The Petschek Villa (Czech : Vila Otto Petschka) is a palatial home built by Otto Petschek in the early 1920s in Prague. Since 1945 it has been the residence of the United States Ambassadors first to Czechoslovakia, and subsequently, to the Czech Republic.
The house was built by Otto Petschek, a member of a German-speaking, Jewish family, with financial interests in coal mines and banking. [1] The Petschek family departed Prague in 1938, fearing conquest by Nazi Germany. They immigrated to the United States. [1]
During the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, the Villa became the residence of General Rudolf Toussaint, commander of the German army occupying Czech lands. [1] At the end of the Second World War, the Soviet Army occupied the Residence for several days, after which it became Headquarters for the Czechoslovak General Staff. [1]
In 1945 Laurence Steinhardt, American Ambassador, leased the Residence from the Czechoslovak Ministry of National Defense and it became the American Ambassadorial Residence. [1] In 1948, the American government purchased the Villa, and the adjacent buildings now used as the Deputy Chief of Mission's house, and the Staff-house for $1,570,000. [1]
The Villa was designed by architect Max Spielmann and built by the Matěj Blecha construction company between 1924 and 1930. [2]
In 2018, Norman L. Eisen, United States Ambassador to the Czech Republic in the Obama administration, published a history of the Villa, The Last Palace: Europe's Turbulent Century in Five Lives and One Legendary House. [3]
The Czech Republic is a Central European country, a member of the European Union, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the United Nations. It entertains diplomatic relations with 191 countries of the world, around half of which maintain a resident embassy in the Czech capital city, Prague.
Prague Castle is a castle complex in Prague, Czech Republic serving as the official residence and workplace of the president of the Czech Republic. Built in the 9th century, the castle has long served as the seat of power for kings of Bohemia, Holy Roman emperors, and presidents of Czechoslovakia. As such, the term "Prague Castle" or simply the "Castle" or "the Hrad" are often used as metonymy for the president and his staff and advisors. The Bohemian Crown Jewels are kept within a hidden room inside it.
The Embassy of the United States of America in Prague is the diplomatic mission of the United States of America in the Czech Republic. The chancery is located on Vlašská street in Malá Strana, Prague, where it occupies the historic Schönborn Palace and possesses an extensive garden.
The Embassy of Germany is the diplomatic mission of Germany to the Czech Republic. It is located on Vlašská street, in the Malá Strana district of Prague, Czech Republic.
The expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia after World War II was part of a series of evacuations and deportations of Germans from Central and Eastern Europe during and after World War II.
František Moravec CBE was the chief Czechoslovak military intelligence officer before and during World War II. He moved to the United States after the war.
On 20–21 August 1968, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four fellow Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Republic of Bulgaria, and the Hungarian People's Republic. The invasion stopped Alexander Dubček's Prague Spring liberalisation reforms and strengthened the authoritarian wing of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ).
Czech Republic–Russia relations are the bilateral foreign relations between the Czech Republic and the Russian Federation. Relations have substantially deteriorated in recent years due to events such as the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, Russian sabotage of Czech ammunition depot in Vrbětice in 2014, poisoning of Sergei Skripal in 2018 and Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The Petschek Palace is a neoclassicist building in Prague. It was built between 1923 and 1929 by the architect Max Spielmann upon a request from the merchant banker Julius Petschek and was originally called "The Bank House Petschek and Co." Despite its historicizing look, the building was then a very modern one, being constructed of reinforced concrete and fully air-conditioned. It also had tube post, phone switch-board, printing office, a paternoster lift, and massive safes in the sublevel floor. The building was sold by the Petschek family before the occupation of Czechoslovakia, and the family left the country.
Neighborly relations exist between Austria and the Czech Republic, two member states of the European Union. Austria gave full support to the Czech Republic's membership of the European Union. The Czech Republic is a member state of NATO, while Austria is not.
Adolph Schwarzenberg was a notable landowner, entrepreneur and philanthropist. He was the eldest son of Johann and Therese Schwarzenberg, née Trauttmansdorff-Weinsberg. An outspoken opponent of the Nazi regime, his properties were seized by the German Reich and by Third Czechoslovak Republic shortly before the Communist coup of 1948.
Norman L. Eisen is an American attorney, author, and former diplomat. He is a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, a CNN legal analyst, and the co-founder of the States United Democracy Center. He was co-counsel for the House Judiciary Committee during the first impeachment and trial of President Donald Trump in 2020. He served as White House Special Counsel for Ethics and Government Reform, United States Ambassador to the Czech Republic, and board chair of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). He is the author of four books, including The Last Palace: Europe's Turbulent Century in Five Lives and One Legendary House (2018). In 2022, he co-authored Overcoming Trumpery: How to Restore Ethics, the Rule of Law, and Democracy.
The British Embassy in Prague is the chief diplomatic mission of the United Kingdom in the Czech Republic. It is located in the Thun Palace, a historic building in the heart of the Malá Strana. The incumbent ambassador is Matt Field.
Julius Petschek was an industrialist of Jewish origin in Austria-Hungary and later in Czechoslovakia. Together with his brother Ignaz, he was one of the wealthiest persons of interwar Czechoslovakia.
Otto Petschek was a European industrialist known for building the Petschek Villa in Prague.
Relations between Czechoslovakia and the United States refer to two periods in Czechoslovakia's history. The first being the establishment of Czechoslovakia after its declaration of independence in 1918 from Austria-Hungary initiated by President Woodrow Wilson as part of his Fourteen Points following World War I. The second period being the communist era from 1948 when relations were strained, until 1992 when Czechoslovakia split forming the independent nations of the Czech Republic and Slovakia as a result of the 1989 Velvet Revolution.
Boris Nemtsov Square is a square in Prague 6, Bubeneč, which houses the Embassy of the Russian Federation in the Czech republic.
Isidor Petschek was a German Bohemian lawyer and entrepreneur. Together with his brother Julius Petschek, he founded the Prague branch of the Petschek business dynasty, which was one of the richest Jewish families in Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
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