Fredericksburg

Fredericksburg was founded in 1846 by German immigrants brought to Texas by the Adelsverein — the Society for the Protection of German Immigrants in Texas, organised by German nobles in 1842 — and led by John O. Meusebach. It was named after a member of the society, Prince Frederick of Prussia. A year earlier the same society had founded New Braunfels, and the two towns still share much of their character. In 1847 Meusebach and the settlers of the Fisher–Miller land grant made a treaty with the Penateka Comanche, an agreement later recognised by the United States government.

The settlers built the Vereins Kirche, or People's Church, as the first public building in 1847, and laid out a long, wide Main Street. Farm families from the surrounding countryside put up small Sunday houses in town for the night when they came in for supplies and church. German remained the everyday language for generations — a German-language newspaper, the Wochenblatt, was still published in the 20th century — and Fredericksburg became the centre of Texas German, a dialect of the first settlers and their descendants.

In 1852 Charles Nimitz, a German-born seaman, built a hotel on Main Street with a front shaped like a ship's bow. Chester Nimitz, born in the town, became the fleet admiral who commanded US forces in the Pacific in the Second World War, and the old hotel is now part of the museum of that war in his boyhood home town. In 1921 a local teacher planted the peach trees that grew into the area's orchard industry, the historic district was listed in 1970, and since the late 20th century the wineries of the surrounding hills have made the town a weekend destination.

German identity is the town's defining feature. Old-time German residents called it Fritztown, a nickname still used by some businesses, Texas German could still be heard in many homes at the turn of the century, and the calendar is built around German customs: shooting tournaments, Oktoberfest, Weihnachten at Christmas, and the children's Kinderfest. The town is twinned with Montabaur in Germany.

At Easter, fires are lit on the hills around the town in the Easter Fires pageant, and Cross Mountain hosts sunrise services. Many of the 19th-century buildings — limestone houses, half-timbered barns, churches and the Sunday houses — are protected, and the local historical society works to keep them.

The Hill Country around it is also part of Texas country-music lore: Luckenbach, a tiny settlement nearby, is known well beyond Texas as a venue for country music. Lyndon B. Johnson was born and kept his ranch a short drive east, and the area is proud of the connection.

About 10,900 people lived in Fredericksburg at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Gillespie County, and a large share of its residents are older — a quarter were aged 70 or over in recent estimates — and nearly one in five is Hispanic.

Tourism matters greatly: the town is a common starting point for visits to the Hill Country wineries, and Main Street's shops, galleries, restaurants and tasting rooms fill with visitors. Agriculture still matters too, with peach orchards, vineyards and wineries in the surrounding hills. Weekdays are calm; weekends bring traffic and crowds to Main Street.

The town covers under nine square miles, and its streets of older houses are surrounded by newer homes and the farms of the county. At the 2000 census about 40 per cent of residents gave German ancestry, and about 12 per cent still spoke Texas German at home. Nearly one in ten residents is a military veteran, and the festivals on the Marktplatz remain central to community life.

German cooking with a Hill Country touch is what most Main Street restaurants serve: sausages and sauerkraut, schnitzel and strudel. Steaks, barbecue and Tex-Mex are on many menus too, sometimes alongside the German dishes in the same restaurant.

The area is known as the Peach Capital of Texas. Orchards around the town and toward Stonewall grow clingstone and freestone peaches, which growers say owe their flavour to the area's elevation, sandy soil and climate. The industry began in 1921, when a local teacher, Benjamin Lester Enderle, planted five peach trees and later sold the fruit through the H-E-B grocery chain; today the fruit is sold from roadside stands in season.

Wine is the newer story. Fredericksburg lies in the Texas Hill Country appellation, among the largest in the country, and has its own sub-appellation, recognised in 1988. Around a hundred wineries and vineyards operate in the wider Hill Country, and tasting rooms line Main Street and the roads out of town.