Adelsverein: The Gathering is Volume 1 of the Adelsverein Trilogy, a saga of family and community loyalties, and the challenge of building a new life on the hostile frontier.They have come from Germany to Texas in 1847, under the auspices of the "Mainzer Adelsverein" – the society of noblemen of Mainz, who seek to fill a settlement in Texas with German farmers and craftsmen.Among them is a family who will survive and endure, making their mark in Texas, their new land. Christian "Vati" Steinmetz, the clockmaker of Ulm in Bavaria, has brought his sons and daughters: Magda – passionate and courageous, courted by Carl Becker, a young frontiersman with a dangerous past. Her sister Liesel wants nothing more than to be a good wife to her husband Hansi, a stolid and practical farmer called by circumstances to be something greater. Their brothers Friedrich and Johann, who have always been close – in the Civil War one will wear Union blue, the other Confederate grey homespun . . . but never forget they are brothers.Adelsverein: The Gathering – It's about love and loss, joy and grief . . . and the sometimes wrenching process of becoming American