Vamos a la Playa RDA: How the GDR (Almost) Got a Caribbean Island as a Gift

And why Ernst Thälmann now has his head in the sand there

Some stories from the past have made it through the media a hundred times – and I still somehow missed them. That, of course, doesn’t mean that you haven’t read every article and bit of information about them carefully.

If this Caribbean island and its connection to the GDR is new territory for you, then perk up your ears – or better yet, your eyes. Because this story is truly almost unbelievable.

And it has a number of offshoots that are no less interesting – financial, musical, and cinematic in nature. But let’s begin with the historical background. Although, that can be told pretty quickly.

Fidel Castro hands over a map

In June 1972, Cuba’s then head of state Fidel Castro presented his East German counterpart Erich Honecker with a map. On it, one of the islands of the Cayos Blancos del Sur chain in northwestern Cuba had been renamed Ernst Thälmann Island. A section of beach on the island was from then on called the GDR Beach (Playa RDA).

The island is located only about 25 kilometers from the legendary Bay of Pigs. It’s 7 square kilometers in size, which is roughly the size of the park at the Palace of Versailles. But life on the uninhabited island was far from imperial – even though some things did happen there.

Frank Schöbel and Aurora Lacasa sing

In August 1972, a four-meter-high bust of Thälmann was unveiled on the island. In 1975, East German pop stars Frank Schöbel and Aurora Lacasa visited the island. There, a video was shot for the song specially composed for the occasion: “Island in the Gulf of Cazones.” In 1980, Honecker himself also paid a visit.

And that was pretty much it for the glory days of Thälmann Island. With the fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification, the island and the whole topic fell into obscurity. Though one thing continued to linger in the background: the rumor that Castro had gifted the island to the GDR.

After 1990 – Does the island now belong to the Federal Republic?

In 2001, the Berlin online magazine Thema1 stumbled across the island off the coast of Cuba thanks to a letter from a reader, according to Spiegel Online. The editors came up with the idea that the island ought to belong to reunified Germany now.

The resulting article ran under the promising headline: “17th Federal State Off Cuba – Fidel Gave Us a Sun Island!” But unfortunately, this hope turned out to be false. A hastily published statement by the German Foreign Office clarified that the renaming and the map handover had been purely “symbolic acts.”

Meaning: Ernst Thälmann Island never belonged to the GDR and therefore does not belong to the Federal Republic of Germany either! Bummer!

Banker wants to buy the island from Cuba

That didn’t stop banker Matthias Kästner from Pirmasens (in Rhineland-Palatinate) from attempting to buy the island from Cuba. He wanted fans of the island to purchase an option for 10 square meters each for 50 Deutschmarks. But the whole thing didn’t generate enough interest – and so Thälmann Island disappeared again into collective oblivion.

That goes for the Thälmann monument as well. Reportedly, it was torn from its base and toppled by Hurricane Mitch. However, according to singer Frank Schöbel, the bust didn’t have it easy even before that. He said it had been placed too close to the water, and as a result, Thälmann “was constantly getting a full blast of water in the face,” as Schöbel remarked in a 2007 interview with MDR.

Films referencing Ernst Thälmann Island

We’ve covered finance and music – but what about film? That’s where director Ronald Vietz and actor Max Riemelt come in. Along with cinematographer Benjamin Raeder, they managed to sneak onto the island, which is technically located in a military exclusion zone.

• Max Riemelt on Ernst Thälmann Island. (Image: Barnsteiner Film)

There, they filmed several scenes for the movie Ernesto’s Island. In it, an East Berliner (played by Riemelt) fulfills his late mother’s wish to scatter her ashes on Ernst Thälmann Island.

The island also plays a role in another film: Kundschafter des Friedens 2 (Scouts of Peace 2). In this film, Fidel Castro has gifted the island to a former East German Stasi agent. After his death, the titular scouts must now ensure that the island doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.

So, if you now know all about Cayo Ernest Thaelmann (“Ernst Thälmann Island”) and Playa RDA (“GDR Beach”), then check out another exciting news story from the D.R.O.B. History section. For example, this one, which also reveals who the first punk in the GDR was.