Photo: Alfred Schalausky Family with lighted Christmas tree, 1932.

Let there be Christmas light

By Keva Hoffmann Boardman — Decorations for Christmas are up at the Sophienburg Museum and Archives. This year we are highlighting 20th century Christmas décor of the 1920s–1960s. You will be wonderfully transported back to your childhood. We also discovered several large boxes with Christmas lights which led me to

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Tombstone mystery

By Keva Hoffmann Boardman — Last week Sylvia Segovia and I were walking through Hidalgo Panteon searching for the graves of several people. If you have never visited this charming little cemetery, you are in for a truly cultural treat. You will find rows and rows of concrete crosses and

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Highways, motels and diving ladies

By Tara V. Kohlenberg — Have you ever thought about what travel was like before superhighways and chain hotels? It was definitely a much simpler time. Early travel meant dirt roads, complete with ruts and mud holes. Not until after World War I did road improvements became a priority. The

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The Susanna saga continued

By Keva Hoffmann Boardman — “And so,” Michael Freiherr von der Tann continued, “we are so pleased to have these documents returned to our family. They will join the rest of the Tann Archive in the Hesse State Archives in Marburg.” With a hand-off of an acid-free box containing four

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Cold War fears in New Braunfels

By Tara V. Kohlenberg — In recent days, we have all watched heart-breaking images flash across our screens as Russia exerts its power over Ukraine. News of such events has stirred up childhood memories of my classmates and I scrambling under our metal school desks during bomb drills of the

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Away in a manger

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

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Die Neunköder and the castor bean

Keva Hoffmann Boardman — When nine young men from Frankfort emigrated to Texas in 1849, they were given the nickname of “Die Neunköder” or “the Nine Lures” or “the Niners.” One of them, George Weber, described the group of adventurers: “Taking a sailship at Antwerpen, we finally landed at Indianola

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“Ein Prosit, ein Prosit” to music

By Myra Lee Adams Goff We are celebrating the 175th Anniversary of New Braunfels and its unique culture in which music played a large part. Music creates sounds that evoke different emotions. Sounds representing joy, sadness, patriotism, history and love and can be produced through many different instruments and particularly

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Isabel Zuniga wins Sophienburg history scholarship

The recipient for the Sophienburg’s Myra Lee Adams Goff history scholarship has been chosen. Out of over 50 entries from Canyon High School, Canyon Lake High School, New Braunfels High School and Smithsons Valley High School, the recipient for this year’s $1000 scholarship is Isabel Zuniga from New Braunfels High

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Recipes for life

By Tara Voigt Kohlenberg Now that circumstances are anything but normal, there is a pretty good chance that you, too, have been playing “What Can I Make With This?” The game is played while standing in front of an open pantry or refrigerator. Don’t get me wrong, I do love

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