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hh, Texas. Wildfowers, wineries, wienerschnitzel. ancestry in the 1990 U.S. Census – 17.5% of the state’s populaton.
Wait…what? By this count, Germans rank just behind Hispanics as the third-largest
A Texas? You mean the land of cowboys, catle and chicken fried natonal-origin group.
steak? Hot, fat, dusty Texas?
t’s a unique heritage that gives this part of the state a diferent
ctually, right smack dab in the middle of the Lone Star State – favor – not just in its cuisine, but also in its architecture, culture and
north of San Antonio and west of Austn – you’ll fnd Texas Hill Iconnecton to the land.
ACountry, a 14,000-square-mile geological anomaly that looks Once you know this, certain things begin to fall into place:
nothing like the stereotypical landscape most of us picture when we Fredericksburg natve and WWII hero Admiral Chester Nimitz (son
think of Texas. Doted with verdant hills, endless lakes, felds, canyons of frst-generaton Texas Germans Anna Josephine Henke and
and caverns, this region is all about wild beauty, outdoor actvites and Chester Bernhard Nimitz); the nearby, non-Texas-sounding towns
adventure. of Luckenbach, New Braunfels and Pfugerville; Shiner Bock beer;
And right smack dab in the middle of Texas Hill Country you’ll fnd Schliterbahn Water Parks; the Sunday House; Fischer & Wieser’s
the city of Fredericksburg, a place so unique it has its own language: jams, jellies and sauces – and these are just some of the most well-
Texas German, an odd mix of English and 19th-century German known examples. The Fredericksburg area is also home to a host of
that’s near extnct but stll spoken by more than 2,000 people in restaurants, wineries and other businesses that are a direct outgrowth
Fredericksburg and surrounding Gillespie County. of this distnctve lineage.
Why the heck are people speaking German in Texas? Well, in
the 1830s and 1840s, German artsts, writers, poets, professors and or example, at www.texaswinetrail.com you’ll fnd tons of
scholars, fearing persecuton in their homeland and drawn by tales of informaton on Texas Hill Country Wineries – 42 of them, to be
land grants and an ideal climate, came to Texas and became farmers, Fexact – scatered across the region. There are nearly a dozen
ranchers and cowboys. In all, it’s estmated that over 10,000 German in just the 45-mile stretch of Route 290 between Johnson City and
families came to this part of Texas during that tme. Today, Germans Fredericksburg (www.wineroad290.com/), each with its personality,
make up the largest ethnic group in Texas derived directly from terroir and style of winemaking. And just about all of them ofer
Europe. In fact, nearly 3 million Texans claimed pure or partal German unique spaces for all sorts of events and gatherings…along with some

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