Cayo Ernesto Thaelmann, the Cuban islet that Fidel Castro gifted to East Germany and which has since fallen into obscurity

On August 18, 1972, a peculiar event marked the history of relations between Cuba and the German Democratic Republic (GDR).

The Aktuelle Kamera news program from the state television of the GDR reported on an unprecedented ceremony: the transfer of sovereignty over a Caribbean islet that Fidel Castro had gifted to East Germany.

It was Cayo Blanco del Sur, an island of 7 square kilometers located in the Gulf of Cazones, which would be renamed Cayo Ernesto Thaelmann, or in German, Ernst-Thälmann-Insel, in honor of the prominent German communist politician Ernst Thälmann.

The origin of the gift

This curious episode originated during Fidel Castro's official visit to Berlin in June 1972, at the invitation of Erich Honecker, who was then the General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany.

During that meeting, Honecker gifted Castro a teddy bear, a symbol of Berlin.

However, Fidel responded with a much more grandiose gesture: he gifted the GDR a Cuban island.

According to contemporary newspapers, during a meeting at the Council of State building in Havana, Castro unfolded a map of Cuba and pointed to a small islet in the archipelago of the Southern White Cays.

During the announcement, he explained that this island had been a close witness to the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, and that it would be a symbolic gift "in memory of an exemplary son of the German people," referring to Ernst Thälmann.

Additionally, it was announced that the main beach of the islet would be named "German Democratic Republic Beach."

The transfer ceremony and the plans for the island

The official ceremony of the transfer of sovereignty was broadcast by the news program Aktuelle Kamera on August 18, 1972.

The images captured the inauguration of a bust of Ernst Thälmann on the island, in the presence of the German ambassador, several delegates from East Germany, and dozens of Cuban representatives. This event sealed the symbolic bond between the two socialist countries.

The main objective behind the gift was ambitious: to turn the islet into a "communist tourist destination" for the citizens of the GDR.

In theory, Cayo Ernesto Thaelmann would be a Caribbean paradise reserved for the workers of East Germany, a place where the ideals of socialism would blend with pristine beaches, coral reefs, and a tropical atmosphere.

From that trip, Fidel Castro returned to Cuba with a signed contract granting him 6% of the Cuban exports of white sugar to the GDR.

On August 18 of that same year, the GDR took possession of the island and installed a bust of Ernst Thälmann at the site.

Obstacles and abandonment of the project

However, the dream of a communist tourist destination, like many others promoted by Fidel Castro, never came to fruition.

The economic and logistical restrictions of the RDA, combined with the mobility limitations imposed on its citizens, made any attempt at development on the island impossible.

Despite being a territory symbolically associated with Germany, the East Germans were never allowed to spend their vacations there.

The distance and travel restrictions, which did not even allow many citizens to travel to nearby countries like Hungary, made it impossible to consider reaching the Caribbean.

Over time, the island fell into obscurity.

The coral reefs and the endangered species that inhabited the islet remained intact, while the bust of Ernst Thälmann, the only reminder of the gesture, was destroyed by Hurricane Mitch in 1998.

The German reunification and the fate of the island

With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany in 1990, the future of Cayo Ernesto Thaelmann was left in limbo.

In 2001, a reader of the magazine "Thema 1" found a newspaper clipping that his mother had kept in her jewelry box after she passed away.

Moved by his mother's unfulfilled desire to one day visit "the island of the GDR in Cuba," he sent the clipping to the magazine's editorial office, and the director, Marcel Henninger, began a territorial claim, which was later followed by the newspaper TAZ.

However, the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that "the name change and the signature on the map in 1972 were purely symbolic acts that had nothing to do with ownership, and therefore Germany did not recognize any claims."

However, there were those who would not accept it.

Matthias Kästner, a banker from Pirmasens, and his friend Marcel Wiesinger founded the "Ernst Thälmann Island Initiative," for which they requested contributions of a minimum of 50 marks in exchange for a share of the island once they had managed to pay for it.

"If the price is right, anything is possible," was their slogan, and they estimated they could negotiate the property for around 30 million marks, which today would amount to about 15 million euros. If they were unsuccessful, they planned to donate the proceeds "to the street children" of Cuba. The project failed to attract investors, and no one remembered the island again.

The legacy of a symbolic gesture

Today, the island is part of a military exclusion zone and cannot be visited. Some nostalgic German tourists bribe Cuban fishermen to reach it illegally.

Cayo Ernesto Thaelmann remains an uninhabited and largely forgotten place. Although it is occasionally mentioned in historical accounts and curiosities about the relationships between Cuba and the GDR, its significance is primarily anecdotal.

The island's biodiversity, which includes black coral reefs and ornamental fish, remains one of its greatest treasures. However, the marks of the political past, such as the bust of Thälmann, are merely remnants buried in the sand.

Recently, however, the history of the islet has sparked curiosity, such as the claim by a micronation called the Republic of Molossia, which asserts that the island is the last remnant of East Germany and engages in a "symbolic war" with this former regime.

Despite these curious turns, Cayo Ernesto Thaelmann remains an example of the political surrealism of the Cold War, where symbolic and propagandistic gestures among socialist countries led to stories as unusual as that of a "German" Cuban island in the Caribbean.

Frequently Asked Questions about Fidel Castro's Donation of Cayo Blanco del Sur to the GDR