Anthology of Texas German writings; a sample (all translations by James Kearney)

Theme: Emigration/Texas Fever

Friedrich Ernst letter to friends and relatives in Mexico (Kearney, et al, Journey to Texas in 1833 by Detlef Dunt, (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2010)

In keeping with my request and travel account that I sent to my brother-in-law right after our arrival in New York will have been shared with all of you.  It contained everything that I considered necessary to report.  At that time I had nothing to say about America, but now that I have spent more than 2 years on this continent and so far have traveled more than 1,400 miles across it, I can at least tell you what should be especially useful to emigrants; these few sheets of writing paper do not allow room for more, and even so I shall have to be brief, so without further ado, I’ll set out right away.  It will be mentioned only in passing that we went by way of Münster, Wesel, Maastricht, Brussels, Ostend, Dunkirk, Abbeville, and Dieppe to Havre-de-Grâce, and from there crossed the Atlantic Ocean on a packet ship to New York within four weeks, and reached this immeasurable city with its 200,000 inhabitants.  However, in the north the United States does not offer immigrants its former advantages.  Here we found winter to be just as severe as in Germany, for which reason we decided to go farther south.  Accordingly, we took ship in February and went to New Orleans on a brig.  Even though it was severe winter right at our departure from New York, nevertheless on the fourth day after our leave the mild air of spring was already wafting towards us, and 3 days later, between Cuba and Florida, we had veritable summer, which persisted the entire distance of 1,000 nautical miles across that part of the ocean, through the Bahama Bay [Florida Straits] into the Gulf of Mexico, right to the mouth of the Missisippi [Mississippi].  Our brig was towed 120 miles up to New Orleans by a steamship, which already had 2 brigs and 1 schooner in tow.  In New Orleans we received favorable reports about Texas and Austin’s Colony located there; so we took passage on a 37-ton schooner, the Satillo, which already had more than 100 people on board, and after a week-long trip landed at Harrisburg in this colony.  Every immigrant who wants to do farming – if he arrives with wife or family – receives a league of land, or if as a single man a quarter league; sons over 14 years of age have identical claims on land distribution.  A league is an hour’s journey long and just as wide; in return he must defray 160 dollars in regular payments for surveyor’s fees, installation costs, etc., must take the oath of citizenship, and after the course of a year is a free citizen of the free United States of Mexico.  As Europeans, who are especially welcome, we, too, received a league of land in this same manner and settled there; that is where I’m writing this letter from.  The state [province] of Texas, of which our colony constitutes almost one sixth, is located to the south, on the Gulf of Mexico, between the 27^th° and the 31^st° northern latitude; previously followers of Napoleon had settled here at Camp d’Asile.  Austin’s Colony is traversed by the Trinidad, Río Brazos, and Río Collorado [Colorado] rivers; within it are situated the major seat of St. Felippe [San Felipe] de Austin and the townships of Harrisburg, Brazoria, and Matagorda.  Tampico and Vera Cruz can be reached by sail in 3 to 4 days.  The land is undulating and alternates between woodlands and expanses of native grass.  They are showy with the most wonderful flowers and blossoms, such as magnolias.  The meadows have the most sumptuous stands of grass; I should have been able to sell several thousand cart loads of hay, if there had only been takers; but instead of being mowed it is burned off in late summer.  The soil is so rich it never requires fertilizing.  The climate resembles that of lower Italy; during the summer it is admittedly warmer than in Germany, because we have the sun almost directly overhead.  On the other hand, it is by far not as hot as might be presumed, since a persistent fresh east breeze cools the air; moreover, in the summertime there is not much to do, and people wear light clothing such as white cotton trousers and vests.  In winter, like right now, the weather is usually what Germany has during the first 2 weeks of spring in March.  Only twice so far, when the wind was blowing hard from the northwest, have we had freezing ice.  In an entire month the weather will prevent field work only for a couple of days.  The sun and air are always bright and clear; bees and butterflies are seen year round, birds are singing in the shrubs, some of which are evergreen; and in winter as well as in summer the cattle find their own feed.  The cows calve without assistance, come home at night to suckle their calves, which are kept in the daytime in an area protected by a wooden fence.  In this way the return of the cows is assured.  Calves are never slaughtered.  A cow with calf costs 10 dollars.  There are 100 cents to a dollar, so a cent is about equal to an Oldenburg Grote.  Horses cost somewhat more and are only used for riding; everybody rides, whether male or female.  Oxen are used for draught animals and plowing.  There are farmers here who own close to 700 head of cattle.  But the rate of propagation is also quite extraordinary, and young cows of 1¾ years of age already bring calves into the world.  Hogs increase so astonishingly that, beginning with 6, you may have 100 the following year; they, too, cost nothing to maintain, since they find abundant feed in the woods and only occasionally are given a few kernels of corn to get them used to the house.  Moreover, pork is at a good price with 4 dollars per 100 pounds.  A local immigrant bought 6 sows 2 years ago; after breeding them he has now sold 80 fat hogs, each one of them over 200 lbs.  Generally speaking, all agricultural products fetch a good price, greatly to the farmer’s advantage.  Corn, or Turkish wheat, costs 75 cents to 1 dollar per bushel*) and is as good as cash money – of which there is not much in circulation, since everything is transacted by barter.  On one Morgen (acre) of good land, which can be plowed in one day, 30-40 bushels of corn will grow, for which the seed corn can be planted by children.  Fields for planting are protected by split wooden enclosures so the cattle won’t ruin anything, since they are allowed to run at large.  The products cultivated here consist of sugarcane, cotton of best quality, tobacco, rice, indigo – which grows wild around here – corn, batatas or sweet potatoes, melons of exceptional quality, watermelons, pumpkins, wheat, rye, all kinds of garden vegetables, and peaches in great quantity.  Moreover, growing wild around in the woods are: mulberries, several kinds of walnut, persimmons as sweet as honey, and grapes in large quantity, but not of outstanding taste.  Honey is frequently found in hollow tree-trunks, where bee-swarms settle; birds of all kinds, from pelicans to hummingbirds; game such as: deer, bears, raccoons, opossum, wild turkeys, geese, ducks, and partridges – these last-mentioned in quantity and as large as domestic chickens; they are actually grey pheasants; from our house in particular, we daily see flocks of game grazing.  Moreover, there is free hunting everywhere; and very delicate fish, sometimes weighing 40 lbs.  There are also herds of foxes as well as of wild horses, which can manageably be captured when still colts and be tamed.  There are also wolves here, but of such a timid sort that they flee from my youngest children.  Although a panther or leopard may be seen from time to time, predators are, generally speaking, not dangerous; I have wandered for days alone in the deepest thicket, where no human had set foot before, without ever seeing any such animal; on the other hand, the hunting booty is always great and provides us with the most exquisite roasts.  The meadows are adorned with the most beautiful, gorgeous flowers, some of which I never saw before, and which in Germany can only be grown in a greenhouse; I feel ashamed to scatter the seeds brought from home where the carpet of meadowland displays a continuous show of flowers.  There are also many kinds of snakes here, among them also the rattlesnake, several of which I have killed.  How little they are noticed is proved by the fact that many a hunter or herdsman walks barefoot all summer long, through all kinds of tall grass and brush, without even thinking of snakes.  Furthermore, everybody knows remedies for the bites of such animals; three times I have seen people bitten, but never anybody die from it.  In view of the large landholdings, it is obvious that the inhabitants cannot be living closely together; nevertheless my closest neighbor lives only 10 minutes from my house, since we both have settled not far from our property line.  A league of land comprises 4,444 (4,428.4] acres *) or Morgen, consisting of hilly areas and valleys, woods and meadows cut through by small creeks, and when there are several settlements in one location, the value of land is such that acreage has already been sold at 1 dollar.  As in the United States the constitution of this country is free, and political quarrels are unknown to us here; still, by way of a newspaper regularly published at St. Antonio on the Rio del Norte, we are informed of every world event.  The English language is quickly learned; my wife and I, and my children in particular, can already manage fairly well, and I read the newspaper as well as I do a German one.  Although the introduction of slaves is prohibited, keeping them is tacitly tolerated since there would otherwise be a shortage of laborers, because of it being so easy to earn a living.  Workingmen earn 75 cents to 1 dollar a day with board.  All items of clothing and footwear are expensive, so almost everybody makes his own; generally speaking, everybody lives in the open and by himself, so there is little need for cash money; thus I am quite happy finally to have my wishes fulfilled and find myself in a position where I can do everything according to my likes.  Everybody builds his own house, either by himself or with help from his neighbors; not much is spent on its beauty, rather it is only constructed of hewn wooden logs.  Mine was built – with the assistance of my son, Fritz, who can already cut down tree trunks 2 feet thick – on the order of my former garden house in Oldenburg, but on a larger scale.  Working regularly in the open has made me healthier and stronger than I ever was in Germany; and my wife is blooming like a rose, as are the children.  My son Hermann is growing exceptionally and turning into a genuine Mexican.  They all have their rustic chores: Lina already milks her 3 cows, Fritz and Louis help me with farming, the younger ones have various jobs, such as planting and picking cotton, which is exceedingly easy since it grows like weeds.  Every day fresh cornbread is made in an iron pot with a fireproof lid, and it tastes like the finest rice cakes.  Our corn is of far better quality than in Germany; I grind it in a very simple manner and it yields not only meal, but also shelled groats, like rice.  Meat, which, from every kind of animal, is much tastier than in Germany, is eaten fried in the morning at breakfast, as well as at noon, and in the evening.  There are mosquitoes here just as in all warmer regions.  Those who have been bitten by gnats on the German moors will consider this American nuisance worse over there than here.  They are more frequent on the coast, but since we are living more than 100 miles inland, where it is hillier and airier, we have little of this.  In general I have no feeling of disadvantage except the great distance from my friends; if I could conjure them up, I would have heaven on earth.  From the faithful description above, you will realize what advantages the farmer here has over the farmer over there; a free constitution and, for the time being, no local taxes whatever and later only slight ones; easy cattle raising, hardly 3 months of real work, no fertilizing of the acreage, no gathering of winter feed, no need for money, easy construction of houses and making of clothes, etc.; free hunting and game aplenty; everywhere free exercise of religion, etc.; all of this – with the best market for his products – combines to make the farmer happy and, in a few years, affluent.  This is proved by everybody who has been here for 4 to 6 years.  Up higher on the rivers there are beautiful areas, and silver has been found there; it is merely a matter of driving off an Indian tribe which resists individual visits.  Several Indian tribes are moving about peacefully like Cossacks, hunting deer, of which they sell the hides.  If some of you, my friends, or anybody else, should decide, after reading this letter, to enjoy undisturbed freedom here and head for an assured pleasant future – instead of waiting until whatever few tangible possessions remain vanish completely and thus being deprived of the means for passage – then let me offer the following advice with regard to the journey:  Book passage in steerage on one of the ships plying from the Weser River to New Orleans.  I do not know the fare exactly, but it should not exceed 45 dollars per person, since it would then be preferable to go to New York (costs 35 dollars and from there to New Orleans 10 dollars, personal belongings free).  From New Orleans to Texas (Harrisburg) 10 dollars.  Belongings are paid separately.  Families should try for a discount; children usually pay half fare.  You buy your own provisions.  If the wind is favorable, the trip to New Orleans can be made in 5 to 6 weeks, and from there to Harrisburg in 4 days.  Take passage so that you don’t arrive in New Orleans between July and October, since yellow fever is prevalent there at that time.  Once in Harrisburg, hire a wagon for San Felipe and report at the land office.  It is safest to travel with several others, with one of them knowing the English language or studying it up to the time of departure.  Everybody must help the others, and if any of you only brings enough money to manage the very essential initial purchases, then what another among you may be paying beyond his share can soon be equalized.  The head of a family must keep well in mind that the league of land granted him amounts to receiving as much land as a noble count owns, with an immediate value of 600-800 dollars, at which price leagues have often been sold here already.  Incidentally, the expenses for the land do not have to be paid immediately, and may pay them only in cattle, which they raise themselves here.  For my friends and other known countrymen I have, for the moment, enough room on my property, until they have the leisure to look for an unoccupied league, which does take its time; however, Colonel Austin recently promised that such Germans as might arrive are to be preferably well situated.  An unmarried man should bring a woman who is not swayed by external appearances and what is fashionable.  You, my dear C., have already experienced many setbacks in the world, which may cause you to wish for all memories to be erased.  So, if there is any way to make this possible, do not delay for a moment coming over here with your loved ones; your brother, Hermann, who understands agriculture so thoroughly, would quickly be in his true element here.  However, for professional people there is no particular prospect here.  Bring your sisters; young girls can very well find their happiness here.  If everybody comes whom I used to call a friend, nobody will lose anything by the exchange; next summer I’ll be building a house for prospective arrivals and will grow some fruit; may I soon have the pleasure of both being used quit shortly by friends; how happy that would make me.  I expect no reply to this letter; communication from here is too difficult and uncertain.  Come yourself and bring me letters from those who stayed behind; that would be the greatest joy for me.  Once arrived in San Felipe, any of you should inquire about Friedrich Ernst on Mill Creek.  Passports are nowhere required.  My wife begs of your wife truly not to be afraid of the ocean voyage; at first she was so fearful she wouldn’t go on board, but now that she has made two ocean voyages with me, she would surely travel with me around the world.  Apart from a few gales, we didn’t have a single misfortune and were barely seasick.  Next August, when somebody from over there may possibly show up, our hopes will be stirring, and we shall believe it will be dear friends whenever a wagon arrives.  Although the ocean and unanticipated bitter events separate us, I have still never ceased to be moved when I think of you, my dear friends, and you live daily in my heart.

                                    Your

                                    Fritz

Introduction to Journey to Texas in 1833 by Detlef Dunt, (Austin: Univesity of Texas Press, 2010)

Much has been written about America, but as far as I know nothing as yet about Texas;*) it would have been desirable if more had been known about this country at an earlier time, since many individuals would then be better off than is now the case – people who left their dear German fatherland convinced that they would improve their circumstances in America, but who in the northern areas, in the United States, instead found their advancement made even more difficult than at home.  It is indeed to be lamented how, in many instances, working-class Germans with such little forethought take the important step of tearing themselves away from everything which has bound them to their fatherland.  The sometimes quite exaggerated descriptions by countrymen, who often write so favorably only for their own interest, prompt those poor people to perceive nothing but an Eldorado in the New World, and they must subsequently often find themselves painfully disappointed.  Nevertheless, I have become acquainted with several individuals who, at the time they set foot on American soil, still did not know which one of the states on this enormous continent they wanted to go to, and were still completely unfamiliar with the circumstances here.  Such poor people really deserve pit, and there is an urgent need to inform them better about what advantages they can expect in the New World.  The purpose of these pages is to warn my German brothers in the fatherland against ill-advised emigration plans and – once they have considered everything and firmly resolved to seek their happiness in the New World – to show them the course I think they should follow in order not to regret this important step, separated as they will be from their fatherland by the enormous Atlantic Ocean.  My pen will be guided by the strongest desire for truth, and it is my most fervent wish to be of use to my fine German countrymen by way of these pages.  I shall consider myself very fortunate if through this little book I could provide better opportunity and a better situation for the many worthy heads of families denied the means of subsistence by their fatherland.  However, I hope to God and am firmly convinced that particularly in this state [Coahuila and] Texas, thousands more – provided they do not come here with exaggerated expectations – will, in return for moderate physical work, find a carefree existence and an honest living.

Written at the Friedrich Ernst settlement on Mill Creek, in Austin’s Colony, in the state of [Coahuila and] Texas in New Mexico [Mexico], in September, 1833.

“Raus, raus, und raus,” Hoffmann von Fallersleben (Texanische Lieder)

Raus, raus, und raus,
Aus Deutschland muß ich raus:
Ich schlag mir Deutschland aus dem Sinn
Und wand´re jetzt nach Texas hin.
Mein Glück will ich probieren, marschieren!  

 Out, out and out 

 From Germany I must out;

 Germany I put you from my mind

 My happiness in Texas to find.

 Our fortune there to grow, let’s go

“Der Stern von Texas” [The Star of Texas] Hoffmann von Fallersleben

Hin nach Texas! hin nach Texas!

Wo der Stern im blauen Felde

Eine neue Welt verkündet,

Jedes Herz für Recht und Freiheit

Und für Wahrheit froh entzündet —

Dahin sehnt mein Herz sich ganz.

Away to Texas, away to Texas,

Where the star in the blue field

A new world proclaims.

Every heart for justice and freedom,

And every deception disdains.

That is where my heart is yearning.

Hin nach Texas! hin nach Texas!

Wo der Fluch der Ueberliefrung

Und der alte Köhlerglaube

Vor der reinen Menschenliebe

Endlich wird zu Asch’ und Staube —

Dahin sehnt mein Herz sich ganz.

Away to Texas, away to Texas!

Where the curse of tradition

And the old blind trust,

In the presence of pure love

Turns finally to ash and dust.

That is where my heart is yearning.

Hin nach Texas! hin nach Texas!

Wo die Pflugschaar wird das Zeichen

Der Versöhnung und Erhebung,

Dass die Menschheit wieder feiert

Ihren Maitag der Belebung. —

Dahin sehnt mein Herz sich ganz.

Away to Texas, away to Texas,

Where the ploughshare becomes the sign

Of reconciliation and mirth, 

So that mankind once again 

Enjoys a Mayday of rebirth. – 

That is where my heart is yearning.

Hin nach Texas! hin nach Texas!

Goldner Stern, du bist der Bote

Unsers neuen schön’ren Lebens:

Denn was freie Herzen hoffen,

Hofften sie noch nie vergebens.

Sei gegrüsst, du goldner Stern!

Away to Texas, away to Texas,

 Golden star, you are the harbinger

Of a new and much better day.

What a free heart yearns for, 

Will surely never go away.

Oh golden star, I salute you!

“Unsere Fürsten,”  [Our Nobles] Hoffmann von Fallersleben, 1848

Unsere Fürsten hatten viel versprochen
doch das Halten schien nicht ihre Pflicht
haben wir denn nun so viel verbrochen
warum hielten sie ihr Versprechen nicht

Schlimmer wird es jetzt von Tag zu Tage
schweigen ist nur unser einzig Recht
Untertanen ziemet keine Klage
gehorchen muß dem Herrn der Knecht

Heute trifft es jenen, morgen diesen
jeder hier im Land ist vogelfrei
Unsere Brüder werden ausgewiesen
mehr als alles Recht gilt Polizei

Deutsche Freiheit, die lebt nur im Liede
Deutsches Recht, das ist ein Märchen nur
Deutschlands Wohlfahrt ist ein langer Friede
voll von lauter Willkür und Zensur

Darum ziehen wir aus dem Vaterlande
kehren nun und nimmermehr zurück
suchen Freiheit uns am fremden Strande
Freiheit das ist unser Lebensglück !

Our nobles have promised a lot and delivered little.

Have we then behaved so poorly that they don’t need to keep their promises?

It grows worse from day to day, and to remain silent is the only right left to us. To complain is not the prerogative of the underclass; the servant must obey his superiors. You     suffer from it today, but tomorrow over there you will be free as a bird. Our brothers are oppressed; the police are more important than justice. 

German freedom exists only in song; German justice, that is just a fairy tale.

Germany’s well-being is a long peace full of arbitrariness and censure.

Therefore, we leave the Fatherland, never ever to return

To seek freedom on foreign shores.

Freedom that is the life’s most precious joy!

“Die Deutschen,” [The Germans] Johannes Romberg,  57

Das Herz Europas sendet aus

Sein Blut in allen Zonen,

Die Welt, die ist des Deutschen Haus,

Er will es auch bewohnen.

The heart of Europe

Exports its blood in all directions.

The world is the German’s house.

He will live everywhere. 

Der eis’ge Nord, der Wüste sand,

Die können ihn nicht schrecken,

Er pilgert fort im Sonnenbrand

Mit seinem Wanderstecken.

The icy North, the desert’s sand,

Neither can intimidate him

The pilgrim marches forth

With his walking stick.

Bald merkt er sich ein Plätzchen an,

Sagt, daß er bleiben wolle,

Nimmt einen Pflug und wendet dann 

In sich vergnügt die Scholle.

Soon he finds a suitable place,

Sys, he intends to stay

Takes his plow and in quiet satisfaction,

turns the soil.

Geduldig ist der Deutsche sehr,

Läßt viel mit sich geschehen,

Doch setzt er sich endlich zur Wehr,

Wird man ihn mutig sehen.

The German is very patient

Allows much to pass over him,

But when he finally decides to fight,

All will find him courageous. 

Ja, tapfer ist der deutsche Mann,

Wie and’re Nationen,

Der Franke das bezeugen kann

Und daraus Legionen.

Yes, the German is brave,

other nations, as the French,

can attest to that,

And many others as well.

Die deutsche Treue ist ein Wort,

Das nie vergessen werde,

Wohin ihr wandert, pflanzt es fort,

Es wächst in jeder Erde.

German loyalty is a 

Never-forgotten idea.

Wherever you wander,

Plant it so that it thrives

In all corners of the globe.

Theme: Making a Home in Texas

Johannes Romberg, “Wahl eines Hausplatzes,” [Choosing a site for a Homestead], 23

Einen Platz will ich erwählen

Mir ein Haus darauf zu bau’n,

Aber schatten darf nicht fehlen,

Und ins Weite muß ich schauen.

                  I need to choose a place to build me a house.

                  It needs to have shade but also a good view.

Dieser Hügel ist ersehen,

Wo die Lebenseiche steht,

Wo ein ewig säuselnd Wehen

durch die grünen Zweige geht.

                  This hill is chosen where there is a live oak

                  And where a perpetual breeze blows through its branches.

Ja, du flüsterst mir Vertrauen

In das Herz und hoffnungswarm

Will ich schaffen, will ich bauen,

Will ich gründen eine Farm.

                  Yes, you whisper trust into the heart and make me full of hope

                  Here I will create, will build, will establish a farm.

Nach des Tages schweren Lasten

Mit den meinen im Verein

Will ich hier am Abend rasten

Bei der Sterne Silberschein.

                  After the day’s work is done together with my own

                  I will rest here in the evening by the soft light of the stars.

Und wir hören, wenn wir lauschen

In der friedlich stillen Welt,

Leis’ des Maiskorns Blätterrauschen,

In dem nahgeleg’nen Feld.

                  And we hear when we listen in this peaceful and still world

                  The soft rustling of the corn in the nearby field

Oben wandeln still die Sterne

In der ewig alten Bahn,

Und wir blicken in die Ferne,

In den Welten=Ocean.

                  Above the stars wander in their ancient, timeless paths

                  And we look at an ocean of worlds in the far away distance

Und es mahnt dann leise, leise,

Uns die Müdigkeit zur Ruh,

In des Urwalds alter weise,

Singst du uns ein Lied dazu.

                  And our fatigue pulls us slowly to our rest

                  And in the manner of the primeval, you [the oak] sing us a lullaby too

Alter Baum, in deinen Zweigen

Rauscht es so geheimnisvoll,

Willst du mir Vergangenes zeigen,

Oder das, was kommen soll?

                  Ancient tree, your branches rustle so mysteriously.

                  Are they telling me of the past or telling of what is to come?

Kann dein Flüstern nicht verstehen,

Weiß nicht, wie ichs deuten soll,

Ich will an die Arbeit gehen,

Hoffend und vertrauensvoll.

                  I cannot understand your whisperings, don’t know how to interpret;

                  I go now to my work, full of trust and hope.

Kurz nur ist das Menschenleben,

Deines währt Jahrhunderte,

Kannst Uhrenkeln Schatten geben

Und erschau’n ihr Wohl und Weh.

                  Human life is all too short; yours lasts for centuries,

                  Will provide shade to my grandchildren and look down upon their triumphs and failures

Hier vielleicht auf grünen Matten

Spielen sie mit frohem Sinn,

Kühlen sich in deinem Schatten,

Wenn ich längst entschwunden bin.

                  Perhaps here below they will play happily on your green floor

                  Refresh themselves in your shade after I am long since gone.

Stürme rüttelten vergebens

Deinen Stamm und dein Gezweig.

Meine Lieben! In des Lebens

Stürmen seid der Eiche gleich.

                  In vain storms have shaken your trunk and limbs

                  Dearly beloved, try to be like the oak in the storms of life

Theme: Freedom in Texas

“Ein Guadalupelied” [A Song of the Guadalupe] Hoffmann von Fallersleben from the Texanische Lieder

In dem Zal der Guadalupe  
wohnt kein Fürst, kein Edelmann
kennt man keine Fronarbeiten, 
Zehnten, Ungerechtigkeiten,
kein Regal und keinen Bann.

In the valley of the Guadalupe

Lives no nobleman.

There are no liege duties,

Tithes, injustices,

No rules and no prohibitions

In dem Tal der Guadalupe 
gibt es keinen Herrn und Knecht:
niemand wird der Willkür Beute, 
alle sind wir freie Leute,
haben ein Gesetz, ein Recht.

In the valley of the Guadalupe

There is no master nor servant

No one is the victim of capriciousness

We are all free people,

With one law and set of rules for all

In dem Tal der Guadalupe 
fragt mich nie ein Polizist,
was ich denke, was ich schreibe, 
ob ich dies, ob jenes treibe
ob ich bin ein guter Christ.

In the valley of the Guadalupe

A policeman never asks

What I am thinking or writing,

Whether I do this or that,

Or whether I am a good Christian

In dem Tal der Guadalupe
stört mich kein Erinnerung
an die Ritter, an die Knappen, 
Hexen, Folter, Helm und Wappen,
hier ist alles neu und jung.

In the valley of the Guadalupe

I am not disturbed by memories 

Of knights, torture, helmets, and weapons.

Here is everything young and new.

In dem Tal der Guadalupe 
leb ich froh mein leben hin,
fühl bei jedem Atemzuge, 
wie der Edelfalk im Fluge,
daß ich frei und glücklich bin.

In the valley of the Guadalupe

I live out my life happily

Like the noble falcon in flight, 

I sense with each breath I take

That I am free and happy

Theme: Agriculture and Pastoral Delight in Texas

“Die Baumwollpflücker” [The cotton-picker] (unknown)

Das Feld ist weiß zur Ernte,

Wie sich doch alles freut;

Und groß’ und kleine Leute

Zum Pflücken stehn bereit.

Sie gehen die langen Reihen

Bedächtig auf und ab.

Ob auch liebe Sonne

Fast glühend brennt herab.

The field is white and ready for harvest,

How happy are all.

And people, large and small, 

Are ready to start picking.

They move attentively

Up and down the long rows,

While the sun above

Shines down hot and bright.

Der Boillen große Menge,

Erstrahlt im zarten Weiß;

Sie lohnen flinke Hände

Für ihren langen Fleiß.

Im Frühjahr wird’d gepflanzet

Den Sommer durch behackt,

Und jetzt nach bangem Hoffen,

Wird endlich eingesackt.

Cotton bowls in plentitude,

Resplendent in a gentle white,

reward skillful hands 

for the hard labor of harvest.

Planted in the spring, 

chopped in summer,

and now after anxious hope,

finally put in the sack.

Und wenn die Säcke voll sind

Bringt man’s zum Wagen hin,

Und wenn der wagen voll ist,

Fährt’s Vater in die Gin.

Ob er wohl gerne hinfährt?

Ich wollt’ es meinen, Ja!

Er spricht: “Pflückt tapfer weiter,

Bald bin ich wieder da.”

And when the sacks are full,

They are brought to the wagons.

And when the wagons are full,

Father drives them to the gin.

And is he happy with the task?

You bet, he is, and speaks: 

“Keep on picking, 

Soon, I’ll be back for more.”

Ja, pflückt emsig weiter,

“Die schöne Gottesgab’ .”

Gott blickt mit Wohlgefallen,

Auf eueren Fleiß herab.

Was ihr pflückt wird gewoben

Zu Stofen weiß und fein.

Damit sich kleiden mögen

Die menschen groß und klein.

Yes, keep on busily picking, 

“the beautiful gift from God.”

God looks down with pleasure from above

At our industriousness below.

What you pick will be woven

To cloth white and fine,

Men can then clothe themselves

Whether born high or low.

Und anderswo im Lande

Da erntet man das Brot,

Ihr schützt sie vor der Kälte,

Sie euch vor Hungersnot.

So reichen gegenseitig,

Die menschen sich die Hand

Ob sie getrennt auch wohnen

Vielleicht im fremden Land.

And elsewhere in the country, 

Men are growing the bread

That protects us from cold and hunger.

And so men extend to each other a helping hand 

though they live in a faraway land.

Und wieder wird’s zur Wahrheit:

‘Kein Mensch lebt sich allein,’

Ein jeder braucht den andern

Kann für sich selbst nicht sein.

Und all brauchen Einen,

Ohn’ den es nimmer geht.

Der Geber alles Guten,

Hoch über allen steht.

And once again the old truth:

No man lives alone.

Each needs the other,

And cannot make it on his own,

And all need the One, without which

Nothing works, the Giver of all that is good,

And the One who stands above.

Ja, pflückt nur fröhlich weiter,

Gilt’s auch viel Müh’ und Schweiß

Mit diesem zartem Wolle,

Lohnt Gott jetzt eurem Fleiß.

Vergeßt nicht ihm zu danken,

Denn er gibt Kraft und Mut,

Zum Pflanzen, Hacken, Pflücken,

Und was Gott gibt ist gut!

Yes, keep on picking happily along,

Despite the sweat and great toil,

With this soft cotton, 

God rewards your industry.

Do not forget to thank him,

Because he bestows energy and resolve

To plant, chop, and pick,

And what God gives is good!

“Meinen Tabak bau ich mir,” Hoffmann von Fallersleben, 25. April 1846, (Texanische Lieder)

Meinen Tabak bau ich mir, 
der wächst auf meinem Land
Steuern zahlen tut keiner hier, 
rauchst Du doch Stuyvesant

Wenn es mir an Fleisch gebricht, 

schieß ich mir ein Rotwild
alles fehlet oftmals Dir, 
was Dir die Hungersnot stillt 

I plant my tobacco, 

It grows on my land.

No one pays taxes here, smoke your Stuyvesant.

When I am out of meat,

I shoot a deer. 

Nothing is missing here to still your hunger

Ha, ha, Ha – alte Welt
magst zahlen, beten, hungern
und nach Fürsten Gnad und Gunst
das ganze Leben lungern

Stets ergiebig ist mein Mais, 
und er gedeiht gar Wacker 
dein Erdäpfel faulen Dir, 
noch eh sie sind im Acker

Ha, ha, ha, Old World,

You can pay, pray, starve 

and grovel a lifelong 

to the nobles for favors and forgiveness

Always productive is my corn; i

thrives nicely while your potatoes rot

before they are even in the ground.

Meinen Braten brat ich mir, 
im eigenen Haus am Feuer 
dir sind Holz und Fleisch und Salz, 
alles viel zu teuer

Ha, ha, Ha – alte Welt 
magst zahlen, beten, hungern 
und nach Fürsten Gnad und Gunst 
das ganze Leben lungern

I cook my own meals

In my own house at the fireplace,

For you wood and meat and salt

Are all too expensive.

Ha, ha, ha, Old World,

You can pay, pray, starve 

and grovel a lifelong 

to the nobles for favors and forgiveness

Ich darf Wählen zum Kongreß, 
ich bin ein freier Wahlmann 
du bist ein Gehorcher nur, 
ein Untertan und Zahlmann

Ich steh unter dem Gesetz, 
gerichtet trifft mich Strafe 
du stehst unter Polizei 
selbst noch im Todesschlafe

I can vote for my congressman

I am a free voter,

You only obey,

A servant and debtor.

I live under the law,

Punished only by the law,

You live under the police

Even after you are dead

Ha, ha, Ha – alte Welt 
magst zahlen, beten, hungern 
und nach Fürsten Gnad und Gunst 
das ganze Leben lungern 

Freudig kann ich Tag und Nacht, 
an die Erde denken 
du kannst trostlos deinen Blick 
bloß in den Himmel lenken 

Ha, ha, ha, Old World,

You can pay, pray, starve 

and grovel a lifelong 

to the nobles for favors and forgiveness

Happily, I think day and night

Only about the earth.

You can only direct your gaze to the sky above.

Ha, ha, Ha – alte Welt
magst zahlen, beten, hungern
und nach Fürsten Gnad und Gunst
das ganze Leben lungern

Ha, ha, ha, Old World,

You can pay, pray, starve 

and grovel a lifelong 

to the nobles for favors and forgiveness

Theme: Natural Beauty of Texas

“The Prairie Fire,” from Texas u. seine Revolution by Hermann Ehrenberg

            The sun disappeared behind the mysterious mountains of clouds to the west into a purple hue, purer than the waves of a dark and stormy sea and, like giant dragons, the huge black mass rolled onward across the clear, starless horizon. Anxiously we gazed at it, seeking an explanation. Our thoughts turned toward San Antonio, saw a sea of fire consuming the city, heard the battle cry of the warriors, whose banner of freedom was prevailing; and here we stood quartered, without prospect of progressing any further this night to take part in this fateful fight. With sharpened awareness we listened intently over the soft breeze for the telltale distant rumble of cannons that might bring us some harbinger of the struggle; but in vain.

            Bright blazed the fires around which we lay; in silence we roasted large hunks of beef and deer haunches on the roasting sticks—sufficient to bring smiles all around—as the fat dripped down into the fire. Intently the assembled men sliced off one piece of meat after another from the well-done outside, while the other side had just arrived at that state palatable to the human stomach. After we had finished with the one side, we turned the roast over and ate quietly from the other side, lost in thought about the curious fate of men and of these haunches, this evening just an hour or so ago still the working parts of living beings, now delicious roasts, bringing joy to our palates and stomachs. 

            Solemnly we peered into the crackling coals, where in a large cast iron pot the brown fluid bubbled, there to serve for our refreshment and promote digestion. Never will I forget how excellent the coffee tasted, for I had never consumed anything better.  But I have to say this about our cook after the fact, he had it down, the brewing of this refreshment, suitable for old ladies and hunters of the wilderness alike, so all followed his actions without a sound when suddenly he called:

            “Bill, where is the coffee? Already crushed? Put it in the swirl where it will mix the quickest, the boiling wave is going over the top;” a sudden stillness settled over us, like the quiet before an earthquake. Slowly the froth arose which had formed from the crushed beans on top of the boiling water, and, like the earth splitting open, the seething mass parted, and out boiled the precious drink; a short wait and the brew was done.

            A deep stillness lay over this immense solitude. The clouds had reddened somewhat into a dull glow. Our sentinels lay prone at their posts since on the prairie it is advisable to lie rather than stand or walk. The marksmen of the wilderness can spy from an unbelievable distance any object that stands out and one who is careless can easily fall victim to their deftness and cunning. Even the horses were drawn close to our dying fire; unnerved by the unnatural still, they were happy to nudge close to their masters, as if sensing danger.

            Then suddenly the clear tone of a prairie dog’s [sic. coyote] bark rang out, slicing harshly through nature’s silence; now waning like a death cry, now shrilly it boomed out, causing a eerie shudder to pass over us. Without moving we stared into the dark night, when a second, somewhat deeper voice fell in, and after a few moments a third, then a fourth, a deep bass, and after a few minutes thousands upon thousands joined in the great chorus. This hellish music of the coyotes mixed with the unnerving howls of the great black wolves that lived in the company of the others. The cavernous, deep-throated tone, flowing out of the throat as if from a cave, comparable only to the sounds some dogs make when provoked by the noise of instruments unpleasant to their ears—a howl sufficient in itself to inspire awe, but then think of it a thousand-fold over. We were standing in amazement when, in an instant, everything fell silent. Still as the grave was the night. Only the single-toned call of the whip-poor-will and that of his mate floated through the dark. Mournfully he cried out his name while his mate answered in turn. Pleasantly surprised, we listened with delight to their sad duet, their tender call, as if by banished spirits lost in the solitude of the West, –then, once again, as before, the awesome howling; the second, third, fourth, then the whole chorus.

            Torn from their sleep, my comrades sprang up, staring outward, looking for the hellish spirits disturbing the nighttime peace with their ominous din. We still had not recovered from our initial surprise when a new pack of these fiendish spirits raised their hellish voices from the opposite direction. At first we could distinguish between the howls of both parties, but soon they blended into an enormous roar, thousands and thousands of shrill tones, like the dreaded war-whoop of the redskins, slicing through the air; then, once again, for a minute’s duration, we could pick out the difference between the parties; from second to second the voices grew weaker and after a few minutes only a few, isolated, long drawn out sounds drifted over to us like sighs and moans. The wolves and prairie dog packs had drowned out the whip-poor-wills’ sad duet, but so much ghastlier was theirs. Like the groans on the battlefield in the night after the bloody work was done, their voices resonated wide, but muffled, across the lonesome prairie. However, those denizens of the prairie accustomed to this nightly uproar allowed no disturbance to their peaceful, sweet slumbers. Only the winged lord of the night, the great horned owl, continued to answer his nocturnal companions with his deep, tomb-like voice in an eerie song of farewell.

            With the exception of our sentinels, we all edged closer to the fire in order to enjoy some sleep under our blankets.  Our horses also hopped slowly through the lush, thick mesquite grass, nibbling on the fine, tender shoots. Today was the fourth day that we were in the region of the mesquite-prairies. This attractive, nourishing plant, resembling a ripe grain and standing three to four feet high, hid its tender young sprouts from the superficial gaze of man, but not of horses. Greedily they munched on the delicacy, previously unknown to them, which yearly attracts millions of buffalos from the mountainous regions in order to graze here during the winter when the cold northwest wind robs them of nourishment in the higher latitudes.

            “Who goes there? Change of guard? Password!” echoed monotonously across nature’s domain, restored now to its former calm, as the corporal relieved the several guards. “Left me to wait a long time,” grumbled Bill, “…stood watch for at least three hours, ‘cause the pale star over there stood high in the sky when I took my post while in another two or three minutes he will set behind that growing mountain…”

            “Two hours to the minute,” was the terse reply, “Anything to report?” “Hmm, don’t know. Many a shy wolf tempted me to fire my rifle and that scoundrel of ‘ooh whoo, ooh whoo,’ or how the devil it sounds, sailed by totally unconcerned—didn’t move a limb—flew right around me, crying his ‘ooh whoo, ooh whoo,’ right into my ears.  Thought it were the ghost of old mother Fitzkins, my worthy grandmother, who was amazed when her grandson Bill shouldered his rifle. Thought, she was making fun of me; a nation I would have…”

            “Forward! March!”

            “Hold up!” shouted the one who had his speech interrupted, “Hold up for just a moment—soldier—believe the sun is coming up ‘cause that black cloud in the west foretells the break of dawn.”

            In truth, the column of black clouds, which little by little had covered the whole half of the horizon, was filled to the brim with a purple glow, similar to the Northern Lights, and ever more bloody became the sky. Once again roused, we novices of the prairie stared at the bright glow. 

            “The prairie is burning—redskins in the area—“ said Bill finally, ”…hunted today; many a poor deer in order to escape the fire ran against the firing rifles of the brown hunters, had to…”

            Suddenly, like an army, like a stream, wild-raging flames simultaneously topped the rise, which lay a good mile distant from us, and raced with the wind toward us. We jumped up and rushed our horses who were already looking wildly at the fire into the small island, which, like an oasis in the desert, is always sure to have water and green grass; here the burning rays of the sun are powerless to penetrate the thickly entangled growth of the live oaks, heavily laden with Spanish moss, to dry out the grass. For that reason we felt ourselves safe in this place of refuge, although there was really little danger, because one can jump through the oncoming flames. Just like the wild deer, the horses would have taken to flight if left on their own, and doubtless in the opposite direction and continued fleeing for as long as the flames followed; using this fact, the prairie Indians design their drives using the fire as a kind of beater, situating themselves several miles distant at a location where the wind will carry the flaming stream, and, in spite of their shoddy firearms, the wild game will fall.

            The Comanche hunter, like all sons of the wilderness, never shoots more game than he needs, regarding the deer and buffalo herds in his territory as his own possessions. The majority of the Prairie-Comanches, who are split up into bands of several hundred each, head north in the spring every year following the immense herds of buffalo, but the winter drives them back down from these treeless but fertile reaches, and in the company of the buffalo and other wild game, they prefer a southern climate to the winter of the north. Then it is time for the rangers and settlers to keep close watch on their horses and herds, for the Redman will never slay one of his friends, a buffalo or deer, so long as he is able to live from tame cattle.

            Expectantly we watched the boundless sea of fire as it rolled forward toward us; closer and closer crackled the flames; black clouds rose up slowly over the fire and drifted away, when all of a sudden the entire line of fire, as far as the eye could see, extinguished; momentarily a few flames rose up wildly, but only for an instant, then everything was over; nothing but the smell lingered, and the still rising black smoke.

            The dew now settled like a rain.  It alone sustains the vegetation, since it often does not rain for months on end, and the singeing rays of the sun would burn up everything were it not for this restorative tonic. The lonely wanderer, setting up camp here in the outdoors, pulls his blanket up tight and at times even over his head because with nightfall it turns cool, almost cold, and, as mentioned, the dew falls in such quantities that even the fire will slowly die out when not very strong.

            Nothing interrupted the last phase of the night. We slept these final hours undisturbed, but around 5 o’clock, with barely the first glimmers of light heralding the rising sun, everybody was already cheery. Happily our campfire blazed, but progressively dimmer, in proportion to the height of the sun. Finally it stood there in all its glory while the blue fog, still lying on the prairie, fled like clouds before the fiery God and soon dissipated entirely. But how the scene of today differed from that of yesterday! Yesterday the waving fields, not unlike ripe grain; today, what a frightful scene of devastation, as far as we could see, from our feet until the edge of the horizon, an unbroken black funeral shroud. Not a tree, not a bush, nothing but a black sea.

From Die Lateiner am Possum Creek by W.A. Trenckmann

It was a Sunday afternoon in the late fall of 1864. Above the forest that stretched to the north and east a pall of grey-blue smoke rose almost halfway up into the sky, concealing completely the cross-timbers that long, narrow strip of oak trees that otherwise marked the boundary of the broad prairie that stretched to the south and west toward the gulf. No rain had fallen since early July and the tall grass of the prairie was already as dry as if it were January. At a meeting of the German farmers of Possum Creek the previous Sunday, the word was passed around that at first sign of fire to the south, all the men should gather with their teams in order to plow a fire lane to hold the blaze in check, but their number was greatly reduced since most heads-of-household, whether by choice or compulsion, were away at war.  Four years previously, a similar fire had burnt many wooden fences in the area and destroyed numerous haystacks and other things of value to the farmers. The day was oppressively humid and the smoke-reddened sun, which had already passed the noon meridian an hour ago, burned almost as hot as if it were August. At sundown, a narrow, black line of clouds appeared across the horizon to the north while the animals of the prairie moved in long lines toward the southeast in the direction of the canebrakes where they were accustomed to finding shelter from the cold as well as ample nourishment during the winter months. The night before, countless formations of cranes and geese passed high overhead heading south. With their incessant chattering and monotonous honking, they announced that the change in weather everyone was hoping for was close at hand.  Ol’ Achilles, the factotum slave of Mr. Phillips, who owned a large plantation a few miles to the southeast in the Palmetto Creek bottom announced in the morning to anyone who cared to listen that the first genuine norther would arrive before evening.

 “Blümelein,” “Little Flower” by Johannes Romberg from: Gedichte. Hamburg und Dresden: E. Pierson Verlag, 1900, 3.

Little flower delicate and fine,

I wish you good weather,

That you will thrive

On the Texas prairie.

Your leaves are prose

But your flowers are pure poetry.

“Gleichnis,” Johannes Romberg, 28

Der Mensch gleicht einem Baume,

Das hab’ ich oft gedacht.

Lebt halb im lichten Raume,

Halb in der Erde Nacht.

            That man resembles a tree,

            I have often thought,

            Lives half above where he can see

            And half below in the earth’s naught

Die Wurzel dringt geschwinde,

Tief in den Grund hinein,

Im Gipfel brausen Winde,

Sie fördern sein Gedeih’n.

            The roots will quickly go

            Deep into the ground.

            In the tree top the winds do blow

            To keep it well and sound

Die Wurzel sauget Säfte,

Tief aus der Erde Grund,

Dem Baum sie geben Kräfte,

Sonst blieb er nicht gesund.

Doch auch das Ideale Saugt gern der Gipfel ein,

Denn hier im Erdenthale

Soll ein Stück Himmel sein.

 “Night on the Prairie” Hoffmann von Fallersleben, Texanische Lieder

…Twilight arrives; the evening breeze blows:

The day’s work is at last complete.

Here where the live oak grows

I lay myself down for a good night’s sleep

Nary a sound from far or near; 

the wild turkeys call no more.

Gone from the fields the white-tailed deer; 

The prairie has become an empty shore.

It grows uncanny with all so still;

with all of nature hidden from sight.

Only the lonely cry of the Whip-poor-Will

Now sounds mournfully through the night.

The March to San Antonio over Camino Real by Hermann Ehrenberg from Texas und seine Revolution, 32 ff.

Only a few miles from this location the prairies began, stretching over wide expanses toward the seacoast; now, day after day we trotted through a forever changing nature park, and over and over again Mother Nature revealed, in spite of the cold north wind blowing through the tall prairie grasses, an unbelievable abundance and grandeur. The prairies here are not at all like those vast distances between the Guadalupe and San Antonio, leading toward the hills, or the vast oceans of grass in Tamaulipas, which in varying width of a hundred miles or more, stretch from the gulf to the high mountains and beyond toward those almost unknown, treeless regions of the higher, northern latitudes; no here, in contrast, a great plain lies before the traveler which everywhere is adorned with the most peculiar groupings of trees. To the left and the right, one always sees in the far distance a horizon bounded by a line of dark woods while small woods and open meadows continually alternate in the presence of the sojourner; now and then a creek, whose course is bordered by a line of trees, snakes down from the hills. Once again, the scenery changes and the post oaks stand in regular rows around large meadows, which, in square form, resemble the meadowed areas of the old country, as if they were the transposed possessions of that country folk; only in this point do they differ: instead of the meadows being delineated by willows and poplars, the small prairies here are enclosed by oaks.  Everything has such regularity that one is tempted to believe that a human hand had a presence in the planting of these trees.

Theme: Texas as a symbol of Freedom

Der Stern von Texas [The Star of Texas] Hoffmann von Fallersleben

Hin nach Texas! hin nach Texas!

Wo der Stern im blauen Felde

Eine neue Welt verkündet,

Jedes Herz für Recht und Freiheit

Und für Wahrheit froh entzündet —

Dahin sehnt mein Herz sich ganz.

Away to Texas, away to Texas,

Where the star in the blue field

A new world proclaims.

Every heart for justice and freedom,

And every deception disdains.

That is where my heart is yearning.

Hin nach Texas! hin nach Texas!

Wo der Fluch der Ueberliefrung

Und der alte Köhlerglaube

Vor der reinen Menschenliebe

Endlich wird zu Asch’ und Staube —

Dahin sehnt mein Herz sich ganz.

Away to Texas, away to Texas!

Where the curse of tradition

And the old blind trust,

In the presence of pure love

Turns finally to ash and dust.

That is where my heart is yearning.

Hin nach Texas! hin nach Texas!

Wo die Pflugschaar wird das Zeichen

Der Versöhnung und Erhebung,

Dass die Menschheit wieder feiert

Ihren Maitag der Belebung. —

Dahin sehnt mein Herz sich ganz.

Away to Texas, away to Texas,

Where the ploughshare becomes the sign

Of reconciliation and mirth, 

So that mankind once again 

Enjoys a Mayday of rebirth. – 

That is where my heart is yearning.

Hin nach Texas! hin nach Texas!

Goldner Stern, du bist der Bote

Unsers neuen schön’ren Lebens:

Denn was freie Herzen hoffen,

Hofften sie noch nie vergebens.

Sei gegrüsst, du goldner Stern!

Away to Texas, away to Texas,

Golden star, you are the harbinger

Of a new and much better day.

What a free heart yearns for, 

Will surely never go away.

Oh golden star, I salute you!

Theme: Beauty of Nature

“Blümelein,” [Little Flower] by Johannes Romberg from: Gedichte. Hamburg und Dresden: E. Pierson Verlag, 1900, 3.

Blümelein

Zart und fein,

Wunscht dir gutes Wetter,

Mögst gedeihen

Auf texanischer Prairie.

Prosa deuten deine Blätter,

Deine Blüten Poesie. 

Little flower,

Tender and fine,

You hope for good weather,

You want to thrive

On the Texas prairie.

Your leaves are prose,

Your flowers poetry.

“Die Nacht in der Prairie,” [Night on the Prairie] Hoffmann von Fallersleben, Texanische Lieder

… Die Dämmrung kommt und Nachluft weht:

Mein Tagwerk ist vollbracht.

Hier wo die Lebenseiche steht,

Sei jetzt mein Bett gemacht.

Von nah und fern kein froher Ton,

Kein Truthahn kollert mehr.

Die Rothwildheerden sind entflohen

Und die Prairie ist leer.

Es ward so schaurig, ward so still,

Und Alles ist verhallt.

Es rufet nur der Whip-poor-will

Wehmüthig durch den Wald…

“Night on the Prairie”

…Twilight arrives; the evening breeze blows:

The day’s work is at last complete.

Here where the live oak grows

I lay myself down for a good night’s sleep

Nary a sound from far or near;

the wild turkeys call no more.

Gone from the fields the white-tailed deer; 

The prairie has become an empty shore.

It grows uncanny with all so still;

with all of nature hidden from sight.

Only the lonely cry of the Whip-poor-Will

Now sounds mournfully through the night.

Theme: Aesthetics of Daily Life for German Emigrants

 Wahl eines Hausplatzes [Choosing a place for a house], Johannes Romberg, 23

Einen Platz will ich erwählen 

Mir ein Haus darauf zu bau’n,

Aber schatten darf nicht fehlen,

Und ins Weite muß ich schauen

I will choose a place

Where I will build a house,

But shadows must not be missing,

And I must have a clear view.

Dieser Hügel ist ersehen,

Wo die Lebenseiche steht,

Wo ein ewig säuselnd Wehen 

durch die grüne Zweige geht.

This hill is chosen,

Where the live oak stands,

Where a continuous breeze

Rustles the green branches

Ja, du flüsterst mir Vertrauen

In das Herz und hoffnungswarm

Will ich schaffen, will ich bauen, 

Will ich gründen eine Farm.

Yes, you whisper encouragement

Into my heart and full of hope

I will build, I will create,

I will establish a farm

Nach des Tages schweren Lasten

Mit den meinen im Verein

Will ich hier am Abend rasten

Bei der Sterne Silberschein.

After the day’s hard labors

Together with all my family

I will rest here in the evening

By the light of the silver stars.

Und wir hören, wenn wir lauschen

In der friedlich stillen Welt,

Leis’ des Maiskorns Blätterrauschen,

In dem nahgeleg’nen Feld.

And we hear when we listen closely,

In this peaceful and still world

The rustling of the leaves of corn 

In the field close by.

Oben wandeln still die Sterne

In der ewig alten Bahn,

Und wir blicken in die Ferne,

In den Welten=Ocean.

The stars move quietly above

In their ancient, enduring paths,

As we peer into the distance 

Of the heavenly sea above

Und es mahnt dann leise, leise,

Uns die Müdigkeit zur Ruh,

In des Urwalds alter weise, 

Singst du uns ein Lied dazu.

And then slowly, slowly 

Tiredness nudges us toward sleep

While feral nature 

Sings us a lullaby as well

Alter Baum, in deinen Zweigen

Rauscht es so geheimnisvoll,

Willst du mir Vergangenes zeigen,

Oder das, was kommen soll?

Old tree, your branches

Rustle so mysteriously,

Do you want to speak to me 

Of what has passed or what is to come?

Kann dein Flüstern nicht verstehen,

Weiß nicht, wie ichs deuten soll,

Ich will an die Arbeit gehen,

Hoffend und vertrauensvoll.

I cannot decipher your whisperings

I do not know how to interpret them,

But I go to my daily tasks,

Full of hope and trust

Kurz nur ist das Menschenleben,

Deines währt Jahrhunderte,

Kannst Uhrenkeln Schatten geben

Und erschau’n ihr Wohl und Weh.

Human life is short,

Your life lasts for centuries,

You can provide shade to generations of offspring,

And look down on both their pain and joy.

Hier vielleicht auf grünen Matten

Spielen sie mit frohem Sinn,

Kühlen sich in deinem Schatten,

Wenn ich längst entschwunden bin.

Here in these green spaces

They play happily,

And will cool themselves in your shadows,

Long after I am gone.

Stürme rüttelten vergebens

Deinen Stamm und dein Gezweig.

Meine Lieben! In des Lebens 

Stürmen seid der Eiche gleich.

The fierce storms shake 

Your trunk and your branches in vain.

Dearly beloved, in the storms of life,

Endeavor to be like the sturdy oak.

Theme: Change & Permanence in the Texas Natural Landscape

“Am Rio Colorado,” [On the Colorado River] Johannes Romberg, 26

Der Strom stürtzt über Felsgestein,

Er tost die ganze Nacht,

Bei seiem Brausen schlief ich ein

Und bin dabei erwacht.

The stream crashes over the falls,

Roars the whole night through

I fall asleep to its thunder,

And awake to the same.

Wie manch Jahrtausend ist entfloh’n, 

Seit er hier stets geschäumt,

Es hat vielleicht gar mancher schon,

Der Wellen nachgeträumt. 

How many millennia have come and gone,

While the angry waters foam and swirl,

And no doubt many before 

Have slept and dreamed beside these waves.

Noch manch Jahrtusend wird vergeh’n,

Schnell wie ein Sommertag,

Dann mag hier wohl ein andrer steh’n,

Und schau’n den Wellen nach.

And many more millennia will have passed,

As fleetingly as a summer day,

When yet another will stand here,

And peer into the ceaseless waves

Und wie er strömt von Ort zu Ort,

So fließet auch die Zeit

Unaufgehalten immerfort,

Ins Meer der Ewigkeit.

And as this river flows from place to place

So does time flow

In ceaseless toil, always forward,

toward eternity’s dateless sea.

Der Strom schäumt wild und zornig auf,

Vom Felsgestein gehemmt,

Und brausend reißt er fort im Lauf,

Was sich entgegen stemmt.

The stream boils and foams angrily,

Confined to its rocky chute,

Then breaks free churning to continue its path

Come what may.

Der Strom der Zeit schließt alles ein,

Er sinkt bald auf den Grund,

In die Vergangenheit hinein,

Dem nimmersatten Schlund.

The stream of life carries all along

To disappear soon enough from this earth,

To make the change from present to past,

The never satisfied abyss. 

Und wie der Fluß viel Schlamm ins Meer

Auf seinen Wellen trägt,

So auch die Zeit des Sternenheer,

Als Weltschlamm niederschlägt.

And like the waves of the river 

Carries much muck into the sea

So too will the stars in time

Wash away our world as an insignificant chunk of dirt.

“Die Eichen,” [The Oaks] Johannes Romberg, 137 .

Die junge Eiche sprach einmal

Zu einer alten Eiche,

Es is mir eine ewige Qual,

Dass ich dich nicht erreiche.

Once a young oak did deign

To address an old oak, proud with might,

It is to me a great shame

That I cannot match your height.

Du stehst so stolz, so mächtig da,

Man sieht dich weit von Ferne,

Und kommt ein Wanderer dir nah,

So ruht er bei dir gerne.

You stand there so proud, so strong,

To be seen from far away,

And when a wanderer comes along,

He gladly rests at end of day.

Dein Stamm ist dick, die Wurzel greift

Tief in des Felses Klüfte,

Und deine hohen Wipfel streift

Das Weh’n der reinsten Lüfte.

Your trunk is thick, with roots like shafts

Sunk deeply into the cliff face,

While through your high crown wafts

The purest breezes without trace.

Dich grüsst der Sonne erster Strahl,

Dich ihrer letzten Gluten,

Weit blickst du über Berg und Thal,

Bis zu des Meeres Fluten.

You greet the sun’s first pale,

And also her last faint glow,

You look far out over hill and dale,

As far as the ocean’s flow.

Ich aber steh’ tief unten hier,

Im Streit mit Kraut und Ranken,

Und hebe meinen Blick zu dir,

Ach! und mein Mut will wanken. 

But here I stand beneath your crown,

Doing battle with vine and weed, 

And looking up with a frown,

My courage is often, I find, in need.

Ich denke oft in meinem Sinn,

Wenn Träume mich umgeben,

Wenn ich nur erst erwachsen bin,

Das ist ein andres Leben.

And then in my dreams

My thoughts often take flight,

Only after I am grown, it seems,

Will my life will become a delight.

Jetzt nahm die grosse Eich’ das Wort

Und sagte zu der kleinen,

Die Jahre fliegen schneller fort,

Mein Kind, als wir es meinen.

Then the large oak gave reply

And said to the small tree,

The years are flying faster by

Than we are wont to foresee.

Du bist noch jung, dein Stamm ist klein,

Damit er grosser werde

Zieh’ sorgsam deine Nahrung ein

Sowohl aus Luft und Erde.

You are so young, your trunk is so slight,

And should it gain a wider girth,

Always pay heed to your diet,

As much from the sky as from the earth.

Zieh’ aus der Luft und aus dem Licht

Der Farben zarte Säfte,

Allein vergiss die Wurzeln nicht,

Sie saugen Lebenskräfte.

Take from the sky and the light of day,

The many colors in varied hue,

But life’s energy comes from the clay

So give your roots just due.

Denn Kraft is gut, mein liebes Kind,

Du must dich vorbereiten,

Oft kommt ein Sturm, ein Wirbelwind,

Dann must du tapfer streiten.

Then strength is good, my dear child,

Be always stout and steady,

For storms so fierce and winds so wild,

Them to withstand, be brave and ready.

Jetzt schützen and’re Bäume dich

Vor rauhen Wirbelwinden,

Allein die Zeit kommt sicherlich,

Wo du sie wirst empfinden.

Other trees now offer a shield

From the storm’s full force and fury,

But to you one day they must yield

And alone you must face the jury.

Dein inn’res Leben hüte wohl

Und lass’ es nicht verderben,

Denn wirst du morsch und faul und hohl,

So must du langsam sterben.

Pay close heed to your inner life,

And let it not decay,

Then you become for rottenness rife,

And die without delay.

Und schleicht der Tod auch um dich hin,

Du wirst vergeblich streben

Noch frohem Mut und heit’rem Sinn

In diesem langen Leben.

And when at some distant date,

The end draws near, you seek in vain

For good cheer and a joyful state

Against death’s vile, bootless refrain.

Glaub’, mancher Baum in diesem Wald

Hat faule, morsche Glieder,

Und wünscht, da er ist gross und alt,

Er möchte jung sein wieder.

Behold! Many a tree in this wood

Is rotten and foul at core,

And wishes, now that old and good,

For a chance at youth once more.

Drum grüne frisch, du kleiner Wicht,

Beneid’ nicht grosse Bäume,

Denn ach, wie bald verschwinden nicht

Der Jugend süsse Träume. 

So, little sprout, stay fresh and new, 

Envy not the large oak,

Soon enough, isn’t it true,

The sweet dreams of youth will croak.

Theme: Texas Weather

 “Der Winter in Texas,” [Winter in Texas] Johannes Romberg, 104

Im texanischen Gefilde

Bringt der Winter, Tage, milde,

Wie der schonste Tag im Mai.

Duft’ge Rosen kann man pflücken

Und der Blumen mancherlei.

Doch vertrauet nicht dem alten

Polbewohner. Seine Tücken 

Birgt er hinter einem Lächeln.

Das sollt ihr für Güte halten.

Eure Wangen wird er fächeln 

Mit des Südens leisem Hauch.

Täuschung ist sein alter Brauch.

The winter brings mildness to the Texas landscape,

Like the prettiest day in May.

Fragrant roses one can pick, and many other flowers as well.

But don’t trust the old swindler.

He hides his tricks behind his smiles.

Count on it, he will light up your cheeks with his soft breath.

To decieve is an old habit. 

 Um Euch ist der Himmel heiter,

Aber tief am Erdensaume,

Nördlich, steht ein Wetterbogen,

Und der dehnt sich immer weiter

Aus im klaren Himmelsraume.

Höher kommt er stets gezogen

Und im eis’gem Windgestoß

Dampft der Erde warmer Schoß.

All around the sky is bright,

But deep on the horizon to the north

Stands an ominous cloud,

That expands ever wider

Out into the clear sky.

Ever higher it continuously ascends,

And then with a icy blast,

Cools the earth’s warm bosom.

Blitze flammen durch die Nacht,

Alles Leben muß erzittern.

Doch der Winter hat die Tücke 

Seines Grimms nicht ganz ergossen,

Formt da droben Eisesstücke,

Wirft zur Erde sie als Schloßen.

Von den tobenden Gewittern

Bebt die Erde, Häuser zittern,

Unaufhörlich ist das Knattern

Und der Dächer Schindeln flattern

Weit hinweg, in eil’ger Flucht.

Vor des Sturmes Wut und Wucht

Zittern selbst der Eiche Glieder,

Manche brechen krachend nieder.

Lightning brightens the night

All life huddles in fright,

But still winter has not revealed all its tricks

Ice accumulates outside,

Thrown to earth from the storm clouds above,

The earth shakes, the houses quake,

The rattle is without end and the shingles go flying

Far afield in a great rush

Before the storm’s ceaseless fury.

Even the mighty live oak’s limbs tremble,

And many break and fall to earth.

Doch der Farmer sitzt am Feuer

Beim Kamine wohlgemuth

Und erzählet Abenteuer,

Jagdgeschichten, alte Sagen,

Schüret ab und an, die Glut,

Wendet um ein brennend Scheit,

Und berichtet von den Tagen

Längst vergang’ner Wunderszeit.

Schöne Märchen von Prinzessin,

Die gefangen und gefeit 

Einst in einem Turm gesessen,

Bis ein Ritter sie befreit.

But the farmer sits by his fire

Warm and content at his chimney

And tells of adventures and past hunts, 

or old legends, 

while now and then stoking the fire

Or turning over a burning log,

And spins yarns of the wonder years of long ago,

Old fairy tales of pretty princesses, 

imprisoned and isolated,

locked inside the castle tower, 

until freed by the savior prince.

Wenn der nächste Tag erschienen

Und die Sonne sich erhebt,

Glaubt ihr kaum, was ihr erlebt,

Denn des alten Winters Mienen

Lächeln freundlich jetzt und milde

Und ihr denkt nicht an das wilde

Wetter der vergang’nen Nacht.

Wer kann wissen, was er sinnet, 

Schlimmes hat er oft erdacht.

Was er morgen schon beginnet

Sind vielleicht noch schlimm’re Thaten, 

Doch ihr könnt sie nicht errathen.

When the sun arises 

to clarify the following day, 

you wouldn’t believe what you see,

Because Old Man Winter’s expression 

has now turned warm and friendly,

And you don’t think about the preceding night’s fury.

Who knows what on his mind, 

Wondering what bad the morning should bring, 

but you can only guess at what he’s thinking. 

Alles was ich hier beschrieben

Ist etwa nicht ubertrieben.

Mancher Mann ist schon erfroren,

Wenn die nachts ihn draußen fand,

Bald ist dann der Pad verloren,

Denn die Blitze blenden nur

Und des Nordgewitters Hand

Reißt ihn von der rechten Spur,

Dabei kann man leicht verzagen,

Irrt man so in Nacht und Graus,

Hat von großem Glück zu sagen, 

Findet man ein gästlich Haus.

Everything herein described

is not exaggerated.

Many a man has frozen

Who was caught outside at night,

And lost his way,

Because the lightning flashes only blind,

And the norther’s hand

Turns him from the right path.

In such a way one can easily succumb, 

after losing one’s way in such a stormy night.

Should he perchance stumble upon a friendly house,

He better count his blessings.

 “Unwetter,” [Storm] Johannes Romberg, 107

Ein fürchterliches Wetter!

Die Wolken ziehen schwer,

Der Wind treibt Staub und Blätter

Im Wirbel vor sich hin.

A terrible storm.

The clouds race across the sky,

The wind drives dust and leaves 

In a whirlwind before it.

Es wandelt sich in dunkel

Der sonnenhelle Tag.

Es folge dem Blitzgefunkel

Ein schwerer Donnorschlag.

The bright day 

transforms into darkness.

A powerful a clap of thunder 

Quickly follows the lightning strike.

Aus schwarzer Wolke fallen

Die Wasserström’ herab,

Von fernen Bergen prallen

Die lauten Donnor ab.

Sheets of rain fall 

from the black clouds,

And the loud thunder reverberates 

from distant hills.

Die Fenster klirren, zittern 

Bei diesem Wettergraus,

Alks müßte es zersplittern,

So bebt das feste Haus.

The windows rattle and tremble

From the violent weather.

Many a log he had to split

To build the solid house.

Es donnert uns hienieden,

Manch schweres Wetter an,

Gut das es innern frieden

Uns nicht zerschmettern kann.

We suffer many dreadful  

storms down here below, but  

because of our inner peace, 

the tempests do no harm.

 “Nordwind in Texas,” [Texas Northers] Johannes Romberg, 134

Winter ist es, seine Kühle

Wird vertrieben durch die Schwüle

Von des Südwinds leisem Hauch.

Allen Bäumen is vom Wetter

Längst geraubt der Schmuck der Blätter,

Trauernd stehen Baum und Strauch.

Winter has come; its cold

To be replaced by the warmth 

Of a south wind’s balmy breath.

All the trees have long since

Been robbed by winter of their summer greenery.

How forlornly both trees and shrubbery now stand.

Wärmend strahlt vom Himmelsdome

Heit’rer Sonnenschein.  Im Strome

Spiegelt sich die blaue Luft,

Aber sieh’, welch ein Gewimmel!

Bald bedeckt den halben Himmel

Grauer Wolken Nebelduft.

How warm and bright 

the sun shines down from its heavenly dome,

The streams reflect the blue sky,

But look, what gloom soon covers half the sky,

Grey clouds of fog and mist.

Und ein finst’rer Bogen zeigt 

Im Nordwesten sich, und steiget

Schwarz wie düst’re Nacht herauf.

Und, als brennten ganze Wälder,

Wälzt der Dampf sich über Felder

Vor des Nordwinds schneller Lauf.

And a dark arc rises to the northwest,

And covers the sky with blackness like the night 

And, as if entire forests were burning,

blankets the fields and meadows with its mist,

Carried forward by the north winds rapid pace.

Und nun reißt der Sturm, der wilde,

Mit sich fort die Dunstgebilde

Von dem Berge, aus dem Thal.

Doch bald ist der finst’re Bogen

Weit nach Süden hingezogen

Und uns grüßt der Sonne Strahl.

And now the wild storm 

Drives before it a huge cloud of dust,

Stirred from the mountains and the valleys.

But soon the dark arc passes over in its journey south,

and we are greeted by sunshine

Aber es ist kalt geworden,

Alles Leben zu ermorden

Droht der Frost der nächsten Nacht.

Abend wird es tausend Sterne

Strahlen aus der Himmelsferne

In die kalte Nordwindsnacht.

But it has turned cold,

A frost threatens the following night

To purge everything of life.

Tonight, a thousand stars will shine down 

from the heavenly firmament

to brighten the cold norther’s night.

The Drought by Fritz Goldbeck, 53

Every flower is drooping 

And dust covers the leaves

The farmer looks to the sky

With worry and concern. 

How barren and dry is the land,

If only rain would come!

Clouds enough are in the sky

But nothing comes from them

And once again the clouds gather

As if about to rain,

But the thunderstorm passes me by

To make someone else happy

What would such a shower be worth?

How needy are our seeds.

But once again nothing falls,

The harvest will be a bust

What can endure will be rewarded 

Beyond what is expected

One small thought holds out hope:

One day the rain must come!

Finally came the Blessing by Fritz Goldbeck, 53

The rain fell in streams,

That is the farmer’s joy,

The cotton bowls are blooming,

Hope fills the air.

Fresh smell the cedars

The stream flows again

The little birds in the trees

Have aroused from their stupor.

The horses frisk and whinny,

Refreshed from the heaven’s dew.

The clouds no longer cover,

The sky’s heavenly blue.

The sun shines down brightly

In all its resplendent glory

Green blankets both hill and dale

And Mother Earth laughs again.

Theme: The Destruction of Nature

 “Extermination of the Buffalo” by Fritz Goldbeck

The day conquers the morning grey

One can see across the plain

Buffalo swarm over the land

And hunters are already on their trail

And as the sun rises in the sky

The hunt grows ever more lively

The herd gallops off in a thunderous roar

And a multitude of riders follow at a full run

The earth shakes from the heavy weight

Many thousands are in full flight

But the hunter’s horse is the faster

And quickly he overtakes his target

Winchester rifles fire rapidly

And every hide brings a dollar

And that to earn brings them here,

Extermination threatens the animals here

So the men hunt day after day

And the meat remains for the buzzards and wolves

Cadavers cover the ground far and wide

As a sign of progress for our times

Introduction to Texas und seine Revolution [Texas and its Revolution] by Hermann Ehrenberg 

            For eleven long years the parties fought and slaughtered one another; bands of rabble, akin to robbers, roaming the countryside, and blood, yes blood was the watchword for all sides. The one gang, the Spaniards, carried the sword of murder for slavery and greed, the other gang, the Mexicans, for simple revenge against their oppressors, who had been their scourge for centuries. 

            The year 1821 arrived and with it the end of Spanish despotism. The viceroy and his officials were forced to recognize Mexico’s independence. After a long struggle among the various patriotic factions, Iturbide emerged as the leader of the broken-down ship of state. He became Emperor.

            Ignoring formalities, the new government should have been able to work for the common good of the country and people, but imagining treason at every turn, Iturbide set about to re-enslave his hapless people who had only just emerged from the slavery of the past.  Hoards of the envious, observing with distrust from the sidelines, gleefully seized the moment when it was right to depose him, and barely a year had passed before the imperial reign was overturned and Iturbide banished, and then—1824—an extremely liberal constitution was adopted that copied the constitution of the North American states in nearly all its provisions. 

            If the population had had any comprehension of the meaning of political freedom at this point in its history, then it would have eventually assumed on the world stage a role equal in political significance to its neighbor to the north. But the lethargic slaves of the church vacated the political field and abandoned the reins of government to a group of prominent but overly-ambitious soldiers without taking cognizance of the rights which their participation in the revolution had earned them.

            The Spaniards were driven out, Mexico’s intense hatred mollified, but once again the people of Mexico sank into a wretched state of indolence and indifference only slightly better than that of animals. The pleasures of the senses and a life devoid of work were all that one desired.  Several factions arose, but all strived after one goal: to achieve total control and absolute power. But their paths were always crossing, leading to strife and bloodshed, and through fraud and misrepresentation of every sort as well as the provocations of the priests, the people in their naiveté were put upon one another like bulldogs, without any sense or understanding of the causes for which they were shouldering arms.  

            And so this veritable Garden of Eden in the New World became a chamber of horrors in the period prior to 1832.  In this year, however, Santa Anna proclaimed the restoration of the liberal constitution of 1824. He elevated himself to the position of leader of the liberal party in order to put an end to the despotism of Bustamante’s rule. He succeeded, but once again Mexico began to demonstrate its incomparable phlegm; once again the people surrendered to their preferred state of inactivity and indolence, and with only the exception of the inhabitants of Zacatecas, trusted in the duplicity of the victor, Santa Anna.

            It was a favorable moment for him and he exploited it to the fullest. The recently promised constitutional restoration was once again rescinded, the dictator’s laws enforced by the bayonets of raw recruits—Indians—and every state which stood up to his usurpation and to its own destruction was subjugated by his hoards.  His aim was to set up a central government which would transform the free and sovereign states into mere provinces and which would place the whole country under military rule.

            At this point the northeastern province, Texas, came into the picture, and only a few words will suffice to sketch what then followed. Up until the Mexican wars of liberation, Texas had only a limited Mexican population, which was concentrated in the towns of San Antonio, La Bahia (Goliad), Nacogdoches and a few missionary outposts, where they found in sheer numbers a modicum of protection from the depredations of the Comanches and other war-like prairie tribes. 

            In order to put an end to their raids and to better protect its border, the Spanish government shortly before its fall agreed to the plan of the American, Moses Austin, to establish a colony of his countrymen in Texas. Moses Austin died shortly after he had the laid the foundation to his colonization plan; his son, Stephen F. Austin, continued his work. Hundreds and hundreds of families streamed out of the States into Texas; the Mexican Revolution broke out; freedom triumphed and the new government adopted a more sympathetic policy toward the colonists. Old rights were restored; new ones granted, and the colonists were given their own constitution, appropriate for an American population. From year to year the original settlements expanded while new ones were established with the blessing of the government. The settlers lived with a sense of growing security on their farmsteads as the Indian threat receded. Confronted by a new, more determined and resolute foe than the Mexicans, the North American Indians were less willing to risk raids. The Texans also watched developments in Mexico with interest. And only too clearly they recognized the deficiencies of the successive regimes.  Texas was much too far removed geographically to be an effective player politically, but in its own sphere, the Texans vigorously insisted on the freedoms of the 1824 Constitution, even as these were being severely compromised by the various regimes in Mexico.

            By 1832 many arbitrary laws had already impinged upon the well-being of the colonists, deeply angering them, and only as a result of their resolute attitude did the authorities feel compelled to yield to their demands on several points.

            Outraged and scornful, the hardy sons of North America looked down on the sensual Mexicans with whom they were supposed to fraternize; upon a people incapable of seeing beyond the present and one promising to remain the willing tools of a scheming and devious priesthood. This race with its mixture of Indian, Spanish and Negro blood in its veins, a race seemingly incapable of grasping the sublime concept of freedom and apparently oblivious to its own rights; with this race the enlightened colonists could never mix on equal terms; nevertheless, all hoped for the best in the future.

            Already several disturbing incidents had taken place, as when a group of citizens had taken up arms with the idea of resisting several garrisons of Mexican troops whose unlawful and arbitrary actions had provoked outrage. Then, suddenly, the welcome news arrived in the colony that Santa Anna had succeeded to the head of the liberal party. His flag was quickly raised and the garrisons felt compelled to submit.

            In the meantime, Santa Anna, as already mentioned, did not remain true to his new political convictions, and, instead, with greater insistence than any of his predecessors, cast an envious glance upon the Texas colony. Now that it had matured and felt itself constitutionally entitled, the colony had petitioned the central government to become a state in the union. The petition remained unanswered and Stephen F. Austin, the colonists’ spokesman, was imprisoned in Mexico City where he remained for many months without a hearing; peaceful citizens were imprisoned without cause, and other excesses perpetrated. 

            Then Austin came back from Mexico City in the summer of 1835 and the aggrieved colonists received him jubilantly. Brenzo de Zavala, a Mexican and hero of the struggle for independence, who had opposed Santa Anna’s power grabs, had been forced to flee Mexico and seek asylum among the Texans.  Ugartechea, military commandant of Coahuila and Texas, received an order from San Antonio to march to the colony, arrest Zavala and bring him in irons back to Mexico.  Soon thereafter General Cos arrived with reinforcements from Matamoros to assume military command. He issued a series of senseless and provocative decrees of which I will only mention two:

            All weapons of the colonists were to be turned over to the authorities with the exception that one weapon per five farmsteads would be permitted, and this due solely to the generosity of the government. Additionally, the colonists were forbidden from building churches; other similar and unenforceable decrees were also issued.

            It will not be necessary to set out in detail how inane and malicious the first of these decrees was for a country infested with warlike Indians, as Texas was then, and how unlawful the other, and indeed all of the rest; I think it is enough said to say the colonists had the right to meet force with force; and so on to the revolution!

Introduction to Chapter 5:

Ein Ehrenmahl for Ehrenberg

            “Ehrenmahl,” or “honorific meal,” is the one-word title that Herman Ehrenberg gave this chapter, and indeed it was a meal in honor of the New Orleans Grays, or as they were called in Nacogdoches at the time, the First Company of United States Volunteers from New Orleans.^[i]According to the historical marker at the “Site of the Bivouac and Banquet” in Nacogdoches, the long table was laid out directly in front of the house of Adolphus Sterne.^[ii] While Ehrenberg is enthusiastic in his praise of the champagne provided to the Grays, the inventories and claims submitted to the Nacogdoches Committee of Vigilance and Safety, which organized the feast, indicate that he may have exaggerated a bit. The records show, not eighty dollars spent for champagne, but rather twenty-seven dollars for three boxes of “muscat wine” and six dollars for two gallons of “Holl[and] gin.”^[iii]

Naturally, except for one discreet toast, all of these reference to alcohol were eliminated by publisher William Tardy from the 1935 edition of With Milam and Fannin: Adventures of a German Boy in Texas’ Revolution. However, Tardy was happy to allow full mention of the racoons and opossums brought in by Indian hunters, and the squirrels and turkeys bagged by the young men of the community.^[iv] Indeed, the feast, as well as the horses provided to the Grays in Nacogdoches as they embarked for San Antonio, were the products of even more interethnic cooperation than Ehrenberg may have known. 

The Committee re-supplied the Indians (apparently with powder and lead) worth over two hundred dollars through William Goyens, a prominent free mulatto businessman who often served as an “Indian agent” for Sam Houston and other prominent Anglo-Texans.^[v] Moreover, the local “Mexicans” provided, as did many of the Anglo citizens, both horses and money for equipment for the Grays.^[vi] There were even more contributions to the celebratory banquet from the black and brown residents of Nacogdoches. Although Ehrenberg and “Hopping” Johnson gave credit to the ladies of the town for doing the cooking, the Committee paid Santiago Cheveno and Antonio Cheveno three dollars each for “cooking,” along with a single dollar for a black servant. The Chevenos may have been responsible for the six bottles of cayenne pepper that were bought for the banquet along with a bushel of potatoes, a jar of pickles, plenty of “segars,” and all that wine and gin.^[vii]

            As for the centerpiece of the banquet table, all previous published English versions of Ehrenberg’s narrative have left his name for the big black bear untranslated as “Mister Petz.”^[viii] This has sown some confusion. Jeff Long, after reading the unpublished 1925 translation done by Edgar Bartholomae, wrote in his controversial Duel of Eaglesthat “For some reason, this giant carcass had been christened ‘Mr. Petz.’”^[ix] The name is hardly this mysterious—as Professor Brister was quite aware, Meister Petz is a traditional name for the “Master Bear” character in German folklore, along with such names as Meister Longohr (Master Long Ear) for the donkey, and Meister Longbein (Master Long Leg) for the stork.^[x] The meaning of “Petz” is not so easily translated. The origin of the term may be Scandinavian, and like the English term “bruin,” its use may be an honorific to be used rather than the rather taboo actual name of what was once, in Northern Europe, the King of Beasts.^[xi]

“Hopping” Johnson now makes his appearance—a very different Sam Johnson than we met in the Mexican coffee-house. Ehrenberg spelled the words as “Hoping” and the “Hoper,” but his meaning was clear, so we have corrected his English spelling.

Chapter V  The Banquet

                “To the volunteers from the States!” called out a large powerful man sitting at one end of a table built of boards nailed together to a length of about one hundred and fifty feet.  “To the Grays!” he shouted, and tossed down the bubbly champagne to his toast.  Simultaneously the rows of people sitting on both sides of the overflowing table raised their glasses, and in the next moment eighty dollars worth of this noble beverage flowed bubbling to the health of the Grays. 

    In the middle of the table stood Mister Bruin, a large black bear festively garnished. Over the bones and meat he still had his hide and claws, and between his ferocious teeth he held the flag appropriate to the [Mexican] constitutionof l824.  The rest of the table was filled with raccoons, squirrels, and turkeys,^[xii] in addition to two large beautifully roasted hindquarters and the backbone of an ox adorning the table.  Like satellite moons in orbit around a planet, colorful bottles of champagne and sparkling Rhine wine stood in readiness around the platters of roasted wild game.

    Hopping Johnson stood up to say a few words.  However, I should note here that he was not the notorious Sam Johnson^[xiii], but rather a famous gentleman-squatter who up to now had beat everybody in the triple-hopcompetition, and he had done it on his left leg.  He had the nicknames, the “Wage-Maker” and the “Great Hopper,” but generally he was known by the name, “Hopping Johnson.”  His kinship with the Cornbreakers, a nickname for Virginians^[xiv], was evident from all his features.  The blood that flowed through his veins was completely Virginian, because from the day that old man Johnson, the great-grandfather of our “Hopper,” had set foot on the new continent in order to become a Virginia squatter, the Johnsons had not ventured beyond the state line.  Among the inhabitants of Uncle Sam’s territory that was highly unusual.  Back then the Allegheny Mountains still formed the backbone of the new colonies, and old Virginia was a savage land inhabited only by the redskins.  Against the will of his papa, our young “Hopper” had left the good old native soil and rambled for many years through the states.  He had taken with him several excellent racehorses, genuine thoroughbreds that his papa, a professional horse breeder, had bred himself.  With these magnificent fast horses he had made a name for himself, and later he had started to breed them in Texas. 

     “Gentlemen,” called out his clear tenor voice from the middle of the table.  “Gentlemen, the people of Nacogdoches have prepared a banquet for the New Orleans Grays, and the ladies of Nacogdoches have themselves taken charge of the cooking today.  It’s merely their patriotism, gentlemen.  The red Cherokee listened for the opossum,^[xv] and with his rifle he brought down the raccoon.  The young warriors have adorned our table with turkeys and squirrels, but Sam Johnson combed the woods for three days and lived only on wild game so that he could bring this gentleman standing before me to this liberty feast.”  With these words, he pointed to Mister Bruin.  “Johnson stalked him for a long time, and after three days found him growling in the underbrush overgrown with vines.  The rifle ball dropped him in his tracks, and Sam returned victorious to his big house to get help to bring back Mister Bruin trussed up on a cedar pole.  Gentlemen, Mister Bruin was brought in here and now he stands in our midst.  So beautifully roasted, he wishes us all  ‘bon appetit’!”  Then he drew a breath, wiped his forehead, and continued:  “Your empty plates, gentlemen, are surrounded by the noble wines from the Rhine River and the Champagne district.  Next to these are the cut crystal glasses, but you will not find any knives or forks there.  In fact, we didn’t have any.  Therefore, I, Sam Johnson, have been appointed by the ladies’ committee to ask you to please excuse this circumstance.  Hear me, hear me now, gentlemen, Sam Johnson has never concerned himself with kitchen business.  If he had his steaks and cornbread at mealtime and afterwards his glass of Kentucky wine, that is, his pure corn whiskey, then he never asked for more.  But gentlemen, since the ladies in all the rush were simply unable to furnish enough of these instruments of destruction, or at least since it would have been very difficult for them, we have no other choice, gentlemen, than to help ourselves with our bowie knives.  So, draw your knives—and as the red warrior finishes off his enemy with his tomahawk and expedites the end with his scalping knife, but also does in the deer with the same knife and prepares the meat for his enjoyment–so, my promising champions of the prairie, out with your bowie knives!  Cut for yourselves slices from the fat thighs of Mister Bruin, Mister Opossum, Coon and Company.  Dig in!  Dig in!”

     “Long live Sam Johnson, the Hopper, the tireless bear hunter!” shouted the whole company at the table and drank a glass to his health.

     Hopper Johnson took a deep breath, thanked us all, and pulled the hide from Mister Bruin to one side.  The gentleman, who a moment ago had been black and furry, now looked in death so much more attractive than he had ever been able to do in life.  Every one of our two-foot long knives emerged from its sheath and slashed fiercely at Mister Bruin and the other dishes of game.  One toast was made after the other.  Then there were some political speeches.  The causes of the war were recited and various inflammatory calls to action resounded at the table.  Even the settler women sitting at their hearths were remembered, and the banquet did not end until very late.  One guest after another had quietly left the table to return to camp, his head filled with thoughts of the revolution and with immense courage in his heart, darkly imagining, these enthusiastic souls, an endless variety of prophetic scenes.  The next morning our horses were rounded up, and that afternoon we went galloping out of the little town.  The people of the town waved their greetings to our troop of cheerful Gray riders until we disappeared from their view in the dark woods. 

Theme: Native Americans

The Red Man lived here once,

With wife and child, he wandered around

He also followed the buffalo’s path

But only his food did he seek

How long will it last, 

Until the Red Man has disappeared

And with him the last of the wild

That satisfies his hunger even today

Nature once provided to excess

What culture is now destroys

It moves ever forward in unbroken stride

consuming all of nature on its path

“Comanches breaking camp and the aesthetics of the Indian Campsite” in Friedrich Armand Strubberg’s An der Indianergrenze,  [On the Indian Frontier], 316-317.

            During the time when Farnwald had served in the Army and when further to the North the forests had already taken on a mantel of red and yellow and the golden leaves had begun to cover the ground with the first breath of fall, Kiawaka had given the order early in the morning to break camp in order to travel to the northwest where his band was to take part in a great gathering of the entire Nation.  After breakfast, while the men still sat around the campfires, the women and children began carrying everything out of the teepees and packing these items in leather bundles.  They then took down the large, leather tents, and laid the long tent poles on the ground.  Then the pack animals were fetched from the prairie where they were grazing and the poles were attached to their sides by means of leather thongs in such a way that the ends, separated only by a couple of feet, could drag along the ground and, in a ladder-like fashion, shorter poles were fastened across the drag poles, and just like that a conveyance was fashioned upon which to secure and transport the bundles. The bundles were duly fastened to the travois and also packed upon the backs of mules and horses.  The children were seated between the bundles and after the wives had selected the appropriate mounts from the large herd, they saddled the men’s chosen horses and mules and led them before their masters. The men then swung into their saddles, and after hardly an hour’s effort, the Comanches, along with their houses and all earthly possessions, were ready for the journey.  

            At a signal from Chief Kiawaka, who had just mounted his horse, one of the elder warriors of the tribe took a torch of mesquite, which held its glow for an extraordinarily long time, and then rode, holding the torch in front of him, at the head of the warriors, striking a course northward along the river, while the wives, children and pack animals, along with the huge herd of horses and mules, followed along behind in a colorful and disorderly jumble.

            They rode along like this for many miles, solemn and wordless, until they reached the last elevation that afforded a distant glimpse of their abandoned campsite.  Kiawaka halted his horse and turned to face the abandoned campsite, and then, in accordance with the custom of his tribe, gave a farewell greeting to the place that had afforded peace and tranquility to the tribe for several months. The other warriors did the same whereupon the old warrior took his place at the head of the procession and all resumed their trek at a quickened pace.

            Halting only to allow their horses to quench their thirst at the several watering holes they passed along the way, they pressed forward the whole day at a quickened pace and, although the torch had long since burnt out, the old warrior still held it in front for it would be used ceremonially to light the campfire at the new campsite and symbolically to transfer the peace and tranquility of the previous location to the new site.

            By sundown they had reached an area of a high prairie bounded by the cliffs of rugged hills; a prairie that offered fresh grass and clear spring water in abundance; a location which in civilized countries would have been seen as an ideal location for a tavern and hotel for wayfarers because of its beauty as well as its utility. These dwellers of the wilderness, likewise, had appreciated this site for both its beauty and its practicality, and had made use of it for centuries during their annual migrations both to the north and to the south.

            These wild ones all have a well-honed appreciation and sensibility for natural beauty. Their campsites are chosen not only for their ability to satisfy basic needs, but always, when there is a choice between possible sites, the one that holds the most natural charm, the one that pleases the eye the best, will be preferred…

Theme: Native Americans and existential threat

The historic Comanche Chief Kateumsi speaks as recorded in council in 1852.  (Horace Capron to Robert Howard, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, September 30, 1852, Letters Received, M234, Roll 858, Texas Agency, NA. Reproduced in Schilz, Buffalo Hump, 38.)

            Over this vast country where for centuries our ancestors roamed in undisputed possession, free and       happy, what have we left? The game, our main dependence, is killed and driven off, and we are forced      into the most sterile and barren portions of it to starve. We see nothing but extermination left before        us, which we await stoically.  Give us a land we can call our own, where we may bury our people with     dignity

Comanche Chief Kateumsi speech in Friedrich Armand Strubberg’s Friedrichsburg, 127.

            Like the raging grey bear who kills and dismembers solely from bloodlust, so have the palefaces driven   the red children from the shores of the Big Water and exterminated entire tribes, and now they are            seeking them out in these far-removed hills in order to trick them into venturing out where, defenseless,      they can be killed,” interjected Kateumsi in a sober voice. “What remains of the great nation of the         Delaware, who once ruled over the entire land where the sun rises? Your friends, the palefaces, have           ground you down to a few small bands, which they now make use of for gold in order to betray the still           strong, free races of red children so as to drive them from the face of the earth.

Introduction to Winnetou I by Karl May

            The White Man came with sweet words on his lips, but at the same time with a sharp knife in his belt     and a loaded rifle in his hand. He promised love and peace but gave hate and war.  The Red Man was          forced to give ground, step for step, always backwards.  From time to time they guaranteed him eternal       rights to his “lands,” but drove him forth the moment it became inconvenient until there was no place    to go.

Sub-Theme: The German Comanche Treaty of 1847

“Einzug der Friedensgäste,”  [Grand Entrance of the Comanche Chiefs into Fredericksburg] Friedrich Armand Strubberg, (Friedrichsburg, Bookj 2, Chapter 9, 8-12.)

            The faces of Santa Anna and Sanacho beamed with happiness and joy at the realization that they had finally achieved the long-wished-for goal, and now, for all time, peace and friendship would prevail between their people and the whites. They stayed for supper with the director and were very happy to visit with Major Neighbors, a man with whom they had been on friendly terms for many years.

            As the morning of the festival dawned, the sky was bright and cloud-free, and the new light found the city already busily engaged in activity. Young and old, decked out in their best Sunday attire, were on the move. Most people had barely taken time to finish breakfast before they took to the streets in anticipation of the Indians streaming into the town from all sides. People gathered especially in the vicinity of the Verein compound and on the road to Braunfels since most of the Indians were expected to arrive from the south and the east.

            All the while, men were busy moving and arranging the gifts from the Verein compound according to the directives of Major Neighbors and stacking them under the oaks where the ceremony was to take place. 

            The sun climbed over the hills and cast its golden light in the valley of Friedrichsburg, but still no Indians had appeared. Preparations at the ceremonial grounds for the reception of the guests had been completed, and from moment to moment excitement among the waiting guests was mounting, when out of the woods, toward which the road to Braunfels led, a glistening and sparkling became perceptible, and a procession of riders emerged at a walk.

            It was Santa Anna, the war chief of all Comanches, together with the peace chiefs, the wisest and oldest warriors of the Nation.

            Slowly and solemnly, the procession approached, Santa Anna in the lead mounted on a magnificent, milk-white stallion, his companions following him, two by two.

            Devoid of clothing with the exception of the scarlet-red cloth wound around their bodies, the red-brown figures, manly and noble in appearance, sat tall and straight on their powerful and handsome steeds, and one could clearly see from their demeanor and bearing that they considered it to be a sacred obligation to secure peace and security for their people.

            All were festooned in their finest jewelry and had woven into their own shiny black hair two long pigtails from the black beard of the buffalo. These hung down on either side of their faces and across the breast as far as the underside of the horses, and to these braids were affixed rows of hand-sized, silver conchos, round and gleaming. 

            On their heads, they wore feathers from the golden eagle, while around their necks and over their breasts lay strings of three-inch-long white beads. Shiny metal bracelets decorated their arms and colorfully stitched beadwork adorned the moccasins that clad their feet.

            The most magnificently tanned animal skins served as saddles, while the bridles as well as the manes and tails of their horses were decorated with shiny, iridescent feathers. 

            Without a single weapon, these men, a thousand times over so unspeakably deceived, persecuted, and mistreated by the whites, rode into the German town in an attitude of unqualified trust and confidence in order to conclude peace and friendship with them—something that for twenty years the government of the United States had moved heaven and earth in vain to accomplish.

Contemporary account of German/Comanche Treaty:       

            Large numbers of Comanches are concentrating around Fredericksburg to attend a council which is to be            held on or about the 10^th inst. Mr. Meusebach, the agent of the German colonists has invited them to        attend this council for the purpose of forming a treaty with them on the part      of the colonists…Many      of these Indians are more willing to yield these privileges than they were a few weeks since…They say     they are more willing for the Germans to settle in their country that the Texians, for the former settle in         towns and villages and do not scatter over the countryside and kill the game as the Texians do. They are        very anxious that the encroachments of the eastern Texians on their hunting grounds may be checked,   and repeatedly inquire when the “Great Father” will send an agent to treat with them and mark out a    boundary that white men will respect. We have too much reason to fear that they are yet to learn by            bitter experience that the “Great Spirit” alone can mark out a boundary that white men will never pass. (Daily Telegraph and Texas Register [Houston, TX], Monday, May 10, 1847).

            The Comanche Chief Santa Anna, whose father perished at the Council House fight in 1839, was invited to visit Washington, D.C. and was the first of his tribe to make such a journey. He seems to have been overwhelmed by what he saw. In December 1846, he made the following speech at council:

            Last spring I followed your captains to see the great father [President of the United States]…when I         came back I told the people what the great father had said…What I say, I always do. My tongue is not          forked. When I heard the talk the great father had sent my heart was glad. Many of my people when I   came back would not believe the words my great father had sent by me were the words of truth. Now    they have listened to his words and see the presents his captains have given them, their hearts are   glad—they will go home and tell that my great father does not speak with a forked tongue. (TD,      January             13, 1847)

            This speech conveys simply but eloquently Santa Anna’s desire for peace for his people. His subsequent signing of the Meusebach treaty in May 1847 underscored his sincerity. In November 1848 he travelled to San Antonio along with a Lipan chief to speak with Colonel Bell to reiterate his desire for friendship. A newspaper of the period reported the trip and recorded the impressions of a reporter who interviewed the chief while at the Llano camp:

            Yesterday Santa Anna, in company with the chief of the Lipans, and one other, arrived here en route to   San Antonio, to have what they called a “big talk” with Col Bell. These two chiefs have given up the idea        of further depredations on the Whites, and say that they are willing, as representatives of their two          tribes, to enter into bonds of peace and harmony with us—Santa Anna is an intelligent Indian and a        noble looking fellow. On his arrival, he doffed his suit of buffalo skin, and put on his uniform. He       reported himself to the commander of this post in a very formal but cordial manner. His uniform coat is that of a brigadier general in our regular army; his pantaloons of handsomely dressed buff buckskin, and             when fully dressed he appears remarkably proud, though nothing like haughty, his deportment being   really easy and graceful. Some of our regular gentry might take a lesson from this savage. (CCS,          December 5, 1848)

It is interesting to compare his words and actions with the editorial view of an Austin newspaper, which echoed the opinion of many Texans of the period:

            The Comanches in particular, have been remarkable for an almost total disregard of their promises.        Treaties are for them mere preludes to aggression; they seem to view them as legitimate modes of        obtaining advantages over those who are silly enough to believe in a single pledge they may have given        of their sincerity. (TD, June 17, 1846)

The historical record clearly shows that it was rather the other way around. Santa Anna perished in the cholera epidemic that raged through the Comanche camps in 1849.

---

^[i] Nacogdoches: Documents Relating to the Committee of Vigilance and Safety, typescript page [1], (copies made from the Raguet (Henry) Family Papers, package III, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin.

^[ii] “Site of Bivouac and Banquet for The New Orleans’ Greys,” http://www.stoppingpoints.com/texas/sights.cgi?marker=Site+of+Bivouac+and+Banquet+for+The+New+Orleans%27+Greys&cnty=nacogdoches  Accessed December 30, 2017.

^[iii] Nadogdoches: Documents Relating to the Committee of Vigilance and Safety, typescript pages [1]-2, Briscoe Center for American History.

^[iv] Herman Ehrenberg, With Milam and Fannin: Adventures of a German Boy in Texas’ Revolution, ed. Henry [Nash] Smith, trans. Charlotte Churchill (Dallas: Tardy Publishing Company, Inc., 1935), 14-16.  

^[v] Nacogdoches: Documents Relating to the Committee of Vigilance and Safety, amount paid to “Goens for the Indians,” unnumbered typescript page of document from the Raguet (Henry) Family Papers, package IV, Briscoe Center for America History. See also The Handbook of Texas Online, “Goyens, William,” https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fgo24  Accessed December 29, 2017.

^[vi] [Henry] Rueg to [Thomas Jefferson] Rusk, November 9, 1835, in Jenkins, ed., Papers of the Texas Revolution, 2:371. The Documents Relating to the Committee of Vigilance and Safety of Nacogdoches show multiple funds allotted to individuals who had provided horses, bridles, foodstuffs, and sundry other equipment to the Volunteers from New Orleans.

^[vii] Unnumbered typescript page listing items “For the barbeque for 1^st U S V from N O,” Nacogdoches: Documents Relating to the Committee of Vigilance and Safety, Briscoe Center for American History. 

^[viii] Charlotte Churchill’s “Mr. Petz” is found in Smith, ed., With Milam and Fannin, 14; Peter Mollenhauer’s “Mr. Petz” in on page 109 of Natalie Ornish, ed.., Ehrenberg: Goliad Survivor, Old West Explorer (Dallas: Texas Heritage Press, 1997); and Edgar W. Bartholomae’s “Mr. Petz,” from his 1925 Master’s Thesis (University of Texas at Austin), has recently appeared in a slightly edited version produced in Boerne, Texas, by Mockingbird Books (2016), 31.

^[ix] Jeff Long, Duel of Eagles: The Mexican and U.S. Fight for the Alamo (New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1990), 64; Edgar William Bartholomae, “A Translation of H. Ehrenberg’s Fahrten und Schicksale eines Deutschen in Texas, with Introduction and Notes,” (M. A. Thesis, University of Texas at Austin, 1925), 39.

^[x] Hans Schemann, German/English Dictionary of Idioms (London & New York: Routledge, 1995), 649.

^[xi] Sir Richard Francis Burton, Ultima Thule: Or, A Summer in Iceland, 2 vols. (London & Edinburgh: W. P. Nimmo, 1875), 2:84. See also Michel Pastoureau, The Bear: History of a Fallen King, George Holoch, trans. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press/Belknap, 2011).

^[xii] In his own footnote, Ehrenberg identified these animals for his German readers as Waschbären, Eichhörnchen, and Welschhünern.

^[xiii] The “notorious Sam Johnson” is, of course, the faro-dealer and scoundrel identified in Chapter 4: Das Coffee-House.

^[xiv] In Ehrenberg’s German text, he explained this Spitzname (nickname) in a footnote.

^[xv] The German word for opossum is spelled the same as in English, but in Opossum, the initial “O” is pronounced.

German Travelogues about Texas in the 19th Century

In the nineteenth century an extraordinary relationship developed between German speaking areas of Europe and Texas. The gathering forces of overpopulation and popular discontent in Central Europe collided with an anachronistic and repressive political structure to produce a strong push. As Gottfried Duden put it in 1829, “…the true proof that a country is overpopulated resides in the fact that the mass of the population can only be contained within the bounds of the social order through force.”^[1] On the other side of the Atlantic the surfeit of good and inexpensive farmland, above all, created an equally strong pull. The dynamic proved irresistible to millions of Germans during the course of the nineteenth century.  In respect to Texas, interest first began when Texas was still part of Spain but continued throughout the Mexican, republican, and statehood periods, roughly from 1820 until 1850. The most notable effect of this relationship was that Texas also became a prime destination for German emigration in the nineteenth century, so large, in fact, that by 1850 about 20% of the white population of Texas could trace their roots to Central Europe.^[2]  

German Travelogues about Texas in the 19th century

Fascination for Texas also gave rise to a vast literature that was composed mainly of travelogues and diaries, but came to include even novels and poetry. And when we add to the list of published works the 20,000 pages of official reports, professional appraisals, inventories, letters, etc. in the Solms-Braunfels Archives– the official records of the Mainzner Adelsverein –the sheer volume of the material produced by Germans about Texas in this time frame cannot fail to impress. It is beyond the scope of this introduction to offer a complete historiography of all these works, but we emphasize that Delef Dunt’s little book occupies an important place in the catalog of German works about Texas that helped to influence and direct emigration to this area of the New World during the pre-revolutionary phase. A short discussion of each of these pioneer commentators follows.

The word-famous German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) ^[3]  was the first to awaken interest in Texas among Germans. In addition to the monumental multi-volume tome concerning his travels and scientific observations of the flora and fauna, meteorology and geology of South and Central America,^[4] he also put together a separate book on Mexico, which at the time was called the Kingdom of New Spain and included Texas. Humboldt spent all of 1803 in Mexico. The following year he published an account of his investigations in Spanish.  In 1808 he reworked the original composition and released it in a German edition with the title, Versuch über den politischen Zustand des Königreichs Neuspanien [An Attempt at a Political Investigation of the Kingdom of New Spain]. The word “political,” notably, had a rather more wide-ranging significance for Humboldt than the usual interpretation. The book is in fact a vast, all-encompassing analysis of Mexico, which in addition to essays on the physical geography, the agricultural and mineral prospects, includes also a sociological and historical interpretation. Humboldt never travelled in Texas himself, but he interviewed several officials who had first-hand knowledge of the territory.  He also consulted archival sources. Still, other than reporting that Texas was largely grassland inhabited by nomadic and warlike indios bravos–he mentions both the Apaches and Comanches–and comprised mainly of secondary and tertiary geological formations, which made it unlikely that there would be significant gold or silver deposits, Humboldt offered very little detailed information about the physical geography of the province. Indeed, astonishingly little was known about Texas at the time, even among the Spanish authorities in Mexico.  

Humboldt did, however, offer an analysis that proved to be prophetic.  He addressed the question why Mexico was unable to furnish enough colonists internally to establish a meaningful presence in Texas and thus solidify her claim, which was still very much in dispute. (There were voices in the U.S. government who felt that the Louisiana Purchase extended to the Rio Grande.) As it was, with the exception of the missions along the San Antonio River, a couple of presidios (or fortress outposts) on the nebulous and porous eastern border, and a few ranchos along the Rio Bravo, Texas remained essentially desplobado. Humboldt suggested Spanish obsession with silver and gold and an associated under-appreciation for the agricultural possibilities of the New World lay at the root of this dilemma.  He contrasted this attitude with the North American approach to territorial aggrandizement, which was proceeding in the first instance through agricultural development and exploitation. Moreover, the North Americans appeared willing, individually and collectively, to eschew the comfort and safety of the towns and cities and to endure the privations and dangers of frontier life, something the majority of New World Spaniards were unwilling to do. Also, the Indians of North America were less agrarian and settled than their Mesoamerican counterparts, which allowed them to be dispossessed and displaced more easily. Humboldt predicted (correctly) that the inability of the Mexicans to colonize and settle Texas would inevitably lead to a showdown with the rapidly expanding frontier-farmers and land speculators of North America.  And although he does not say it in so many words, the inference lies close at hand that the only viable strategy for Mexico to retain possession of Texas and other unsettled territories in North America, to which she lay claim, would be to fight fire with fire, so to speak; to try to bring the seemingly insatiably land hungry Anglo frontier farmers from North America into the fold through a combination of generous colonization contracts or outright grants of land to individual farmers and then hope that they would eventually become loyal Mexicans.  It was a risky strategy and a fatal miscalculation, as events would demonstrate, but one she had no other option than to attempt.  Germans became an important part of this unfolding drama, both as colonizers and commentators. For his part, Detlef Dunt’s book was composed and released during the immediate prolog to this impending drama.

Humboldt also struck a theme that many subsequent German commentators echoed, namely that altitude could mitigate the effects of subtropical climates. Germany, of course, lies over a thousand of miles north of Mexico [and Texas]. Still, the heart of Mexico proper occupies a high and extensive plateau that renders the climate more temperate than equatorial and permits the cultivation of crops usually associated with higher latitudes, such as wheat and other cereal grains.  The hillier regions of Texas do not provide nearly as great a contrast in elevation as does Mexico, but that Germans were constitutionally unsuited for the lowlands and coastal prairies became an article of faith among many German commentators, with the concomitant observation that they were more likely to fall prey to “adjustment’ fevers in the lower elevations and in the wet and swampy areas.  Humboldt was the first to make these observations.

Finally, Humboldt set a high bar for scientific rigor and accuracy, which later German commentators felt compelled to emulate with the result that many of the subsequent German works about Texas are of first class quality.  A fair number of these works have been translated, but many remain inaccessible to non-German readers, and offer, indeed, one of the ‘silences’ of Texas history, to borrow a term from historian James Crisp.

The next German commentator on Texas of the pre-revolution period to follow Humboldt was the ex-Prussian officer, J. Valentin Hecke.  Hecke had heeded the call in the great patriotic war of liberation in 1813/14 when the German states rose up against Napoleon.  He served as a lieutenant in the 13^th Silesian Infantry Regiment of the Prussian 1^st Army Corp and participated in several major battles of the war. Although trained as jurist, his war adventures made it difficult for him to resume a civilian career.  His experience was a common one.  Former officers by the hundreds of many nations now found themselves unemployed and psychologically unfit for civilian life.  They tended to congregate in the major port cities of Europe and where they followed with alacrity the news of gathering winds of revolution that were beginning to sweep across the Spanish colonial empire in the New World, including Mexico, where their military talents might be put to use.  

Several of the early German commentators and adventurers associated with Texas fit this pattern. The Long expedition, one of the early filibustering expeditions organized in the United States with the goal of enforcing a claim on Texas as part of the Louisiana purchase, included several Germans, including most notably, the former Prussian officer, Ernst von Rosenberg.^[5] Johann von Racknitz and Friedrich von Wrede, Sr., discussed later, also fit this pattern. As for Hecke, he travelled to the United States in 1818 where he briefly associated himself with Joseph Bonaparte, former King of Spain and brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, who now resided on an estate in New Jersey that he had reputedly financed by the sale of the Spanish crown jewels. Bonaparte and his followers hatched a filibustering scheme of their own to liberate Mexico from Spanish rule and set Bonaparte up as the new king. Nothing came of their plans and Hecke quickly disassociated himself from the plot. He returned to Germany in 1819 and published an account of his travels and observations in 1821 as Reise durch die Vereinigten Staaten von Nord-Amerika in den Jahren 1818 und 1819: Nebst einer kurzen Übersicht… [Travels through the United States of North America in the Years 1818 and 1819: Together with a short Summary…] Moritz Tiling, who wrote the first book length treatment of the German settlements in Texas published in 1912, claims in the opening paragraph of chapter 2 that Hecke spent a year in Texas and was the first to excite the German nation about Texas.^[6] He is wrong in both these assertions, but the claim has been repeated in subsequent publications.^[7] A close reading of the book reveals that Hecke never ventured outside the Middle Atlantic States and he certainly spent no time in either Texas or Mexico. His discussion of Texas occupies a scant six pages out of 240 pages of the book and rests entirely on hearsay. But based on what he had heard, he praised Texas as a land suitable for German emigration, and proposed even that Prussia attempt to buy the province from Spain outright. Nothing came of this request, and although the influence of Hecke has been overestimated, once again the national interest was drawn to Texas by a published work.

Johann von Racknitz (1791-?), the next commentator, was the illegitimate son of a German nobleman from Swabia. He was a most energetic and interesting man who spent the early part of his life as a professional cavalry officer in the service of various German states and exited the service, similar to Hecke, a decorated veteran of the Napoleonic wars.  He was interested in joining the Mina expedition, another of the early and misguided filibustering expeditions organized by adventurers and land speculators in the United States.^[8] Luckily for him, he arrived too late to participate in the expedition, which ended in debacle, but undaunted, and dissimilar to Hecke, he travelled to Mexico and through Texas in 1829 where he became obsessed with the idea of establishing a German colony in Texas. He was able to secure a contract for the first of these ventures, and so to von Racknitz goes the honor of being the first German empresario, although neither of his efforts came to fruition. The first attempt at a colony in 1833 near present Bastrop cascaded into disaster when his handful of colonists succumbed to a double whammy of cholera and yellow fever.^[9] Most perished while the few who did survive dispersed among the other colonies as best they could.  Undaunted, Racknitz returned to Germany and authored a couple of newspaper articles and also a pamphlet in 1832 about Texas entitled, Vorläufer für Auswanderer nach dem Staate Texas. [Preliminaries for Emigrants to the State of Texas].)^[10]  and he published a book in 1836, a year after Dunt’s book was released.^[11] The book is in effect an advertisement for Racknitz’ second proposed colony, which was to be located between the Nueces and Rio Grande Rivers. The effort was essentially dead on arrival since by this point the Mexican army had been defeated at San Jacinto (April 1836). Racknitz continued to press for his colony for many years from both the Mexican and Texas governments although it lay in disputed territory. Interestingly, he never abandoned his loyalty to the Mexican government.  He was in Europe when the revolution broke out in 1835/1836 but ten years later he donned his uniform to fight on the side of the Mexicans in the Mexican American War and eventually qualified for a pension for his service.^[12]  

In respect to von Racknitz, the historian Paul Brister, who seems unaware of the Dunt/Ernst influence, concludes, “Although Racknitz established no permanent colony on either the Colorado or Nueces River…[he] did more than any other German writer to promote Texas as a land ideally suited to German colonization…He published newspaper notices, pamphlets, and books advocating the settlement of hundreds of Germans along the Colorado and Nueces Rivers.”^[13]  We respectfully disagree with this summation, for judging by statistics and also by testimonials of many German emigrants, either before or after the Texas Revolution of 1835/1836, von Racknitz’ efforts cannot claim this distinction. Nonetheless, von Racknitz’ name must be added to the list of important German publicists who planted seeds of interest in Germany that eventually blossomed into a phenomenon so strong that it came to be known as the “Texas fever.”^[14]

In general, the most influential of the early commentators extolling the possibilities for German emigrants to the United States was undoubtedly Gottfried Duden (1789-1856). His famous book Bericht über eine Reise nach den westlichen Staaten Nordamerika’s (“Report of a journey to the western states of North America”)^[15] gave a favorable description of the soil, climate, and lay of the Missouri River valley between St. Louis and Hermann, Missouri. Largely through the influence of his book, this area became the main thrust of German immigration in the United States in the 1830s, the decade when emigration from Germany to the United States began in earnest. His was the most popular and well known of the many travelogues and immigrant handbooks that appear during the period. But ironically, as availability of suitable farm land in the Missouri valley diminished, and by 1832 news of this spread to the principal port cities on the East Coast as well as New Orleans, many fresh immigrants who had been inspired initially to make the move to the United States by Duden’s book, began to cast about for alternatives.  Talk about Texas as the next Missouri Valley, so to speak, was rife, and many considered altering their plans accordingly.  This was the case for Friedrich Ernst of Industry (and, by extension, Delef Dunt). It was also the case for Eduard Ludecus.

The details of Friedrich Ernst’s life and the paSth that brought him to Texas are to be found in the introduction. For the present discussion, we note that many consider Friedrich Ernst to be the father of German emigration to Texas. We agree with this assessment to the extent that it applies to South-Central Texas, one of the two main areas of German emigration, the other being the Texas Hill Country.  Roughly speaking, the Hill Country settlements resulted from organized and sponsored emigration that began with the efforts of the empresarios, Henri Castro and Henry Francis Fischer, whereas the South-Central destinations resulted from the process known as “chain emigration,” a process where a dominant personality writes back to friends and family to start the ball rolling. The Ernst letter provided the first link in this chain, and Detlef Dunt, who came to Texas to see for himself if Dunt’s glowing assessments were true, amplified the effect of his letter through his 1834 book with an unambiguous nod. Thus, although Ernst never published his own observations, the sensation it created and the press it received guarantees Ernst a premier place among the panoply of early commentators.

Ludecus was born in Weimar in 1807 the son of an upper middle-class family with connections to the court of Karl August, Duke of Saxe-Weimar. Ludecus grew up in the cultured atmosphere of Weimar, the center of German Classicism and the later home of Goethe and Schiller, as well as many other luminaries of the contemporary literary, musical, and theatrical life of Germany. Ludecus was a good student and the beneficiary of an advanced education in preparation for a career in commerce and trade. His studies were successful but after a few years he grew weary of life behind a desk and resolved to emigrate to the United States. He collected letters of introduction and together with his savings departed.  He wrote letters to his father who collected and published them in 1836.  Indeed, many of the commentators of the period made use of the epistolary style, including Gottfried Duden.

Ludecus was initially drawn to the Missouri settlements, but while in New York he made the acquaintance of Dr. 

Brister, Paul, transl. and ed. John Charles Beale’s Rio Grande Colony; Letters by Edward Ludecus, a German Colonist, to Friends in Germany in 1833-1834, Recounting his Journey, Trials, and Observations in Early Texas. Place of publication not given: Texas State Historical Association, 2008.

——-. “Johann von Racknitz: German Empresario and Soldier of Fortune in Texas and Mexico, 1832–1848.” Southwestern Historical Quarterly 99 (July 1995), 49-80.

Duden, Gottfried. The full citation reads, Bericht über eine Reise nach den westlichen Staaten Nordamerika’s und einen mehrjährigen Aufenthalt am Missouri (in den Jahren 1824, ’25, ’26 und ’27 in Bezug auf Auswanderung und Übervölkerung), oder: das Leben im Innern der Vereinigten Staaten und desen Bedeutung für das häusliche und politische Lage der Europäer, dargestellt a) in einer Sammlung von Briefen, b) in einer besonderen Abhandlung über den politischen Zustand der nordamerikanischen Freistaaten, und c) in einem rathgebenden Nachtrage für auswanderende deutsch Ackerwirthe und diejenigen,

Humboldt, Alexander von. Ein Versuch über den politischen Zustand des Königreiches Neuspanien. Stuttgart: Gota’schen Verlag, 1808.

Hecke, J. Valentin. Reise durch die Vereinigten Staaten von Nord-Amerika in den Jahren 1818 und 1819. : Nebst einer kurzen Uebersicht der neuesten Ereignisse auf dem Kriegs-Schauplatz in Süd-Amerika und West-Indien. Berlin, : In Commission bei H.Ph. Petri., 1820-1821. Vol. 2 has title: Reise durch die Vereinigten Staaten von Nord-Amerika und Rückreise durch England. Nebst einer Schilderung der Revolutions-Helden, und des ehemaligen und gegenwärtigen Zustandes von St. Domingo. Gedruckt bei A.W. Schade–Colophon of v. 1; “gedruckt bei G. Hayn”–Colophon of v. 2.

Racknitz, Johann von. Vorläufer für  Auswanderer nach dem Staate Texas. (Meersburg, 1832) [Brister, Racknitz, 59] pamphlets

Racknitz, Johann von.  Kurze und getreue Belehrung für deutsche und schweizerische Auswanderer, welche an der Begründubg der Colonie von Racknitz, im mexicanishen Freistaate Tamaulipas gelegen, Theil nehmen wollen, in Beziehung auf die natürliche Beschaffenheit des Staates, seine Verfqssung, die bestenhenden Verträge mit der Regierung, die Colonie-Gesetze, und die Aufnahme-Bedingungen in den Verein. (Stuttgart: Imle und Krause, 1836)

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^[1] Duden, Reise, X.

^[2]  Relying on census data and population estimates in newspapers, historian Gilbert Benjamin claims that roughly 30,000 Germans inhabited Texas in 1850, accounting for one-fifth of the Caucasian population. See: Gilbert Benjamin, The Germans in Texas: A Study in Immigration (Austin: Jenkins, 1974), 59.

^[3] Next to Napoleon, Humboldt was arguably the most famous man in Europa in the nineteenth century.

^[4] Humboldt travelled extensively in Latin America between 1799 and 1803, exploring and describing it for the first time from a modern scientific point of view. His description of the journey was composed in French and published in an enormous set of volumes over 21 years. He spent 1803 in Mexico and his book on Mexico was published in German separately from the other work.

^[5] The Long expedition of 1821 ended in a debacle when many of its vanguard were captured at the La Bahia presidio near Goliad. James Long, the leader of the expedition, was eventually executed. Ernst von Rosenberg went on to join various armies in the fight for independence that began in 1821 in Mexico.  He was said to have eventually faced a firing squad.  In 1850 his younger brother and also veteran of the Battle of Waterloo, Peter Carl von Rosenberg, emigrated to Texas with his extended family and settled t Nassau Plantation in Northern Fayette County. His family became very prominent as educators and professional people in the state.

^[6] Tiling, German Element in Texas, 7.

^[7] See, for instance, Morgentaler, Promised Land.

^[8] The Mina expedition was organized and launched in the spring of 1817 by Francesco Xavier Mina, a Spanish citizen, who aimed at overthrowing the forces of the Spanish King Ferdinand VII of Spain. After some initial successes, the effort collapsed and Mina was executed.

^[9] Louis E. Brister, “Johann von Racknitz: German Empresario and Soldier of Fortune in Texas and Mexico, 1832–1848,” Southwestern Historical Quarterly 99 (July 1995), 50.

^[10] Brister, Racknitz, 59.

^[11] Kurze und getreue Belehrung für deutsche und schweizerische Auswanderer, welche an der Begründubg der Colonie von Racknitz, im mexicanishen Freistaate Tamaulipas gelegen, Theil nehmen wollen, in Beziehung auf die natürliche Beschaffenheit des Staates, seine Verfqssung, die bestenhenden Verträge mit der Regierung, die Colonie-Gesetze, und die Aufnahme-Bedingungen in den Verein. [ A short and true Instruction for German and Swiss Emigrants who want to take part in the Founding of the von Racknitz Colony in the Mexican State of Tamaulipas in Reference to the Natural Geography of the State, its Constitution, the existing Treaties with the Government, the Colonial Regulations and the Conditions for Acceptance into the Society] (Stuttgart: Imle und Krause, 1836)

^[12] Brister, Racknitz

^[13]

^[14] Friedrich Armand Strubberg, aka “Dr. Schubbert,” served as the first colonial director of Fredericksburg, TX, a town established by the Mainzner Adelsverein also known as Society for the Protection of German Emigrants in Texas in 1846. He later wrote a series of venture novels based on his experiences in Texas. In several of these novels, Strubberg wrote of the phenomenon of “Texas Fever.”  For  fuller discussion see the introduction to Friedrichsburg; the Texas Colony of the German Fürstenverein by James C. Kearney.

^[15] welche auf Handelsunternehmungen denken, von Gottfried Duden, Elberfeld: Samuel Lucas at cost of author, 1829.