Vaduz - After prompting anger from Germany's Jewish community, Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein Thursday withdrew remarks made earlier in which he had called Germany the "Fourth Reich" in line with the "Third Reich" Nazi era of the 1930s and 40s. The prince "did not intend in any way to trivialize the terrible events of the Third Reich in his private and personal letter" to the head of the Jewish Museum in Berlin, the principality said in a press release.
Hans-Adam II had prompted anger among Jewish representatives after writing in a letter revealed Thursday by the Swiss daily Tages Anzeiger that Liechtenstein already survived "three German Reichs", meaning three eras of attempted German domination in 200 years.
He hoped also to survive the "Fourth Reich", the prince had continued in his letter written in reply to a request by museum director Werner Michael Blumenthal, who had asked Hans-Adam II. to borrow one of his pictures for an exhibition.
On Thursday, the prince stepped back from his comments, saying that his remarks that the Third Reich should not happen again were not referring to today's Germany.
The planned exhibition is called "Theft and Restitution" and traces the paths of particular artefacts - including paintings, libraries, china, silver works and photographs - of which Jewish owners were disappropriated during the Nazi regime.
Liechtenstein no longer intended to make its art available for German exhibitions, the prince had written in his original reply to the museum.
Referring to Germany as the "Fourth Reich", he had said his principality did not want to expose its masterpieces to what the prince termed the selective application of constitutional principles in Germany.
German-Liechtenstein relations over the previous 200 years had resembled a roller coaster ride, the prince had said.
Liechtenstein had still been at war with the "Second German Reich" (lasting from the 1871 founding of the German Empire under the reign of Wilhelm I to the collapse of the monarchy in 1918), as the latter perished before a peace agreement with the principality could be reached, Hans-Adam II's letter said.
He had continued, "Thank God, the Nazi Third Reich had also been wiped out in time" before it had been able to act on its threats to annex Liechtenstein.
However, regarding its relations to Germany, the principality was still waiting for better times, wrote Hans-Adam II.
The Central Council of Jews in Germany reacted with bewilderment to the letter and was shocked especially at the prince's apparent comparison of today's Germany with the Nazi era.
