Prague - Jiri Lobkowicz from the Melnik branch of the noble family, is against the sale of Lobkowicz palace, currently used as German embassy in Prague, to Germany or its exchange for a different building, Lobkowicz told CTK today.
The German embassy in the Czech Republic has its seat in the Baroque Lobkowitz Palace in Prague's Mala Strana (Lesser Town) district.
Last year, Berlin made it clear it would like to get the Prague palace in its ownership, for which the Czech Republic would acquire the former seat of the U.S. embassy in Berlin centre, now unused.
The existing Czech embassy in Berlin needs refurbishment.
Before the fall of the Iron Curtain the embassy of the former West Germany was located in Lobkowicz Palace. Thousands of Germans from East Germany tried to flee to West Germany via the Prague embassy 21 years ago. Some 4000 of them found refuge on the embassy premises and in its garden.
East Germany demanded that they return. However, then West German foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher managed, in cooperation with the Czechoslovak government, to organise their departure to West Germany. The event presaged the fall of the Berlin Wall and of the East German regime.
CeskéNoviny
