Speaker Series
Tuesday, October 13th, 2026 at 7pm
The Multilingual Heritage of Texas
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The October TX Talks session, jointly sponsored by the German Texan Heritage Society and Dallas Goethe Center, will feature TAMU history professor Walter Kamphoefner, who will speak about the multilingual heritage of Texas.
Dr. Kamphoefner will put into historical perspective the perennial debate over the multicultural and multilingual history of Texas, and by extension the U.S., in light of the recent executive order declaring English as the official language of the U.S. Considering that the state constitution and laws were translated into Spanish and German with “Bohemian” soon following, TX was “officially” trilingual from its earliest days. This was reinforced by the fact that many counties taught those and other heritage languages in the public schools until effectively ended by anti-German hysteria and resurrection of the KKK in the WWI era. The initiatives for bilingual education and ballot translations some 50 years later were thus less of an innovation than a return to a 19th century tradition.
The presentation will be on Tuesday, 10/13 at 7:00 p.m.
The zoom link: https://tsha.wildapricot.org/event-6771664
25/26 Speaker Series Theme
Celebrating the Multicultural, Multilingual, Immigrant Heritage of the U.S. in Commemoration of the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence
Fall speaker – Dr. David Huenlich
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Matt Gaines and Afro-German Relations in the 19th Century Through the Lens of a Black Republican’s Life
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Dr. David Huenlich’s discussion of Afro-German relations in 19th century Texas begins a series of four presentations over two years celebrating our ethnic diversity commemorating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Supported by the Leibniz Institute for the German Language and a DAAD scholarship to document the lives of Black German speakers in Texas Dr. Huenlich, of the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt in Bavaria, has posted his research at https://www.afrogermantexas.info/about. The career of Matt Gaines, a Black German speaker and Texas Senator, illustrates the complexity of Afro-German relations in Texas following the Civil War. Prominent in the Reconstruction Black/German Radical Republican alliance his career ended after he called out German advancement through white supremacy as the Jim Crow era began. The alliance ended violently with the “election outrage” of 1886 with racial violence in subsequent years perpetrated by Germans becoming more common.
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Spring 25/26 Dr. David Huenlich presentation -
https://faubox.rrze.uni-erlangen.de/getlink/fiTXrCg7RKpDMNk3HpbWhT/Matt_Gaines_GTHS.mp4​​
Spring speaker – Dr. Julia Brookins
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The Collision of Race and Nationalism in Early Texas: The Veramendi Case of New Braunfels as a Reflection on Early German-Hispanic Relations in the Hill Country
Dr. Julia Brookins discusses how race, nativism, and U.S. expansion affected a lawsuit over a property dispute in New Braunfels as the norms of Anglos, Germans, and Tejanos collided in antebellum Texas. Due to the Adelsverein buying property without clear title for German immigrants for the establishment of New Braunfels and then becoming insolvent, lawsuits followed. Decided by the Texas Supreme Court in favor of the New Braunfels citizens, the Court’s opinion in 1879 went beyond issues of law relying on the German pioneers’ contributions to the economic development of the region. The Court’s decision reflected the role cultural norms played in defining citizenship, affirming America’s integration of both new lands and new people, and is an example of how the German immigrants adapted to the norms of Anglo society of that era as Manifest Destiny was in full swing. After graduating from Harvard Dr. Brookins was a Fulbright Scholar at the Freie Universität, Berlin, and earned her Ph.D. in History from the University of Chicago. She is an education program analyst for the American Historical Association.
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Spring 25/26 Dr. Julia Brookins presentation -
Passcode - ixa2^beY
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24/25 Speaker Series Theme
New Frontiers in German Texas Scholarship: Developing a German Texan Identity
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Fall speaker – Dr. James Kearney
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Lebensbild (A Life Portrait): Early Life in Texas as Seen by Heinrich von Struve
Dr. James Kearney discusses his upcoming publication of his translation of Heinrich von Struve’s memoir, Lebensbild (A Life Portrait.) As members of the nobility the ideals of the 1848 revolutionary era met the hardships of life in antebellum Texas. Heinrich’s brother Gustav fled to New York City following his leadership of the failed Baden Revolt in 1848 while Heinrich immigrated to Texas after confiscation of his estate in Russian-controlled eastern Poland. His memoir provides insight into the adjustments German immigrants made as they negotiated their new physical and social environment thereby beginning the transition from German to German Texan. Due to his scholarship on German Texans Dr. Kearney was elected as a member of the Texas Institute of Letters and has published extensively on German Texas history.
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Dr. Jim Kearney fall 24/25 presentation link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voZsilfLiuQ
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Spring speakers – Dr. Christopher Wickham and Dr. Dan Gelo
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The German Texan Frontier in 1853: Ferdinand Lindheimer, the Neue-Braunfelser Zeitung and German Adaptation to the Frontier
Drs. Christopher Wickham and Daniel Gelo discuss their new book The German Texan Frontier in 1853. The book examines the efforts of Ferdinand Lindheimer, the “Father of Texas Botany,” to help his fellow immigrants adapt to the physical and social environments of antebellum Texas through editorship of the Neu-Braunfelser Zeitung thereby aiding creation of a unique German Texan identity. Both authors are professors emeriti at the University of Texas at San Antonio; Dr. Wickham in German and Dr. Gelo in anthropology who specialized in Comanche culture and linguistics. Their publications on German Texan and Comanche relations include Comanches, Captives, and Germans, and Comanches and Germans on the Texas Frontier: The Ethnology of Heinrich Berghaus about an attempted development of a Comanche alphabet stemming from the 1847 Meusebach-Comanche Treaty.
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Presentation link to Dr. Wickham and Dr. Gelo:
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23/24 Speaker Series Theme
The Impact of the 1848 Revolution on Texas and National Politics
Fall speaker – Dr. Tom Alter
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Toward a Cooperative Commonwealth: The Meitzen Family and Development of the Socialist Party in Texas
Dr. Tom Alter II discusses the generational impact the German immigrant Meitzen family of Silesia had on state and national politics as key figures instrumental in establishment of the Socialist Party in Texas. Dr. Alter’s presentation over his book, Toward a Cooperative Commonwealth: The Transplanted Roots of Farmer-Labor Radicalism in Texas, traces the influence agrarian radicalism had on the politics of the latter 19th century via agrarian reform movements. Culminating in establishment of the Socialist Party in Texas it became a force in state and national politics until U.S. entry into WWI and the Red Scare hysteria which followed, ended its prominence as a third party. The career of the Meitzen family illustrates his thesis that agrarian radicalism was a significant factor in the 1848 Revolution in Germany, in addition to its better-known urban core. Continuing their activism after immigrating, class-based, multi-ethnic, multi-racial alliances formed which ultimately influenced the Democratic Party which coopted the movement thereby influencing the Populist and Progressive movements and New Deal.
Link to fall 23 24 speaker presentation by Dr. Tom Alter -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_DuiQ_r8FQ
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Spring speaker – Dr. Walter Kamphoefner
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The 1848 Revolution in Texas: The Black-German Radical Republican Reconstruction Era Alliance and Progressive Politics in Texas
Dr. Walter Kamphoefner discusses the political alliance in Reconstruction Texas and beyond of Black and German Republicans, and the progressive politics of that era resulting from the political refugees of the 1848 era. Dr. Kamphoefner is a professor of History at Texas A&M, past president of the Society for German American Studies, and author of numerous books and scholarly articles in immigration history and German American studies. His latest book is Germans in America: A Concise History which summarizes German American history with emphasis on the institutional network German Americans built to sustain their language and culture through parochial and public German language and bilingual schools up to the anti-German hysteria of WWI.
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Dr. Walter Kamphoefner presentation link spring 23/24 -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjwpiYk9zF0
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​Missed a live session? No worries, our lectures are recorded and can be accessed via our GTHS YouTube Channel
Check out and subscribe to our YouTube Channel Make sure to hit the Videos link.
If you have any questions, please contact us at office@germantexans.org.​
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GTHS also has another Series called GTHS Talks.
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