Casa Winter Cofete

The group of Germans that began working in Jandía in 1939 was formed by Mr Alberto Langenbacher, Mr Juan Langenbacher, Mr Ricardo Haebich, Mr Ramón Zadow, Mr Guillermo Schrauth, Mr Theodor Günther and Mr Rudolf Kalab.

• Brothers Mr Alberto and Mr Juan Langenbacher. During Gustav Winter´s visit to the islands in the summer of 1938, in Gran Canaria, he contacted Mr Alberto Langenbacher, whom he had met after working in CICER. He owned an electrical installation and distribution company along with his brother Juan, La Instaladora Alemana, in Plaza de San Bernardo, in the centre of Las Palmas. The following year, they moved to Jandía, and Mr Alberto became his right-hand person in charge and legal representative until the summer of 1946.

Alberto Langenbacher (1941)

• Engineer Mr Ricardo Haebich is responsible for measuring, tracing paths and supervising constructions: houses, warehouses, piers, etc.

Ricardo Haebich. Culantrillo. Almond tree plantation (1941)

• Mr Ramón Zadow, expert in fishing activities and in manufacturing canned fish,
• Mr Guillermo Schrauth, whom we shall talk about below,
• Theodor Günther, in charge of reforestation,

Günther, Zadow y Schrauth (1941)

• • D. Rudolf Kalab, who specialised in manufacturing bricks using clay from the Matorral area, was also in charge of the saltworks in that spot.
  • When Mr Salvador Falero ceased in 1943, he was replaced by “Mr Otto”, an expert in agricultural matters, whom we have no more references about but who seems not to have stayed there long. Between 1947 and 1962, Mr Salvador Falero made a seasonal comeback to Jandía to monitor the different activities. He lived in Gran Canaria his last few years, where he died in 1969.

  There are photos of almost all of them and some activities. Upon seeing the pictures, the impression will likely not match the preconceived idea based on fabricated stories, perhaps imagining German people with swastikas and military uniforms.

  Due to the start of the 2nd World War on 1/9/1939, the vessels, machinery and facilities purchased in Germany that were to be sent to Fuerteventura were left behind and kept by Germany: a large part of them got lost as a consequence of the bombing of the Hamburg port. If the aforementioned industrial project didn’t work, What other types of works were carried out in Jandía between 1939 and 1945? Several infrastructures were built, such as a pier,* storage rooms for grain, houses, and roads, the natural water streams were improved, ponds, lighting of wells, improvements for agricultural exploitation, ditches were built, reforestation and exploitation of saltworks.

Garage, Warehouse and Las Fileras

* This photo, taken in 1962, shows a construction from the early 1940s, a warehouse next to the beach (known as a “factory”), where the Robinson Jandía Hotel is currently located. On the beach are some buried stones, a vestige of the old pier, “el muellito”, a construction from the early 1940s that was unsuccessful.

The letter Nr 14 dated 19/07/1946, “Background” section, which has two quotations enclosed as requested by Gustav Winter, is one of the last letters signed by Mr Alberto Langenbacher. Some weeks later, after visiting Gran Canaria, he was arrested and deported to Germany. He had been 20 years in the Canary Islands, despite having had no partaking whatsoever in the War. However, since the money invested in Jandía in the early 40s came from the A.I.G., suspected of being used by the German State, Mr Alberto, as legal representative of Jandía, was put under investigation. So, he was later released free of charge; he returned to Fuerteventura and lived in Chilegua and Gran Tarajal until he died.

Since August 1946, the only “German” who stayed in Jandía was Mr Guillermo Schrauth. He married a local woman, Mrs Carmen Trujillo, and they had three daughters together. In 1954, he left Jandía and returned to Gran Canaria, where he resumed his old job, printing.