Switzerland's little neighbor 55 facts about Liechtenstein that you probably don't know

Switzerland has five neighboring countries. But one of them is a mystery to many: hardly anyone knows anything about Liechtenstein. blue News provides 55 facts that will give you an understanding of the Principality.

My surname gives it away - I come from Liechtenstein, Büchel is the most common gender there. And no, I'm not related to Marco Büchel. Although I did meet him once as a child. We just know each other.

I grew up in this mystery, Switzerland's little neighbor that hardly anyone knows anything about, but I've been living and working in Zurich for more than eight years. And as soon as I even open my mouth here, I'm usually asked: "Huh, where are you from? Are you from Graubünden?" Not quite, but it's more or less in the right direction.

I understand, because there aren't that many of us, most of you have never met one of these rare specimens. But admittedly, we're actually not that different from the Swiss: We pay in francs, have open borders with Switzerland, speak roughly the same language - even if it's debatable. But Liechtenstein still seems somehow exotic.

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Yes, we still have a prince. Yes, we are all on first-name terms. And yes, you can't just live here. It's all very small and very, very informal. And somehow I'm always happy when people say: "Waaaaas, you're from Liechtenstein? You're the first person I've met from there." A real one-off.

Because a little extra tuition never hurts and Switzerland should get to know its neighbor better, here are a few interesting facts about the small principality next door:

Let's start with something simple: Liechtenstein consists of eleven municipalities, which are divided into the Oberland and Unterland.

The two areas take the separation very seriously and like to tease each other about which part is better - go Unterland 😉 - but it's not much different with the Swiss cantons.

The national constitution states that "the individual municipalities have the right to secede from the state". A decision is made if "the majority of the eligible voters resident there" vote in favor.

Although the Principality is not very large, there are three different dialects. The inhabitants of the Unterland speak differently to those in the Oberland, and then there is Triesenberg, whose language sounds completely different. The dialect there is based on Walser German. To give you an example: Schtoo in Unterland, Schtaa in Oberland, Schtei in Triesenberg - means stone in High German.

In terms of surface area, Liechtenstein is the sixth smallest country in the world. The Principality measures 160 square kilometers - compared to 41,285 square kilometers in Switzerland. At two square kilometers, Monaco is smaller, but has almost the same number of inhabitants.

According to the University of Liechtenstein, only eleven percent of the 160 square kilometers are used for residential purposes. The remaining area is used for "agricultural land, forest areas, mountains and bodies of water".

The capital of Liechtenstein is Vaduz. Whether it can really call itself a city is another question - Vaduz has over 5,000 inhabitants, making it one of the smallest capitals in Europe.

Switzerland has no connection to the sea, but only has to travel to one of the neighboring countries to get to the beach. If, on the other hand, Liechtenstein residents want to go to the sea, they first have to cross another landlocked country to get there 🌊 Apart from Uzbekistan, the Principality is the only landlocked country that is exclusively surrounded by other landlocked countries.

After the rumor was first circulated in the media that the Prince of Liechtenstein had been offered Alaska for sale by the Russian Tsar in 1867, Hans-Adam II von und zu Liechtenstein confirmed this in a letter to the Liechtenstein newspapers. "It is certainly not a rumor," he clarified at the time.

Hans-Adam II has been Prince and Head of State of Liechtenstein and Head of the Princely House of Liechtenstein since 1989. However, he has long since handed over the reins of government to his first-born son and heir to the throne, Hereditary Prince Alois.

Liechtenstein calls itself a constitutional hereditary monarchy on a democratic parliamentary basis. I had to memorize that well at school. Although the people have a say, the Prince ultimately has the final say. In 2003, there was a vote on the monarch's right of veto - but the citizens decided to let him have it.

One of the country's greatest landmarks is Vaduz Castle. However, as the royal family lives in it, it cannot be visited. Except...

Every year, the young citizens' party is held to celebrate citizens coming of age 🥂 The Princely Family invites them to the castle for the occasion. Hereditary Prince Alois and Hereditary Princess Sophie congratulated me with a handshake. Anyone with a Liechtenstein passport also gets the chance to toast with the Princely Family at the castle when they graduate from high school.

Before the first meeting with the Princely Family, there are important things to clarify: What is the right way to address them? You greet the Prince and Hereditary Prince with "His Serene Highness" and Hereditary Princess Sophie with "Your Royal Highness".

The wife of Hans-Adam II died in August 2021. Marie von und zu Liechtenstein had been married to the Prince since 1967.

Although they bear the name of the country and live in the castle above Vaduz, the members of the Princely Family are just like you and me. For example, my best friend went to school with the son of the Hereditary Prince for a while. And my work colleague also served them in the pizzeria where I worked during my school days.

Our national holiday falls on August 15 and is called the Prince's Festival by the more than 40,000 inhabitants of Liechtenstein. Background: As Prince Franz Josef II's birthday was on August 16 and the Assumption of Mary, one of the most important feast days of the Catholic Church, falls on August 15, this date was chosen. The festival is celebrated in the evening with a large firework display fired from the castle.

In Liechtenstein, we are all on first-name terms. No matter what age - we say "Hoi" and call each other by our first names 👋 I also just call my dentist Philipp.

According to the statistics portal of the Liechtenstein National Administration, Beck (761 times), Büchel (758 times) and Marxer (681 times) are the most common surnames in the country. So I promised a little too much at the beginning 🤫 Büchel isn't the most common gender at a national level after all, but it certainly is in my village of Ruggell.

Rumor has it that there is only one escalator in Liechtenstein. It is located in the Mühleholzmarkt in Vaduz, one of the country's shopping centers.

Admittedly, we often go shopping in Austria from Ruggell - it's just around the corner. There are also plenty of options across the Rhine in Switzerland. But they also exist in our communities. The REC (Ruggell shopping center), for example, is a popular hotspot because it's also open on Sundays. So do other Migros partners in the country. And we also have Coop and Denner 🤯 So we don't live behind the moon.

Although Liechtenstein has its own hospital, it is currently no longer possible to give birth there. The maternity ward was closed in 2014 and since then, babies have been born abroad.

According to the network, there are only five countries that do not have their own airport. And Liechtenstein is one of them, along with Andorra, Vatican City, Monaco and San Marino. The Principality does not have its own highway either. We are allowed to share it with the Swiss.

In 1868, the Prince decided to disband the army for cost reasons. This makes Liechtenstein one of the four countries, along with Costa Rica, the Solomon Islands and Tuvalu, that manage completely without a military. However, there is an agreement with Switzerland which states that civilian and military units from Switzerland could provide assistance.

In 2007, armed infantrymen from the Swiss army got lost in the border area and marched several kilometers into the neighbouring country. But the government knew that they were coming in peace.

In 1866, Prussia and Austria fought over Schleswig-Holstein. It was the last time Liechtenstein had to send soldiers. Fortunately, the men returned without any losses. On the contrary, they even brought someone back with them and had gained an Austrian lieutenant as a friend.

Liechtenstein doesn't have that many things, but it does have plenty of casinos. The first casinos were allowed to open their doors in 2017 - and the density of slot machines in relation to the number of inhabitants is now record-breaking by global standards. Since the beginning of this year, people who are banned from Swiss casinos are no longer allowed to gamble in the Principality, which has led to a sharp drop in turnover figures.

Despite its small size, Liechtenstein has its own ski resort. Snow sports enthusiasts will find easy to challenging slopes on 23 kilometers of pistes. Malbun, as the ski resort is called, has a total of four ski lifts.

As "Liechtenstein Business" writes, the Principality is one of the richest countries in the world. With a gross domestic product (GDP) of around seven billion francs, the country may not rank in the top ten, but per capita GDP is an incredible 165,000 francs. Next to Luxembourg, this is probably the highest figure.

But Liechtenstein was not always so well off. The Principality was once a poor farming state. Thanks to the right decisions, it was able to survive and overcome famines.

Liechtenstein was not always so coveted. During the economic crisis after the First World War, there was a large wave of emigration - 160 people left the country, according to the official 300th anniversary brochure.

Contrary to popular belief, only the filthy rich live in Liechtenstein: This is not true, there are also normal earners in the Principality. Above all, however, the people are very down-to-earth.

Our Reigning Prince, on the other hand, is said to be the richest monarch in Europe. The Princely House owns vast estates, industrial holdings, a large real estate portfolio and one of the most valuable private art collections in the world.

Last year,Radio Liechtenstein relied on statistics from 2023, which showed that more people work in Liechtenstein than live there. According to the analysis, there were 43,162 employees for every 39,584 inhabitants.

It is not only the number of employees that is proportional to the number of inhabitants. The density of companies is also extremely high; according to the magazine "Capital", Liechtenstein even has the highest density of companies in the world. At the end of 2023, the country had a total of 5508 companies.

Liechtenstein can certainly hold its own when it comes to large industrial companies. One of the largest companies is Hilcona. According to the University of Liechtenstein, one in six frozen pizzas eaten by Germans comes from the country.

Liechtenstein has also made a name for itself in other areas. Hilti supplies the world with the best construction equipment technology and Ivoclar Vivadent is the leading manufacturer of dental prostheses 🦷

If you want to live in the Principality without citizenship, you have to overcome a few hurdles. As "Liechtenstein Business" explains: "Foreign nationals cannot take up residence without further ado; a residence permit is required, which is only granted in certain cases or awarded to a small number of lucky people in an annual lottery." This also applies to Swiss nationals.

Although you have just learned that it is not that easy to be allowed to live in Liechtenstein, the proportion of the permanent foreign population is still around 34 percent. Swiss nationals make up the largest proportion, followed by Austrians and Germans.

Traveling with a Liechtenstein passport is always a bit of an experience ✈️ Sometimes it takes longer because it needs to be checked carefully, other times customs staff at the airport are happy because they play a kind of country bingo and finally have the list full. Fun fact: the map of Europe is printed on the first page of the passport and the country is marked exactly so that everyone knows where it is.

If there is no stamp in the passport on entry, this is annoying for some travelers. In the Principality, a souvenir stamp is available at the Liechtenstein Center in Vaduz. It costs three francs.

Ribel was a common dish in the Rhine Valley, but at some point it was somewhat displaced by growing prosperity and the desire for something "better". To this day, Ribel, which is made from Rheintaler Ribelmais - a local type of maize - is considered a traditional Liechtenstein dish. It is served with apple sauce or people even used to stir the Ribel into their coffee.

Fasnacht is not only a big thing in Lucerne or Basel; in Liechtenstein, too, the Guggenmusik likes to parade through the country. And there is a lot of it - there is supposedly one Guggen group for every 5000 inhabitants.

But partying in general is not so easy in the country. Even Vaduz is almost extinct in the evening. There are various bars in different municipalities, but there is only one real nightclub in Schaan. The current name is Noir.

Of course, a little history should not be missing. Liechtenstein as we know it today used to be divided into two parts: the County of Vaduz and the Lordship of Schellenberg. The Prince bought both parts one after the other and united them in 1719, which is probably the reason for the division into the Lower and Upper Lands, which still exists today.

In 1971, Switzerland was one of the last European countries to introduce women's suffrage. However, Liechtenstein followed suit even later: The country's female citizens have only been allowed to vote since 1984.

While abortions are permitted in most Western European countries - up to a certain time limit - the situation is different in neighboring Liechtenstein. For a long time, the women themselves were punished there, but today the law stipulates that doctors who perform an abortion face a prison sentence of between one and three years. If a woman has an abortion herself or if someone without medical training helps, they could also be punished with a prison sentence of up to one year. Many Liechtenstein women go to Switzerland to have an abortion.

The parliament building in Vaduz was opened in 2008, but has made headlines not only because of its resemblance to a Toblerone cube, but above all because it began to crumble. As the "NZZ" also reported, the building became a "structural problem case". The pitched roof was the main culprit, as stones were coming loose and falling off.

Something most Swiss people envy me for: My license plate, which is black - and looks pretty chic 😎

Liechtenstein is pretty safe, and the crime rate is one of the lowest in the world. Many people feel so comfortable that they leave their car keys in the ignition. A bike lock? Not needed here.

The melody of Liechtenstein's national anthem "Oben am jungen Rhein" is the same as that of the British national anthem "God Save the King".

Because Liechtenstein noticed at the Summer Olympics in 1936 that the country's flag - two horizontal stripes of the same size, blue at the top and red at the bottom - was identical to the flag of Haiti, the princely hat was added at the top left to avoid possible confusion in the future.

The marketing agency Xnet offered to rent out Liechtenstein as an event location under the name "Rent a Village". This made headlines a few years ago, as rapper Snoop Dogg was interested in the offer. "His managers contacted us," confirmed Karl Schwärzler from Xnet - the agency offers Austrian, German and Swiss villages as event locations - in an interview with "20 Minuten" in 2010.

The Principality has a dense network of hiking trails 🏔️ No wonder there is also a so-called Liechtenstein Trail, which leads 75 kilometers through the entire country. According to the official tourism website, there are "stories, sights, magnificent views, idyllic resting places and much more" to discover along the way.

According to the annual report of the Liechtenstein Police, there were 134 employees in 2023. In comparison, there were around 2,800 dairy cows in the country in 2020.

Liechtenstein holds its own football cup every year. Seven clubs take part, two of which have never won. FC Vaduz is the main winner.

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