On Tuesday, September 10, the Sophienburg Museum and Archives will open its exhibit about a literary form referred to as fairy tales. Eighteen Brothers Grimm fairy tales will be incorporated into the displays that are already present in the museum.

Keva Boardman, Director of Exhibits at the Sophienburg Museum, has used her imagination and expertise to show off the Sophienburg’s vast collections, seldom seen by the public.

There are some important facts to know before you come to the exhibit. First of all, the “Brothers Grimm”, Wilhelm and Jacob, did not write the fairy tales; they wrote them down. Drawing from a collection of writers such as Charles Perault, they utilized the stories that were passed on by word of mouth, mostly from Europe. Most stories date back to the Middle Ages. These tales are in modern times totally bazaar and full of the evils that man is capable of inflicting on mankind.

Life in the early European days were indeed harsh and fairy tales reflected what children were exposed to and feared the most. The Grimm brothers told the stories they heard from people but modified them to reflect the times. (1800s) Writers of fairy tales for children today do basically the same thing, that is, change the tales to reflect these modern times. Walt Disney did much to keep the fairy tales alive, but in a much more acceptable way to modern children.

Even today the themes of the fairy tales still reflect the underlying fears of children and adults. Think about the fairy tales you know. They play on the themes of evil (the evil stepmother), abandonment (Hansel and Gretel), and fear of becoming a victim. Most children are quick to pick up on these themes in literature and for that reason, they are often fearful of the story itself.

One Christmas when I was eight years old, I received a very large book that contained 100 fairy tales. Each story had an illustration of that particular story. I would turn the pages very slowly and look at the beautifully illustrated pictures. When I got close to the middle of the book, I would hurriedly go past the 50^th story and its illustration. This story was “Bluebeard”, a story about a king who warned his many wives to never enter a certain room in the castle. Of course, the female finally gave in to her curiosity and she opened the door only to find that all the other wives had been beheaded. Needless to say, that story is no longer in fairy tale books and hasn’t been for about 50 years.

The Grimm brothers cleaned up the earlier tales, and Disney cleaned up the Grimm tales. The Sophienburg exhibit is for adults and children. The Grimm brothers were professors of linguistics. Learning about the change in the sounds of words was best accomplished by them by requesting that everyday people tell them stories that they had heard as children. The brothers wrote down the stories which eventually led to their publication in 1814. Consisting of tales from Germany, they were not intended for children, as they were full of witches, wolves, and goblins in dark forests. The original tales make no attempt to be fright-free.

Eighteen fairy tales have been chosen to display and here is an example of what you could see in the exhibit: a “Snow White” dress on a mannequin originally worn by Mitzi Nuhn (Dreher), age six, as she played that part in the Enchanted Hour Kindergarten’s program of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” in 1937 at the Seele Parish House. The teachers of this private Kindergarten were Bessie Baetge and Lucille Staats Jett. The silk and velvet dress was reworked by the Sophie Sewers who worked on several projects from the collection, including handkerchiefs from “The Goose Maiden”.

For the “Cinderella” exhibit, 39 right-footed shoes from the collection are shown, even a red leather Moroccan slipper. “Star Money” features a collection of German coins and “Brother and Sister” features things made of antlers, because in the story the brother turns into a deer.

A loaned display for “Brementown Musicians” shows eleven handmade German folk guitars dated 1870 to 1990 and loaned by Troy Tidwell. The musicians in the story are a donkey, a dog, a cat, and a rooster.

“Hansel and Gretel” features children dressed in German costumes and “Reponses” shows decorations made of human hair. There are about ten examples displayed in shadow boxes. This was a popular art at the time the emigrants came to New Braunfels.

Several fairy tales used the idea of a princess under glass. That even survived in the Snow White story by Disney. The exhibit is using their Scloss Braunfels Boyhood Home of Prince Carl of Solms/Braunfels under glass sculpture, created by Jonas Perkins. In the foyer of the museum is a permanent statue of “Little Redcap” or “Little Red Ridinghood”, donated by the Emmie Seele Faust family.

“The Seven Ravens” is about a baptism. The Sophienburg has been the recipient of many old church Baptism certificates. They are beautifully crafted, some using gold and exquisite colored flowers.

This exhibit is for those who want to know about the historic root of fairy tales. Museum hours are 10:00 to 4:00 Tuesday through Friday. The Bruder Grimm Kinder-Märchen Exhibit will be on display for a year.

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Every child passing through the Texas Public Education System receives an introduction to history. I say an introduction, because they may not remember all of it, but they are definitely shown it. Elementary students begin learning about their own community history in third grade, eventually adding two years of Texas history and two years of U.S. history, followed by World history and government in high school.

I first really dove into history when my sixth-grade teacher, Mrs. Christianson, told us that “history” is just that, “his story,” the story of man. (She also taught me how to write outlines, but that’s a story for another time.) She made history come alive for me and I was hooked. There are rewards for those hooked on history. Each year, The Sophienburg Memorial Association awards the Myra Lee Adams Goff Sophienburg History Scholarship to a local graduating senior with an interest in history. The 2019 scholarship recipient is Canyon High School Senior Ross Bedgood. Ross is the son of Steven and Amie Bedgood and will be attending Southwestern University. We are extremely proud to publish his essay in our column today, lightly edited for length and clarity. Enjoy!

The Comal County Fair:

The Resilient Historically Significant Event That Keeps on Giving

When determining an event to be a historically significant one, some consider only those caused by natural disasters or war. However, an established event and its impact on a community throughout time, meets the criteria. The Comal County Fair is one such event.

It is opening night of the 2018 Comal County Fair and I am waiting for my friends. I take in the sights, sounds, smells and excitement the fair offers. I begin to wish I could go back in time and visit the fairs. Then I feel someone tap my shoulder. Thinking it was one of the guys, I turned and…

It was 1894 and I was on a train from San Antonio headed to the first Comal County Fair in New Braunfels, Texas. A man sitting next to me said, “I am Frederick, your fair guide for the next 124 years. He explained how he felt the fair was going to be a success because of the trains bringing people and the community had supported a fundraising fair for the Krankenhaus, the hospital, last year.

When the train stopped, we were on Harry Landa’s property, the sight of the first fair. There were displays of plants, food, livestock, sewing, artwork and so on. It was all I had imagined it would be and more.

Quickly, Frederick motioned for me to follow him. “We’re now on the 11 acres of the Guadalupe River purchased by the Comal County Fair Association in 1898. Just like 1894, it did not disappoint. However, due to financial difficulties, the property was sold to the City of New Braunfels in 1905 with the stipulation that the fair would use the property for the next 50 years.

With the fair of 1908, the stores closed at noon and it was declared New Braunfels ISD Fair Day. The exhibits increased and awards were given for flowers, fruit, handmade men’s suits and so forth. The livestock was in abundance.

For the years 1910-1922, Frederick said he could not find any information about the fair. He thought it might be because of WWI, but did know the land became a dumping ground for the city. I felt sadness and wondered how the fair recovered.

When we entered the year 1923, Frederick’s sparkle returned. He began to explain to me how Comal County Fair Association regrouped into a corporation and was ready for the start of the fair. As we slept, the grandstand burned to the ground, but the fair opened for business and we visited the small house filled with tiny furniture, clothing and other essentials and listened to the Edison playing records. The following two days were rained out.

The next few years were good times, but then I saw Frederick’s demeanor change. “Frederick, you’re not looking so happy. What now?” I asked.

He replied, “Son, we are all in hard times. It is the Great Depression. You see how the fair is not bustling? It had to do away with the queen’s contest, give no cash prizes, lower admittance prices and exhibitors are let in free. It is relying on local cowboys for the rodeo and local musicians for entertainment.” It was a somber time.

I enjoyed the 1933 fair. It was celebrating ’Real Beer’….no more ’Busto’ or ’near beer.’ This fair was filled with dances, the Heidelberg Orchestra playing German music, a football game between New Braunfels and Yoakum horse racing, rodeo and carnival.

Frederick zipped us past the WWII years of scaled back fairs to the 1946 Centennial Celebration, which had been postponed a year due to war. Its highlight was the automobiles that people were becoming interested in. And there was the Greater United Shows Carnival. Frederick was not much of a carnival rides person, I rode the Merry Go-Round, Tilt-A-Whirl and Ferris Wheel and then we watched the horse races. What an adventure I was experiencing!

Frederick said that 1952-1954 were some tough times for the fair. After not being able to have livestock in the parade or at the fair due to Anthrax in 1948, floods and polio spread fear in 1952 to the point the grounds were sprayed with disinfectant. In 1954, the Comal and Guadalupe Rivers almost dried up causing dust issues and few agriculture entries. “But never fear,” said Frederick, “the fair kept on going.”

The 60s were amazing. First it was the rodeo spotlighting Leon Adams riding a Brahma bull through a hoop on fire followed by tied-down calf roping, barrel racing and more. I realized one had to be really tough to participate in these rodeo events. Next, in 1962, came Night in Old New Braunfels and concerts by Canyon, Smithson Valley and New Braunfels High Schools. A quick stop in 1965 allowed us to meet Bobbie Specht, the first rodeo queen. In 1967, we met the first Fair Queen since 1931, Jacque Sahm.

Becoming tired, Frederick informed me that there were only two more stops, one in 1974 and 2001. In 1974, we listened to a country singer by the name of George Strait, who was a rising country star. For 2001, I found Frederick and I at the Comal County Fair Parade. It was just a couple of weeks after the terrorist attack and the parade overflowed with patriotic themes and patriotism swelled from the crowds. It was a time of hope, determination and pride.

Finally, we reached 2018! I thanked him for being a knowledgeable history guide. I now understood that the Comal County Fair was a historically significant event because it had withstood droughts, fire, floods, wars and tough economic times. It continues to give to the community of New Braunfels and Comal County. Thank you to the citizens for organizing the Comal County Fair Association on January 4, 1893. My friends have arrived and we are going to enjoy a night at the fair.

(Information used in the paper came from a report by Myra Lee Adams Goff, author of It’s Fair Time, History of the Comal County Fair.)

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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 chosen as the commissioner general of the Adelsverein, a group of aristocrats who formed an organization for the purpose of sending immigrants to Texas. Meusebach was the second commissioner general. He was one of the young Germans that wanted the unification of the Germanic states. This would, of course, take away the rule by the individual aristocrats.

Prince Carl’s background was one of military schooling emphasizing the strict following of rules. His was raised as an aristocrat in a German state where the aristocracy made all the decisions for everyone.

John O. Meusebach, although from a family of aristocrats, his name after all was Baron Otfried Hans von Meusebach, grew up in a household of intellectuals. Students, university professors, artists, musicians, scientists, and philosophers were frequent visitors. The Grimm brothers, Alexander Humbolt, the poet Hoffmann von Fallersleben. were all part of a group of friends of Meusebach’s father. They were a group that could basically be called free-thinkers. The group believed in individual freedom, freedom for all, separation of church and state, and freedom from oppression. They were against military conscription. Fallersleben’s poem about Texas, although he had never been there, tells it all:

The world with its joys
Is a spring gone dry.
Without freedom, the fountainhead
Of virtue and of light. (Translated from German)

Upon their departure to Texas, Fallersleben wrote “The Star of Texas” as follows:

Off to Texas
Where the star in the blue field
Proclaimed a new world

Prince Carl and the members of the Adelsverein advertised land in the Republic of Texas. The Adelsverein hoped to establish a market for German goods. They envisioned a colony in Texas to be another German state. The idea of individual freedom was not at the top of the list.

But it took a certain type of person to immigrate to Texas. They had to give up everything back home and strike out into unknown territory. Prince Carl played a large part in organizing the immigration. Once he got here though, his aristocratic philosophy did not work. The military uniform did not help the immigrants farm. Lucky for them, many were farmers back in Germany.

Many Americans found Prince Carl comical with his mannerisms and his garb of the old military uniform, the hat with the rooster feathers and the sword hanging around his waist. Much has been written about how the prince had no admiration for the Americans and Texans. Mentally, put yourself in frontier Texas and imagine what Prince Carl would look like to you. He also had 20 soldiers dressed in the same manner.

Prince Carl stayed in Texas two months after the immigrants crossed the Guadalupe and right before he left NB, he raised an Austrian flag on the grounds of the Sophienburg Hill and shot off the cannon. Is that symbolic? At the same time, a group of immigrants went to the Main Plaza and raised the flag of the Republic of Texas. The “off with the old, on with the new” philosophy is pretty clear. Once the immigrants had a taste of their own destiny and freedom, there was no turning back.

When he arrived in Texas, Baron Otfried Hans von Meusebach dropped his old name, changed it to John O. Meusebach, thereby declaring his transition to a new way of life.

Let’s look back at the events leading up to Meusebach’s arrival. Meusebach had been lead to believe that the immigration project was extremely successful and that the finances were in good shape. He was to meet with Prince Carl who would show him the financial status of the project. Unfortunately, the prince did not meet Meusebach when he arrived in Galveston. Instead, D.H. Klaerner, agent for the Verein in Galveston met Meusebach and told him of the dire financial straits, about drafts and overdrafts coming into his office.

Klaerner said that with the five Bremen ships arriving in July, November and December, 1844, only 200 out of the 439 immigrants had actually survived and reached New Braunfels.

Meusebach was then determined to take the same route from Galveston as the immigrants, and all along the way to the settlement of New Braunfels, he was presented with bills from people who found out he represented the Adelsverein.

When he got to New Braunfels, he went to present himself to the prince only to be told by J. Jean von Coll, treasurer of the Adelsverein, that the prince had left to go back to Germany. When asked for an explanation of the finances, von Coll told Meusebach that the prince did not require a record of promissory notes and that no accounting was necessary until all funds were used up. Von Coll said that one big expense was the prince’s food. He required fresh meat provided three times a day. The colonists wrote home about this extravagance because in Germany meat was scarce.

Meusebach decided to overtake the prince who was in Galveston on his way to Germany. When Meusebach got there, he was greeted enthusiastically by the prince because the creditors of the Verein had detained him because of debt. Meusebach on his own letter of credit, assumed the debt. He also supplied the prince with travel money. Prince Carl blamed von Coll for the financial woes. Meusebach wrote a letter to the Adelsverein telling about the financial situation and it was to be delivered by the prince to the Adelsverein. The letter was never delivered and Prince Carl never mentioned the financial situation to the Adelsverein upon returning to Germany.

Back at the colony, one of the first moves by Meusebach was to disassemble the military and change it to a work battalion. After this move, von Coll resigned.

After assessing the financial situation in New Braunfels, Meusebach requested funds from the Verein. He felt that his objective was still to strive towards colonization of the Fisher-Miller territory under the control of the Verein. He left for two months to scout the area and also to allow the financial situation to cool. Upon returning to New Braunfels, he found that the Verein had advanced a credit of $24,000, just enough to cover the debts. Meusebach also knew that there were over 4000 settlers already at the coast ready to move inland and there was no additional money.

Meusebach had Klaerner published an article in the Bremen newspaper concerning the dire circumstances of the colonization effort. The situation in Carlshafen had not been felt by the Verein and the article exposed the situation. Relief from the Verein came as an additional credit of $60,000. This unfortunately was received too late and in addition to severe weather, too many immigrants, war with Mexico, and epidemic diseases, tragedy was inevitable.

Stay tuned for the rest of the Meusebach story and note that the Meusebach family moto, Tenax Propositi or “Perseverance in Purpose” or as his mother would say, “finish what you begin,” was a personality trait inherent in John O. Meusebach.

Most of the information for this article was gathered from the book John O. Meusebach, German Colonizer in Texas written by his grand-daughter Irene Marschall King.

One last P.S.: Thank you, Prince Carl, for bringing your German culture to New Braunfels, and thank you, John O. Meusebach for helping us become Americans. The transition was often painful, but well worth it in the end.

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