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Foundation of the German Texan Association Montabaur-Fredericksburg
e.V.
Borough Montabaur - Fredericksburg / Gillespie-County
The GTA. is the first association
to be active on the field of international partnership for the borough
of Montabaur. It was founded on April 12th , 1994.
The incentive to found this association of people interested in
the same field was provided by Nelda and George Vogel from Fredericksburg,
who were visiting the Westerwald together with some friends. They
met upon Inge and Gerhard Wick from Niederelbert, who they told
that they were looking for their ancestors' home village. George
Vogel's forefathers stem from Niederelbert. Josef O. Schneider from
Montabaur recognized them to be Americans because of the unusual
Texan hat George was wearing. That very night he arranged a meeting
with Willi Bode, mayor of Niederelbert.
The next morning the Texan guests were welcomed by mayor Bode in
the Niederelbert village hall. They were thoroughly informed about
the place. Saying good-bye the Vogels invited us to see them in
Texas. We gladly accepted their invitation and, in September 1992,
we were on our way to Fredericksburg and Stonewall in the Texan
Hill Country. We enjoyed the Texans' warm hospitality for some days.
It struck us that German is still being spoken in many families
there, you can even tell the Westerwald dialect.
In January 1993 and 1994 the Reisewitz family (Frau Reisewitz being
councilor of the borough of Montabaur) traveled to Texas in order
to make official contacts and to prepare a partnership with Dr.
Possel-Dölken, mayor of borough Montabaur backing their goal.
Very much impressed by the overwhelming reception in Texas we decided
to found a circle of "Friends of Texas". This circle gave birth
to the Deutsch-Texanische Gesellschaft Montabaur-Fredericksburg
or in english German-Texan Association . The president is Ilse Reisewitz,
the vice-president Gerhard Wick. The association wants to keep contact
with the descendants of the German emigrants and to help with the
exchange of schools and clubs.
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