Museum

Museum Hours

Tuesday – Saturday 1-5pm

Museum Address

1011 CR 212, Giddings, Texas 78942

Museum Phone

(979)366-2441

The Texas Wendish Heritage Museum preserves the history of the Texas Wends, Slavic immigrants from Lusatia, an area in eastern Germany. Today the Wends of Lusatia are called Sorbs.

Wendish families began arriving in Texas in 1849, followed by a group of 35 in 1853. In 1854, a congregation of over 500 Wends immigrated on a chartered sailing ship, the Ben Nevis. This group founded a new homeland on 4,254 acres in Bastrop County (now Lee County) and named their new town Serbin. Other Wendish towns and congregations were soon organized. Many more Wends immigrated during the second half of the 19th Century.

The Museum is located in historic Serbin, near the St. Paul Lutheran Church, school and cemetery. The present Church building, built in 1871, is one of the painted churches of South Central Texas.

The Museum is a complex of buildings which are connected by porches. In the center is a new facility with a display interpreting the history of the Wends. It also houses the Offices, Gift Shop, Library, and Archives. To the right and left are the old St. Paul school buildings. Exhibits include relics from the old country and Texas. Folk dress of Lusatia, the traditional Texas wedding dresses, and the beautiful Wendish Easter eggs are a few of the colorful exhibits.

Outdoor exhibits include two log buildings and farming equipment. The 1856 log room, built by the Kurio family, originally part of a dog trot home, is furnished as a bed room. A section of the earlier 1855 room is also preserved on the Museum grounds. The Mertink family log room is used to exhibit carpenter’s and farming tools.

The Lillie Moerbe Caldwell Memorial Library specializes in the history and genealogy of the Wendish people. It welcomes donations of family histories and genealogies. The Archives includes rare books in Wendish and German, manuscripts, personal papers, and a photographic collection.

The Museum and Library are open Tuesday thru Sunday 1:00 to 5:00 p.m., and are closed on Mondays and holidays. Admission to the Museum for non-members is $5.00 for adults; admission for children 12 and under is free.

43 Responses

  1. Tom Hart says:

    we want to visit – this is a definite stop in next few months.

  2. Rick Wende says:

    Would like to come visit and see if I could find any family history there.

    • Director says:

      You are welcome to visit us anytime Tuesday – Sunday from 1-5pm.
      Extensive genealogy resources are also available through the Wendish Research Exchange website.
      See link on our “Research” tab.
      Thank you!

  3. Monica says:

    When is your next festival? I enjoyed seeing the history on Texas Country Reporter.

  4. I have guests coming in from San Antonio and am new to the area of Giddings and found out about your lovely Museum!
    Will definitely put this on the list for my guests this weekend! The History of the Wendish and their immigration to Texas is fascinating. Can’t wait to see it!

  5. Laudi says:

    My family did not come with this group, yet I believe I could better learn my culture here, then going to Dresden, where we were a minority among the Germans.

    • Goran Bras says:

      In the 9th century, northern and southern Serbs were still the same people!
      Ajnhard 822.Exercitus de Italia Eginharduspropter Lindeviticum bellum conficiendum in Pannoniam missus est, ad cuius adventum Lindevitus, Siscia Civitate relicta, ad Sorabos (quae natio magnam Dalmatiae partem obtinere dicitur) fugiendo se contulit, et uno ex Ducibus eorum, a quo receptus est, per dolum interf ecto, Civitatem eius in suam redegit ditionem, missis tamen ad exercitum Imperatoris Legatis suis, ad eius praesentiam se velle venire promisit.”

      I hope this is a small contribution to your knowledge of the culture and history of your people!

  6. Barbara Bohlen says:

    Recently we found a photograph of a man and women which we believe is dated in the 1850’s. We had the writing on the back translated and it said this is your Wendish grandparents. It also said great great grandparents of Marion Mieth. Marion was my mother and her father Walter Mieth immigrated to Buffalo, NY from Dresden Germany in the 1930’s. Walter’s family owned a Dresden china factory until it was destroyed in WWII. We are wondering if indeed we have Wendish heritage. Do you know how we may go about researching this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

  7. Marie says:

    This is a definite must for me to visit! I’m a descendant of germans that settled in Austin Texas around 1850. I believe they may have been sorbs as they were from the south lusatia region via what they listed on immigration and census . Pieces of the puzzle fit.

  8. Koknor says:

    I have a friend teaching Tibetan in Berlin. I asked him to go to Briesen and photograph the Kosyk monument. He kindly did so and brought me these photos:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/koknor/albums/72157624008728382
    see also
    https://www.flickr.com/photos/koknor/3354733435/
    https://www.flickr.com/photos/koknor/sets/72157624008728382
    http://www.okgenweb.org/~okpushma/cemetery/albion/kossick-matthew.JPG

    Just wanted to share.

    I wonder if you have correspondence/ records of Kosyk’s interaction with Wends in Texas during the time Kosyk was in Albion, Pushmataha, Oklahoma?

    Do you know anything about Wilma Filter, Kosyk’s second wife? Where, for example, did she go after Koskyk died.

    Koknor

  9. Donna says:

    We plan to visit your museum this coming weekend. Will we be able to see the “painted” church?

  10. Jeanette Schaefer says:

    I wish to donate some items to the upcoming Wendish Festival Silent Auction. I will bring them to the festival. Please give me an email contact so I can ask some questions.

  11. Lee H says:

    Really enjoyed this gem of a museum. I plan on coming back soon. Thank you for your kind hospitality.

  12. Janis Reynolds says:

    Did the Wends come over for religious reasons a or political?

  13. M. King says:

    Admission as of July 2016 is $5 per person for non members

  14. Larry Greene says:

    I arrived right at 1 o’clock on July 30th and waited till 1:15 for the museum to open it was some sort of picnic thing going on and I will park across the way so maybe that’s why it wasn’t open and I made a day trip over here from Manor and I was rather disappointed that the museum wasn’t open

    • Director says:

      We are truly sorry that the museum was not open at that time – perhaps our volunteer docent ran late, or might have been with other visitors in the complex.
      Hopefully you will plan to visit us soon.
      Thank you!

  15. mark meuth says:

    Mark Meuth from pin oak here( Son of Leonard and Rosemary Meuth) I was hoping you could help….I have been trying to find if we are Wendish, german, or sobian jew….I think I’m probably right when I say a combination of the 3, but more so lusatian(sorbian) jew. I was doing research on red haired brown eyed people and turns out its a genetic linkage gene , meaning I go all the way back to the very beginning of my/our people. If you cannot help, do you know who has this information? Please email me what you can . Thank you for your help.

  16. Julie says:

    I would like to bring a school group, but have found that the children learn so much more with the aid of a docent or tour guide. Can I schedule a tour with a guide for a small school group?

    • Director says:

      We will be happy to schedule a tour for your school group. There will be a guide available to give the tour, answer questions, etc.
      Please call us at the museum 979-366-2441 to make arrangements.
      Thank you!

  17. Liz Rapp says:

    I am attempting to translate German birth records which are written in Latin. One of the words I can make out is “Wendalino” which appears just after the full name of the mother of the child. Do you think this reference may be a reference to her religion or birth location? My DNA includes areas common with Slovenia and the Czeck Republic.

  18. Director says:

    Thank you for your inquiry.
    Our admission fee is $5.
    Members and Children 12 & under – no fee.

  19. Dolores J. Scott says:

    Can you please give me a contact number to make a reservation for a tour of the church and museum. We have a group[ of 14 to 20 ladies that would like to make this tour Thank you.

  20. Alice Crofoot says:

    We stopped by today, but the museum was closed! We drive in from Bryan to learn about this culture.
    We’ll be back, hopefully the museum will be open next time. We would love to go to the festival on the 23rd, but our church is having a picnic that day that I’m in charge of. ☹️

    • Director says:

      We are so sorry that we missed your visit – docents are sometimes overseeing a tour group at the church.
      Please come back – our hours are Tues – Sun. 1-5pm. Closed Mondays and holidays.
      Thank you!

  21. Ysabel R. says:

    We were driving around the area looking at the wildflowers and accidentally found the museum. We enjoyed our visit and learned so much. Thank you for welcoming us so warmly.

  22. Zachary Doleshal says:

    I am thinking of taking a group of about 18 college students to your museum on Saturday, April 27. Would it be possible to arrange for a tour on that day with a traditional meal included?

  23. Daniel Durstewitz says:

    Hi. My name is Daniel Durstewitz, I’m from México and I’m looking for my family heritage.
    So I was wondering if you can tell me if my last name has a meaning.
    My great grand father emigrate from Germany in 1888 aprox. And settle here in Chihuahua, Mx. The last letter from may German family was in the middle of the WWI…
    So, if you can help me to find any information of my heritage, i will be very thankful!!!!
    Vielen Grussen aus Mexiko!!

  24. Dorothy L Schrader says:

    Can you confirm your museum open hours in this Covid era for Friday March 26 and Saturday (more likely) March 27. We are here for the covid 2020 re-scheduled wedding of my daughter in South Austin on March 28. We hope you are open on Saturday afternoon.

    There might be 4-6 of us who visit. Four of us first cousins share Gustav Jakobik as the grandfather that we never knew but our grandmother, Clara Eggers Jakobik, his widow, lived into her early 80s in Mobile AL and died in Pensacola FL, in November 1970/1971.
    Gustav’s name is on a bronze plaque is in the back of the Serbin church as one of the teachers.

  25. Frank Sheeman says:

    My father was a Sorb although he got here in 1933 on the Bremen, not 1854 on the Ben Nevis.

    We have the Sorbish language Bible that my Grandmother brought with her when she came to the US around 1950. It is not in pristine condition. Any interest?

  26. Roger Hendreschke says:

    My Great Grand Father Robert Hendreschke migrated to Nebraska 1868 along with Kochrows, Nowka along with others. They built and stated churches in the Harvard, Hastings and Clay center area. Later my Great Grand Father helped build a Lutheran church in Loveland Co. would you have any information on these. He first migrated to the NOrtheast US in the early 1860, returning to Germany and returning with a wife in 1868 or 69. Thank you for any information. Would like to visit your festival.