Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels

He is the man who had the ship that brought

Leonhard Schmidt Sr. 

&

Maria Catharina Schmidt-Merz

to Texas from Germany....

New Braunfels and Solms Road 

are named after him....

The people who live in New Braunfels know Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels as the German settler who founded their town. But there’s a lot more to his story than “just” settling his own town. Prince Carl was a German prince, and a military officer for both the Austrian army and the Grand Duchy of Hesse.

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