Adelsverein

The Mainzer Adelsverein at Biebrich am Rhein (Verein zum Schutze Deutscher Einwanderer in Texas / Society for the Protection of German Immigrants in Texas), better known as Adelsverein (German pronunciation: [ˈaːdəlsfɐˌʔaɪn], "Nobility Society"), organized on April 20, 1842, was a colonial attempt to establish a new Germany within the borders of Texas.

The Adelsverein was organized on April 20, 1842, by twenty-one German noblemen at Biebrich on the Rhine. They gathered at the castle of the German Duke of Nassau, the future Adolphe, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, who was named Protector of the Society. In Germany, the society was referred to as Mainzer Adelsverein after the city of Mainz where it was officially registered. The society represented a significant effort to establish a new Germany on Texas soil through organized mass emigration. The land for the emigrants was to be purchased by the Adelsverein or secured through land grants from the Republic of Texas.

On January 9, 1843, Count Ludwig Joseph von Boos-Waldeck bought the 4,428-acre Nassau Plantation in Fayette County Texas for $0.75 an acre and named it for the Duke of Nassau. Twenty-five slaves were bought to work the property, which initially was considered as the primary base for arriving German immigrants. When Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels inspected the plantation in 1844 he recommended the Verein divest itself of the property, rather than be associated with slavery. Gustav Dresel, Special Business Agent for the Adelsverein, sold Nassau plantation on July 28, 1848 to Otto von Roeder. Von Roeder had been the first settler in Shelby, Texas, in 1841, a year before the Adelsverein was founded in Germany, and three years before the Adelsverein sent its first colonists to Texas. Von Roeder had emigrated to Texas from Westphalia in the 1830s and was not affiliated with the Adelsverein's colonization efforts. The community of Shelby had been named for David Shelby, one of the Old Three Hundred under Stephen F. Austin. Shelby became the home of many Adelsverein colonists in 1845, but it was not founded by the organization. Because many of its German settlers spoke Latin, Shelby is believed to be part of the Latin Settlement communities populated in Texas at that time.

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