This is the first English translation of Friedrichsburg which was written by Friedrich Armand Strubberg and published in 1867. Strubberg served as colonial director of Fredericksburg, Texas, from 1846-1847 and recalls his experiences in great detail, making a major contribution not only to Texas and Native American history, but to German history as well. Readers of this romantic novel will experience firsthand how the German immigrants colonized the Texas hill country and celebrated their own peace treaty with the Comanche Nation.

This is the story of the founding of the German colony of Fredericksburg as told by the man who served as colonial director in that first year, from 1846 to 1847. Friedrich Armand Strubberg, alias Dr. Schubert, tells the story of how German settlers found freedom on the Indian Frontier and how he came to sign a peace treaty with the Comanche Nation which is still honored today. This first English translation from the original German text which was published in 1867 reveals forgotten observations of Comanche culture and offers a refreshing glimpse into the lives of cosmopolitan German immigrants in their odyssey on the Texas prairie.

Strubberg wrote some forty volumes based on his experiences in Texas, his friendship with Native Americans, opposition to slavery and the wars with Mexico. Most were published during the American Civil War and Reconstruction which dampened sales in America, but his adventure novels are still popular in Germany. His characters provided a template for the Karl May novels which followed.

A century ago, Barba wrote in the preface to his Life and Works of Friedrich Armand Strubberg:

“Its purpose is to restore an interesting figure in the history of the cultural relations of Germany and America to his rightful place as a pioneer and writer. Once a popular chronicler of German emigration to Western America and of Indian life there, Friedrich Armand Strubberg suffered the misfortune of passing into oblivion when German emigration ceased and the Indian himself had become little more than a name. For the historian to continue longer to neglect Strubberg would be adding injustice to misfortune.”
Preston Albert Barba, Ph. D. 1913
Instructor in German at Indiana