Friedens Church
Geronimo, Guadalupe County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Outgrowth of mission work by the Rev. J. A. Kypfer and the Rev. T. G. Muelder. Organized on Jan. 18, at Frankfort School, Dietz, and constituted March 1, 1896, near Barbarossa, at Specht's School. J. C. Hermann was president; J. R. Feigerle, secretary; and J. C. Stautzenberger, treasurer. Designed by Jacob Kiefer; built in 1904, church was dedicated on March 25, 1905, during pastorate of the Rev. C. R. Hempel. Modified Gothic architecture. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1970 Incise in base: Marker in memory of Herbert H. Schriewer given by Mrs. Herbert Schriewer and children.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Friedens Church grew out of German mission work in the Guadalupe County countryside, organized in January 1896 at a local schoolhouse and formally constituted that March near Barbarossa. Under the pastorate of the Rev. C. R. Hempel, the congregation raised a modified Gothic sanctuary designed by Jacob Kiefer, dedicating it in the spring of 1905. Its founding officers and the family names on its cornerstone read as a roster of the surrounding German farming community.
Why it matters
Churches like Friedens anchored the German immigrant communities of central Texas, preserving language, faith, and identity as settlers put down permanent roots in the New World.
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Related people
- · Rev. J. A. Kypfer
- · Rev. T. G. Muelder
- · Jacob Kiefer
- · Rev. C. R. Hempel
- · Herbert H. Schriewer
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Site of Dietz Community
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In 1851 the Jamaica-born land agent Jacob De Cordova settled beside good springs on the San Antonio Road, building a home that doubled as a stage stop and mail station. The land passed through a cluster of German bachelors—earning it names like "Nine Men's House"—before the Dietz brothers gave it their name and Johann Stautzenberger anchored it with a store, post office, and school. A singing society, the Frohsinn Maennerchor, and Friedens Church grew out of the little schoolhouse before consolidation, better roads, and the automobile quietly erased the town.
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Near River Crossing Used by New Braunfels' First Settlers
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At an ancient river crossing on the San Antonio–Nacogdoches Road, once traveled by Texas's earliest trail-blazers, about 200 German colonists ended a six-month journey from Europe. On Good Friday in 1845 they founded New Braunfels, naming it for the estate of Prince Solms-Braunfels, commissioner-general of the German Emigration Society. They were part of a wave of German settlers between 1844 and 1847 whose language, food, and customs left a lasting imprint on Texas.
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