Reimer Weber

Lehigh’s the perfect place to come and spend the winter for many people, but for Reimer Weber, it’s something he wouldn’t miss.

“We really love Lehigh Acres. It’s the perfect place to come and relax for the season and we plan to come here for as long as we can,” Weber said.

he and his wife are from Lippstadt, Germany and for several years worked in Germany as a steel worker in the building of, automobiles.

He started his own business when he was 22 and for 15 years before he retired, he owned a factory for the manufacturing of supplies for the offset printing industry. He has been retired now for 13 years.

They first came to Lehigh on vacation to visit a friend and the friend and the great weather and the natural vegetation caused he and his wife to decide to come here and build a house on E. 6th Street.

German artist at work. Here Reimer Weber paints one of most recent painting outside next to the pool. He uses brushes and other instruments in his colorful paintings and comes to Lehigh each season from Germany to relax and enjoy the community, he says. Photo by Mel Toadvine

‘We had looked at other areas from Orlando to Fort Myers to the Keys, but this is where we decided to build. We even looked at Cape Coral, but didn’t like the congestion. So in 2003, the couple purchased a quarter acre and they spend the fall and winters here.

Lehigh is also a natural attraction for Weber because of its peace and quiet. It gives him a place for h is favorite hobby – painting on canvas.

The house here is decorated with his art, most of which may be called contemporary. Weber loves colors and his many pieces of art, much of it large, is hanging on the walls. He usually paints in the lanai next to the pool and that is where his easel is always sitting up and all his paints, brushes and instruments are kept, even when he is not here and back in Germany.

Back in Germany, he said he probably has about 150 paintings, “not all on the wall like here,” he laughed.

He paints for relaxation and for the fun of it. He doesn’t sell his paintings but sometimes gives them away as gifts.

At Poolside: Reimer Weber, and his wife, Waltraut Weber and son Olaf Weber, stand by the pool at the home in Lehigh where the family comes each year for peace and quiet. Reimer Weber also uses the time to paint outside on his lanai. Photo by Mel Toadvine

“I paint from ideas I vision in my mind. I just see the image in my head and it’s like an inspiration and I have to paint it. He paints small and he paints big.

On the wall of his house once you enter the interior, there is a big two feet by four feet paining of a cable car in San Francisco. He remembered the site in his mind during a trip that he and his wife took to California once while touring the country.

This year, Reimer and his wife, Waltraut brought their grown son, Olaf Weber over. They also have a daughter, and she had visited Lehigh once. Mostly though, he said just he and his wife come for the season and they usually arrive in October.

Last year, they brought a 15-year-old grandson and he did well with his English, Weber, who hasn’t yet learned as much English as he would like, said the grandson wants to be a policeman.

When they leave to return to Germany, someone looks after their home.

Trolley: Reimer Weber, stands in the entrance way of home in front of a painting he did of a San Francisco trolley car. He has traveled in many countries and had painted memories from there, but he says this is one of his favorite