Manfred Gnädinger

Man or O Alemán was a German hermit and sculptor who lived in the village of Camelle, on the Costa da Morte, in Galicia (Spain).

In November 2002, when the oil spill of the Prestige destroyed his sculptures and the ecosystem of the area he lived in, news reports stated that locals believed that Gnädinger let himself die of melancholy and sadness.

[1][2] In 1962, Manfred Gnädinger arrived in the small village of Camelle on the Costa da Morte, in Galicia (Spain), from Boehringen at Lake Constance in southern Germany.

A few years later, after studying ecological issues, he built himself a small hut on the beach of the village next to the Atlantic Ocean.

He had no electricity or running water in his hut, and was a strict vegetarian, eating only from the small organic garden he had created.

Man had circulatory and respiratory problems beforehand, but it became local legend that he died of melancholy and sadness at the sight of the destruction of his life's work by the spill.