By Myra Lee Adams Goff

Twenty-eight-year-old Ferdinand von Roemer came to Texas on a quest for information about the geology, flora, and fauna of the state. Almost no information had been written in German to help the emigrants who would make Texas their home and Roemer’s complete account of his sojourn from 1845 to 1847 would become an important contribution.

Prince Carl had commissioned Roemer to survey the geology and mineral resources of the area of the Adelsverein’s grant. Roemer was recommended by none other than the famous scientist Baron Alexander von Humbolt.

Roemer’s observations were published in 1849 in Germany and widely circulated there. His book named Texas was translated into English in 1935, and finally re-published by the German Texas Heritage Society in 1983 as a commemoration for the celebration of the Texas Centennial.

Roemer believed that Prince Carl’s selection of New Braunfels as the destination spot for German emigration was a most fortunate one and a bright spot among the many  blunders in the German colonization of Texas.

As Roemer described the area of  New Braunfels in 1846 as a small, treeless plain, surrounded by the Guadalupe and Comal rivers. Eighty to one hundred houses were scattered throughout and only the main street (Seguin) was distinguishable as a street and this only because of the fenced- in one half acre lots. The houses were made of long, studding framework filled in with brick, or huts with walls of vertical cedar posts. Roofs were covered with tent canvas or oxhides. All houses had porches for additional space during summer, but at the time, no provision had been made for heating.

One of the more fascinating accounts in the book was of an “eating house” located at the end of the principal street (either north or south Seguin). It was a small, one room log house with a doorway, but no door, no floor, and cracks between the logs, letting in air. In the center of the room was a long table surrounded by rough benches. A fire was burning in the corner and pots and pans were hanging under the roof.

Entering the hut, Roemer encountered a heavy- set, middle-aged woman, nicknamed “Dicke Madam”. She claimed to have been the cook for a Count, but now she owned this establishment and cooked for 10-12 regular customers. They were young, educated Germans, some were former disgruntled lieutenants in the German army and some were students who had failed.  This group assembled three times a day for breakfast, dinner, and supper (most Germans call the three meals these names).

“Dicke Madam” cooked a combo of German and American food, mostly coffee, cornbread, and beef. Beef could be bought cheap for three cents a pound because the Adelsverein bought whole beef and sold it to the colonists at cost. Other food was expensive because it had to be transported from far away.

Roemer describes the clothing of the young men as a combination of Indian, Mexican, American, and German costumes. For example, there was the German cloth cap, the Mexican sombrero, or a fur-lined cap with the long tail of a fox dangling from it. There was a yellow buckskin fringed coat (Indian fashion), blouse with sleeves slit to the shoulders (Prince Carl introduced this), long boots reaching to the knees with spurs, or shoes and boots made of yellow deerskin. A belt held a pistol, stiletto, or bowie knife. Roemer commented, “I noticed a similar irregularity and romanticism in regard to the clothing of the young German colonists… seems they wanted to compensate themselves in the land of the free for the restraint which the manners and customs of the homeland had imposed upon them”.

Don’t you know that there were interesting conversations around that table? Anyway, we can thank Roemer for keeping such a super diary about his wanderings in Texas.

"Dicke Madam" cooks for 10-12 customers. Drawing by Patricia Arnold

By Myra Lee Adams Goff

If you have lived in New Braunfels at least six months, you haveprobably noticed that quite by accident, you have mastered the German language. Well, at least a few words. I’m sure you know these: Haus, Fest, Bier, Gruene, Wurst, Halle, and Verein (Nouns are capitalized).

“Verein” means “organization” and the immigrants brought their love of organizations with them in 1845. That’s why we have so many old clubs with the word Verein in them. Thus we have: Adelsverein (society of noblemen), Schuetzenverein (shooting club), Frauenverein (women’s club), Gesangverein (singing club), das Verein (the club), and the one that I’m going to tell you about – the Turnverein. (Athletic Club).

There were two Turnvereine (the “e” at the end makes it plural so now you know German grammar}. The two were called Turnverein New Braunfels, and New Braunfels Turnverein. Is this confusing?

Hermann Seele is given credit for organizing the Turnverein in 1855 for the purpose of promoting gymnastics, but it was more than that. They sponsored entertaining programs, literary events, and formed a fire-fighting brigade. Another purpose was to improve and promote intellectual and moral culture of youth.

The second club was organized sometime at the early part of 1870. They met at Seele’s Saengerhalle (on Seele St.) and at Weichold Halle (Eagles Hall in Comaltown). Eventually property was purchased on the corner of Coll and Hill Sts. and a hall was built sometime between 1871 and 1880. In the Sophienburg Museum, pictures and belts are part of the Vereine exhibit. They “float through the air with the greatest of ease; the daring young men on the flying trapeze” and take themselves very seriously I must say.

Oscar Haas’ translation of the Comal County deeds revealed that in 1880 the Turnverein donated (for $1) the lot which was their property to the International and Great Northern Railroad Company. They did this because the railroad had agreed to build its railroad through theCity of New Braunfels and to establish a depot for passengers and freight. The Turnverein property (lot 194) was in the boundary of the land on which the depot was to be located.

The second anniversary of this organization was described in the Neu Braunfelser Zeitung of September 29, 1871, translated by Haas:

The festivities started with a parade to Weichold Halle where the anniversary was to be observed. They began with a series of gymnastic exercises on horizontal and parallel bars. Superintendent of Gymnastics Wipprecht gave a speech about the value of gymnastic exercises. After that a home-talent theatrical presentation by members was followed by a dance.

The Turnverein movement has a very interesting background, if not at times somewhat scary. In Prussia (the largest German state) a man named Friedrich Ludwig Jahn in the 1840s bemoaned the contrast between the post-Napoleonic German and the ancient barbarian Tutons. The political atmosphere of the time sparked the flame of the Turnverein movement. Mental acuity had always been important to the German, but now this movement stressed the importance of physical superiority through discipline and conformity. Jahn believed that the way to build up Germany was to build up the physical fitness of its men through exercise. For his ideas he got himself arrested and charged with treason, but was released.

Many of the educated Germans who emigrated to America brought this Turnverein idea with them (as did our early settlers). The movement is responsible for physical education in private and public schools to this day.

In some large cities in the United States, the Turnverein groups became controversial when they organized against various political parties and became more militaristic in nature. That didn’t happen in New Braunfels.

Let’s form a Verein and give the Turnverein credit for our outstanding high school and college athletes. We take physical fitness so much for granted that it’s hard to imagine a time when it wasn’t important.

Members of the Turnverein with their winning belts.