sketcher, was born in Plauen, Saxony, Germany, on 5 June 1839. After the death of his father and two brothers during the political upheavals of the late 1840s, Weger lived in straitened circumstances with his mother. In July 1852 he left Hamburg in the Little Alfred to join his brother Ernst in South Australia, arriving at Port Adelaide on 9 October. Wilhelm worked at Ernst’s blacksmith and wheelwright business in Stanley Street, North Adelaide, until he opened his own business at Nuriootpa. He and Lena, née Rönnfeldt, had seven children, all of whom were born before the family moved to North Adelaide in 1879 and Weger again set up in business as a blacksmith; later he took over Ernst’s Stanley Street shop. He died on 18 October 1917.
Soon after he arrived Wilhelm drew a naive watercolour of Ernst’s Stanley Street business (p.c.). He did not send this to his mother as originally intended because he thought the hills in the background were inaccurate, but presumably other sketches were sent home. Although unsigned, a watercolour of the residence of his father-in-law, Christian Heinrich Rönnfeldt, Poplar Holme (1855), and other stylistically similar views (AGSA and Tanunda Museum) may be attributed to him.
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
