Adelsverein

Company organized in 1842 as Adesverein (or Meinzer Verein) by German noblemen at Biebrich on the Rhine, for the purpose of settling German immigrants on land purchased in Texas, declared bankruptcy in 1847.

The Verein Zum Schutze Deutscher Einwanderer was a German Colonization Society active in Texas.

The Adelsverein, founded in 1842, was composed of German noblemen whose intent was to settle emigrants on the Fisher-Miller Land Grant in Texas, but instead they became the founders of New Braunfels and Fredericksburg and ran up a huge debt that they were never able to repay.

The Adelsverein, also known as the Verein zum Schutze deutscher Einwanderer in Texas (Society for the Protection of German Immigrants in Texas), and later as the German Emigration Company, was provisionally organized on April 20, 1842, by twenty-one German noblemen at Biebrich on the Rhine, near Mainz. The Adelsverein was composed of German noblemen whose intent was to settle emigrants on the Fisher-Miller Land Grant in Texas, but instead they became the founders of New Braunfels and Fredericksburg and ran up a huge debt that they were never able to repay.

The members of the Adelsverein hoped to solve some of the economic problems of the time and turn a profit for themselves while establishing an American trade base for Germany. After various attempts to secure land, the society finally acquired the Fisher-Miller Grant on the Llano River. Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels was sent to Texas in July 1844 as commissioner general for the society, and in December he received the first group of emigrants with whom he founded New Braunfels in March of 1845. Almost from the beginning the society was in financial trouble; and although Otfried von Meusebach, later called John O. Meusebach, who took over as commissioner general after the first year, was able to keep the settlement running and also to establish Fredericksburg in 1846, the noblemen themselves were never able to pay off their debts and suffered serious personal financial losses. Few of the emigrants ever claimed their land in the Fisher-Miller Grant; but after surviving the ordeal of the first two years, New Braunfels and Fredericksburg became thriving communities. New Braunfels had become the fourth largest city in Texas by 1850.

A knowledge of the history of the peregrinations of the records of the Verein zum Schutze deutscher Einwanderer in Texas is necessary for an understanding of the contents of this collection. They were originally kept in Wiesbaden, the government seat of Nassau, since Duke Adolf of Nassau was the protector of the society. These records remained more or less intact and active until all shares of stock sold to pay off the society's debts should reach maturity and become obsolete. In 1891 the finance councilor who handled the society's business died, and the new director who was from Braunfels asked for permission to store the archives of the society with the Braunfels archives. On January 8, 1893, the archives were moved, and in 1894 the remaining stock certificates that had been redeemed were burned and the society became inactive. A few items such as newspapers and clippings were added to the collection through the years, especially New Braunfels publications, but the archives remained almost untouched. In 1929-1931 the collection was taken to Berlin where about 17,000 of the approximately 45,000 pages were photostated for the Library of Congress under the direction of Georg Smolka. An inventory of the collection was made at this time. Then in 1933 Rudolph Biesele, history professor at The University of Texas, and his students made transcripts of these photostats. In 1960 another inventory of the collection was made and a sizable number of documents was found to be missing. In 1965 a request to sell the archives to interested parties in the United States was received and submitted to the German Minister of the Interior who placed the question before a committee of experts to determine if this sale could take place in the light of a 1955 law to protect German cultural heritage against exportation. It was decided that this would be legal because the archives were not a real part of the Braunfels archives and because they would be of more value for research in the U.S. After the collection had been microfilmed, it was sold to a dealer in New York and disappeared from this time until 1985 when Yale University purchased them. All of these documents were microfilmed in 1966 and many of them photostated in 1931. Meanwhile the documents that had disappeared from the collection between 1931 and 1960 surfaced in Germany. A part of them was purchased by The University of Texas in 1965 and became the Verein Collection. Some of these documents were photostated in 1931; none of them was microfilmed.

The Adelsverein, also known as the Verein zum Schutze deutscher Einwanderer in Texas (Society for the Protection of German Immigrants in Texas), and later as the German Emigration Company, was provisionally organized on April 20, 1842, by twenty-one German noblemen at Biebrich on the Rhine, near Mainz. The Adelsverein was composed of German noblemen whose intent was to settle emigrants on the Fisher-Miller Land Grant in Texas, but instead they became the founders of New Braunfels and Fredericksburg and ran up a huge debt that they were never able to repay.

The members of the Adelsverein hoped to solve some of the economic problems of the time and turn a profit for themselves while establishing an American trade base for Germany. After various attempts to secure land, the society finally acquired the Fisher-Miller Grant on the Llano River. Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels was sent to Texas in July 1844 as commissioner general for the society, and in December he received the first group of emigrants with whom he founded New Braunfels in March of 1845. Almost from the beginning the society was in financial trouble; and although Otfried von Meusebach, later called John O. Meusebach, who took over as commissioner general after the first year, was able to keep the settlement running and also to establish Fredericksburg in 1846, the noblemen themselves were never able to pay off their debts and suffered serious personal financial losses. Few of the emigrants ever claimed their land in the Fisher-Miller Grant; but after surviving the ordeal of the first two years, New Braunfels and Fredericksburg became thriving communities. New Braunfels had become the fourth largest city in Texas by 1850.

Source: Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. “Adelsverein,” http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/AA/ufa1.html (accessed June 2, 2010).

The Verein zum Schutz deutscher Einwander in Texas, commonly known as the Adelsverein, was an association of German noblemen, founded in 1842, who hoped to support emigration by German nationals to Texas. During its active years, the Adelsverein settled thousands of new residents in Texas, many in the town of New Braunfels.

From the start, however, the enterprise was plagued by problems of distance and finance, and in 1847 the Adelsverein entered provisional bankruptcy, but continued to function into the next decade. Despite its failure as a business venture, the Adelsverein was responsible for establishing one of the most important and well-defined ethnic communities in the southwestern United States.

The Adelsverein, also known as the Verein zum Schutze deutscher Einwanderer in Texas (Society for the Protection of German Immigrants in Texas), and later as the German Emigration Company, was provisionally organized on April 20, 1842, by twenty-one German noblemen at Biebrich on the Rhine, near Mainz.

The Adelsverein was composed of German noblemen whose intent was to settle emigrants on the Fisher-Miller Land Grant in Texas, but instead they became the founders of New Braunfels and Fredericksburg and ran up a huge debt that they were never able to repay.

The members of the Adelsverein hoped to solve some of the economic problems of the time and turn a profit for themselves while establishing an American trade base for Germany.

After various attempts to secure land, the society finally acquired the Fisher-Miller Grant on the Llano River. Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels was sent to Texas in July 1844 as commissioner general for the society, and in December he received the first group of emigrants with whom he founded New Braunfels in March of 1845. Almost from the beginning the society was in financial trouble; and although Otfried von Meusebach, later called John O. Meusebach, who took over as commissioner general after the first year, was able to keep the settlement running and also to establish Fredericksburg in 1846, the noblemen themselves were never able to pay off their debts and suffered serious personal financial losses. Few of the emigrants ever claimed their land in the Fisher-Miller Grant; but after surviving the ordeal of the first two years, New Braunfels and Fredericksburg became thriving communities. New Braunfels had become the fourth largest city in Texas by 1850.

The Verein zum Schutz deutscher Einwanderer in Texas (Society for the Protection of German Immigrants in Texas), commonly known as the Adelsverein, was organized by German noblemen in 1842 for the purpose of acquiring land in Texas and encouraging emigration of German nationals to that land. Early efforts to secure lands were unsuccessful, and the Adelsverein was reconstituted in 1844. Later that year Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels traveled to Texas and acquired for the Adelsverein the famous Fisher-Miller grant of some 3,878,000 acres on the Colorado River, along with two leagues of land in the present location of New Braunfels.

The first immigrants arrived in Galveston in December 1844 and settled the New Braunfels site in March 1845. By 1850 the settlement had become the fourth largest town in Texas. During its most active years, the Adelsverein was responsible for the settlement of thousands of new residents in Texas, the establishment of new towns and communities, and the fostering of one of the most important and well-defined ethnic communities in the southwestern United States. From the beginning, however, problems of distance and finance plagued the venture. The Adelsverein entered provisional bankruptcy in 1847 but continued to function into the next decade.

Meetings of the noblemen were frequently held in Wiesbaden, the seat of government of Nassau, since Duke Adolf of Nassau was the protector of the society. The office of central administration for the Adelsverein, however, was located across the Rhine in Mainz. The records remained more or less intact and active until all bonds sold to pay off the society's debts reached maturity. In 1891 the society's financial advisor died. The new director, who was from Braunfels, asked for permission to store the records of the society with the Braunfels archives, and on January 8, 1893, they were moved. In 1894 the remaining stock certificates that had been redeemed were burned, and the society became inactive. A few items, such as newspapers and clippings, were added to the collection throughout the years, but essentially the archives remained intact.

In 1929-31 the collection was taken to Berlin and some 17,000 of the approximately 45,000 pages were photostated for the Library of Congress under the direction of Georg Smolka. An inventory of the collection was made at this time. In 1960 the Staatsarchiv in Marburg undertook another inventory.

In 1965 a request to sell the archives to interested parties in the United States was received and submitted to the federal minister of the interior. He placed the question before a committee of experts to determine if the sale would violate legislation designed to protect German cultural heritage against exportation. The committee decided that the papers were not an integral part of the Braunfels archives and would be of more value for research in the United States. The proviso was added that before the collection could be sold it had to be microfilmed. Copies of the film were subsequently made for the Staatsarchiv in Marburg and the Bundesarchiv in Koblenz. The collection was then sold to Harry T. Zucker of New York, who in turn sold the archives to Knoedler's Art Galleries of New York. Knoedler later sold the collection to William Reese Company of New Haven, which in August 1985 sold the archives to The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

When the archives were inventoried in 1960, the Staatsarchiv noted that certain files were missing when compared against the 1930 inventory. Furthermore, additional files disappeared between 1960 and 1985. A list of all missing files together with an indication of when the discovery was made is found on pages 45-48. Approximately forty percent of these missing files may be found in the Friedrich Armand Strubberg Collection (WA MSS S-1316).