Joint Session with GTHS: New Perspectives on German Texas

The German Texan Heritage Society will have a joint session with the Texas State Historical Association at the TSHA conference March 4-7 at Irving - https://am.tsha.events/sessions/joint-session-with-german-texas-heritage-society-new-perspectives-on-german-texas/ entitled, “New Perspectives on German Texas.”

Dr. Walter Kamphoefner will present the results of his published research on the multicultural, multilingual background of 19th Century German immigrants. Forming a significant proportion of the population the TX Constitution, laws, and ballots were printed in German as well as Spanish and Czech. German bilingual schools proliferated until the anti-German hysteria of WWI and the English-only crusade of the KKK effectively ended bilingual education and ballots until bilingual Spanish programs were mandated in 1973.

Dr. James Kearney will present over his upcoming book Ein Lebensbild, about Heinrich von Struve. As members of the nobility the extended family included scientists, diplomats, and government officials in both the fading Holy Roman and Russian Empires. Displaced from his estate in Russian-controlled eastern Poland during the Napoleonic Wars Heinrich immigrated to TX settling near Lateiners in Fayette Co. while his brother Gustav fled to New York City following his leadership of the failed Baden Revolt in 1848 becoming a leader in the antebellum Republican Party.

Drs. Daniel Gelo and Christopher Wickham will present over their ongoing research on Ferdinand Lindheimer. Not only known as the “Father of TX Botany” due to collecting botanical specimens for Asa Gray of Harvard, he was also influential in the early German TX community through his editorship of the Neu- Braunfelser Zeitung. He used the NBZ to help his fellow immigrants adapt to their new home on the frontier as well as to navigate the politics of secession. Their most recent book, The German Texas Frontier in 1853, is about Lindheimer and the Neu-Braunfelser Zeitung.