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Military History of Liechtenstein200 years of Liechtenstein 's Armed Forces
The landlocked 'postage stamp' country in central Europe has faced war and recently had to fend off one of its neighbors who invaded in the night.
During the Middle Ages and Renaissance Liechtenstein often saw combat. The castle at the heart of the country was twice ruined in sieges by the Turks in 1529 and 1683. The tiny nation (principality) of Liechtenstein, currently ruled by Prince Hans-Adam II, gained its independence in 1806. It is a landlocked mountain country bordered on the west by Switzerland and the east by Austria. Occupied by French then Russian then French again then finally by German troops during the Napoleonic wars, Liechtenstein has been free since 1813. It sent a 40 man detachment along with the forces opposing Napoleon and it returned a year later with 41 men. When revolution broke out in 1848 in the old German state of Baden the Liechtensteiner army took the field and helped restore order there. In 1866 the country again sent its troops off to war against Prussia. Its entire army was sent to guard Stilfser Joch (Passo Stelvio) against an enemy trust that never came. Accused of being a cause for war between Austria and Prussia in 1866, an uneasy but bloodless state of war existed between the Principality and Prussia (later Germany) for nearly sixty years before being settled by a diplomatic note. In 1868, after joining in a trade union with the Austro-Hungarian Empire who assumed responsibility for its defense, Liechtenstein disbanded its colorful peacetime army of 80 men out of financial considerations and declared its permanent neutrality. The army stacked its retired weapons at its garrison of the Vaduz Castle and many of them remain in the collection there to this day. When World War One broke out the principality declared itself neutral however more than a hundred of its men volunteered for the Austrian Army. Some 27 of these, including Liechtenstein Prince Heinrich who served as a major in the Kuk's Dragoons in Russia in 1915, died under the Austrian flag. Avoiding being ensnarled in World War One, Liechtenstein ended its treaty with Austria and entered its current trade union with Switzerland in 1923. Hitler had designs to merge the Germanic Liechtensteiners on his border into his enlarged Third Reich but no invasion took place. World War Two went well for Liechtenstein and it escaped being successfully invaded by anyone. A story does exist of a enterprising German SS company approaching the border in 1938 but was peacefully repelled by a hardy priest, two policemen and troop of boy scouts armed with sticks. It is known that no less than eighty young men from the principality served with the German military during the war (including SS Unterscharführer Josef Nagele who served in the Deutschland regiment of the Das Reich division). At the end of hostilities the country did provide asylum to 494 White Russian men, women and children under the command of Maj. Gen. Holmston-Smyslovsky ( a former member of the Tsar's Imperial Guards) who fought for the Nazis in 1945 and assist with their immigration abroad. The Principality of Liechtenstein was the only country that did not forcibly send these exiles back to the gulag and almost certain death in the Soviet Union. The little group included Alexis Kaverda, who had assassinated Soviet ambassador Volkov in Warsaw in 1927 for helping to plan the murder of Tsar Nicholas II. This little known piece of history was retold in the French movie "The Eastern Wind" with Malcolm Mcdowell as Smyslowski. Switzerland is currently responsible by treaty for defense and also provides for border patrol. Switzerland ironically has been the biggest threat to neutrality since then. In 1985, the Swiss Army had to pay Liechtenstein several million dollars in compensation after rockets they fired during maneuvers struck a forested area in Northern Liechtenstein and started a large fire. In 2006 the country grew 2% by half a square kilometer after a more accurate survey of its borders. This survey however did not stop foreign powers from invading. On March 1, 2007 a 171-man company of Swiss Army infantrymen on maneuvers crossed two full miles into the principality before figuring out their mistake. The Swiss were fully armed but carried no ammunition. Neither side considered this- the first potential combat that either of these countries has seen in generations- as troubling, and the Swiss soldiers were back over the border before breakfast. The country is about the size of Washington DC and has a population of 34,000. Alois, the current Hereditary Prince of Liechtenstein attended the the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst in the United Kingdom. He served in the Coldstream Guards in Hong Kong and London. The only armed force in is its Landespolizei (National Police). The principality formed its police force in 1933. The National Police formed the Intervention Unit, similar to a SWAT team in November 1989. This unit is equipped with body armor and automatic weapons including Walther PP handguns, Heckler and Koch MP5s, and Swiss SiG carbines. This small group, part of the 61-man National Police, plus 19-auxillary police and eight municipal constables constitute the whole of the country's defense from the wicked Swiss threat to the west. In 2003, the United States banned military aide to the principality over a diplomatic issue. Thankfully, in an emergency all Liechtensteiners under the age of 60 are liable to military service, there are over 850 boyscouts (Pfadfinders) now, and the disbanded army's old weapons still hang in the halls at Vaduz Castle. SourcesEmbassy of Liechtenstein to the United States of America / Information on Liechtenstein Washington Post Article on Swiss “Invasion” Deattie, David Liechtenstein : A Modern History. 2002
The copyright of the article Military History of Liechtenstein in Military History is owned by Christopher Eger. Permission to republish Military History of Liechtenstein in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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