition and to paperwork. The fabulously wealthy Austrian House of Liechtenstein, whose estates in Bohemia, Moravia and Austria dwarfed anything on the upper Rhine, lacked the one thing their riches could not buy: land held directly under the Holy Roman Emperor and a seat in the Imperial Diet. They acquired it by purchase, buying the lordship of Schellenberg in 1699 and the county of Vaduz in 1712, and on 23 January 1719 Emperor Charles VI united the two and raised them to the rank of an Imperial Principality named after the family. For more than a century its absentee princes never set foot in it. Liechtenstein drifted from the Holy Roman Empire into the Confederation of the Rhine in 1806, into the German Confederation, and into full sovereignty when that confederation dissolved in 1866. After the First World War it abandoned a ruined Austria-Hungary for Switzerland, binding itself by customs and monetary union and adopting the Swiss franc. Neutral through both world wars, it lost its vast Czechoslovak estates to the Beneš decrees in 1945, a wound that left it without diplomatic relations with Prague until 2009 and produced the International Court of Justice case Liechtenstein v. Germany. The modern principality is a prosperous financial centre, a member of the United Nations and the European Economic Area, where women won the vote only in 1984 and the reigning prince's powers were enlarged by referendum in 2003. This file carries the chronicle's sourced event record — every event with its year, summary and source keys (resolved under References below). The full reading narrative lives on the canonical page. ## The Lordships of the Rhine and the Distant House of Liechtenstein — c. 1342 – 1699 Two small Alpine territories drifted through noble hands while, far to the east, a princely Austrian family grew rich enough to one day buy them. - c. 1342: **The county of Vaduz takes shape** — A separate county of Vaduz emerged in the fourteenth century in the upper Rhine valley, alongside the smaller lordship of Schellenberg, both small and often impoverished holdings within the Holy Roman Empire. [liechtenstein-history-britannica, swissmuseum-founding] - 1608: **The House of Liechtenstein raised to princely rank** — Karl von Liechtenstein received the hereditary dignity of an imperial prince in 1608, confirmed for his brothers soon after, raising the wealthy Austrian dynasty to the highest rank of the nobility. [fuerstenhaus-history, princely-collections-family] - 16th–17th c.: **Hohenems debts open the way** — The counts of Hohenems, who held Vaduz and Schellenberg, fell into heavy debt, leaving the small Rhine territories available for sale to a buyer rich enough to redeem them. [liechtenstein-history-britannica, swissmuseum-founding] Figures: - Karl I von Liechtenstein (1569 – 1627) — First prince of the House of Liechtenstein. A leading figure at the Habsburg court, Karl I obtained the hereditary princely dignity for his line in 1608, the rank that his successors would seek to match with a territory held immediately under the Emperor. - Counts of Hohenems — Lords of Vaduz and Schellenberg. The comital house that held the upper-Rhine lordships before the Liechtensteins. Burdened by debt, the Hohenems were ultimately obliged to sell Schellenberg and Vaduz, the transactions from which the principality would be born. ## Bought and Founded: The Imperial Principality of 1719 — 1699 – 1806 By purchasing two small lordships and persuading the Emperor to unite them, an absentee Austrian dynasty conjured a principality it would not deign to visit for over a century. - 1699: **Purchase of the lordship of Schellenberg** — Prince Johann Adam Andreas I bought the lordship of Schellenberg from the indebted Hohenems, the first of the two acquisitions that would form the principality; the prince did not attend the homage ceremony in person. [fuerstenhaus-history, swissmuseum-founding, liechtenstein-history-britannica] - 1712: **Purchase of the county of Vaduz** — Johann Adam Andreas I acquired the county of Vaduz, and from this time Vaduz Castle entered the possession of the princes of Liechtenstein, completing the territory of the future principality. [fuerstenhaus-history, swissmuseum-founding] - 23 Jan 1719: **Foundation of the Principality of Liechtenstein** — Emperor Charles VI united Schellenberg and Vaduz and raised them to an Imperial Principality named Liechtenstein, granting the family the immediate standing and Diet seat it had sought; the founding diploma survives in the Princely Collections. [princely-collections-founding, princely-collections-300, swissmuseum-founding, liechtenstein-history-britannica, embassy-history] - 1842: **A prince visits at last** — Prince Alois II became the first reigning prince to set foot in Liechtenstein, more than a century after its foundation, the dynasty having until then governed entirely from its Austrian and Bohemian seats. [swissmuseum-founding, liechtenstein-history-britannica] Figures: - Johann Adam Andreas I (1657 – 1712) — Prince who bought the territories. Known as 'Hans-Adam the Rich', he purchased Schellenberg in 1699 and Vaduz in 1712, securing the reichsunmittelbar lands on which the principality was built. He died in 1712, before the territories were formally united into a principality. - Anton Florian (1656 – 1721) — First prince of the united principality. A close adviser to Emperor Charles VI, Anton Florian obtained the 1719 diploma that united Vaduz and Schellenberg into the Principality of Liechtenstein, finally securing the family its long-sought seat and vote in the Imperial Diet. ## From the Empire to Sovereignty — 1806 – 1918 Carried through Napoleon's reordering of Germany and the German Confederation, the principality emerged in 1866 as a fully sovereign state, tied closely to Austria. - 1806: **Sovereignty through the Confederation of the Rhine** — On the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, Liechtenstein was admitted to Napoleon's Confederation of the Rhine, gaining recognised sovereignty and surviving the Napoleonic reordering of Germany. [liechtenstein-history-britannica, fuerstenhaus-history] - 1815: **Membership of the German Confederation** — After Napoleon's defeat, Liechtenstein joined the German Confederation created at the Congress of Vienna, remaining within it until 1866 while keeping close dynastic ties to Austria. [liechtenstein-history-britannica] - 1862: **First constitution and the Landtag** — A constitution granted in 1862 established a parliament, the Landtag, beginning the slow growth of constitutional and representative institutions alongside the prince. [liechtenstein-history-britannica] - 1866: **Full independence** — When the German Confederation dissolved after the Austro-Prussian War, Liechtenstein became a fully sovereign and independent state, its links thereafter resting on treaty and choice rather than confederation. [liechtenstein-history-britannica] - 1868: **Abolition of the army and neutrality** — Liechtenstein disbanded its small military force as too costly and committed itself to permanent neutrality, a policy it has maintained through every subsequent European conflict. [fuerstenhaus-history, liechtenstein-history-britannica] Figures: - Johann II (1840 – 1929) — Long-reigning prince. Reigning for over seventy years, Johann II 'the Good' presided over the principality's passage from its Austrian orientation toward Switzerland, granting a liberal constitution in 1921 and steering Liechtenstein through the First World War as a neutral. - Alois II (1796 – 1858) — First resident-visiting prince. In 1842 Alois II became the first reigning prince to visit Liechtenstein, beginning, however tentatively, the dynasty's engagement with the small Alpine state from which it took its name. ## The Turn to Switzerland, Neutrality and the Beneš Decrees — 1918 – 1949 Cut adrift by the fall of Austria-Hungary, Liechtenstein bound its fortunes to Switzerland, kept its neutrality through a second war, and lost in Czechoslovakia an estate many times its own size. - 1921: **Liberal constitution of 1921** — Following the First World War, Liechtenstein adopted a new constitution that combined the prince with an elected Landtag and instruments of direct democracy, modernising the state as it reoriented toward Switzerland. [fuerstenhaus-history, liechtenstein-history-britannica] - 1923–1924: **Customs union with Switzerland and the Swiss franc** — A customs treaty signed in 1923 and in force from 1 January 1924 joined Liechtenstein and Switzerland into a single customs and economic area; Liechtenstein adopted the Swiss franc, binding its economy to its western neighbour. [finance-li-customs, embassy-history, liechtenstein-history-britannica] - 1938: **A prince moves to Vaduz** — Prince Franz Josef II became the first reigning prince to take up permanent residence in Liechtenstein, ending more than two centuries of rule from abroad on the eve of the Second World War. [fuerstenhaus-history] - 1945: **Confiscation under the Beneš decrees** — Czechoslovakia confiscated the vast Bohemian and Moravian estates of the House of Liechtenstein under the Beneš decrees, treating the family as German; the seized land, around 1,600 square kilometres, far exceeded the area of the principality. [czech-liechtenstein-history, icj-case123, icj-summary-2005] Figures: - Franz Josef II (1906 – 1989) — Reigning prince through the war. The first prince to reside permanently in Liechtenstein, from 1938, Franz Josef II led the neutral state through the Second World War and the loss of its Czechoslovak estates, and presided over its postwar transformation into a wealthy modern country. - Edvard Beneš (1884 – 1948) — President of Czechoslovakia. His 1945 presidential decrees authorised the confiscation of property held by those deemed German, under which Czechoslovakia seized the Liechtenstein family's enormous holdings, the act at the root of a dispute carried decades later to the International Court of Justice. ## A Wealthy Microstate: Finance, the ICJ Case and the Modern Constitution — 1949 – present Industry and finance made the principality astonishingly rich; the postwar decades brought women the vote, a seat at the United Nations, a contested constitution and an unresolved reckoning with Prague. - 1 Jul 1984: **Women's suffrage introduced** — By a referendum of male voters carried by a narrow margin, Liechtenstein granted women the right to vote in national elections, becoming the last country in Europe to do so. [fuerstenhaus-history, liechtenstein-history-britannica] - 18 Sep 1990: **Admission to the United Nations** — Liechtenstein was admitted as the 160th member state of the United Nations, marking the small principality's full emergence as a recognised actor in international affairs. [embassy-history, fuerstenhaus-history, liechtenstein-history-britannica] - 1995: **Accession to the European Economic Area** — Liechtenstein joined the European Economic Area, integrating into the European single market as an EFTA state while remaining outside the European Union and preserving its Swiss customs union. [embassy-history, fuerstenhaus-history, finance-li-customs] - 2003: **Constitutional referendum expands the prince's powers** — Voters approved Prince Hans-Adam II's constitutional revision, enlarging the reigning prince's powers including a veto over legislation and the right to dismiss the government, after he threatened to leave the country. [hansadam-britannica, liechtenstein-history-britannica] - 10 Feb 2005: **ICJ judgment in Liechtenstein v. Germany** — In Certain Property (Liechtenstein v. Germany), brought to the International Court of Justice in 2001 over a confiscated van Laer painting, the Court ruled on 10 February 2005 that it had no jurisdiction, locating the dispute's source in the 1945 Beneš-era confiscations. [icj-case123, icj-summary-2005, icj-prelim-objections] - 2009: **Diplomatic relations with the Czech Republic** — After more than six decades without recognition arising from the 1945 confiscations, Liechtenstein and the Czech Republic established diplomatic relations in 2009 and created a joint commission of historians. [czech-liechtenstein-history] Figures: - Hans-Adam II (born 1945) — Reigning prince and reformer. Succeeding in 1989, Hans-Adam II modernised the principality's finances and pressed the family's claims abroad, suing over the confiscated van Laer painting and winning a 2003 referendum that enlarged his constitutional powers; in 2004 he handed day-to-day governance to his son Alois. - Pieter van Laer's painting — Object of the ICJ dispute. A seventeenth-century work owned by the Liechtenstein family since the eighteenth century and seized in 1945, its 1991 loan from Brno to Cologne triggered Prince Hans-Adam II's German lawsuit and ultimately the case Liechtenstein v. Germany before the International Court of Justice. Machine-readable claims — every event above as an addressable claim ID (TL:LIE:event::) with its sources and a ready citation string: https://terralore.co/country/LIE/chronicle.claims.json ## References - [liechtenstein-history-britannica] Liechtenstein: History (Alpine, Principality, Sovereignty) — Encyclopaedia Britannica · https://www.britannica.com/place/Liechtenstein/History - [hansadam-britannica] Hans-Adam II, prince of Liechtenstein — Encyclopaedia Britannica · https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hans-Adam-II-prince-of-Liechtenstein - [fuerstenhaus-history] The History of the Princely House of Liechtenstein — Fürstenhaus von Liechtenstein (official Princely House) · https://fuerstenhaus.li/en/princely-house/the-history-of-the-princely-house/ - [princely-collections-founding] Emperor Charles VI unites Vaduz and Schellenberg and raises them to the Imperial Principality of Liechtenstein (diploma, 23 Jan 1719) — LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vaduz–Vienna · https://www.liechtensteincollections.at/en/collections-online/emperor-charles-vi-unites-the-county-of-vaduz-and-the-demesne-of-schellenberg-and-raises-them-to-the-rank-of-imperial-principality-under-the-name-o - [princely-collections-family] The History of the Family and the Collections — LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vaduz–Vienna · https://www.liechtensteincollections.at/en/history/history-of-the-family-and-the-collections - [swissmuseum-founding] How the Principality of Liechtenstein came into being — Swiss National Museum (Blog) · https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/en/2024/08/how-the-principality-of-liechtenstein-came-into-being/ - [finance-li-customs] Advantages of the customs and monetary union with Switzerland — Liechtenstein Finance · https://finance.li/en/knowledge/what-are-the-advantages-of-the-customs-and-monetary-union-with-switzerland/ - [icj-case123] Certain Property (Liechtenstein v. Germany) — case overview — International Court of Justice · https://www.icj-cij.org/case/123 - [icj-summary-2005] Summary of the Judgment of 10 February 2005, Certain Property (Liechtenstein v. Germany) — International Court of Justice · https://www.icj-cij.org/node/103893 - [icj-prelim-objections] Certain Property (Liechtenstein v. Germany) — Preliminary Objections: the Court finds it has no jurisdiction — International Court of Justice · https://www.icj-cij.org/node/101758 - [embassy-history] History of Liechtenstein — Embassy of the Principality of Liechtenstein, Washington D.C. · https://www.liechtensteinusa.org/history - [princely-collections-300] 1719 – 300 Years of Liechtenstein (exhibition) — LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vaduz–Vienna · https://www.liechtensteincollections.at/en/presentation/exhibitions/1719-300-jahre-liechtenstein - [czech-liechtenstein-history] History of Czech–Liechtenstein relations (confiscations and 2009 relations) — Czech-Liechtenstein Society · http://www.cesko-lichtenstejnska.cz/en/history/ - [wikipedia-liechtenstein] Liechtenstein — Wikipedia · https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liechtenstein Citation template: Terralore, "The Chronicle of Liechtenstein: A principality bought into being, the last survivor of the Holy Roman Empire, ruled from afar before it found itself.", terralore.co/country/LIE/chronicle, retrieved .