Guillermo Sundheim

Wilhelm Sundheim-Giese, better known as Guillermo Sundheim (3 July 1840 – 7 August 1903), was a German entrepreneur and businessman, who is widely regarded as one of the most important figures of Huelva at the end of the 19th century, being responsible for part of the development and economic growth of the province, especially in the financial, mining, and railway fields. He is considered the paradigm of the foreign bourgeoisie that settled in Huelva during the years of industrial expansion. as the son of Johann Carl Sundheim and Juana Mª Gertrudis Giese und Giese, from the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstatt.

On 8 March 1866, in Huelva, Sundheim married Justa de la Cueva y Camporredondo, His relationship with this company, as its representative in Spain and Portugal, was fruitful until 1876, when he lost the trust of the management. Doetsch was succeeded at the Rio Tinto Group by his nephew Carlos Doetsch (1870–1951), who married in 1902 Justita Sundheim de la Cueva, daughter of Guillermo, and the couple had two children, Mercedes and Jorge.

Sundheim set an example of how to take advantage of other natural resources throughout the Huelva region, producing exquisite wines, exploiting magnificent white marble quarries, establishing the breeding and fattening of pigs, and making considerable shipments to England of the famous chestnut from the Sierra. He made countless business activities and achievements, and held several positions and properties, most notably being the owner of wineries and vineyards in Peguerillas, and also had marble quarries in Fuenteheridos. On behalf of Sundheim, the architect José Pérez Santamaría built Hotel Colón between 1881 and 1883 on a space of 20,000 square meters, becoming the most luxurious in Spain when it was inaugurated on 26 June. Recreativo's founding meeting on 23 December 1889, was called by Dr. William Alexander Mackay, in agreement with Sundheim, who later selflessly gave up land for the club to play tennis; this was the first tennis court in the city of Huelva, located in the old Hotel Colón.

Later life and death Sundheim was named an adopted son of Huelva in 1879, living the rest of his life in a chalet next to Casa Colón, on the avenue that now bears his name since 1892.

Sundheim died in Huelva on 7 August 1903, at the age of 63. Curiously, in the same year that he died, Otto Engelhardt was appointed consul in Seville, another German who went on to become an adopted son of an Andalusian city.

Legacy In 2023, Huelva's Councillor for Tourism, Francisco Baluffo, presented an informative brochure at the Berlin Tourism Fair (ITB), in which he stated "Many of the identity elements [of Huelva] that we know and treasure today as some of our main values are because Sundheim decided to give the necessary push to turn them into what we know today".