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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