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FORT WORTH – THE OLD COWBOY STRONGHOLD

With a population of over 740,000, Fort Worth is the fifth largest city in Texas . According to anycountyprivateschools, the Fort Worth metropolitan area is home to over six million people. Fort Worth owes its existence to cattle farming and oil. Today the city markets its past as a border area with Wild West shows and the image as a cowboy stronghold. There are impressive museums.

Landmarks

Cultural District (official website).

National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame (official website): Honors the great women of this profession in interactive adventures.

Modern Art Museum (official website): Founded in 1892 as the Fort Worth Public Library and Art Gallery, the oldest art museum in Texas has a new home designed by the internationally renowned architect Tadao Ando. The museum focuses on modern and contemporary American and European works; In addition to the permanent collection, temporary and traveling exhibitions are also shown. A museum made of glass and concrete stands on 4.5 hectares of land, the high rooms of which offer 14,300 square meters of space for art. The architect Tadao Ano created a no-frills building with straight lines, rectangles with tall, huge windows, walls and roofs made of concrete slabs. The emphasized verticals convey space, light and freedom. A shallow pond extends to the building. The visitor sees the garden through the 15 m high glass walls,

The construction costs of the museum, which was completed in 2002, amounted to 55 million dollars, financed primarily from donations from local oil multimillionaires. At the southwest end of the museum, the metal sculpture Vortex towers 24 meters high into the sky, unmistakable and huge, a 230-ton structure made of curved steel plates. The museum aims to collect and exhibit international art after 1940.
The works of Andy Warhol’s Twenty-Five Colored Marilyns (1962) and his Self-Portrait from 1986, Roy Lichtenstein’s Mr. Bellamy and works by Willem die Kooning and Henry Moore are outstanding.
Many German artists are represented: Stephan Balkenhol, Georg Baselitz, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Anselm Kiefer (with four works), Gerhard Richter, Thomas Struth.

Kiefer’s sculpture Book with Wings is devoted to a separate room.

One focus of the collection is abstract expressionism with works by Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Robert Motherwell from the 1950s. Pop Art is represented by Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, Andy Warhol. Dan Flavin, Carl Andre and Richard Serra stand for the minimalism of the 70s. Other focal points are the painters of the “New Image” such as Jonathan Borofsky and abstract artists such as Brice Marden and Sean Scully.

Amon Carter Museum (official website): Said to have the leading collection of American art in the country.

Kimbell Art Museum (official website): That was designed by Louis Kahn.

The Cattle Raisers Museum (official website): The best place to learn about Fort Worth’s livestock industry, which has earned the city the nickname ‘Cowtown’

Cowtown Coliseum (official website): The roofed rodeo arena in Dallas hosts rodeos (almost) every weekend. The first indoor rodeo took place here in 1916.

Fort Worth Stockyards National Historic District (official website): Daily cattle drive and sightseeing in Western style. Topping the list of must-see attractions in this district are the Stockyards Hotel, Livestock Exchange Building, Cowtown Coliseum, Billy Bob’s Texas, Stockyards Museum, and Stockyards Station.

Sundance Square Downtown Entertainment District (official website): A number of quaint, turn-of-the-century Fort Worth buildings that began to fade with the appearance of skyscrapers have been renovated and repurposed as boutiques, restaurants, and galleries. There are two cinemas, three theater groups, and the Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Performance Hall.

Billy Bob’s Texas (official website): The largest “honky tonk” club in the world, covering an area of ​​9,290 square meters (100,000 ft2), offers plenty of space to dance the two-step all night long. Up to 6,000 visitors can shake their legs on the huge dance floor or quench their thirst at one of the 40 counters.

Texas Motor Speedway (official website): This racetrack is the second largest sports facility in the United States (by seats). This is where the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup and Indy-style races take place. Big races, racing driver schools and concerts with well-known artists are planned throughout the year.

FREDERICKSBURG – THE GERMAN CITY IN TEXAS

Fredericksburg on the edge of the Edwards Plateau was a destination for German immigrants in the 19th century. In 1842 they founded an association to promote German settlements near Mainz, which, however, went bankrupt in 1853. Nevertheless, he helped to bring numerous settlers to the southwestern United States . Some historic cities like Fredericksburg are German-speaking.

A sign with the note “English also spoken” in the window of a shop is part of everyday life. The Hill Country was mostly inhabited by Apaches and Comanches. The founders of the city of Fredericksburg managed to establish and maintain good relationships with the local Comanches, an exception in the history of settlement in the West. Fredericksburg is located 68 miles / 110 kilometers northwest of San Antonio and 70 miles / 113 kilometers west of Austin in the heart of the Texas Hillsbrad.

In Fredericksburg there is the “Lindenbaum” restaurant, the “Marktplatz” and a “club church”. The city is so German. No wonder: of 282 million Americans in the US census in 2000, more than 49.2 million stated that they were of German descent.

Landmarks

• The wide and long Hauptstrasse / Main Street was planned in the 19th century so that teams of horses and oxen could easily turn around. Galleries and souvenir shops, beer gardens and tea rooms line it today. The main attractions are along the main street.
• One of the special features of Fredericksburg is the Sunday Houses, small houses that German farmers from the area built for their weekend stays in the city.
• The octagonal club church in the city center from 1847 is known to the Americans as the ” Coffeemill church “.
• The Pioneer Museum (official website), 309 W. Main St., originally the home and shop of the Kammlah family, offers an insight into the everyday life of the first German residents of this area. Some original buildings belong to the museum.
• The National Museum of Pacific War, formerly Admiral Nimitz Museum, 340 E. Main St., in the former hotel of the Nimitz family, built in the shape of a ship, commemorates the Naval Admiral Nimitz, grandson of the original hotel owner and commander of the naval forces in the Pacific during WWII. World War. The Admiral Nimitz Center also includes a Japanese garden and a historic walkway with memorabilia and explanations about the Pacific War.
• 18 miles / 29 kilometers north of Fredericksburg on the RM 965 is the 665-acre Enchanted Rock State Park (official website). In the middle rises a massive, bare, dome-shaped pink granite rock about 200 m high. The enchanted or bewitched rock was the residence of evil spirits for the Indians, who lived here for 8,000 years and was therefore avoided. The rock makes strange noises at night, the scientific explanation of which is unromantic: the temperature differences between day and night cause vibrations within the rock. The rock was formed over a billion years ago and is one of the oldest exposed rocks in North America.
• Lyndon B. Johnson State Park and Historic Site (official website): The state park is located in Gillespie County between Fredericksburg and Johnson City and is reminiscent of the former President of the USA. In addition to a visitor center, the National Park Service offers guided bus tours.