Ambrosius Ehinger

Who was Ambrosius Ehinger?

Ambrosius Ehinger, also Dalfinger, Thalfinger, was a German conquistador and the first governor of the Welser concession, also known as “Little Venice”, in New Granada, now Venezuela and Colombia.

Ehinger was a factor in Madrid for the Welser banking family when they began planning for the colonization of New Granada. The Welsers appointed him as the first governor, and sent as his deputy the Spaniard Luis González de Leyva. They arrived in Coro in 1529 with 281 colonists and called the new colony “Little Venice”. Almost immediately Ehinger replaced González de Leyva with Nicolaus Federmann.

In August 1529 Ehinger made his first expedition to Lake Maracaibo which was bitterly opposed by the indigenous people, the Coquivacoa. After winning a series of bloody battles, he founded the settlement at Maracaibo on September 8, 1529. Ehinger named the city Neu Nürnberg and the lake after the valiant chieftain Mara of the Coquivacoa, who had died in the fighting. The city was renamed Maracaibo after the Spanish took possession.

Ehinger came down with malaria and decided to recuperate in the relatively civilized comforts of Hispaniola, so he handed temporary authority over to Federmann on July 30, 1530.