2026 Myra Lee Adams Goff Scholarship Award
2026 Myra Lee Adams Goff Scholarship Award Essay – by Jaelynn Davidson The Texas Hill Country was a stunning and dangerous arena of cultural conflict in the mid-19th century. To the Texas nobility of the Adelsverein, it was a fantasy of a “New Germany”; to the German peasants who arrived on the shores of the […]
The rise an fall of the Darmstadt
By Myra Lee Adams Goff Called by some, “a catastrophic failure of dreamers”, the organization of about 40 intellectuals, university fraternity members and freethinkers banded together with a common cause. They were called “Darmstadters”, or the “Society of the 40” and their plan in 1847 was to organize a communistic utopian settlement in Texas. The […]
Klappenbach House on Klappenbach Hill still stands
By Myra Lee Adams Goff Do you know where the Klappenbach House is located? From Landa St., turn onto Fredericksburg Rd. and go straight until you get to a hill, Klappenbach Hill. The house on the left is the Klappenbach property. The story of the Klappenbach family is indeed interesting. The story begins in Sorenbohm, […]
Oak or cedar Christmas trees?
By Keva Hoffmann Boardman — Christmas lights and decorations are going up all over town. I love all the green, the red, the shiny and the bright. Our German town founders did too. The tradition of putting up a Christmas tree goes back to 16th century Europe. Germanic-speaking Christians brought fresh-cut evergreens into their houses […]
The Pablo Diaz story
By Keva Hoffmann Boardman – Sometimes a little tidbit of information sets me off on a bunny trail. I took one of those trails recently after finding and reading a 1975 letter from Oscar Haas to Mrs. Gregorio Coronado here in New Braunfels. Haas was drawing her attention to the mention of a Mexican boy, […]
New Braunfels forty-eighters
By Keva Hoffmann Boardman — The forty-eighters were refugees of the failed German Revolution of 1848. They were idealists. They fought to establish a liberal and unified Germany using liberty, democracy and unity as their main tenets. The designation “forty-eighter” excludes the hundreds of thousands who emigrated from 1848-1852 for mostly economic reasons. It also […]
Elfendritschenwolpertinger
By Keva Hoffmann Boardman — It’s words like this that make the German language so much fun. Actually, this word doesn’t even translate into English…which happens more times than you think. It comes with a great story though. I found a history of Luckenbach, Texas, on the town’s website. Yes, it’s the same town from […]
The year 1846 was a dark year for the German immigrants
By Myra Lee Adams Goff The year was 1846, a year after Hermann Seele arrived in Texas. It was the time of year that we, in Texas, understand – July and August. The heat continued to increase and thunder storms made the Guadalupe River rise. A ferry boat at the confluence of the Comal and […]
Mission Hill Park
By Myra Lee Adams Goff How would you like to watch the New Braunfels July 4th fireworks from the highest point in New Braunfels? Maybe you could even see the fireworks in San Marcos, Seguin and Randolph Field from this spot. Well, you can’t do it this year, but maybe it will be possible in […]
“Tenax propositi” or “finish what you begin”
By Myra Lee Adams Goff Baron Otfried Hans von Meusebach (later John O. Meusebach) and Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels represented two philosophies and cultures of Germany in the early 1800s. Prince Carl was a feudalistic, aristocratic, ultraconservative wanting no change in the politics of Germany. It was a collection of feudal kingdoms. Prince Carl was […]
