Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein
Hans-Adam II (Johannes Adam Ferdinand Alois Josef Maria Marco d'Aviano Pius; born 14 February 1945) is the reigning Prince of Liechtenstein, since 1989. He is the son of Prince Franz Joseph II and his wife, Countess Georgina von Wilczek. He also bears the titles Duke of Troppau and Jagerndorf, and Count of Rietberg. Under his reign, a 2003 constitutional referendum expanded the powers of the Prince of Liechtenstein. In 2004, Hans-Adam transferred day-to-day governmental duties to his eldest son Hereditary Prince Alois as regent, like his father had granted him in 1984 to prepare him for the role.
Early Life
He was born on 14 February 1945 in Zurich, Switzerland, as the eldest son of Prince Franz Joseph II and Princess Gina of Liechtenstein, with his godfather being Pope Pius XII. His father had succeeded as Prince of Liechtenstein in 1938 upon the death of his childless grand-uncle, Prince Franz I, and Hans-Adam was thus hereditary prince from birth.
In 1956, he entered the Schottengymnasium in Vienna. In 1960, he transferred to the Lyceum Alpinium Zuoz in Switzerland, earning a Swiss Matura and a German Abitur in 1965. He then worked as a bank trainee in London before enrolling at the University of St. Gallen to study business administration, graduating with a licentiate in 1969. He is fluent in English and French in addition to his native German.
In 1984, Prince Franz Joseph II, while legally remaining head of state and retaining the title of sovereign prince, formally handed the power of making day-to-day governmental decisions to his eldest son as a way of beginning a dynastic transition to a new generation. Hans-Adam formally succeeded as Prince of Liechtenstein upon the death of his father on 13 November 1989.
Powers
A referendum to adopt Hans-Adam's revision of the Constitution of Liechtenstein to expand his powers passed in 2003. The prince had threatened to abdicate and leave the country if the referendum did not result in his favor.
On 15 August 2004, Hans-Adam formally handed the power of making day-to-day governmental decision to his eldest son Hereditary Prince Alois as regent, as a way of beginning a dynastic transition to a new generation. Legally, Hans-Adam remains the head of state. Hans-Adam's father Franz Joseph II had similarly done on 26 August 1984.
In a July 2012 referendum, the people of Liechtenstein overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to curtail the political power of the princely family. A few days before the vote, Hereditary Prince Alois announced he would veto any relaxing of the ban on abortion, also up for referendum. 76 percent of those voting in the first referendum supported Alois' power to veto the outcome of future referendums. Legislators, who serve on a part-time basis, rose in the hereditary prince's defense on 23 May, voting 18 to 7 against the citizens' initiative.
Entrepreneurship and Personal Wealth
Before his accession to the throne, he transformed LGT Bank which is wholly owned by his family, from a small local bank into an internationally operating financial group. As of 2003 he had a family fortune of US$ 7.6 billion and a personal fortune of about US $4 billion, making him one of the world's richest heads of state, and Europe's wealthiest monarch.
He inherited his main residence, Vaduz Castle in Liechtenstein, furthermore in Austria Liechtenstein Castle, Wilfersdorf Castle (with a wine farm), the Liechtenstein Garden Palace and the Liechtenstein City Palace in Vienna. In addition to real estate, viticulture, agriculture and forestry, the prince owns a number of companies, the most important being the American company RiceTec.
He also inherited an extensive art collection, much of which is displayed for the public at the Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna. As of July 2022, his net worth was estimated by Bloomberg Billionaires Index around US $6.20 billion, making him the 380th richest person on earth. However, he placed these assets in a family foundation, the Prince of Liechtenstein Foundation, from which each family member receives an equal annual allowance and which maintains the family's castles, cultural assets, collections and museums and last but not least, the costs of the princely court including even some salaries for princes who are ambassadors abroad, which are not a burden on the taxpayer.
His successful entrepreneurship allowed him to buy back parts of the family art collection which his father had to sell after World War II due to lack of money after his vast land holdings in Czechoslovakia had been expropriated (measuring 7.5 times the total area of the Principality itself) and after his Austrian properties had become inaccessible until the end of the Soviet occupation in 1955. In additional, he continues to expand the collection of classical paintings and applied arts to this day.
Personal Life
On 30 July 1967, at Florin's in Vaduz, he married his second cousin once-removed Countess Marie Kinsky of Wchinitz and Tettau. They have four children: Alois, Hereditary Prince of Liechtenstein, Prince Maximilian, Prince Constantin, and Princess Tatjana (also known after marriage as Tatjana von Lattorff).
They remained married until her death on 21 August 2021, a the age of 81.
The Prince is honorary member of K.D. St. V. Nordgau Prag Stuttgart, a Catholic students' fraternity that is a member of the Union of Catholic German Students Fraternities.
The Prince donated $12 million in 2000 to found the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination (LISD) at Princeton University's Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. In his childhood he joined the Pfadfinder und Pfadfinderinnen Liechtensteins in Vaduz. He is also a former member of the Viennese Scout Group "Wien 16-Schotten." He is a member of the World Scout Foundation.
His younger son Prince Constantin died on 5 December 2023 at the age of 51.
Viewpoints and Book
Hans-Adam has written the political treatise The State in the Third Millennium (ISBN 9783905881042), which was published in late 2009. In it, he argues for the continued importance of the nation-state as a political actor. He makes the case for democracy as the best form of government, which he sees China and Russia as in transition towards, although the path will be difficult for these nations. He also declared his role in a princely family as something that has legitimacy only from the assent of the people. He stated that government should be limited to a small set of tasks and abilities, writing that people "have to free the state from all the unnecessary tasks and burdens with which it has been loaded during the last hundred years, which have distracted it from its two main tasks: maintenance of the rule of law and foreign policy." Hans-Adam is a friend of the German anarcho-capitalist economist Hans-Hermann Hoppe.
Hans-Adam wrote to the foreword to a Sourcebook, on Self-Determination and Self-Administration, which was edited by Wolfgang F. Danspeckgruber and Arthur Watts (ISBN-1-55587-786-9, 1997), and in the Encyclopedia Princetoniensis.
In an interview with Radio Liechtenstein in February 2021, Prince Hans-Adam II expressed his support for same-sex marriage but said he opposed allowing same-sex couples to adopt.
Titles, Styles and Honors
Titles and Styles
14 February 1945-13 November 1989: His Serene Highness The Hereditary Prince of Liechtenstein
13 November 1989-present His Serene Highness The Prince of Liechtenstein
The official title of the monarch is "Prince of Liechtenstein, Duke of Troppau and Jagerndorf, Count of Rietberg
Honors
-Sovereign of the Order of Merit of the Principality of Liechtenstein, Grand Star
-Sovereign: Recipient of the 70th Birthday Medal of Prince Franz Joseph II
Foreign
-Austria: Austrian-Hungarian Imperial and Royal Family: 1,305 Knight with Collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece
-Austria: Grand Cross of the Decoration of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria, Grand Star
-Bavarian Royal Family: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Hubert
Awards
-Austria: Honorary Degree of the University of Innsbruck
-Romania: Honorary Degree of the Babes-Bolyai University
House: Liechtenstein
Religion: Roman Catholic
