A LOOK BACK TO SEE WHERE WE ARE HEADING #8

publication date: Nov 26, 2023
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1938
CLASH IN PRINCE’S PARK
Austrian Nazis Attack Jews—
Liechtenstein Ruler Vexed

Wireless to THE NEW YORK TIMES.

VIENNA, July 16.—The Jews, who
‘have been banned from all public
gardens in Vienna, have been fre-
quenting many large private gardens
owned by the aristocracy and
opened to the general public.

Recently considerable. numbers
visited the park owned by the ruling
Prince Franz Joseph of Liechten-
stein. National Socialists attempted
to force them out of there as well
and violent scenes ensued.

The Prince has now temporarily
closed his gardens and has regis-
tered a protest with the party head-
quarters on this violation of his pro-
prietory rights.

The New York Times

Published: July 17, 1938

-------

FRANZ I, EX-RULER
OF LIECHTENSTEIN

Prince Who Delegated Power
of Government to Nephew in
March Is Dead at 85

ONCE AN AUSTRIAN ENVOY

Retired After Anschluss and
Had Since Defied Nazis—
Reigned Nine Years

Wireless to THE NEW YORK TIMES,
PRAGUE, July 26.—Prince Franz
I of Liechtenstein, ruler of the tiny,
principality between Switzerland
and Austria, died last night in his
Czechoslovak castle at Feldsberg at
the age of 85. His grandnephew,
the Regent Franz Joseph, succeeds
to the title.

Only a few weeks ago Prince
Franz foiled an Austrian Nazi ef-
fort to prevent Jews from visiting
his large gardens which surround
his famous picture gallery in Vien-
na. An ordinance had been issued
to ban all Jews from public parks.
The Prince warned that if the ordi-
nance applied to his estate, he
would close the gallery to the pub-
lic altogether.

Since the Nazis came into power
in Germany, and particularly since
Austrian Anschluss, much propa-
ganda has been carried on in
Liechtenstein for union with the
Reich. It became so strong that a
few months ago the aged Prince
handed over the reins of govern-
ment to his nephew, but remained
the ruler pro forma.

The young Prince is reputed to
have Nazi leanings. This was denied
today to Tur NEW YORK TIMEs, but
it is admitted there is a well defined
movement for union with Germany.

Succeeded ‘Phantom Prince”

One of the wealthiest European
nobles, one-time ruler over the
quaint and tiny principality of
Liechtenstein, Prince Maria Karl
August Franz von Paula ascended
the throne of his country upon the
death in 1929 of his brother,
Johann II, the ‘‘phantom Prince,"
who had reigned for seventy-one
vears. Nine years later, on March
30, 1938, the elderly Prince handed
over the governmental reins to his
heir, Prince Franz Joseph.

It was significant in the life of
this unique ruler that the Almanach
de Gotha gave as his residence, in
addition to Vaduz, the capital of
Liechtenstein, his estate, Felds-
berg, in Czechoslovakia, and the
address of Bankgasse 9, in Vienna.
For the Prince preferred to live
outside his country, which, with
a population of about 11,500, is
five square miles smaller than the
District of Columbia.

With the annexation of Austria by
Germany the 84-year-old sovereign
decided to abdicate because ‘‘he
considered himself too old to carry
on his task," as the official an-
nouncement declared.

Another reason for his abdication
wag probably the fact that Prince
Franz had married Elsa von Eroes,
the former Baroness Guttmann, a
Jewess, publicly on July 22, 1929.
German Nazis attacked the mar-
riage even at that time.

The Prince’s marriage had been
secret for years and even the sec-
ond ceremony took place in the
ancient village church at Lainz, a
Vienna suburb, at midnight. The
Baroness, first married to a Hun-
garian nobleman, had been a widow
for five years and was 54. She
came from a family of Jewish
bankers, said to have controlled
property worth $100,000,000.

Their interests in the arts were
mutual, each possessing art collec-
tions recognized as among the fin-
est in Europe. Their romance be-
gan shortly after the war, but both
kept it a secret, the Prince con-
scious of the fact that his Roman
Catholie family would disapprove.
Consequently, he married the
Baroness secretly in Salzburg in
1921.

Traced Ancestry to 12th Century

The Prince, descended from the
reigning family of Liechtenstein,
which traced its ancestry to the
twelfth century and came from free
barons who became princes of the
country in 1608. He was born to
the title of Duke of Troppau and
Jaegerndorf on Aug. 28, 1853, at
Castle Liechtenstein, son of Prince
Aloys and the former Countess
Franziska Kinsky von Wchinitz and
Tettau.

Most of his early life was spent
in Vienna, where the Prince played
an important role in the court life
of the double monarchy. He en-
tered the Austrian diplomatic serv-
ice and served as Austro-Hungarian
Ambassador to Russia from 1894 to
1898. He declined the portfolio of
Foreign Minister and, while resign-
ing from diplomatic service, re-
mained in the inner circle of the
Emperor Franz Joseph, whose con-
fidence he enjoyed.

Although holding aloof from poli-
tics after the World War, Prince
Franz undertook a political’ mission
in 1925, when it was learned that
he had served as an emissary of the
former Bavarian Crown Prince
Rupprecht. He went to Hungary
to confer with the Hungarian legit-
imist leader and Archduke Albrecht,
and was supposed to have begged
the latter to declare his uncondi-
tional allegiance to Archduke Otto.

Occasionally the ruler met a dele-
gation of his Socialist or Repub-
lican subjects, who would urge his
abdication for the sake of a peo-
ple’s State. Whenever it happened,
the Prince won the argument. He
merely mentioned that he was
ready to go—and would at the same
time stop his $110,000 contribution
to the treasury.

The magnitude of the Prince’s
possessions was shown in one of
the greatest land transactions ever
put through in Europe. In August,
1830, a ‘voluntary agreement’ was
signed between the Czechoslovak
Land Reform Office and the chan-
cellery of the Prince, according to
which the latter surrendered
against a limited payment 172,900
acres of land to the State for redis-
tribution. The Prince surrendered
another 88,000 acres, leaving him
still 128,500 acres of valuable land
in the Czechoslovak Republic. The
value of the surrendered estates
were estimated at the time at near-
ly $50,000,000.

Liechtenstein, during the turmoil
of the post-war period, had more
and more become a paradise for
wealthy taxpayers and industrial
concerns transacting business in
Europe. They established head-
quarters at Vaduz, thus enjoying
tax exemption. The Prince wel-
comed them but barred gambling,
continuing the decree issued by his
predecessor. He had no army and
but a handful of policemen.

The New York Times

Published: July 27, 1938

2023

Former Russian prime minister
added
to Putin’s ‘foreign agent’
list


The Hill

by Tara Suter - 11/25/23

Russian President Vladimir Putin added
a former Russian prime minister to
the country’s “foreign agent” list Friday.

Mikhail Kasyanov, Putin’s first
prime minister. later became
the Russian president’s opponent.
With his designation by the
Russian Justice Ministry as a
“foreign agent,” Kasyanov’s
credibility could be undermined.

Law in Russia allows for organizations
and individuals who obtain foreign
funds or support to be designated
a “foreign agent.” The law has
often been used against independent
news media and opposition figures.

According to The Associated Press,
the Russian Justice Ministry’s website
said that the former prime minister
“took part in the creation and
dissemination of messages and
materials of foreign agents to an
unlimited circle of people, disseminated
false information about the decisions
taken by public authorities of the
Russian Federation and the policies
pursued by them.” The website
also claimed Kasyanov “opposed
the special military operation in
Ukraine.”

Kasyanov served as prime minister
of Russia from 2000 to 2004, the
year he was dismissed. He later
became a notable opposition figure
and tried to run for president in
2008, but the national election
commission prevented him from
doing so.

After Putin sent troops into Ukraine
last year, Kasyanov left Russia
and is reportedly in Latvia.

The Associated Press contributed.

The Hill

Published: November 25, 2023


France reports dozens of antisemitic
acts
since Hamas attack

Reuters

PARIS, Oct 11 (Reuters) - French police
have arrested more than 20 people
over dozens of antisemitic acts carried
out since Saturday, including harassment
of Jewish children by fellow pupils at
school, the government said on
Wednesday.

France is home to some of Europe's
largest Muslim and Jewish populations
and conflicts in the Middle East can
lead to tensions there - which
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin
said the government aimed to
avert with heightened police protection
of Jewish sites, including schools
and synagogues.

"It's important that all French people
of Jewish faith know they are protected,"
Darmanin said as he and Education
Minister Gabriel Attal visited a
Jewish school near Paris.

Some 10,000 police are protecting
500 sites, Darmanin said.

Attal said pupils of Jewish faith had
faced problems in their schools,
including a pupil in the wider
Paris region who had been attacked
by fellow pupils who ripped his t-shirt.
Any such incidents would be
referred to judicial authorities, he said.

In Britain, reports of antisemitic
incidents have tripled since the
weekend compared with the
same period last year, a
Jewish charity said on Tuesday.

Reuters
Published: October 11, 2023


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