Lobkowicz opposes sale of family palace housing German embassy

Jíři Lobkowicz has told the Czech Press Agency that he opposes plans to sell Lobkowicz Palace to the German state or exchange it for another building. The Lesser Town palace currently houses the German embassy in Prague. Last year, Berlin made it clear that it would like to purchase the building and give the Czech Republic the former seat of the U.S. embassy in Berlin, which is now unused; the current Czech embassy in Berlin is in need of refurbishment. Mr Lobkowicz’s noble family considered the 18th century palace its primary seat until 1927, when it was acquired by the Czechoslovak state. He said that he understood that in modern history, especially in 1989, it became a place that went down into the memory of thousands of Germans fleeing to the West, however, history neither started nor ended in 1989.