Revelation 22/4/01
I was amazed to find this site while casually surfing the 'Net. I am in Melbourne, Australia, and in this country 'Wehner' is a very unusual name and most often gets spelt incorrectly and mispronounced. I feel very awkward about correcting people but 'Wayna' sounds awful - especially in an Aussie accent.
I don't know much of my family history since my father came out from Dresden, East Germany, as a political refugee and his family lines are murky - that is a part of the East European experience, as well as the migrant experience. Dresden is close to the border of the Czech Republic.
I have always understood that we have strong Slavic blood since my father and I have very strong Slavic features and most East Europeans (for instance taxi drivers, people I may talk to in the street) guess that I am such - Polish or Czech, even Russian - without knowing anything about me, even my name. It's a connection, intuitive.
In Australia if you have a background other than Anglo-Celtic (be it Asian or East European, African or Hispanic) you are very much The Other, it is a similar cultural space to that of Latin folk in the US.
My father may see things differently as we come from different generations and it has only been in recent times that there has emerged a discourse about ethnicity as it is perceived in Australia. I have never identified myself as - or felt that I am - German. I feel that I am ethnically Slavic. So I am keen to find out that 'Wehner' may have originated in this region.