Located in the heart of Texas, this is the only city in the state founded by German royalty. This is how the “City of a Prince” was born.
New Braunfels
was founded in 1845 by Prince Charles de Solms-Braunfels, commissioner general of the Adelsverein of Mainzer, also known as the Society of Nobles. Prince Carl named the settlement after his home in Solms-Braunfels, Germany.The land was located northeast of San Antonio, on the Royal Texas Trail, and had the strong fresh water springs of Comal, known as Las Fontanas, when the Germans arrived. It was approximately halfway between Indianola and the lower parts of the Fisher-Miller land grant. The first settlers forded the Guadalupe River on Good Friday, March 21, 1845, near the current Fausto Street bridge. As the spring of 1845 progressed, the colonists built the Zinkenburg, a fort named after Adelsverein's civil engineer, Nicolaus Zink, divided the land and began building houses and planting crops.
Prince Carl would also lay the cornerstone of Sophienburg, a permanent fort and a center for the immigrant association. In 1844, Prince Charles was so disillusioned with the logistics of colonization that he asked the Vereins to remove him as commissioner-general and appoint a successor. Meusebach arrived, finances were in disarray, due in part to Prince Carl's lack of business experience and his refusal to keep financial records. To a greater extent, the financial situation occurred because the Adelsverein were an organization of nobles with no practical experience in business management.
They were on the other side of the world and did not witness the situation faced by both Prince Carl and Meusebach. Henry Francis Fisher had not provided transportation or supplies for which the Vereins had advanced money. Meusebach found Prince Charles in Galveston while trying to return to Germany, detained by authorities for unpaid bills. Meusebach paid the debts, so Prince Carl was able to leave.
Cappes invited Henry Francis Fisher to New Braunfels, even though Fisher was not entirely trustworthy by the Vereins. On February 11, 1845, Fisher had participated in the coercion of newly arrived immigrants to sign documents stating their intention to leave the Verein and align themselves with Fisher's friend, Dr. Friedrich Schubbert, also known as Friedrich Strubberg. Meusebach stabilized the community's finances and encouraged settlers to establish more neighboring communities.
The largest of these secondary settlements was Fredericksburg, 80 miles (130 km) northwest of New Braunfels. New Braunfels is located in southeastern Comal County. The city is 32 miles (51 km) northeast of downtown San Antonio, 19 miles (31 km) southwest of San Marcos and 48 miles (77 km) southwest of Austin. New Braunfels has a humid subtropical climate, with hot, humid summers and generally mild winters.
Temperatures range from 27.8°C (100°F) in summer to 9.4°C (49°F) in winter. In New Braunfels, July and August are the warmest months, with an average high of 95°F (35°C). May, June and October have a lot of precipitation. The average annual rainfall was 35.74 inches (908 mm).
NBISD operates several schools in New Braunfels. The city holds Wurstfest, a German-style sausage festival, every November, which is based on the city's strong German heritage. Every December, the city celebrates Wassailfest in the historic center. New Braunfels attracts a large number of tourists, especially in summer due to the cold water rivers that run through the city.
Many generations of families and university students return every summer to travel kilometers by subway along the Guadalupe and Comal rivers. New Braunfels is the site of the original water park, the Schlitterbahn WaterPark Resort. Ernest Eikel Skate Park attracts many skate board enthusiasts. Unicorn Stadium, with a capacity of 10,000 people, is the largest sports stadium by capacity in New Braunfels.
It opened in 1927 and is mainly used for American football and soccer. The venue also has an athletics track. The other newspaper publisher serving the city of New Braunfels is the TX Citizen, formerly a citizen of NB. Traditional Christmas decorations in historic buildings in downtown Fredericksburg help give the Christmas celebration a German flavor.
Although he would never return to Texas, he left behind an already flourishing city and the cornerstone of an unfinished fort called Sophienburg, in honor of his fiancée. The universities near New Braunfels include Texas State University, Saint Philips College and Texas Lutheran University. The royal infant was christened Carl Frederick Wilhelm Ludwig Georg Alfred Alexander, Prince of Solms, Lord of Braunfels, Grafenstein, Muenzenberg, Wildenfels and Sonnenwalde. In addition, the New Braunfels community hosts several annual celebrations, such as the Wurstfest, the Comal County Fair, the Folkfest and the Frog Fest.
Any New Braunfels story must begin in “old Braunfels”, where on July 12, 1812, a prince was born in a picturesque castle overlooking the Lahn River in Germany. The Comal River meanders next to the Landa Park Golf Course, in the center on the left, in New Braunfels, Texas, on Thursday, February 3. Private high schools are the New Braunfels Christian Academy, a K-12 institution, and the Calvary Baptist Academy. Meusebach discovered that Prince Carl's choice of the inadequate Carlshafen (Indianola) as a port of entry, as well as of the isolated route to New Braunfels, was deliberately chosen to prevent Germans from interacting with any American.
Soon, New Braunfels became a shopping center with business stores, craft stores and mill factories. In March 1845, while immigrants were preparing for their journey inland, Prince Charles went to San Antonio to buy land called Las Fontanas, along the legendary Camino Real, for a temporary settlement on the road to the Fisher-Miller scholarship. He also left in his fledgling community some exceptional young people who would become heroes of New Braunfels. .
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