Draft:Gustav-Oskar Winter Klingele

Gustav Winter
Gustav Winter on the coastline of San Sebastián, around the 1950s.
Born	Gustav-Oskar Winter Klingele (1893-05-10)May 10, 1893 Zaslter (a small town near the city of Friburgo), Germany
Died	November 1971, aged 78 Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Spain
Other names	Don Winter
Occupation(s)	Engineer, Businessman
Years active	1926–1971
Known for	Founder of Casa Winter, development of Jandía Peninsula
Notable work	Cofete Cemetery, Villa Winter, and Winter Airfield

Gustav-Oskar Winter Klingele, (also known as Gustav Winter), he was a German engineer and businessman born in May 10th 1893. He is known to be the founder of Casa Winter.

Early Life

On May 10th 1893, Gustav Winter was born in the small town of Zastler, near the city of Friburgo. He was the youngest of four siblings, and his mother is a teacher who later became the mayor of the city. At the age of 15, Winter left his town to study as an industrial technician. In the following years, he traveled to cities such as Hamburg, Paris, London, and later crossed the Atlantic Ocean to permanently stay in Rio Cuarto, Argentina. At his newfound settlement, he worked on a ranch. By the age of 21, he married his wife, Johanna, who’d accompanied him on his journeys.

Shortly after World War I, Winter was captured by the English while on his way to Germany via ship. However, he was released on February 1915 to Spain, with the exception of not returning to his home country. He later described that this was a “spectacular escape”. From 1926 to 1929, he was the director of the Las Palmas of Gran Canaria Power Plant (CICER Power Plant) while also making friends with other Spanish high-classes. By 1929, Johanna and their six children returned to Germany. During his trip to Fuerteventura, he had the thought of owning the area around the virgen peninsula of Jandía.

In the 1930s, Gustav Winter started working as an engineer for a luxury watch brand in Switzerland. During his career, he dedicated himself to patenting several industrial machinery he had developed. Finally by 1937, Winter had caught interest of the German government in his project at Fuerteventura. Afterwards, he acquired funding from Department of the Marshall Hermann Göring, who at the time was directing the Four Year Plan, which were economic measures to prepare Germany for World War II.

Winter Airfield, Pájara.

Winter also constructed an airstrip near Cofete village, a small fishing village on the southern tip of Fuerteventura. This airstrip was allegedly built in the mid-1950s to better connect the area and allow planes to arrive and depart. However, legend has it that the Government of Fuerteventura at the time denied Winter the use of the airstrip, leading him to develop a sports pier in Puertito and use the old Los Estancos airport to leave Fuerteventura.

Career

From 1937 to 1938, several studies were conducted in Jandía, and the construction of German military facilities begun. During World War II, Gustav Winter was not only actively involved in Fuerteventura, but also in various locations in Europe. In Belgium and France, Winter conducted business with the occupational forces, which he’d gain a lot of money from. These countries were occupied by the German Wehrmacht at the time.

Following the Normandy landings of allied troops in 1944, Winter escaped capture by sailing from the coast of Saint-Jean-de-Luz to San Sebastián. He also met his second wife in Madrid, Elisabeth, a young German woman who had lived in the Spanish capital since 1941. They later moved back to Fuerteventura, where’d he ordered the peninsula of Jandía to be fenced off, and to also be watched over by an armed guard. In Cofete, Winter begun the expansion of a mansion, while also imposing harsh workplace conditions on locals who managed nearby farmland. These workers were also expected to leave the construction site by Sunset. However, he never moved into the mansion, and stayed at Morro Jable instead, where he began a second family with Elisabeth. At his last years of his life, he dedicated himself as an entrepreneur and business man, focusing on agriculture, and later tourism. In 1958, Winter begun the construction of Villa Winter, however, there have been claims that it was built earlier. Already nationalised as Spanish, he also introduces many developments in the area. In 1966, he constructed a hotel, which attracted many German tourists, On November 1971, Winter passed away at the age of seventy eight years old in Las Palmas, with a family of a wife and five children.

Legacy

Gustav Winter is often described as the protagonist of the history of Fuerteventura. When he arrived in 1947, he raised cattle to market cheese and wool, and also grew tomato and alfalfa.

Controversies

There have been claims that Gustav Winter had connections to the Nazi regime during World War II. Allegations include acting on behalf of the Nazis in real estate transactions on Fuerteventura, and also operating a base in Santa Cruz de Tenerife to support German activities. A declassified CIA report from the era reportedly mentioned a “man named Winter” acting for the Nazis, though the language used reportedly indicated speculation rather than confirmation.

Critics have also accused Winter of exploiting local labor under harsh conditions in Fuerteventura while fencing off large areas of land for private use. These actions raised suspicious of links to Nazi operations, including alleged support for German submarines in the Canary Islands. The Villa Winter was also claimed to have been a signal house for German submarines, due to it’s architecture being similar to a lighthouse. However, in an interview shortly before she died, Winter's widow said that the villa was built purely to exploit the agricultural potential of the area.

There are various theories suggesting that Villa Winter was involved in Nazi activities. Some believe it was a base for U-boats, which were used by the German Navy, while others suggest it was a testing site for experimental aircraft and other advanced technologies being developed by Nazi scientists.

The villa is thought to have connections to underground bunkers, possibly used to store military equipment or to house important Nazi figures after the war. Some claim that the villa could have been part of a network of escape routes for high-ranking Nazi officials fleeing Europe after the war.

Defenders of Winter, including his family, also strongly refute these accusations. They argue that the claims are based on rumors and mistranslations. The Simon Wiesenthal Foundation had certified that Winter had no ties to the Nazi regime, and that his family highlights his significant contributions to local communities through developments of farming, ranching, and tourism. Despite these defenses, debates over Winter’s true role in the Canary Islands still continue.

Investigation

In 2015, a historian Alexander Peer published a book about the villa, contributing to the growing body of research on the subject. Peer’s work delves into the details of the villa’s history delving into its construction and possible links to Nazi Germany. Peer analyzed historical documents and local testimonies, offering evidence and interpretations that challenge the established narratives.

Later, Pedro Fumero turned to social media to share his discoveries, striving to bring attention to this historic yet largely forgotten and unresolved case.

Initially, Pedro sought support from universities and Canarian institutions to conduct a thorough study of the Winter House, but his efforts were unsuccessful. Instead, help came from unexpected sources: visitors to the mansion who discovered his work, and strangers on the internet who reached out to share information or offer assistance.

Through these connections, Pedro built a vast network of informants and collaborators spanning across Europe.

However, not everyone approached him with good intentions. Some feigned interest in contributing, only to siphon information for their own publications, concealing Pedro’s contributions and claiming credit for themselves.

In addition to these betrayals, Pedro faced financial fraud. On one occasion, individuals offered to organize a crowdfunding campaign to support the maintenance and investigation of the Winter House. To his dismay, the supposed organizers disappeared, taking the funds with them.

Despite these challenges, there were bright spots. Pedro’s work increasingly caught the attention of the media, and the number of supporters grew steadily. He referred to his most dedicated collaborators as “The Investigation Team.” This group included individuals like José, Noelia, Paco, Fernandos, Jordi, Santiago, Yeray, and Estrella, all of whom contributed in various ways—conducting research, assisting with physical labor, or providing moral support during tough times.

In 2016, Darwin Vidal, a Spanish engineer based in Germany, joined the team after stumbling upon Pedro’s story during a vacation in Fuerteventura. A passionate history enthusiast, Darwin was captivated by Pedro’s efforts and eager to contribute. His skills and ability to travel made him an invaluable asset, particularly for tracking down archival records across Europe.

Since then, an intensive search has taken place, covering local, provincial, military, state, and private archives in Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Portugal, France, and England. Additional consultations were carried out electronically with archives in Argentina, the United States, and Russia.

Thousands of kilometers have been traveled to visit key locations tied to Gustav Winter’s life and to uncover any remaining traces of information. These efforts even led to securing permission from the French State Council to access classified government documents.The results of this painstaking work have been remarkable, revealing new insights that will soon be shared.

For now, suffice it to say that sometimes, legends aren’t so far removed from reality….

Despite various investigations and the passing of time, the exact history of Villa Winter remains unclear. Numerous accounts continue to circulate, mixing fact with speculation and conspiracy, keeping the mystery alive to this day.

See Also

• Winter Airfield
• Villa Winter
• Cofete