Liechtenstein/Czechia – More than 77 years after their ratification by the provisional Czechoslovak parliament on 5 March 1946, the so-called Beneš decrees continue to poison the bilateral relations between the Czech Republic and the small principality of Liechtenstein. In the latest episode, the „help” that the Czech President Petr Pavel is allegedly giving to the „German” princely family is fuelling the debate.

What are the Beneš decrees?

A little background is in order here. The so-called Beneš decrees – or decrees of the President of the Republic (dekrety presidenta republiky) – are a collection of 143 decrees issued by Edvard Beneš, as President of the Czechoslovak Government in exile, between 1940 and 26 October 1945. Among the most controversial decrees were no. 12/1945 on the confiscation of German and Hungarian agricultural property as traitors and enemies of the Czech and Slovak nations; no. 33/1945 on the withdrawal of Czechoslovak citizenship from nationals of the German and Hungarian minorities; and no. 108/1945 on the confiscation of enemy property.

It was under these decrees that 2,600,000 Germans from Bohemia and from the Carpathians (a quarter of the total population of Czechoslovakia!) and 400,000 Hungarians from Slovakia were expelled from the country, sometimes under very harsh conditions. Historians estimate that between 19,000 and 30,000 people died during the expulsions.

As Prince Franz Josef II. of Liechtenstein (1906-1989) was considered as „German” by the Czechoslovak authorities, the properties of 29 members of the princely family in Czechoslovakia were confiscated – as were those of most of the country’s noble families, the majority of whom actually belonged to the German minority. The family of the future Czech foreign minister, Karel Schwarzenberg, who died recently, was no exception.

“We are not Germans…”

In the meantime, the Prince of Liechtenstein Foundation is demanding the return of various properties, including the Lednice-Valtice estate (in southern Moravia), and has taken legal action against the Czech authorities before twenty-six district courts in the Czech Republic, i.e. wherever property has been confiscated from the Princely Family of Liechtenstein.

The Liechtenstein family’s argument – which does not call into question the Beneš decrees themselves – is simple: „… the Beneš Decrees do not apply to the Liechtenstein family. We are not Germans, we have been subsumed under the Germans, and there is clear evidence now in this legal dispute that documents were filled out which the communist government claimed [Prince Franz Josef II] had signed: a cell sheet from 1930 has emerged where it was asked which nationality one professed. […] We believe that the assessment of the evidence was not carried out properly.”

A serious precedent

Liechtenstein recently offered to end its legal proceedings, in particular before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, if an amicable solution was accepted by the Czech Republic, which would be to hand over the assets in dispute to a Czech-Liechtenstein foundation and have them managed by the Prince of Liechtenstein Foundation: „The proposed form of out-of-court settlement would not only resolve the so-called open issues, but would also allow Liechtenstein entities to invest in the Czech Republic”. It is precisely this proposal that President Pavel would appear to welcome.

However, according to Veronika Bílková, head of the Department of International Law at Charles University, such a Czech concession on this issue would set a serious precedent: „It would be a victory for Liechtenstein, because it is a question of reconciliation on their terms, and if we accept it, it would at least mean an implicit recognition that we perceive a mistake on our part”.