Category: Articles

Wends Featured on the Gravy Podcast

We were pleased to host podcaster, Evan Stern back in September for Wendish Fest. He did a wonderful job of capturing Wendish Fest, Wendish noodles, and life in and around Serbin for the podcast, Gravy. We hope you will give it a listen. You might even hear some...

Wends Featured in Texas Co-op Power Magazine

The Texas Wendish Heritage Society was invited to do a featured article by our friends at Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative in the March 2022 Texas Co-op Power Magazine. Bluebonnet’s team came out to the museum where they interviewed Marian Wiederhold and Sandra Matthijetz about their Wendish heritage with a...

In and Around the Museum

As we continue to observe the 100th anniversary of the U.S. entry into World War I, we are also sharing with you a few stories about Texas Wends who were called to serve in the “Great War.” Previously, you read about Herman Hobratsch (Hermann Hobratschk) and his war...

L-R Florence Krause Wright and Magdalene Krause Harris

In and Around the Museum

We recently announced plans for a special display honoring the Texas Wends who served in World War I. It was no small feat, but the display was completed in time for Wendish Fest. Included with the items on display are a uniform, helmet and gas mask that belonged...

Dr. Ernst Kiesling – Father of the Safe Room

In 1854, 67-year-old Johann Kiesling decided to leave his home and head for Texas on the Ben Nevis with about 600 others to make a new home and start a new life. Johann brought with him his wife Hanna, age 57, and their three children: Johann, age 22;...

Wendish Culture Being Reinvented in Serbin

Few could have imagined that the small Wendish Culture Club chartered by five women in the early 1970s would blossom into today’s Texas Wendish Heritage Society and one of the most important Wendish gatherings outside of Germany. It’s a long way from Budyšin to Serbin, and it’s a...

Bonnets Display

Bonnets!

When I started making bonnets over five years ago, I would draft a pattern for each of the bonnets in our Museum collection or of the bonnets loaned to me for our exhibit. I would then sew the bonnet and model it for my family. My husband, Chuck,...

Preserving a Culture

Students who applied for a 2016-17 Texas Wendish Heritage Scholarship were asked to write an essay that cited an example of something from his or her knowledge of Wendish culture, background, or family heritage that is unique to the Wends. Each applicant was asked to describe how he/she...

WHAT TO PACK FOR THE VOYAGE?

Logistics is a term for something we do frequently, such as taking a family vacation, and it is as old as Hannibal moving elephants from Carthage to attack Rome. There may be a simple definition, but it is a complicated process. How do you move people or goods...

Gruetzners Come to Texas

Prologue A man and his small family exit the carriage that has transported them from the train station to the Hamburg American shipping company’s pier in the port of Hamburg. As they huddle together against the cold wind coming off the Elbe River, they gaze at the steamship...