Prince Reza Pahlavi vows to return Germany's Freedom Prize to Iranians in Tehran
Exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi said on Saturday that he would hold Germany's 2026 Freedom Prize on behalf of the Iranian people until he could return it to them in Tehran.
Accepting the award at Frankfurt's historic St. Paul's Church, Pahlavi said he had agreed to receive the prize only on the condition that he serve as its temporary custodian.
"A custodian safeguards something of great value that belongs to someone else," he said. "When the time comes, he returns it intact and in its entirety."
Pahlavi said he hoped that day would come soon.
"One day, and I believe that day is closer than the dying clerical regime would like to admit, I will place it in the hands of its rightful owners, the Iranian people," he said.
"Not on foreign soil, but in our capital, Tehran."
The Friedrich Naumann Foundation awarded its 2026 Freedom Prize to the Iranian people in recognition of their struggle for democracy and human rights, with Pahlavi accepting it on their behalf.
Pahlavi also paid tribute to families who had lost relatives in the struggle for freedom.
"For 47 years, Iran has been like a house whose residents, its rightful owners, have been locked out of their own home or held captive inside it," he said.
"The keys were taken from the people in 1979," Pahlavi added. "I see it as my duty to help reclaim those keys and return them to their only rightful owners, the Iranian people."