The Mouse That Roared

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By Babak Dehghanpisheh

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Art works by 17th-century masters. Castles. Country estates and 430,000 acres of prime real estate. These are among the treasures confiscated by German forces occupying Czechoslovakia during World War II. Berlin wants to return them to their rightful owners, the Czechs, as war reparations. But there's one (very) small hitch: Liechtenstein, that eyeblink on the autobahn, haven for dodgy dollars and old European nobility. Many of the assets in question were owned by its citizens--and the tiny kingdom wants the wealth back.

No way, a German court declared three years ago. The properties are most definitely German, it ruled, because the Liechtensteiners living in the Czech lands of yore were "ethnic Germans." Oh, the Sturm und Drang that has occasioned. Last week Liechtenstein filed suit against Germany in the International Court of Justice in The Hague claiming its "sovereignty" has been violated and demanding compensation, if not the contested assets themselves. Liechtenstein has mustered all its big guns for the fray. Its foreign minister came to The Hague armed with four of Europe's most expensive lawyers. Even its head of state, Prince Hans-Adam II, has girded his loins for battle--after discovering one of his family's lost paintings in Cologne. The case has taken 50 years to come about. No doubt it will take that many more to resolve.

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