Boerne is a city in and the county seat of Kendall County, Texas, United States, within the Texas Hill Country. Boerne was named in honor of a Jewish-German author and publicist. The population of Boerne was 10,471 at the 2010 census. The city is noted for the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case City of Boerne v. Flores. Founded in 1849 as Tusculum, the name was changed to Boerne when the town was platted in 1852.Boerne is part of the San Antonio–New Braunfels Metropolitan Statistical Area.Boerne is the home of the Guadalupe Valley Poetry Celebration, a regional poetry festival that benefits the Boerne Public Library.HistoryBoerne came into being as an offshoot of the Texas Hill Country Free Thinker Latin Settlements, resulting from the Revolutions of 1848 in the German states. Those who came were Forty-Eighters, intellectual liberal abolitionists who enjoyed conversing in Latin and who believed in utopian ideals that guaranteed basic human rights to all. They reveled in passionate conversations about science, philosophy, literature, and music The Free Thinkers first settled Castell, Bettina, Leningen, and Schoenburg in Llano County. These experimental communities were supported by the Adelsverein for one year. The communities eventually failed due to lack of finances after the Adelsverein funding expired, and conflict of structure and authorities. Many of the pioneers from these communities moved to Sisterdale, Boerne and Comfort.
