DEATH AT FELDSBERG

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 95, 19 October 1938, Page 23

DEATH AT FELDSBERG

ABDICATED PRINCE

FRANZ I OF LIECHTENSTEIN

Prince Franz I of Liechtenstein, ruler of the tiny principality between Switzerland and Austria, has died. in his Czechoslovak castle at Feldsberg at the age of 85. His grand-nephew, the Regent Franz Joseph, succeeds to the title, says the "New York Times." Only a few weeks ago Prince Franz foiled an Austrian Nazi effort to prevent Jews from visiting his large gardens,which surround his famous picture gallery in Vienna. An ordinance had been issued to ban all Jews from public parks. The Prince warned that if the ordinance applied to his estate, he would close the gallery to the public altogether. Since the Nazis came into power in Germany, and particularly since Austrian Anschluss, much propaganda has been carried op in Liechtenstein for union with the Reich. It became so strong that a few months ago the aged Prince handed over the reins of government to his nephew, but remained the ruler pro forma. The young Prince is reputed to have Nazi leanings. This was denied to the "New York Times," but it is admitted there is a well-defined movement for union with Germany. 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 11, the "phantom Prince," who had reigned for seventyone years. Nine years later, on March 30, ,1938, the elderly Prince handed over the governmental reins to his heir, Prince Franz Joseph. , ..'..„ HE LIVED ABROAD. 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, Feldsberg, in Czechoslovakia, and the address of Bartkgasse 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 announcement declared. Another reason for his abdication was 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 marriage even at that time. Ttie Prince's marriage had been secret for y«ars, and even the second ceremony took place in the ancient vil- j lage church at Lainz, a Vienna suburb, at midnight. The Baroness, first married to a Hungarian 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 £25,000,000. Their interests in the arts were mutual, each possessing art collections recognised as among the finest in Europe. Their romance began shortly after the war, but both kept it a secret, the Prince conscious of the fact that his Roman Catholic family would disapprove. Consequently he married the Baroness secretly in Salzburg in 1921. 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 August 28, 1853, at Castle Liechtenstein, son of Prince Aloys and the former Countess Franziska Kinsky von Wchinitz and Tettau. HIS ROLE IN VIENNA. j 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 entered the Austrian diplomatic service and served as Austro-Hungarian Ambassador to Russia from 1894 to 1898. He declined the portfolio of Foreign Minister and, while resigning from diplomatic service, remained in the inner circle of the Emperor Franz'Joseph, whose confidence he enjoyed. Although holding aloof from politics 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 legitimist leader and Archduke Albrecht, and was supposed to have begged the latter to declare his unconditional allegiance to Archduke Otto. Occasionally the ruler met a delegation of his Socialist or Republican subjects, who would urge his abdication for the sake of a people'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 £27,000 contribution to the Treasury. The magnitude of the Prince's pos-j sessions was shown in one of the greatest land transactions ever put through in Europe. In August, 1930,,a "voluntary agreement" was signed between the Czechoslovak Land Reform | Office and the chancellery of the! Prince, ..according to which the latter surrendered against a limited payment 172,900 acres of land to i;he State for redistribution. The Prince surrendered another 98,000 acres, leaving hini still 128,500 acres of valuable land in the Czechoslovak Republic. The value of the surrendered estates was estimated at the time at about £12,000,000.

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 headquarters at Vaduz, thus enjoying tax exemption. The Prince welcomed them but barred gambling, continuing the decree issued by his predecessor. He had no army and but a handful of policemen.