New Braunfels

Sister cities

• Braunfels
• Rhodes

History

New Braunfels was established in 1845 by Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels, Commissioner General of the Mainzer Adelsverein, also known as the Noblemen's Society. Prince Carl named the settlement in honor of his home of Solms-Braunfels, Germany. The Adelsverein organized hundreds of people in Germany to settle in Texas. Immigrants from Germany began arriving at Galveston in July 1844. Most then traveled by ship to Indianola in December 1844, and began the overland journey to the Fisher-Miller land grant purchased by Prince Carl. At the urging of John Coffee Hays, who realized the settlers would not have time to build homes and plant crops further inland before winter, and as the German settlers were traveling inland along the Guadalupe River, they stopped near the Comal Springs. Prince Carl bought two leagues of land from Rafael Garza and Maria Antonio Veramendi Garza for $1,111.00. The land was located northeast of San Antonio on El Camino Real de los Tejas and had the strong freshwater Comal Springs, known as Las Fontanas, when the Germans arrived. It was about halfway between Indianola and the lower portions of the Fisher-Miller land grant. The first settlers forded the Guadalupe River on Good Friday, March 21, 1845, near the present-day Faust Street bridge. As the spring of 1845 progressed, the settlers built the "Zinkenburg", a fort named for Adelsverein civil engineer Nicolaus Zink, divided the land, and began building homes and planting crops. Prince Carl would also lay the cornerstone for the Sophienburg, a permanent fort and center for the immigrant association. In 1844, Prince Carl was so disillusioned with the logistics of the colonization that he asked the Verein to remove him as commissioner-general and appoint a successor. When John O. Meusebach arrived,…

Geography

New Braunfels is located in southeastern Comal County. The city is northeast of Downtown San Antonio, southwest of San Marcos, and southwest of Austin. According to the United States Census Bureau, New Braunfels has a total area of , of which , or 0.91%, is covered by water. The city is situated along the Balcones Fault, where the Texas Hill Country meets rolling prairie land. Along the fault in the city, a string of artesian springs known as Comal Springs gives rise to the Comal River, which is known as one of the shortest rivers in the world, as it winds through the city before meeting the Guadalupe River. Gruene Historical District is located within the city limits of New Braunfels. Founded by the sons of settlers Ernst and Antoinette Gruene, the community had a bank, post office, school, general store, lumberyard, gristmill, dance hall, and cotton gin. It also had access to two railways for shipping cotton bales. Its most famous attribute was the dance hall, a family activity in those days. Due to the failure of the cotton crop from boll weevils, and the failure of the banks after 1929, commercial activity slowed to a crawl. This village is now a Nationally Registered Historic District where one can dine in the ruins of the original gristmill or enjoy live music at Gruene Hall. New Braunfels experiences a humid subtropical climate, with hot, humid summers and generally mild winters. Temperatures range from 83 °F (27.8 °C) in the summer to 49 °F (9.4 °C) during winter. The city falls in USDA hardiness zones 8b (15 °F to 20 °F) and 9a (20 °F to 25 °F). New Braunfels and San Antonio, to the southwest, are some of the most flood-prone regions in North America. The October 1998 Central Texas floods were among the…

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  15,354
• White-winged Dove

  Zenaida asiatica (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  11,372
• Black-crested Titmouse

  Baeolophus atricristatus (Cassin, 1850) · Aves
  10,088
• Carolina Chickadee

  Poecile carolinensis (Audubon, 1834) · Aves
  9,895
• Carolina Wren

  Thryothorus ludovicianus (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  9,719
• Northern Mockingbird

  Mimus polyglottos (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  9,496
• House Finch

  Haemorhous mexicanus (P.L.Statius Müller, 1776) · Aves
  8,868
• Black Vulture

  Coragyps atratus (Bechstein, 1793) · Aves
  8,359

Largest nearby schools

• CANYON H S
  High · NEW BRAUNFELS · 2,348 students · 15.8:1 ratio
• NEW BRAUNFELS H S
  High · NEW BRAUNFELS · 1,926 students · 18.5:1 ratio
• CANYON MIDDLE
  Middle · NEW BRAUNFELS · 1,175 students · 18.4:1 ratio
• OAKRUN MIDDLE
  Middle · NEW BRAUNFELS · 930 students · 15.5:1 ratio
• FREIHEIT EL
  Elementary · NEW BRAUNFELS · 910 students · 15.7:1 ratio
• VERAMENDI EL
  Elementary · NEW BRAUNFELS · 910 students · 17.2:1 ratio
• DANVILLE MIDDLE
  Middle · NEW BRAUNFELS · 907 students · 16.2:1 ratio
• MORNINGSIDE EL
  Elementary · NEW BRAUNFELS · 810 students · 15.6:1 ratio

Most recent

• M 2.7 — 2026-10-06
  8 km ESE of Smiley, Texas
• M 2.8 — 2026-09-19
  14 km SSW of Smiley, Texas
• M 2.6 — 2026-09-03
  12 km SW of Falls City, Texas
• M 2.8 — 2026-09-01
  12 km SW of Falls City, Texas
• M 3.6 — 2026-09-01
  12 km SW of Falls City, Texas
• M 2.9 — 2026-05-26
  19 km S of Nixon, Texas