
PHOTO CAPTION: New Braunfels Band July 4, 1929, on Main Plaza. Front row, L to R, Anthony Morales, Lee Kohlenberg, Charley Richter, Hermann Borchers, Henry Schraub, Dr. Reynolds, Carl Druebert, conductor; Ervin Voigt, August Wittenborn, Henry Druebert, Hilmar Schwarzlose, Emil Eggeling, band manager, Ed. H. Werner, Edmund Schiefelbein, and Fritz Koepp. Back row, L to R, Arthur Anthony, Frank Buske, Charles Altwein, Edmund Steinbring, Monroe Sattler, Jake Stahl, Otto Staats, Alfred Schmidt, Paul W. Jahn, Gene Richter, Hermann Gerloff, and Robert Wurzlow.
By Tara V. Kohlenberg —
Ah, yes, American Independence Day. The Fourth of July. The Fourth. Every American knows what The Fourth is. For some, the fourth of July is boating on the lake or tubing the river or watching fireworks with friends. To others, it might simply be a day off. In reality, July Fourth marks the date in 1776 that America became an independent nation with the signing of the Declaration of Independence, America’s birth certificate. Yes, America celebrates its birthday, but New Braunfels has always celebrated Independence Day with style.
When German immigrants arrived in the Republic of Texas to establish New Braunfels in the spring of 1845, they became Texans. The vote to admit Texas as the 28th state of the Union took place in October 1845. Once the official transfer of power took place in February 1846, they became Americans. New Braunfels settlers took their new status as U.S. citizens very seriously.
Accounts of the very first Fourth of July in New Braunfels in 1846 tell of cannon fire and a large American flag displayed at the Adelsverein headquarters building on Sophienburg Hill, where just a year earlier, an Austrian flag was posted over the headquarters by Prince Carl. Cannon fire and flags became the first of many Fourth of July traditions.
In 1876, the Nation’s Centennial, the celebration actually began the night of July 3rd when thirteen cannon shots were fired off at 10 p.m. from Sophienburg Hill. More cannon shots were fired at dawn, announcing opening festivities; bands playing on Sophienburg Hill, flags flying from house tops, triumphal arches along the streets and a parade.
As New Braunfels grew, so did the celebrations. By turn of the century, the New Braunfels Fire Department was in charge of the all-day fourth of July program. Cannons fired at 5 a.m. and the New Braunfels concert band and fire department were on the plaza in full dress uniforms. Breakfast was served before moving to the park where the festivities included games and races, concluding with fireworks and a dance in the pavilion.
Up until the ’40s, every account boasted of cannon fire, parades and water displays by the fire department followed by boating, swimming, pro baseball exhibitions, music, dancing and, of course, fireworks.
In 1974, Herald-Zeitung editor Roger Nuhn, born in 1920, recorded his own childhood recollections of July fourth:
The first thing we’d do was awaken early, really early, before dawn. We’d lie there waiting and listening. Somehow, we seldom had to wait long — our internal clock worked pretty well then, as it does now.
Then we’d hear it, the cannon’s boom on Main Plaza that announced to the citizens that this was 6 a.m. on the Fourth of July, Independence Day, probably the most thoroughly celebrated holiday of the year.
We’d scramble out of bed and get our clothes on and wait impatiently for breakfast so we could go down to the Plaza for the opening festivities.
But first, there was the ceremony of getting the carefully folded American Flag out of the closet and hanging it on the front porch. It hung down from the beam of the porch roof, almost to the floor and almost blocking the wide steps leading up to the porch, forming a bright red, white, and blue curtain across the entrance to the house.
All up and down the street, the neighbors also put out flags, some small and some large, but we thought ours was the best.
This was a day of all sorts of good things — a marvelous water display by the Fire Department usually got things under way on Main plaza with the hoses shooting water as high as the Courthouse tower, and every once in a while a spray going astray and getting a goodly portion of the crowd wet (we don’t know for sure to this day whether or not a fireman might not have let his hands slip on purpose so the nozzle could suddenly point at the crowd).
Then there’d be a couple of rousing numbers from the band on the bandstand and the introduction of the speaker. Though we tried to keep our minds on the patriotic speech, usually the distractions of firecrackers going off and the fact that the speech usually lasted about an hour too long kept us from being very good listeners.
Then it was out to the park for another band concert, this from the bandstand on the shore of Landa Park Lake. The weather was hot, but the watermelon was cold, and you could spit the seeds on the grass. There were boats on the lake, and there was wading to be done in the clear shallow streams, which were lined then by grass and cannas and elephant ears and not by rock curbing.
Then, as dusk approached, excitement reached a fever pitch. There was usually a river parade on the lake made up of decorated canoes and rowboats, many of them lighted, and as this ended, the fireworks display began on the opposite shore.
We never go tired of watching the fireworks and we kept watching the dimly seen framework which bore the huge red, white, and blue fireworks flag — hoping that it wouldn’t yet be lit. Then that was lit, the band played “The Star Spangled Banner”, everybody stood up and sang the anthem, and then the final display burst into fire, a brightly burning “Good Night,” and we’d go home. The older folks, those who didn’t have children to take home and put to bed, stayed for the dance in the open-air dance hall.
Eventually, the parades and downtown events disappeared, leaving only the fireworks to look forward to. In 1978, Mayor Margaret Naegelin revived the parade tradition with a very small Fourth of July parade, driving from the Mayor’s residence to City Hall. The Sophienburg Museum has continued the patriotic parade tradition ever since.
Come celebrate America’s Birthday in downtown New Braunfels as the Sophienburg Museum and Archives presents an old-fashioned, small-town parade followed by a short patriotic musical program provided by the New Braunfels Community Band on Main Plaza.
Parade kicks off at 9:15 a.m. Wear your most star-spangled attire, bring the family and lawn chairs for a grand old flag-waving celebration. For more information and participant application (deadline June 28, 2025): . Hear the real stories of July Fourth Reflections found on Sophienburg Facebook page.
Sources: Sophienburg Museum & Archives.