Martin Weiche Nazi House - London Ontario

What a piece of history.

This house was the home of Martin Weiche, a self-professed Nazi. He made his money by building and managing apartment complexes in London and Sarnia. In 1962 he incorporated a business named Weiche Apartments Ltd. Each of his children were given shares in the company. In 1986 the company name was changed to Weiche Estates Inc.

In 1967 he purchased a property located on Gainsborough Road. The house was built approximately 1970. The front of the home was guarded by two Third-Reich eagle statues, one on each side of the driveway. The foundations are there today but the eagles are gone. In the back yard was a large swastika cut into the grass and visible from Google Earth. Ku Klux Klansmen were once allowed to burn their crosses on the property.

In 1968 Martin ran in the federal election as a National Socialist.

Weiche, who fought for the Germans during the Second World War, arrived in Canada in 1951. He modelled his home after Adolf Hitler's Bavarian mountain home and named it "The Berghof".

He retired from building homes in 1980.

In 1993 approximately 40 Klansmen attended the property for a cross burning ceremony.

Following his death in 2011 from liver failure, his widow Jeannet remained in the home. His two sons, Jacob and Allan then sued the estate when they learned that the estate had been willed to Jeannet. The furniture and personal items were left to his wife except for the items in the living room which were styled after a room in Hitler's retreat - as well as a portrait for Hitler. Those items were to remain with the property.

The property worth $1.2 million the sons claim, was to be developed and severed into seven residential lots. Middlesex County wouldn't permit the rezoning. Weiche and Jeannet transferred ownership of the property (known as Weiche Estates Inc.) to a company under Jeannet's control. Jeannet claimed that it was her husband's desire to cut the kids out from the will.

Demolition commenced March 9, 2020

A lengthier biography can be read on my blog.