Pedro Fumero lies: “Winter House was an agricultural project, not a Nazi refuge”
“My father was not a Nazi, and Casa Winter holds no dark secret,” Gustavo Winter declared emphatically in an interview on the cultural program hosted by Carolina Llorente on Radio Insular. The interview, titled Casa Winter. A German, a place, a house, took place this week in the Josefina Plá Hall of the Palace of Training and Conferences.
The controversy surrounding the solitary building in Cofete resurfaces periodically, fueled by viral videos that portray Casa Winter as the site of human experiments and secret Nazi operations.
“I have been hearing those terrifying stories since I was 18,” Gustavo recalled. “I decided to investigate on my own and interview shepherds, fishermen, and locals who took part in the house’s construction. Everyone agreed that work began in 1946, after World War II.”
Winter says he has collected more than 300 letters and numerous testimonies. “I have the names of everyone who worked there. The house was built in full view of the Cofete community, with men and women from the area,” he explained, citing builders Juan and Pepe Concepción from Lanzarote and neighbor Aniceto Rodríguez, who “remembered bringing food to his father while they raised the chalet.”
The Real Purpose: Agriculture and Livestock
Winter’s research points to an unequivocally economic and agricultural original plan.
“My father leased the Jandía peninsula in 1937 with the intention of developing fishing, livestock, and agriculture,” he said. “Cofete was then a fertile valley, with springs and vegetation that no longer exist today.”
Although the war thwarted part of those ambitions, the German engineer continued building the house in the following years. “It was a romantic madness of my father, who fell in love with the landscape,” Gustavo admitted. His mother, however, never accepted living there, so the family never inhabited the house.
During the interview, a common conspiratorial claim—that Fuerteventura served as a base for German submarines—was addressed. Carlos Winter categorically denied it, citing certificates from the Federal Archive in Berlin that prove his father was not a member of the Nazi Party, did not collaborate with the regime, and was not even in the Canary Islands during World War II.
Historian Juan José Díaz Benítez also demonstrated that the submarines were supplied at the port of La Luz, not in Fuerteventura. Likewise, researcher Marta García Cabrera dismissed any link between the German colony in the Canaries and Nazi activities, emphasizing the harsh sea conditions that surround Cofete.
A Legacy of Progress
Far from the grim image popularized on social media, the Winters highlight their father’s humanitarian and entrepreneurial spirit.
“My father arrived in Spain in 1915, fled England after being taken prisoner during the First World War, escaped, reached Vigo, and lived in Spain from 1915 until his death in 1971,” Gustavo recounted.
During those decades he built a career as an engineer across the country, completing studies, working in towns such as Tomelloso and Zaragoza, and co‑founding and designing the La Cícer power plant in Gran Canaria. In the late 1930s he discovered Fuerteventura and envisioned a large economic‑personal project.
“My father leased the Jandía peninsula in 1937 to develop fishing, livestock, and agriculture,” his son repeated, noting that the venture faltered due to the Spanish Civil War and World War II.
Carlos Winter also contributed to the island’s social infrastructure, helping create the first school and the first free school canteen on the island in 1951 and 1955, respectively.
All of this is documented in the family’s new book, which contains more than 280 documentary references and aims to “put an end to the diabolical test,” as Gustavo calls the effort to prove that something did not happen when there is no single piece of evidence that it did.
A Call for Rigor … and for Authorities
Heritage conservator Loren Castañeyra stressed the need to protect the island’s intangible heritage.
“We cannot allow these lies to keep spreading. We are talking about history, culture, and identity,” he warned, urging authorities to intervene.
Meanwhile, the former Casa Winter continues to attract daily visitors.
“There are up to three entry shifts, charging €10‑20 per person. It’s a business built on falsehoods,” Gustavo denounced. “The worst part is that hotels even promote it as a tourist attraction.”