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Welcome to Fascinating Facts and Eductional Trivia

A Hartson Dowd Column

November 14, 2007

Fascinating Facts and Educational Trivia

The WURSTFEST

      November is traditionally hog-killing month.  Did you know that sausage has its very own festival?    And that all sausage is not made from pork?

      Deep in the heart of Texas lies the Hill Country, a land so beautiful, so peaceful, so quiet that every day seems like Sunday morning.  The area is teeming with white-tail deer.  Here, too, you will find big hungry bass, gray shadowy catfish, and perky perch waiting under cypress roots for your lure or fly.  Hills and trees teem with countless species of wild birds, their bright colours untouched by the dismal soot of pollution.  Bluebonnets and devil’s paint-brush, each in its season, provide eye-catching colour everywhere.

      Would you believe that this landscape, so thoroughly American, provides the setting for that most delightful German happening, the Wurstfest?  Though old-world in concept, this glorious ten-day festival honouring the sausage at the beginning of November each year is carried out with truly American jest and energy.

      In New Braunfels, a city of some 40,000 people, many of whom are of German descent.  It was founded over 150 years ago in the midst of Mexico and Western cultures, by a German prince and his followers.

{A call to the New Braunfels Chamber of Commerce, or a letter to Wurstfest, New Braunfels, Texas 78130, will get you a descriptive folder.  If you are an out-of-stater you can get an excellent highway map by writing to the State Department of Highways and Public Transportation, Travel & Information Division, P.O. Box 5064, Austin, Texas 78763}

      These German aristocrats like so many others who came to our shores, sought freedom; many, possibly most, of their descendants today speak “High German” as well as English.  At first, unused to working with their hands, they had a difficult time of it like so many early settlers.  In time, however, they made it, and their beautiful little city, located not too far from the Gulf Coast, is known for its Gemuetlichkeit – good fellowship in the German manner – for New Braunfels still retains the Old Country atmosphere along with the charm and colour of the new.

      Wurstfest, where sausage is king, is a storybook holiday.  To experience a social gathering anything like its frolicsome fun you’d have to be in Munich at Oktoberfest.  While sausage is its reason for being and its featured attraction, each year sees added entertainments for the enjoyment of everyone.

      Many visitors come back year after year, for it is a time for ist das Leben schoen – being happy and living the good life.  You can feast on all types of sausage, and you “can have it your way,” smoked and crisp or hot and juicy, wrapped if you like in homemade bread.  You can sample strudels and Kartoffel (potato) pancakes made from old German recipes, drink a delicious cup of potato soup made with dill and cream, or taste Braywurst mit Sauerkraut, the “national” dish of Texas-Germany.  You will find all this at the Marketplatz, along with typical Texas food as well – tamales, tacos, and corn on the cob.

"The biting of the sausage is like Oktoberfest's tapping of the keg," said Wurst Relations Director C. Herb Skoog, who has worked on the celebration since its inception. "We have beer and we're not ashamed of it, but by the same token we're not a beer fest." For the uninitiated, the biting of the sausage involves several connected links of the meat. After a German toast, special guests on the main stage take a bite all at once, signalling the beginning of the fun.

Presiding over the entire hoopla is the Grosse Opa, or great-grandfather. He's also referred to as the spassmeister, or "fun master."

The main attraction is the Wursthalle, a cavernous old cottonseed warehouse lined with tables where people eat and drink the delectables they bought at the Marktplatz. It's also one of several places to catch the entertainment, which this year will include bands from both Germany and Austria. Two nearby tents offer additional performances — all German-themed.

"It may not be music you listen to on the radio all the time," said this year's Grosse Opa, Jeff Albrecht. "We have a tremendous amount of talented musicians."

There's also a traditional outdoor biergarten, waltz and polka contests, and a Spasshaus or "fun house," a bar whose windows are lined with thousands of old beer bottles.

And between all the traditional clothing of lederhosen for men and dirndles for women, plus plenty of accordion music, most visitors get a chance to sample different types of wurst. There's bratwurst, of course, but also the lesser-known apple wurst, jalapeno wurst and more.

"You can get it on a stick or in a sandwich or in a pita pocket or in some soup," Albrecht said. "It's prepared in a bunch of different ways."

For the sweet tooth, there are strudel and other German pastries, and for the kids, traditional carnival rides and plans for a Kinderhalle, where youngsters will be treated to magicians and mimes while their parents enjoy the other parts of the fest.

The goal of the event — the crown jewel of New Braunfels' festival schedule, which includes "Wassailfest" in December — is to promote German culture and highlight the city's German past, which dates back to settlers who arrived in the 1840s.

Hart Dowd

hsdowd@telus.net