Born in 1945 in Stendal, Dieter lost his father at an early age.  He was initially an athlete, but his career was cut short by an injury and his interest turned to the arts.

He was eduated in art, art history, and design at such schools as the Erweiterte Oberschule, Karl Marx University (now the University of Leipzig), and the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig.  He then traveled to Moscow as an exchange student in 1968.  In 1970, after the birth of their daughter Claudia (1969), he married the painter Helga Melges.  He graduated in 1971 and became a freelance artist in Weissenfels.

In the following years, he traveled a little, studied, and became a university lecturer.  He eventually applied for permanent exit from the GDR and left East Germany.  He settled in West Berlin with his daughter, and was finally able to travel unrestricted to Italy and France.  He eventually moved back to Weimar in 1993 after the German Reunification, and still lives there today.  His second daughter, Agnes Sophie, was born in 2001.

In 2000 he bacame a lecturer at Fachhochschule Erfurt University of Applied Sciences.  His works have been displayed in Weissenfels, Berlin, Cologne, Aachen, Dresden and in the Saarland.  He primarily paints landscapes and portraits, but has also created sculptures.

• A collection of his work and his biography are available at Kunstmarkt.com
• Here is a video that features Dieter talking about his exhibition opening in Weimar.
• Here is another video that features Dieter discussing his I Paint My City project. And dancing. You can even see him at work painting a portrait about 2/3 way through the video. The music & sound effects are worth the watch.

Google Translate is the bomb, BTW.

According to the 1860 census, Henry Weirdenbach lived in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana.

Perhaps it was his actual name.  Could have been a typo.  Might have been a descriptive flourish by the census taker…the truth is lost to history…

Lita Weidenbach is an actress who played the role of “Rell” in the 2004 film, The Big Bounce, starring Owen Wilson, Charlie Sheen, Morgan Freeman, Gary Sinise, and Willie Nelson (awesome.)  It got a 16% splat on RottenTomatoes.com (not so awesome.)

Adam Weidenbach played the role of “Coffee Shop Loser #2″ in the 2001 short film, One Angry Dwarf.  Sadly, this movie is not available at Amazon or Netflix, and has no reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, but I did find a few angry dwarves on YouTube.

Uli Weidenbach, economist and sociologist, screenwriter and freelance journalist, directed the documentary Black September – The Olympic Murderer Munich ’72 – True Story (Deutschland: Schicksalsstunden – Von der Wannseekonferenz bis zur Wiedervereinigung), which is available for purchase…in German (with English subtitles!)  reviews are mixed, but I can’t read them.

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One more city named Weidenbach!  This Weidenbach is a municipality in the district of Rhein-Lahn, in Rhineland-Palatinate, in western Germany.

I can’t find much about this city online.  It’s not as visible as the other two Weidenbachs.  If anybody can help, please drop me a line.

• Wikipedia Page
• The three pictures I can find are on Panoramio
• The local weather report

This sculpture, “Nana I Ke Kumu” (Look to the Source), was completed in 1995 by Michael Weidenbach of Hawaii (the *other* Michael…the one with the BFA, MFA from University of Hawaii) and was purchased by the City of Honolulu in 1999 for the grounds of the Mission Memorial Auditorium.

(Larger version)

Michael is also the Curator of the Battleship Missouri Memorial, which boasts 400,000 visitors annually, and he recently oversaw a refit and preservation of the historic vessel. 

• ‘Mighty Mo’ undergoing $18M preservation
• Fact: More than one-third of the world’s commercial supply of pineapples comes from Hawaii.  Michael has little to do with this.

Jan Weidenbach has 12 children and 2 grandchildren (a Weidenbach record?)  She says faith and having a sense of humor is paramount to raising a family, “Because if you don’t, the stress may do you in.”

Almost true.  Three years ago she thought she was suffering from food poisoning, but doctors confirmed that she had suffered two heart attacks.  Now she says “I pick my battles and give the rest to someone else.”  That’s when having 12 kids around is handy…delegating tasks *should be* easier with that much help.

Jan just turned 50 on Mother’s Day 2010.  Happy Birthday, Jan!  Say “Hi” to Ammelia, Janna, Nickolas, Amber, Alana, Antonia, Luke, Ammanda, David, Jacob, Joshua, Matheu, Jon Paul, & Craig!

Back in 2007, Wade Weidenbach and his business partner, Scotty Bowman, partners in the Dirty Deeds fishing team, caught a 609-pound, 11-foot-long Mako shark.

“We were goofing off, you know, catching redfish. When he swam by he went past the boat and turned around, came back to the boat. Then I walked from the helm station and stood up on the bow and looked over and realized what he was. His eyes rolled up and looked at me, and I looked at him and I said, ‘MAKO’!  We lost sight of him, found him again, and threw a chunk of bait at him – one of the redfish we had caught – and he scarfed it up. It was game on after that”, Bowman said.

According to Weidenbach, “We got the life jackets out and crossed our fingers. Mako are real bad about jumping in the boat – you’ve got to be very careful with them.”

Game on, indeed.

They gaffed the shark when he came to the surface.  Four shots from a shotgun (under the surface) only succeeded in splintering the barrel of the gun, but didn’t stop the shark.  After 3 1/2 hours of fighting, they headed home with a shark over half as long as their 17′ Cape Horn craft.

What do you do with a 9-foot shark once you catch it?  Wade and Scotty cut it up and ate it.

Cap’n Wade now runs Down Stream Fishing Charters and does, in fact, now own a bigger boat.

• Link to the Full Story
• Video – unloading a 609lb shark
• How to hire Cap’n Wade Weidenbach

Live in South Dakota?  Need concrete?  You’re in luck!

Weidenbach Concrete Works (fomrerly Weidenbach Construction) is one of the few “South Dakota Century Businesses” …SD businesses that have been in the same business, owned by the same family, and serving the same town for over 100 years.  In fact, they’ve been in business since 1886.

They company is now on its 5th generation of Weidenbachs, and recently expanded to a new location with a new production facility.  Here’s a pic:

• www.weidenbachs.com

After being made aware in an Email that there were several towns named “Weidenbach” in Germany, a quick Google search turned up Weidenbach, Vulkaneifel (map), a town whose history dates back to before the year 1016.

Weidenbach is a municipality in the district of Vulkaneifel, in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany.

Side note: The Weidenbach Fire Brigade was created in 1906 and has their own website.  Here’s a video of them in action…okay, just training, but the music is stirring.

• www.weidenbach-eifel.de
• Wikipedia page