By Myra Lee Adams Goff

Das deutsche Lied  (German song) bound the early settlers together, kept their language alive, and was a constant companion through good times and bad. This love of music came with the emigrants from Germany to Texas.

Just imagine what the music must have been like on the trek up from the coast to NB during the tragic year of 1846 when so many emigrants died and were buried along the way. “So nimm denn meine Hände” (So take my hands) was a popular and highly emotional song sung at funerals. It is still sung occasionally at First Protestant Church funerals and it is heart wrenching.

Classical music from composers such as Bach, Beethoven, Strauss, and Mozart came across the sea, but Volkmusik arose from the heart and soul of the people.

Singing societies were prevalent in Germany and it was only natural that the first Sängerbund (singing society) in Texas was organized in New Braunfels five years after the first settlers arrived (1850). They named the society Germania, followed by Liedertafel and then Concordia.

Hermann Seele’s home (corner of Seele and Sanger Sts.) was the location of the first Sängerfest in 1853. Having no building at that time, an open area was cleared for a round dance floor and the soil was compacted and roofed over with wagon canvasses borrowed from the teamsters. Long branches covered the shelter and around the dance floor tables and benches were built for the guests. Singers were invited throughout the state. By 1855 Seele had built a brick Sängerhalle on his property on the banks of the Guadalupe River. Many singing, dancing, and dramatic productions were held here.

Over the years, singing has been an important part of NB society. Early educator Curt Schmidt was a strong believer in keeping the German language alive through singing folk songs. In the 1960s Louise Dietz taught sixth graders German at Carl Schurz Elementary and I taught them folk songs brought from Germany – love songs, military songs, drinking songs, fun songs like “Schnitzelbank”.

“Ist das nicht ein Regenschirm?” (Isn’t that an umbrella?)

“Ja, das ist ein Regenschirm” (Yes, that is an umbrella)

O.K., it doesn’t make sense, but on and on they sang.

Curt Schmidt also began the practice in the elementary schools in the 1930s and 40s of having Friday afternoon auditorium classes. All of the children in the school sang from the “Golden Song Book.” This was Schmidt’s favorite songbook and the songs were from around the world, Christmas songs, and historical songs. Come on, I’ll bet some of you out there could still sing “Solomon Levi” and “The Spanish Cavalier” at the same time.

These auditorium classes evolved into little school Sängerfests of their own sometimes know as the May Fete. Elaborate musical productions were put on for the most appreciative of all audiences – the parents.

One of my favorite stories that I heard about those early May Fetes at Carl Schurz School went like this: After weeks of practice, the May Fete was scheduled to be performed outside on the football field with parents in the bleachers. (The first Unicorn football field was behind Carl Schurz School). All was ready for a magnificent production of first through sixth grade performers. But what happened? The night before, the field was fertilized with horse manure and then watered down. Well, the show must go on, but it’s very hard for children to act like everything’s OK when it isn’t.

The truth is that music was and always has been an important part of New Braunfels lifestyle. Wurstfest, the Comal County Fair, church choirs, Community Chorale, the schools, CAT Theater, Brauntex, Mid-Texas Symphony, and the Community Band all keep the old love of music part of the present.

The emigrants brought this love from Germany.

“If music be the food of love, play on” Wm. Shakespeare from “Twelfth Night”

Herman Seele's home, site of the first Sängerfest in 1853, is shown on the left in this drawing and the Sängerhalle on the right.

By Myra Lee Adams Goff

On this exact day in 1944, the Jahn Furniture Co. properties on S. Seguin Ave. sold for the very first time by the Jahn family to J.D. Nixon. Since then the beautiful brick building changed hands many times, at one time a Piggly Wiggly grocery store owned by Jarvis Hillje.

The Jahn Furniture Co. was no ordinary furniture company. On the exact spot, Johann Michael Jahn built his home. He had emigrated on the ship Hershel with the very first group of emigrants to settle in New Braunfels in 1845. Supposedly he arrived with 10 cents and a bag of handmade cabinet-making tools. Jahn was one of the first to be deeded lots by the Adelsverein.

Anyone in Texas who knows anything about old furniture knows about the furniture made by Johann Jahn. His handmade pieces of black walnut gathered from the banks of the Guadalupe River are sought after and famous. He was a true “Tischlermeister” (master cabinet maker).

Johann Jahn was born in Pomerania in Northern Germany in 1816. As a young man he served as an apprentice to a cabinet maker in Prague, Czechoslovakia.   Ruth Heitkamp who is the g-granddaughter of Jahn says that he had a disagreement with  someone at the school and it ended up in a fight in which Jahn was injured. This caused a hip injury that crippled him for the rest of his life. Because Jahn refused to talk about the past, Heitkamp thinks that the injury may have been the reason that Jahn would not have his photograph taken.

Right after the altercation, Jahn left home and worked in Switzerland for six years as a Journeyman. Because of his injury, he was disqualified for military service and perhaps that prompted him to decide to emigrate to Texas.

Upon arrival in the new colony, there was high demand for craftsmen and by 1846 there were about 100 houses in NB.(Roemer’s “Texas”) Emigrants were limited in the amount of furniture they could bring and few were skilled in this craft. Jahn built more than furniture. For example, the Jean von Coll house on Coll  St. across from Carl Schurz School still has the pine floor constructed by Jahn. The floor itself is bordered by alternating planks of pine and walnut.

In 1850 Johann Jahn married widow Anna Marie Bellmer Klein, daughter of Stephan Klein. Jahn had helped Klein construct his fachwerk (cross timber) home that still stands next to Naegelin’s Bakery.

At first Jahn set up his business in his home on the corner of Seguin Ave. and Butcher St. Then he added a shop next door and both are now at Conservation Plaza. After Jahn died, his son Carl took over the business and in 1910 constructed the present brick building. There was so much business that Carl began the practice of ordering furniture parts from New York and assembling these “knocked down” parts. By the way, if you have a Jahn piece that has “Jahn” stamped on the back, you probably have a “knocked down” piece.

Johann’s hobby was wine-making done in the cellar. Family members claim that one specimen of white mustang grapes developed by Jahn provided the cuttings from which many such vines are still in existence. Does anyone have white mustang grapevines? Wine making was never done as a commercial enterprise, but both father Johann and son Carl enjoyed this hobby.

There are many pieces of Jahn furniture in private collections plus the Sophienburg, the Museum of Texas Handmade Furniture, and the Lindheimer House. As it should be, Ruth Heitkamp has a treasured work bench, tools, and possibly the only signed piece of Johann Jahn’s furniture. A small “JJ” on the bottom of a beautifully crafted black walnut table enhances the value of that piece.

The brick Jahn building built in 1910 with the workshop next to it.