Bettina is a vanished community founded in 1847 by German immigrants as part of the

Adelsverein The ''Mainzer Adelsverein at Biebrich am Rhein'' (''Verein zum Schutze Deutscher Einwanderer in Texas'', "Society for the Protection of German Immigrants in Texas"), better known as the ''Mainzer Adelsverein'' (, "Nobility Society of Mainz"), orga ...

colonization of the

Fisher–Miller Land Grant The Fisher–Miller Land Grant was part of an early colonization effort of the Republic of Texas. Its 3,878,000 acres covered between the Llano River and Colorado River (Texas), Colorado River. Originally granted to Henry Francis Fisher and Burcha ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. It was located on the banks of the

Llano River The Llano River ( ) is a tributary of the Colorado River (Texas), Colorado River, about long, in Texas in the United States. It drains part of the Edwards Plateau in Texas Hill Country northwest of Austin, Texas, Austin. Two spring-fed tributa ...

Llano County Llano County is a county located on the Edwards Plateau in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 21,243. Its county seat is Llano, and the county is named for the Llano River. During the American Civil War, the c ...

, and no trace of the settlement remains today. The community was named after German artist and social activist

Bettina von Arnim Bettina von Arnim (the Countess of Arnim) (4 April 178520 January 1859), born Elisabeth Catharina Ludovica Magdalena Brentano, was a German writer and novelist. Bettina (or Bettine) Brentano was a writer, publisher, composer, singer, visual art ...

and was one of five attempted by the Darmstadt Forty. It was also known as the ''Darmstaedter Kolonie''. The community was sponsored by the

, and founded on idealistic philosophies of European freethinkers of the day. It is notable for the community's

camaraderie The term ''comrade'' (russian: товарищ, tovarisch) generally means 'mate', 'colleague', or 'ally', and derives from the Spanish and Portuguese, term , literally meaning 'chamber mate', from Latin , meaning 'chamber' or 'room'. It may also ...

and mutually respectful relations with local indigenous tribes. Lack of a formal community framework caused Bettina to fail within a year of its founding.

History

The colony had its beginnings in 1846 in

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...

Giessen Giessen, spelled Gießen in German (), is a town in the German state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of both the district of Giessen and the administrative region of Giessen. The population is approximately 90,000, with roughly 37,000 univers ...

, and

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

, where

Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels Prince Carl (Karl) of Solms-Braunfels (27 July 1812 – 13 November 1875), was a German prince and military officer in both the Austrian army and in the cavalry of the Grand Duchy of Hesse. As Commissioner General of the Adelsverein, he spearhe ...

delivered speeches on behalf of the Adelsverein, promoting

as a

utopian A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia'', describing a fictional island society ...

frontier for university graduates. The Darmstadt Forty was a

freethinker Freethought (sometimes spelled free thought) is an epistemological viewpoint which holds that beliefs should not be formed on the basis of authority, tradition, revelation, or dogma, and that beliefs should instead be reached by other methods ...

organization founded by

Hermann Spiess Hermann Spiess (c. 1818–1873) was co-founder of the Bettina, Texas commune in 1847. He became Commissioner-General of the Adelsverein after the resignation of John O. Meusebach. Early life Hermann was born around 1818 in Offenbach am Main, Gr ...

Ferdinand Ludwig Herff Ferdinand Ludwig Herff (1820–1912) was a 19th-century German-born physician who emigrated to Texas and became a medical pioneer in San Antonio. He was one of the co-founders of the Bettina commune. In 1982, Recorded Texas Historic Landmark 1268 ...

, and

Gustav Schleicher Gustav Schleicher (sometimes spelled Gustave) (November 19, 1823 – January 10, 1879) was a German-born Democratic United States Representative from Texas. He was an engineer who served briefly in the Texas legislature, and was a veteran ...

, and based on ideals of

Étienne Cabet Étienne Cabet (; January 1, 1788 – November 9, 1856) was a French philosophy, French philosopher and utopian socialist who founded the Icarians, Icarian movement. Cabet became the most popular socialist advocate of his day, with a special appe ...

and

Charles Fourier François Marie Charles Fourier (;; 7 April 1772 – 10 October 1837) was a French philosopher, an influential early socialist thinker and one of the founders of utopian socialism. Some of Fourier's social and moral views, held to be radical in ...

. The Darmstadt Forty group set sail with dogs, goods, supplies, and an array of musical instruments aboard the ''St. Pauli'' from

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

in April 1847, arriving in

Galveston Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Galvesto ...

on July 17. From Galveston they sailed to Indianola, where Adelsverein Commissioner-General John O. Meusebach had arranged for numerous wagons to haul the group and its freight inland. They were paid $10,000 in gold to help finance the first year of their settlement. During the four weeks it took them to travel to

New Braunfels New Braunfels ( ) is a city in Comal County, Texas, Comal and Guadalupe County, Texas, Guadalupe counties in the U.S. state of Texas known for its German Texan heritage. It is the county seat, seat of Comal County. The city covers and had a popula ...

, the trek took on the ambiance of a collegiate party, with beer and singing and youthful high spiritedness filling the journey. Spiess and Meusebach scouted the area of the Llano River and chose the location for Bettina. Member Louis Reinhardt described the Llano River as so pure and crystal clear they named it the Silvery Llano. Upon reaching the site of Bettina, the group unloaded their musical instruments and began to sing their favorite songs. An adobe house was constructed with an outer siding of 10,000 shingles carved from a single pecan tree. The house was topped with a weather vane made by August Strauss. As made possible in part by the

Meusebach–Comanche Treaty The Meusebach–Comanche Treaty was a treaty made on May 9, 1847 between the private citizens of the Fisher–Miller Land Grant in Texas (United States), who were predominantly German in nationality, and the Penateka Comanche Tribe. The treaty ...

, the group's interactions with local indigenous tribes were cordial. Reinhardt listed seven tribes among the colony's visitors:

Comanche The Comanche or Nʉmʉnʉʉ ( com, Nʉmʉnʉʉ, "the people") are a Native American tribe from the Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the federally recognized Comanche Nation, headquartered in La ...

Lipan Apache Lipan Apache are a band of Apache, a Southern Athabaskan Indigenous people, who have lived in the Southwest and Southern Plains for centuries. At the time of European and African contact, they lived in New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and ...

Waco Waco ( ) is the county seat of McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is situated along the Brazos River and I-35, halfway between Dallas and Austin. The city had a 2020 population of 138,486, making it the 22nd-most populous city in the st ...

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

, Kickapoo,

Choctaw The Choctaw (in the Choctaw language, Chahta) are a Native American people originally based in the Southeastern Woodlands, in what is now Alabama and Mississippi. Their Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choctaw people are ...

and

Shawnee The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...

. The colonists and the tribes shared food and goods, and tried to learn each other's languages. Reinhardt claimed that the indigenous people usually gave back three times more than the colonists gave them. The downfall of the colony was brought about by its own ideals of having a community not regulated by authority figures. Conflicts arose between individuals over who would shoulder the bulk of the workload. Only one crop ever came to fruition, which was 200 bushels of corn. After the Adelsverein's funding ran out, members of the group gradually drifted elsewhere.

References

External links

Bettina, TX at Handbook of Texas OnlineForty, or the Fortiers, a fraternity of German students at Handbook of Texas Online
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bettina, Texas German-American history German-American culture in Texas Ghost towns in Central Texas Populated places in Llano County, Texas Freethought Utopian communities in the United States