After Germany was defeated in World War II, the country was split into two. The areas occupied by the US, France, and the UK, were unified into West Germany, and the area that was occupied by the Soviet Union was turned into East Germany.
West Germany was a capitalist state while the east was a communist satellite state controlled by the Soviet Union.
For most of the Cold War things stayed this way, until in 1989 when the East German economy was near collapse and the Berlin Wall fell, and by 1990 the two halves of Germany were finally reunited into the Germany that we know today.
East Germany ceased to exist, except for Ernst Thalmann Island!
It's a tiny strip of land, only 15 kilometers long and 500 meters wide, and is located off the southwest coast of Cuba in the Gulf of Cazones. This island might technically be the last remaining piece of East Germany.
Back during the Cold War, East Germany and Cuba were very good friends. Both countries were communist and therefore had no problems with each other. In 1972, Fidel Castro the then leader of Cuba made a state visit to the east, and promised to donate an island as a gift to his East German friends.
His gift was definitely much better than the gift that the East Germans had prepared for him, they gave him a teddy bear!
Giving away an island might seem like a really big gift, but Cuba owns about 4000 small islands. So giving away one wouldn't be that important to them, and it was a nice show of support that would strengthen relations between the two countries. He basically gave them a vacation spot where the Germans could overwinter.
Soon after his promise, Castro made things official during a visit by an East German diplomat to Cuba. Castro took the tiny uninhabited island of Cayo Blanco Del Sur and renamed it to Ernst Thalmann Island, named after a German communist.
But the East Germans didn't do much with the island. In 1972 they placed a large stone bust of Ernst Thalmann on the island, and in 1975 the East German government sent a singer to the island to record a music video.
Other than that nothing ever happened on the island, and it was soon forgotten by everyone. So forgotten that when East Germany reunified with West Germany, absolutely no mention was made of Ernst Thalmann Island.
This technically means that the island never officially rejoined Germany, and in theory this makes it the last remaining part of East Germany.
But in 2001 a German newspaper looked into what had happened to the island. They contacted the Cuban government to find out what exactly the status of the island was, and the Cubans responded that the island was only symbolically given to East Germany.
Whether this is actually true is up to interpretation, but when the newspaper contacted the German government for a comment, they agreed that the island belonged to Cuba, and didn't dispute the claim.
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this little piece of history!