East German Colonial Empire

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Ernst Thälmann Island is a 15 km long and 500 m wide island in the Gulf of Cazones in Cuba. In the 1970s, Cuba promised to donate the island to East Germany and renamed it after German communist leader Ernst Thälmann. After German reunification, the island was not mentioned in official treaties, leading some to question its status. Cuba, however, maintains full jurisdiction and rejects claims that it belongs to the former East Germany.

During a 1970s state visit to East Germany, Cuban leader Fidel Castro promised to donate an island to the German Democratic Republic. In June 1972, during a visit by East German leader Erich Honecker, Castro formally renamed Cayo Blanco del Sur in Thälmann's honor and declared one beach "Playa República Democrática Alemana" (German Democratic Republic Beach). East German television reported on the ceremony, which included the unveiling of a bust of Thälmann. In 1975, East Germany sent singer Frank Schöbel to Cuba to film music videos, and footage of the island was used in a documentary portraying it as a symbol of East German–Cuban friendship.

Following German reunification in 1990, the treaty incorporating East Germany into unified Germany made no reference to the island, prompting debate about whether it remained East German territory. In practice, neither East nor West Germany ever administered the island. The self-declared micronation Republic of Molossia later humorously claimed to be at war with East Germany on the basis that it still existed through the island. In 1998, Hurricane Mitch toppled Thälmann's bust. A German newspaper attempt to visit in 2001 was denied. Both the Cuban embassy and the German Foreign Office later clarified that the renaming had been symbolic only and that sovereignty had never been transferred from Cuba.

Collection: colonies - Tags: colonies, east-germany - Source: reddit.com