Sophienburg Museum and Archives

PHOTO CAPTION: New Braunfels Social Club, ca. 1930s.

New Braunfels treasures — social, fraternal and otherwise

October 20, 2024

By Tara V. Kohlenberg — Reaching a certain age and lifespan in New Braunfels entitles me, and others like me, to call buildings/places by other names and not sound crazy. It is like a secret code. We can use the “old” name when referring to a current building, and not

Where is Freiheit?

February 14, 2021

Around the Sophienburg, Sophienblog

By Tara V. Kohlenberg — The summer I graduated from high school, I think the New Braunfels city limits signs boasted a population of 19,000. The county had a whopping 34,000. Since then, the city limits signs have moved further out, taking in the wonderful little communities that existed peacefully

Background of Bracken Bowling

November 30, 2014

Around the Sophienburg, Sophienblog

By Myra Lee Adams Goff “Rip Van Winkle” is a short story written by Washington Irving. Rip lives in a village by the Catskill Mountains. He is an easygoing, henpecked husband. One day he wanders into the mountains to go hunting and he meets and drinks with Henry Hudson’s legendary