Bettina, Texas

Bettina is a vanished community founded in 1847 by German immigrants as part of the Adelsverein colonization of the Fisher-Miller Land Grant in the U.S. state of Texas. It was located on the banks of the Llano River in Llano County, and no trace of the settlement remains today. The community was named after German artist and social activist Bettina von Arnim and was one of five attempted by the Darmstadt Forty. It was also known as the Darmstaedter Kolonie. The community was sponsored by the Adelsverein, and founded on idealistic philosophies of European freethinkers of the day. It is notable for the community's camaraderie and mutually respectful relations with local indigenous tribes. Lack of a formal community framework caused Bettina to fail within a year of its founding.

The colony had its beginnings in 1846 in Darmstadt, Giessen, and Heidelberg, where Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels delivered speeches on behalf of the Adelsverein, promoting Texas as a utopian frontier for university graduates. The Darmstadt Forty was a freethinker organization founded by Hermann Spiess,Ferdinand Ludwig Herff, and Gustav Schleicher, and based on ideals of Étienne Cabet and Charles Fourier. The Darmstadt Forty group set sail with dogs, goods, supplies, and an array of musical instruments aboard the St. Pauli from Hamburg in April 1847, arriving in Galveston on July 17. From Galveston they sailed to Indianola, where Adelsverein Commissioner-General John O. Meusebach had arranged for numerous wagons to haul the group and its freight inland. They were paid $10,000 in gold to help finance the first year of their settlement. During the four weeks it took them to travel to New Braunfels, the trek took on the ambiance of a collegiate party, with beer and singing and youthful high spiritedness filling the journey.

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