By Myra Lee Adams Goff

This column is now 16 months old and this story is the “wurst” story ever. For those of you who just got off the boat, “wurst” means sausage and sausage means Wurstfest!

This Friday Wurstfest will begin its 40^th year in the giant building called Wursthalle which according to Herb Skoog was possibly the largest poured concrete building in the world at that time (1890s). That building has been the home of Wurstfest since 1967 and it will once again house the ten day celebration.

The first festival in 1961 was conceived by Veterinarian Ed Grist as a celebration of New Braunfels’ German heritage. It was in the National Guard Armory, the next year in Landa Park, and then downtown in a hole created by the burned-out Eiband and Fischer building on Main Plaza. The crowds got so big that they moved to theWursthalle in Landa Park.

According to Executive Director Suzanne Herbelin, only half of the building was used and the other half was a storeroom for Southwestern Bell. It had a dirt floor. And a floor was put in the firstyear. Over the years, the Wursthalle has taken on a decidedly German atmosphere, with its multi-colored lights, and the many coats of arms decorating the walls. All of those (273) Opas with their lederhosen and all of those Omas with their dirndls make you wonder if you really are still in Texas.

Now look at the photo. In the 1890s this was the Landa Cotton Oil Co. owned by Harry Landa until 1926 when the entire Landa Milling Company was sold. The building on the right now houses theWursthalle. You’re looking at a bird’s-eye view of the entrance. From right to left, all four of these buildings were part of the cotton oil production. The cottonseed was brought into the Wursthalle building and went through several processes producing various products made from cottonseed. The remnants were used for cattle feed and stored in the rock building shown on the left (City Maintenance).

Now let’s move to the building directly to the left of theWursthalle. This building now houses Circle Arts Theater, the Wurst office, and Spass Haus containing a collection of 7,000 plus beer bottles from around the world collected by the late Jerome Nowotny.This building has a full basement that in WWII contained a rifle range and also a field hospital. Everything needed to set up a hospital was stored in that basement. The idea was that it could instantly be moved in case of an emergency.

The next building to the left (Landa Recreation) became a thriving business during World War II. Tom and Gyrene Cater began a girl’s dress manufacturing business there (Cater Frock), using only material from the local textile mill. In 1947 Tobe Nathan saw an ad in the Houston paper that this little factory was for sale and he and his daughter Loyce and son-in-law Irwin Boarnet purchased it. They hired three young girls from T.S.C.W. in Denton as designers – Mary Jo Stratton (Zipp), Sarah Jones (Wetz), and June Keith (Voigt). Eventually, all three married NB young men. They also hired Edna Fundis (Bremer) and Laris Priesmeyer.

When the business grew, they moved to the back of the building to the right of the present Recreation Building. The business was eventually sold in 1970.

Loyce Boarnet has done long-standing volunteer work with the Sophienburg, reconstructing damaged material and handwork. She is part of a group of ladies called the Sophie Sewers and they perform an invaluable contribution to our collection.

Wurstfest uses its money for worthy projects in the community. The Sophienburg is one of the recipients of this generosity. Also, this year Sophienburg will hold its primary fund raiser, Weihnachtsmarkt, at the Wursthalle. (Nov. 30, Dec. 1 and 2)

Polka on out to the Wursthalle, y’all!

Landa Cotton Oil Company, 1890s, site of Wurstfest.

By Myra Lee Adams Goff

Looking through a cookbook is a little like visiting with the cooks who wrote it. You start to remember past holidays, birthdays and just plain fun days. I visit my mother, my grandmother, and my aunts. My mother wrote notes next to her recipe collection like “No good”, “Make this again”, or “Too much work”.

The best selling cookbook Guten Appetit which is still for sale at Sophie’s Shop in the Sophienburg was written by New Braunfels cooks in 1978.

This unique book has home remedies copied from an 1897 leather-bound book written by Rudolph Richter when he was a pharmacy student. How many remember going to Richter’s Drug Store? It’s where C&C Mercantile is located. Many of the ingredients are no longer to be had. Here are a few: Whiskey Habit Cure (I can’t even pronounce the ingredients), Tapeworm Remedy (creosote and chloroform), Headache Remedy (menthol and chloroform. Rub over pain until eyes water), and Pain Killer (morphine).Actually the formula for Roach Extermination and Bed Bug Poison might work.

Mr. Richter went on to tell us how to make colored show globes. As a child, I remember big glass globes in the front window of Richter’s filled with red or blue water. Go to the museum’s pharmacy display to find out what this colored water meant.

Then there is the recipe for something called “Bengalische Lichter” or Bengal Fire. These lights were like flares and added luster to the gatherings, he said. I guess so. Many colors were possible with chemicals bought at Richter’s which he labeled “Not for indoors”.

There are other recipes that are interesting, like hair invigorator which mixes castor oil, alcohol, rum, and ammonia. And everyone will want to know how to make soap from lard and lye.

Does every cookbook have a recipe for making home brew? How about brandy and agarita and mustang grape wine?

What follows is a most amazing collection of recipes. Many of these I recognize as food that was served at the Kaffeeklatsch. The women would get together to eat and “talk”. Good food but even better talk. As a child I attended many of these sessions with my mother and her aunts, the Roessing sisters. They served several cakes and open-faced sandwiches like egg salad, sausage on butter bread, sardine, pimiento cheese and koch kase (cooked cheese). This afternoon get-together was mostly gone with the wind when women entered the work force after WWII.

The soup recipes are particularly interesting. There’s soup made out of cherries, bread, beer, sausage, pancake, turtle and wine. Also, noodles were made, not bought in the old days. My grandmother used to hang noodles on the clothesline to dry.

The desserts are spectacular, like Blitz Kuchen (Lightning Cake). It’s hard to make, but so good. Two others stand out: Loyce Boarnet’s recipe for Original Cheese Cake and the Sauerkraut Cake recipe from the NB Conservation Society.

Laura Naegelin of Naegelin’s Bakery has a recipe for Stuffed Cabbage. The recipe has 26 ingredients. I’m not stuffing cabbage.

Did women really wash clothes on only one day? There’s a recipe from Betty Reinarz for cooking “Washday Hash” on that one day.

About every third page there are little German words of wisdom and their translation. Some of these messages are like “When the mouse is satisfied, the meal tastes bitter”, and “Hens that cackle a lot lay few eggs”. Can that be linked to the Kaffeeklatsch? How about this advice: “A sparrow in the hand is better than the dove on the roof.” Duh!. And finally the most insulting old saying: “A woman can throw more out of the window with a teaspoon than the man can bring in with a wheelbarrow through the door”. You’ve come a long way, baby!

What a wonderful book. It is so interesting, even if you don’t cook.

Rudolph and Emilie Weilbacher Richter on their wedding day, 1898.

By Myra Lee Adams Goff

Long before we had convenience stores in New Braunfels, we had the first drive-in grocery store in Texas right at the intersection of one of the busiest spots in town. It was Warnecke’s Drive In and it was located where the Union Street Station now is at the corner of E.San Antonio St. and Union.

After talking to various members of the Warnecke family, Wilton, Sr., Wilton, Jr., and Bob Warnecke, a rather amazing story unraveled. The Warnecke family connection with this particular intersection has been a long one, going back to Wilton (Sr.)Warnecke’s grandparents, Karl and Caroline Warnecke.

On the opposite corner of E; San Antonio and Union where Ducky’s parking lot is now was a huge two story building that was built by Peter Nowotny, Jr. in 1903. Sometime before 1918, this property was bought by Karl Warnecke and he and his wife lived on the second floor.

Around 1920, Karl Warnecke rented out a large portion of the downstairs to Arthur Schumann and Elmo Arnold who ran a mercantile and grocery store. A full length wall separated this store from a saloon run by Warnecke. In 1924 Warnecke sold this building to Schumann and Arnold. They proceeded to cut down the building and move it away from the corner to its present location… According to Douglas Heilmann, present owner of the building and operator of his store, Ducky’s Swimwear, the second floor had to be removed to move it and was not replaced. In the basement of Ducky’s, extending the entire length of the building and approximately eight feet wide, was a rifle range built in the 1920s.

Karl Warnecke then bought the property across the street facing E. San Antonio (now Union Street Station). On this corner had been a small three lane bowling alley. Naturally it was 9 pin bowling, a practice that was brought from Germany. Warnecke tore down the bowling alley and gave the wood from the lanes to his nephew, Otto Warnecke, who had purchased the adjoining land for the Camp Warnecke Resort. Otto fashioned a large bar out of the wood and it remained a focal part of the Camp Warnecke office.

The couple built a house on the corner and a Bude (German slang for hut) which all three Warneckes told me is a small room where there were domino tables. Later, when the front of the house was converted to Warnecke Drive In, customers were invited to play dominoes free, and win chips. These could then be turned into merchandise right there. Hmm, clever!

When both Warnecke’s died in the early 1930s their adopted sonAugust and wife Emma moved into their house. It was actually August that started the drive-in in 1934. He attached it to the front of the house. He would stand outside on the porch, people would drive up and place their order, and August would bring it to them. August ran the first live bait business in town, selling minnows for 25 cents a dozen, worms for 10cents a dozen and crawfish seined from creeks for 2cents a piece.

Meanwhile, Emma ran her homemade tamale business out of the Bude. Emma sold 50 dozen tamales to Ma’s Café downtown every Saturday. She kept on doing that even after August died and sons Wilton and Bennie took over the drive in. The Warnecke brothers sold gasoline, had their own meat market, and had the first refrigerated fruit and vegetable case in NB. They catered bar-b-q and of course rented tubes to float the Comal. The drive-in came to an end when it was sold in 1984.

I think I’ll try to drive up to some grocery store, honk the horn and see what happens. What do you think?

Warnecke Drive In, the first drive-in grocery store in Texas, as it looked in the 1970s. The store opened in 1934 and closed in 1984.