Ernst August von Hannover junior sold the castle Marienburg near Hannover. New owner of the huge estate is the public sector, as the Lower Saxony Ministry of Culture announced. According to this, Liemak Immobilien GmbH, a subsidiary of the Klosterkammer Hannover, will take over the summer residence of the Welfs.

For the castle built in 1867, the company pays the symbolic price of one euro. The Erbprinz spoke at the official announcement of the sale on Thursday of a "historic break" for the Welfs. "The jointly developed model secures Schloss Marienburg and its inventory permanently for the public," he said. The family could no longer entertain the building with its 135 rooms.

The externally magnificent building has long been considered ailing. The Ministry of Culture puts the need for remediation at about 27 million euros. The budget committee of the Bundestag had therefore decided in mid-November to contribute 13.6 million euros from the cultural budget for the refurbishment.

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Welfen estate in Lower Saxony: the one-euro castle

The opposition criticized the purchase sharply. "The plans of the state government and the monastery chamber are an absolute absurdity," said the green household expert Stefan Wenzel. According to monument protection law owners are responsible for the preservation of historic buildings: "To transfer this obligation in a night-and-fog action on the land is not."

The Ministry of Culture defended the decision. The building ensemble is a "cultural monument and place of remembrance with great importance for the Lower Saxony state identity," said Minister Björn Thümler (CDU). The Marienburg counts "to the most important sights of Lower Saxony".

Not only the castle itself changes hands: the Landesmuseum Hannover, supported by various foundations, takes over one hundred pieces from the cultural-historical inventory worth two million euros. Other items valued at six million euros are to be taken over by a specially founded art foundation.

The neo-Gothic castle had been built by King George V of Hanover for his wife Marie on a mountain slope near the former ancestral home of the noble family, as the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung" reports. Marie lived only briefly on the castle and went into exile in 1867, the Marienburg was still in the possession of the Guelphs. In 2004, Ernst August von Hannover senior transferred the castle to his son.