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