By Myra Lee Adams Goff

This week the Sophienburg Museum and Archives will present a great shopping experience to the public. It’s called Weihnachtsmarkt, or Christmas Market, at the Civic Center. It begins Friday, Nov. 19th through Sunday, the 21st.

The market offers 60 plus unique booths, plus Breakfast with Santa and a charming café called Sophie’s Café. It features freshly prepared food in a European outdoor café setting. Sophie’s Shop moves down from the Sophienburg to offer German-made Christmas ornaments and unique decorations. Many local authors are offering their books for sale.

The Sophienburg Museum and Archives is a not-for-profit organization that derives its operating funds from individual donations, memberships, and much from Weihnachtsmarkt. When you purchase at Weihnachtsmarkt, you are helping the Sophienburg keep its doors open.

The Museum displays the rich history of New Braunfels with occasional special exhibits. The present exhibition is the Civil War. A volunteer group works diligently on the collections stored in the old museum building. There is constant work involving organizing and restoring items and papers donated by individuals.

The Archives are a rather complicated collection of records. Let’s suppose you would like to find out something about your family or something about an historical event like WWI or something that happened in NB. In old journalistic terms, you can find out “who, what, where, where, when, why, and how”. Make an appointment to work with a helper.

Here is what is available to the public:

What the Genealogy Society has done for the Sophienburg records will “knock your socks off”. They have collected over 1,000 research books, have compiled burial records from the Comal Cemetery, New Braunfels Cemetery, Comal and Guadalupe County cemeteries and small family cemeteries. They compiled birth, marriage, and death records for Comal County, extracted from the CC Courthouse.

There is a large collection of obituaries and related documents put on the computer by genealogy, collected from 574 donated family history books. They compiled the census of 1850 and every 10 years thereafter to 1930. There is an index of Probate records and Commissioner’s Court minutes starting in 1866 through 1937. Many of the aforementioned records are available for sale in Sophie’s Shop. Genealogy has maintained the Herald-Zeitung on microfiche up to the present.

Recently First Protestant Church allowed the Sophienburg to copy their original German records from 1845 and their translation in English. There are other church histories as well, plus directories, telephone books, and high school annuals.

Now this is a big one: There are over a million photographs in the Sophienburg collection. An attendant can enter a name or event on the computer and tell you if a photograph is available. For a small fee, you can have the photograph copied. Over 200 maps, going back to 1836 are in the collection.

The Reflections program began in 1976 for the purpose of interviewing NB citizens about what they remember about the past. These programs are played on the local radio station. A list of people interviewed is available and a list of subjects is being compiled. About 1,100 interviews have been recorded and you may listen to them at the Archives or purchase a particular interview in CD form. This is an ongoing program and anyone interested in participating is welcome.

For serious historic research, there are the 65 Prince Solms Archives in German, with a few numbers translated into English. There are two volunteers available to do German translations, including the elaborate German Fraktur.

To bring us up in the technological world, the Sophienburg has a web site that you can log in at home. It’s chock full of information about what’s going on with the organization. In addition the column that I write for the Sophienburg that appears in the Herald-Zeitung every other Sunday is on the web.

The Sophienburg asks for your support in keeping this institution up to date by supporting Weihnachtsmarkt. See the website for details.

The post Weihnachtsmarkt supports Sophienburg appeared first on Sophies Shop.

By Keva Hoffmann Boardman —

Christmas morning had finally come! Presents, wrapped in shiny red or green paper and topped with ribbon bows, were stacked beneath the Christmas tree. But first, I looked on the coffee table where the Mary and Joseph figures had been reverently kneeling, gazing with love at an empty manger for weeks. There He was, the tiny Baby Jesus, lying in the brown wood manger filled with moss. Our manger scene at home was never complete until Christmas day.

The 13th C. theologian St. Bonaventure credits St. Francis of Assisi with creating the Christmas tradition of a manger scene. In his biography, “Life of St. Francis,” Bonaventure tells us that Francis was inspired by the sight of the traditional place of Jesus’ birth when he visited the Holy Land. In 1223, St. Francis sought permission from Pope Honorius III to create something “for the kindling of devotion to the birth of Christ.” On that Christmas Eve in a rock niche near the town square of Grecio, Italy, St. Francis put together a scene of a live ox and donkey beside a hay-filled manger. “He preached to people around the Nativity of the poor King … the Babe of Bethlehem … a dear friend of this holy man affirmed that he beheld an Infant marvelously beautiful, sleeping in the manger, whom the blessed Father Francis embraced with both his arms, as if he would awake Him from sleep.” The vision wasn’t the only miracle that night. “The hay of that manger, being preserved by the people, was wondrously found to cure all diseases of cattle and many other pestilences.”

After such a beginning, the inclusion of a nativity scene quickly became part of Christian Christmas tradition. In 1291, Pope Nicholas IV decreed that a permanent nativity scene be erected at Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. Attributed to the sculptor Arnolfo di Cambio, the marble figures are believed to be the oldest nativity in Italy. By the end of the 14th C., almost every church in Italy included either live or statue/figurine manger scenes in their Christmas services.

Living nativities fit well into the tradition of pantomimes and mystery plays which were popular in the Middle ages. Renaissance art was dominated with the subject of the Nativity, artists and sculptors telling and retelling the story in unique and beautiful ways. Wealthy patrons even had themselves inserted into the Nativity story. The manger scene was often expanded to include the little town of Bethlehem and the countryside.

Manger scenes are not really historically accurate. They usually incorporate the shepherds and the three Magi along with sheep, donkeys, oxen, and camels. Our manger scene at home has come to include exotic animals like antelope and swans, and a cheetah walks next to the camels. The story of Christ’s birth varies in its telling in the Gospels of the Bible. All are combined in our manger scenes, this adjustment to the timeline simply allowing us to have the whole dramatic and beautiful story gathered together in one place.

The tradition of the Nativity is uniquely kept all around the world in displays both live and static. In past years, Holy Family Catholic Church celebrated the festival of Los Posadas, a tradition in Spanish-speaking countries. This reenactment of Mary and Joseph’s search for a room took the Nativity to the streets of New Braunfels in a lovely candle-lit walking drama. Many other local churches have manger scenes set up on their front lawns. I remember being a shepherd for a night in the living Nativity at First Protestant Church when I was in Jr. High. And we cannot forget the many Christmas pageants, with school children acting the parts of both humans and beasts.

The seven Timmerman Sisters of Geronimo (just up Hwy. 123 towards Seguin) were well-known for their family’s nativity scene. In 1936, Mrs. William Timmermann found a description in Hermann Seele’s Die Cypress, of the 1849 Christmas celebration at her grandparents’ home, the Waissenhaus (the orphanage out near Gruene). Seele described seeing a manger scene set within a circle of honeycomb limestone rocks beneath a native cedar Christmas tree. Mrs. Timmermann, the seven sisters’ mother, then reestablished this tradition of her grandparents by setting up a manger scene surrounded by honeycomb rocks beneath the Timmermann Christmas tree. The scene grew to include a miniature Waissenhaus, a waterfall and other little vignettes which were nestled within an ever-growing ring of honeycomb limestone rocks.

Special figures for the orphanage were created in Germany after WWII. A copy of Seele’s story was sent to a West German friend. Disguising herself as an old woman gathering seeds, she made her way to a home in East Germany and placed a note under a rock which described the children and adult figures needed for the scene. The friend then arranged to return and pick up the finished pieces which she sent to the Timmermanns in Texas. The completed Waisenhaus scene appeared under the Timmermann tree in 1949 — on the hundredth anniversary of the Christmas described by Hermann Seele.

Many of us remember visiting the Timmermann Sisters at Christmas to marvel at their manger scene. Surrounded by honeycomb rocks, the Nativity and Texas Hill Country scenes spilled out from under the wide-spreading branches of the Texas cedar tree quite nearly filling the entire room. For many years, the scene was also created at the Heritage Exhibit which was put on at the NB Civic Center during Wurstfest.

Of course, depending on where you are from, a manger scene has a different name. In Spanish-speaking countries it is known as belén which is literally “Bethlehem.” Churches and cathedrals have elaborate scenes which include the manger, the city, and the countryside. German-speakers call the manger scene a Weihnachtskrippe or “Christmas crib.” While the French call it a crèche, the Italians call it a presepio, but both mean a “crib.”

All these names reflect the most important part of Christmas — the Baby Jesus in the manger on Christmas morning.

Sources: San Marcos Daily Record, Austin American Statesman, New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung, Texas Library Journal Vol 29 No. 4 – Sophienburg Museum & Archives; https://www.google.com/search?q=history+of+nativity+scenes; https://theconversation.com/how-st-francis-created-the-nativity-scene-with-a-miraculous-event-in-1223-124742; https://catholicstraightanswers.com/what-is-the-origin-of-the-nativity-scene-creche/

Photo: The Timmermann Christmas tree and nativity scene in 1948. The Waissenhaus is on the left. (S481-014_3)

The post Away in a manger appeared first on Sophies Shop.

The recently unveiled “Legacy of Our Journey” mural on Main Plaza got me thinking about public art in our city. I have always considered New Braunfels to be an historic city, but what if I broadened my thinking and started looking at it as a city full of art, too?

The eight Historic Outdoor Art Museum (HOAM) wall murals offer a great overview of our community, its people and its culture. All but two are right downtown. But I’ve been looking at the town with different eyes for a few weeks, and I’ve found that there is A LOT of outdoor public art here. It comes in the form of wall murals and paintings and hidden figural sculptures in gardens and parking lots. Our creativity is even shown in special constructions that inspire faith.

After cruising the streets really looking for outdoor public art, this is what I have found … at least so far!

Wall murals and paintings occur on random buildings around the city. You will find pictures of food, German words and a family on the side of Freiheit Store. The Hoity Toit Beer Joint has a cartoon-like mural of a man in an airplane. Painted deer graze quietly in a field on the side of McBee’s BBQ. Planet K has an amazing and colorful NB Postcard on one side and a unique depiction of Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus” on the other (this is my favorite!). There is a wall painted with the Guadalupe River at Riverside Lodge and German gentlemen on the side of the Phoenix Saloon. Sts. Peter & Paul School has a whole wall of school activities painted on the back by the Thrift Store parking lot. A matador faces a bull on the front of the Monterrey Café and is that a Frenchman on the back of the New Braunfels Art League building? How many of these have you seen?

Figural sculpture is also abundant in our fair community and occurs at places of business, in public parks and at churches. If you are looking for animals—we’ve got you covered. There is a busy beaver at Buc-ee’s, a belligerent bull at River Hofbrau, a polite pig at Huisache Grill, a unique unicorn at the NBISD Administration Building, a devoted dog at the NB Police Department, and lovely Lindsey or “Girl with deer” at the NB Public Library— all cast in bronze. Quite a list, right?

We have people represented in our public art as well. A bronze family overlooks the lake from the top of the Pioneer Memorial in Landa Park. A stone Civil War soldier and a zinc WWI soldier stand guard over our community on Main Plaza. A bronze Prince Carl greets both citizens and tourists in front of the Civic Center. I found a bronze sculpture of children sitting on a log in front of a medical center over on Lakeview Blvd. There is a stunning bronze relief of the first Sophienburg on the Centennial Cenotaph in Landa Park; and I can’t leave out the awesome cast metal beauty of our beloved Plaza Fountain. It has a little bit of everything — – plants, shells, animals, and a beautiful lady.

Our Catholic churches are also great promoters of outdoor public art. Holy Family boasts an enchanting stone sculpture of the Holy Family at their front door. The grounds of Our Lady of Perpetual Help showcase two life-size, stunningly white stone sculptures: “Jesus Crucified” and the “Crowned Virgin with Child”. The prayer garden of Sts. Peter & Paul is the site of “Jesus with the Little Children.” Standing calmly in a corner at Christus-Santa Rosa Hospital is another statue of, you guessed it, the Virgin Mary.

New Braunfels is also blessed with three grottoes—little stacked-stone mountains or Los Cerritos—one at each of our Catholic churches. While meant for contemplation and celebration, these hand-made constructions are, indeed, art. Holy Family and Our Lady of Perpetual Help have wonderful local stone grottoes depicting the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe. A grotto with Our Lady of Lourdes graces the grounds behind Sts. Peter & Paul. I think I’m going to have to do a story on grottoes…

If you know of any other outdoor public art, please contact the Sophienburg Museum at 830-629-1572 or post a photo to our Facebook page. Public art honors our community’s past, adds color and culture to our daily lives and will be educating our citizens and visitors for years to come.

And, it’s beautiful!

The post Public art in New Braunfels appeared first on Sophies Shop.

Don’t know your early NB history? No excuses, people. There are many outstanding works of art and memorials you probably see every day just driving through our beautiful downtown. Pack up the kids or load up your Omie and Opie and take a mini field trip or two. Enjoy the summer weather and connect with your community’s past.

Start with a trip to the NB Civic Center on S. Seguin St. for a really good overview of New Braunfels’ beginnings. Out in front is a bronze of our city founder, Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels. Did you get that? Solms-BRAUNFELS. There. You know how we got our name. We are the only city in Texas founded by a Prince!

Walk up on the front porch and you will find an entire wall of metal plaques that lay out the basics of our town’s history. There are 20 etched metal “photos” of early NB sites and leaders and four rectangular metal etchings of the German immigrants’ journey from Indianola. It’s a lot to take in, but there is more.

Go around the left side of the building. You will pass a blue-tiled fountain that honors citizens who have been designated as “Legends”. These individuals have given countless hours to make our city better. Maybe one day your name will be etched into our history.

Continue to the back entrance and find a long polished grey granite marker in the flower bed. Check out the towns the immigrants passed through as they followed the Guadalupe River up from the coast. That trip took almost six weeks to walk. I just drove that route with a group of fellow citizens; it took us a day in an air-conditioned van. I can truthfully say that I would not have made it to NB. No apology.

Another concentration of art, architecture and memorials is found on our beloved Main Plaza. On the north side, find the rough pink granite rock with a plaque from the City’s 150th Anniversary; it has an outline of the changes made to the Plaza. Having been planned from day one to be the City Center, the Plaza is almost overflowing with information of our past.

And flowing in front of you is the Plaza Fountain, bought and installed in 1896, with funds from the City’s 50th Anniversary celebration. The fountain has not only survived time, it has survived being hit (and badly damaged) several times by drunk or speeding drivers. Did you know that the fountain has not always been black?

The Bandstand has been New Braunfels’ centerpiece since 1905. Just imagine that for over a century, singing and shooting society festivals, presidential and gubernatorial visits, community meetings, concerts and city anniversaries have been celebrated in its shadow. It has witnessed hundreds of 4th of July, Dies y Seis, Loyalty Day, Comal County Fair and Kinder Maskenball parades. Innumerable wagons, carts, bicycles, automobiles and trucks have circled around the octagonal red-roofed little building. Just stand in it and you are a part of that history!

Near the Bandstand is the “Friendship Tree” (Freundschaft Baum) dedicated to YOU, the citizens of New Braunfels. If you circle the Plaza, you will find four polished pink granite markers for the 150th Anniversary. Take some large sheets of paper and some crayons and make rubbings of the crests. Can you figure out what the symbols mean?

At the east end of Main Plaza are two memorials to Comal Countians who fought for our rights and freedoms in the Civil War and WWI. Note that the Civil War monument honors all men who died, both North and South. I like what that says about our town.

If you still haven’t had your fill of history, you can read the marker on our century-old, restored Comal County Courthouse. Take time to go inside and explore the exhibits and spaces of this unique and stately structure; believe me when I say there will be some fun surprises.

Cross Seguin St and grab a cup of coffee at Crosswalk in the former lobby of the Schmitz Hotel where you will walk on floors that knew the footsteps of Texas Rangers, Civil War officers and men, cotton merchants and so many more. I suggest you park yourself in a chair on the front porch. Take a little time to watch present day history happen right before your eyes and be thankful for the all the people who have made New Braunfels so wonderful.

FYI: Saturday, May 19th is FREE Museum Day from 1-4pm. Take advantage of this once a year freebie.

The post Look and Learn! Part 1 appeared first on Sophies Shop.

The Greater New Braunfels Chamber of Commerce sponsors an amazing brochure titled “New Braunfels, Texas Culture & Heritage (Kultur und Erbe).” The brochure invites you to take a peek inside with the words “Open to see trails & explorations involving New Braunfels, Texas.” Just inside the front cover, one can find out that there were many expeditions that went through New Braunfels in the 1600s and 1700s; many old transportation trails including the Old Indianola Trail, San Antonio Stage Line, El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail (also known as the King’s Highway), International & Great Northern Railroad, and the Meridian Highway; some military and postal routes; and some cattle trails and Indian Nation trails including the Shawnee, Chisholm and the Western. Obviously, all of these trails led to an abundance of trade and social interaction and we have been right in the middle of all of it. Of course, new trails (roads and highways) are being made every day.

What is a trail? Mostly it is a means of getting from one place to another. Even the smallest ant makes trails that the whole colony travels. I still remember the trails of the red ants that were more prevalent when I was a a child. They left the nest and one by one followed a path that led them to water or food. As kids, we even had a song that we sang as we watched this process: “The ants go marching one by one, hoorah, hoorah.” Out in the wilderness you can observe paths made by animals.

Indianola Trail

If we use this simple definition of a trail, then the trip from Germany to Galveston was a trail. Some old trails from the coast to New Braunfels are significant enough to be marked. Some have national and state significance as well. The trail from Indianola to New Braunfels is marked by granite markers. It marked the trek by the German immigrants first led by Prince Karl and the Adelsverein. They traveled from the coast on the east side of the Guadalupe River and then crossed into New Braunfels. Five sites along the route are marked. They include in order, Indianola, Victoria, Gonzales, Seguin and New Braunfels. The markers begin at the foot of the LeSalle statue at Indianola and end in a flower bed on the Castell Avenue side of the New Braunfels Civic Center. This trail memorializes the thousands of German immigrants that braved the elements to reach this destination.

El Camino Real

When the settlers reached the Guadalupe River on March 21, 1845, the settlers crossed the river at the El Camino Real or Old King’s Highway, an old established trail. The crossing site can be viewed from the Faust Street Bridge. El Camino Real de los Tejas (now a National Historic Trail) became part of the National Trails System in 2004. It is a corridor that encompasses 2,580 miles of trail from the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass and Laredo to Natchitoches, Louisiana. The period of historical significance dates from 1680 to1845. When Spanish explorers began to travel into Texas and western Louisiana in the 1680s, they followed already existing networks of American Indian trails.

Representatives of the Spanish Crown used these paths to reach areas where they subsequently established missions and presidios. In Comal County and New Braunfels there is a corridor of trail routes extending from the Old Bastrop Road and Hunter Road to the Comal Springs, along Nacogdoches Road to Hwy 482 and then crosses the Cibolo along the Old Nacogdoches Road. The Comal Springs were discovered in 1691 by Spanish Explorers. Many American Indian tribes were found living there at the time. In 1918, The Daughters of the American Revolution marked the El Camino Real with markers every five miles. There are five in Comal County and their locations can be found by reading this Sophienburg column from November 1, 2010.

The Chisholm Trail

The Chisholm Trail was not the longest cattle trail but probably became the most famous due to movies and the many versions of: “Come along boys and listen to my tale, I’ll tell you of my troubles on the Old Chisholm Trail. Come a ti yi yippee, come a ti yi, yea.” The longhorns moved slowly giving the cowhands plenty of time to make up different versions of this song. Supposedly over 1000 versions have been found. From the Chisholm Trail brochure sponsored by The Texas Historical Commission: “In the decades following the Civil War, more than six million cattle were herded out of Texas in one of the greatest migrations of animals ever known. The 19^th century cattle drives laid the foundation for Texas’ wildly successful cattle industry and helped elevate the state out of post-Civil War despair and poverty. Today, our search for an American identity consistently leads us back to the vision of the rugged and independent men and women of the cattle drive era.” The Chisholm Trail came through New Braunfels roughly following IH 35. The Chisholm Trail era ended in the 1880s and a new marker for this trail has been placed at the corner of Seguin Avenue and Nacogdoches Road. Soon, a second marker will be placed at the Comal County Courthouse.

Meridian Highway

Back on July 12, 2015, I wrote an article on the Meridian Highway in Texas (see Sophienburg.com) The following is an excerpt from that article describing the highway:

“When the Texas Highway Department was created in 1917, the Meridian Highway in Texas was called State Highway 2 which meant it was the second most important highway in Texas. The highway in Texas is approximately 900 miles. With the adoption of the interstate highway numbering system, this highway became US81 for the most part and much of the segments now follow IH 35, one of the nation’s busiest interstate highways. The highway links Canada to Mexico and also continues as the Pan-American Highway that stretches from Alaska to Argentina.” The Texas Historical Commission has completed a project to identify significant businesses along the Meridian Highway route. In New Braunfels, the following were identified: a gas station at 4731 Old Hwy 81; the Faust Street Bridge; the el Camino Real marker at Seguin and Nacogdoches; a gas station (now Palacio Tire Shop) at 711 S. Seguin Avenue; a gas station (part of Bluebonnet Motors) at 619 S. Seguin Avenue; Becker Motor Company (now Bluebonnet Motors) at 541 S. Seguin Avenue; a café and bus station (now Celebrations) at 275 S. Seguin Avenue; the Faust Hotel at 240 S. Seguin Avenue; the Prince Solms Inn at 295 E. San Antonio Street; Leissner Gas Station (now UPS) at 301 Main Plaza; the Schmitz Hotel at 471 Main Plaza; the Gerlich Auto Dealership at 386 W. San Antonio Street and an auto dealership and repair shop (now Landmark Properties and other businesses) at 472 and 474 W. San Antonio Street. For more information on the Meridian Highway, visit www.thc.texas.gov/meridian.

Trails in New Braunfels

Once you explore all of the trails leading to New Braunfels, you can download the New Braunfels mobile app found at http://walkingtourinnewbraunfels.com to embark on your self-guided walking tour of NB, driving tour of NB, walking tour of Gruene, or the NB murals tour. If you desire a professional guide for a unique walking tour, you can contact Jan Kingsbury at Spass Walking Tours of NB. Other tour guides can be found on the Chamber website also. What would the first founders of New Braunfels say if they could see what has become of the wilderness they explored. “Gee, it would have been easier if I had had the app on my phone.”

The post Many trails converge in New Braunfels appeared first on Sophies Shop.