Ernst Thälmann Island

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Ernst Thälmann Island (German: Ernst-Thälmann-Insel, Spanish: Cayo Ernesto Thaelmann) is a 15 km long and 500 m wide Cuban island in the Gulf of Cazones, at 22.0333333° N 81.4° W. It contains highly developed reef formations with a high degree of biodiversity and hosts a number of endangered species, including black coral and various ornamental reef fish species. It has extensive pristine beaches and provides nursery areas for snappers. The island is uninhabited, other than occasional tourists and the indigenous iguanas and birds that have their habitat there. In 1998, the island was hit severely by Hurricane Mitch.

In 1972 Cuban leader Fidel Castro made the island a gift to East Germany. The island was named after German Communist politician Ernst Thälmann (April 16, 1886—August 18, 1944), who was the leader of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) during much of the Weimar Republic and was arrested by the Gestapo in 1933 and held in solitary confinement for eleven years, before being shot on Adolf Hitler's orders in 1944. The gift of Castro was always seen as a symbolic gesture rather than a concession. After German reunification in 1990, Germany made no claims for the territory.