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By Paul
Gerald
Ah, the Texas Hill Country. The horse rides! The scenery! The wildflowers! The Guadalupe River! The Germans!
Wait a minute - the Germans?
Yep, that's right. If you are coming to the Texas Hill Country, you're coming to one of the most German places in America. And within about an hour of Mountain Home are two of the most German-and most historic-towns in the whole area.
But why did the Germans settle here? It appears that in the 1840s, Germany wasn't such a great place to be unless you were in the nobility. It was overcrowded, industry was wiping out small farmers, jobs didn't pay well, girls had only marriage to look forward to and boys (unless they were the oldest) would never inherit land.
One solution involved an immigration society called the Adelsverein. They promised the future immigrants transportation to a colony in Texas in addition to 160 acres per person upon arrival. About 5,000 people took them up on it, enduring an ocean crossing, famine, disease and poverty to reach what is now the Texas Hill Country.
These German immigrants brought many things with them, including the concept of diplomacy. Their Fredericksburg Treaty of 1847, signed with the Comanches, is significant because it is one of very few in American history that was never broken by either side.
That peace opened the door for prosperity, allowing German culture to flourish in Central Texas. Music and song were always part of that; today, for example, Boerne's Village Band is the oldest German band outside of Germany-they will celebrate their 140th anniversary this year.
Architecture, literature, appreciation of history, and (of course,) good ol' beer, sausages and strudels...all of these items can be found in today's Texas Hill Country thanks to the perseverance of those German immigrants.
In Boerne (pronounced "burnee,") about 50 miles southeast of Mountain Home on Interstate 10, you can reside (for $85 a night) in the 1859 Ye Kendall Inn
(http://yekendallinn.com.) If you do choose to stay, you'll add your name to a guest list that includes Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Boerne is an excellent walking town and contains many historical sights-17 of them official Texas Historic Landmarks, some dating from the 1840s and 1850s-packed together in the center of town.
The Dienger Building, at 210 N. Main, was built in 1884 and has been a grocery store, residence, restaurant and post office. Today it houses the excellent Boerne Public Library; on display there is one of only six Low German Bibles in existence-and the only one with its original covers. This bible dates to 1614.
A few blocks away, at 402 E. Blanco on a hill overlooking City Hall, is the Kuhlmann King Historic House, built by a German immigrant for his young bride in the 1880s. Just walking by to admire it is worth the effort; inside, though, you can see the original hand-carved table and mantle (with the artist's signature still legible.) It's open for tours Sunday from 1 to 4 pm or by appointment; call (830) 249-2030 for more information.
As you walk down Main Street, you won't be able to miss the Fabra Smokehouse (located right here since 1887.) And you shouldn't miss the view from the Kronkosky Tower, built in 1911; it's actually a school library now, but it is open to the public during daylight hours and offers a panorama of Boerne and the Texas Hill Country that cannot be beaten.
A little closer (and a little bigger) than Boerne is the quaint, charming town of Fredericksburg. It's right up Highway 16 from Kerrville, which is on I-10 between Mountain Home and Boerne. Fredericksburg was founded in 1846, a few years before Boerne.
Today it features a historic district encompassing most of downtown, which can be covered in its entirety in 6.2 miles. Within this area, the dominant architectural style is the Germanic construction known as fachwerk, which uses limestone and timbers-the only materials the immigrants had to use at the time.
One of these buildings houses the Admiral Nimitz Museum and Historical Center at 340 E. Main Street. This museum-named for the man whose grandparents ran the Steamboat Hotel in the same, boat-shaped building-is dedicated to those who served under Nimitz. It features the $3 million George Bush Gallery of the National Museum of the Pacific War, complete with all the sights and sounds of Guadalcanal, Doolittle's raid and other settings.
Fredericksburg's landmark building, and an excellent place to start your town visit, is the Vereins Kirche Museum right in the center of Marktplatz. Housed in the city's first public building, the museum has a gift shop, archives and a revolving exhibit. Currently, the featured exhibit is a photo display of early service stations, auto garages and auto dealerships from the turn of the century to the mid-1960s. Next up, due sometime in March, is a display about saloons and beer joints. For the latest information, call (830) 997-2835.
Next, head over to the Pioneer Museum Complex (309 W. Main,) a 3.5-acre museum with ten buildings including an old general store with items from 100 years ago, a smokehouse, a barn, a blacksmith shop, an original 19th-century log cabin, a three-room Victorian house with period furnishings, a one-room schoolhouse and a working windmill.
As you move around town, see if you can spot one of Fredericksburg's Sunday Houses, little one-room cottages built by German farmers to stay in when they came to town to shop on Saturdays and go to church on Sundays. Several of them are now bed-and-breakfasts.
 And speaking of farms, you can go see a working 19th-century-style farm just outside of town. The Sauer-Beckmann Farm, part of LBJ State Park, lets you peek in as costumed interpreters carryout day-to-day activities such as feeding and milking animals, gathering eggs and slopping the hogs. They make butter and cheese daily, scrub the floors with homemade lye soap, and in March they should be getting the garden up and running. Visitors can drop by anytime between 8 and 4:30, but it's recommended that you call (830) 644-2455 to make sure they aren't swarmed with schoolkids when you want to visit.
Well, by this time you must be hungry. Head head back into town and look for some good German fare. Swing by Opa's Smoked Meats
(http://www.opassmokedmeats.com) or the Dutchman Deli to get your supply of blood sausage, liver sausage, headcheese, bratwurst or knackwurst. Or look for one of several bakeries along Main Street for some strudel or kolaches.
For dinner, check out Der Lindenbaum, whose owner is from Germany. They specialize in schnitzels, pastries and German wines and beers. Or visit Freidhelm's Bavarian Inn, also with an owner/cook from Germany; their specialty is seafood.
The Gillespie County Historical Society offers German meal tours (minimum of 15 people, call (830) 997-2835 for details,) but a good bet for a "full German experience" is the Fredericksburg Brewery
(http://www.yourbrewery.com
.) They'll set you up with schnitzels, a sausage sampler, the "best Reuben in town" or a variety of non-German dishes-all washed down with their very own lagers and ales brewed on the premises. And the best part? You don't even have to leave; they have eleven B&B rooms upstairs, where you can awaken to the aroma of fresh-baked goods and fresh-ground gourmet coffee from the cafe downstairs.
History, architecture, a good meal, a glass of beer and a place to stay...what more could you want? Thank goodness that over 150 years ago some determined Germans found their way to the Texas Hill Country.
For more information on Boerne, call (888) 842-8080 or check out their website at
http://www.boerne.org . For more information on Fredericksburg, call (888) 997-3600 or visit
http://www.fredericksburg-texas.com .
Copyright ©
2000 by Paul Gerald. All rights reserved.
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