In a letter to the director of the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein has called Germany the 'Fourth Reich', triggering vivid protests from the Central Council of Jews in Germany ('Zentralrat'). The principality's head of state wrote to the museum's director, W. Michael Blumenthal, a former US treasury secretary, telling him that he would not lend any paintings from his private collection to the Berlin Jewish Museum or other institutions in Germany because of the bad relations between the two countries. "Regarding the relations between Germany and Liechtenstein, we are awaiting better times," Hans-Adam wrote in his letter. He said he was optimistic, however, because Liechtenstein had survived already three 'reichs', including Hitler's Third Reich, and would also survive the current Fourth Reich. He wrote that Germany was increasingly reneging on fundamental principle of international law, referring to the row between the two countries because Liechtenstein has served as a tax haven for rich Germans.
Zentralrat vice-president Salomon Korn expressed shock at the prince's letter, saying that it would play down the Nazis' crimes and put today's Germany in a line with the Third Reich. Korn called on Hans-Adam to apologize to Blumenthal, who as a child fled from the Nazi terror while his father survived the Buchenwald concentration camp.
