Publications

Monarch, businessman, banker, art collector, visionary and outspoken controversialist: Hans-Adam II Prince of Liechtenstein is all of these. As he turns 75, and as the Principality which bears his family name celebrates its 300th anniversary, Hans-Adam II can enjoy a record of unusual success and look forward to the future with undiminished energy.

Prince Hans-Adam of Liechtenstein is able to look at the modern nation-state from many different angles: as a head of state; as a politician, who had to win popular votes in a direct democracy; as a businessman active not only in his own state but also in different continents; as an amateur historian fascinated by the evolution of humanity and the influence of military technology, transportation and the economy on the size of states. He analyses those forces that have influenced human history in the past and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future. These include religions, ideologies, military technology and economics. He suggests how to make the traditional democratic constitutional state both more democratic and more efficient. He also discusses strategies on how to realise worldwide the modern democratic constitutional state in the third millennium. His goal is that people don't have to serve the state anymore and be threatened by wars or other state measures, but that all states have been turned into peaceful service companies which serve the people and humanity. That is the purpose of the draft constitution for the state of the third millennium which closes this eloquent, lucidly argued and exemplarily concise manifesto.

The Principality of Liechtenstein in the heart of Europe is famous for its medieval castles and charming Alpine landscapes and villages. On the occasion of its 300th anniversary, the Albertina in Vienna is hosting a comprehensive exhibition. The works presented here illustrate the remarkable spectrum of Liechtenstein’s collection policy. The unique holdings of the Princely Collections are thus presented for the first time in such detail in this two-volume publication.

Since the completion of the Liechtenstein City Palace in 1705 and the opening of the Garden Palace in the Rossau, built almost simultaneously, as a gallery building for the general public in 1810, the collections of the Prince of Liechtenstein have been a focal point of the Viennese cultural and museum scene. This illustrated book, edited by the director of the Princely Collections, Dr. Johann Kräftner, presents the most important Viennese and, beyond that, the Moravian and Bohemian palaces and castles of the princely family, focusing on the palaces in the Habsburg capital and residence. The second part of the publication presents the most important works of the Princely Collections, today the most important private collection still existing in the world, expanded in recent years by quite significant works and presented in the two Viennese city palaces.