Paris to Berlin, 1885-87 Rizal went to Paris and Germany to specialize in ophthalmology. He chose this branch because he wanted to cure his mother’s eyes. He served as assistant to the famous oculists of Europe. He also continued his travels and observations of European life and customs in Paris, Heidelberg, Leipzig and Berlin. In Berlin, capital of the unified Germany, he met and befriended several top scientists, Dr. Feodor Jagor, Dr. Adolph B. Meyer, Dr. Hans Meyer, and Dr. Rudolph Virchow. His merits as a scientist were recognized by the eminent scientist of Europe.
IN GAY PARIS (1885-1886) Rizal then was 24 years old and already a physician, decided to go to Paris in order to acquire more knowledge in ophthalmology. On his way to Paris, he stopped at Barcelona to visit his friend, Maximo Viola,
...a medical student and a member of a rich family of San Miguel, Bulacan. He stayed for a week, during which time he befriended Senor Eusebio Corominas, editor of the newspaper La Publicidad and made a crayon sketch of Don Miguel Morayta, owner of La Publicidad and a statesman. He gave editor Corominas an article on the Carolines Question for publication.
On October, 1885, Rizal was living in Paris, where he sojourned for about four months. He worked as an assistant to Dr. Louis de Weckert, leading French ophthalmologist. Outside his working days at Dr. Weckert’s clinic, he relaxed visiting the home of Pardo de Taveras and the studio of his friend, Juan Luna. At the studio of Luna, Rizal spent many happy hours. He discussed with Luna, the great master of the brush, various problems on art and improve
his own painting technique. He helped Luna by posing as model in several paintings. In Luna’s canvas “The Death of Cleopatra”, Rizal posed as an Egyptian priest.
In another of Luna’s great paintings, “the blood compact”, Rizal posed as Sikatuna, with Dr. Trinidad Pardo de Tavera taking the role of Legaspi. In the art studio of Juan Luna in Paris “Blood compact” by Juan Luna “The Death of Cleopatra”Dr. Louis de Weckert AT HEIDELBERG Rizal left Paris on February 1, 1886, after acquiring enough experience in the clinic of Dr. Weckert. He was set to go to Germany. He visited Strasbourg and other German towns. On February 3, 1886, he arrived in Heidelberg, a historic city in Germany famous for its old university and romantic surroundings.
He lived in a boarding house with some German law students. The German students found out that Rizal was a good chess player and made him a member of the Chess Player’s Club. After a few days, he was transferred to a boarding house which was near University of Heidelberg. He worked at the University Eye Hospital under the direction of Dr. Otto Becker and attended the lectures of Doctor Becker and Prof. Wilhelm Kuehne at the university. At weekends he visited the scenic spots around Heidelberg which includes the Heidelberg Castle, the romantic Neckar Rivera, the theater, and the old churches.
Rizal noticed that the German Catholics and the Protestants practiced ecumenism wherein they live together in harmony and cordiality. On April 22, 1886, spring on Heidelberg, he wrote a poem to the beautiful blooming flowers at the Neckar River. Among those was his favorite flower—the forget-me-not. To the Flowers of
Heidelberg by Jose Rizal Go to my country, go, O foreign flowers, sown by the traveler along the road, and under that blue heaven that watches over my loved ones, recount the devotion the pilgrim nurses for his native sod! Go and say say that when dawn opened your chalices for the first time eside the icy Neckar, you saw him silent beside you, thinking of her constant vernal clime. Say that when dawn which steals your aroma was whispering playful love songs to your young sweet petals, he, too, murmured canticles of love in his native tongue; that in the morning when the sun first traces the topmost peak of Koenigssthul in gold and with a mild warmth raises to life again the valley, the glade, the forest, he hails that sun, still in its dawning, that in his country in full zenith blazes. And tell of that day when he collected you along the way among the ruins of a feudal castle, n the banks of the Neckar, or in a forest nook. Recount the words he said as, with great care, between the pages of a worn-out book he pressed the flexible petals that he took. Carry, carry, O flowers, my love to my loved ones, peace to my country and its fecund loam, faith to its men and virtue to its women, health to the gracious beings that dwell within the sacred paternal home. When you reach that shore, deposit the kiss I gave you on the wings of the wind above that with the wind it may rove and I may kiss all that I worship, honor and love! But
O you will arrive there, flowers, and you will keep perhaps your vivid hues; ut far from your native heroic earth to which you owe your life and worth, your fragrances you will lose! For fragrance is a spirit that never can forsake and never forgets the sky that saw its birth. Rizal then spent three-month summer vacation at Wilhelmsfeld, a mountainous village close to Heidelberg. He stayed at the vicarage of a kind Protestant pastor, Dr. Karl Ullmer. He was very delighted in his stay at the Ullmers. On July 31, 1886, Rizal wrote his first letter in German to Professor Ferdinand Blumentritt. Rizal heard that Blumentritt was interested in the Philippine languages.
Along with the letter was a book entitled Aritmetica. Delighted with Rizal, Blumentritt send gift books to Rizal. This marked the beginning of their long and frequent correspondence. Rizal was fortunate to be sojourning in Heidelberg when the famous University of Heidelberg held its fifth centenary celebration on August 6 of 1886. It was three days before his departure and he was sad because he had come to love the land and the beautiful city. LEIPZIG On August 9, 1886, three days after the fifth centenary of the University of the Heidelberg, Rizal left the city.
He boarded a train and visited various cities of Germany until arriving in Leipzig on August 14, 1886. He attended some lectures in the University of Leipzig and befriended Professor Friedrich Ratzel, a famous German historian, and Dr. Hans Meyer, German anthropologist. Rizal translated William Tell from German to Filipino so that Filipinos might know the story of that champion of Swiss independence. He also translated into
Filipino Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales. Cost of living in Leipzig is the cheapest in Europe so he stayed there for two months and a half.
During his stay, he corrected some chapters in his second novel and also had time for exercise. He also worked as a proof-reader in a publishing firm and earning some money. DRESDEN Rizal left Leipzig to set course on Dresden on October 29, 1886. At Dresden, Rizal met Dr. Adolph Meyer, the director of the Anthropological and Ethnological Museum. He stayed only two days in the city. He heard the Holy Mass in a Catholic church which greatly impressed him, for he wrote “Truly I have never in my life heard a Mass whose music had greater sublimity and intonation”.
Morning of November 1, Rizal left Dresden by train reaching Berlin in the evening. BERLIN Rizal liked Berlin because of its atmosphere which was very scientific and the absence of race prejudice. Also, here he met Dr. Feodor Jagor author of Travels in the Philippines, a book that Rizal admired because of its keen observances in the Philippine setting. Dr. Jagor in turn, introduced Rizal to Dr. Rudolf Virchow, a famous anthropologist and to his son, Dr. Hans Virchow, professor of Descriptive Anatomy. Rizal worked in the clinic of Dr.
Karl Ernest Schweigger, a famous German ophthalmologist. Rizal was the first Asian to be accorded with honors for being a member of the Anthropological Society, the Ethnological Society, and the Geographical Society of Berlin. Dr. Virchow recognized Rizal’s genius, invited him to give a lecture before the Ethnographic Society of Berlin. Rizal wrote a scholarly paper entitled Taglische Verkunst (Tagalog Metrical Art)
which elicited favorable comments from all scientific quarters. Rizal led a methodological life in Berlin. He worked as an assistant by day, and attended lectures at night.
He kept himself physically fit by daily exercises and speaking German, French and Italian. Rizal took private lessons in the French language under Madame Lucie Cerdole in order to master the French language. He spends his leisure moments touring the country sides of Berlin and observing the culture and life of the people. He also made sketches of the things he saw. About observing culture, Rizal greatly admired the German Yuletide custom, wherein Germans would take bushes from a pine tree and dress it up with lanterns, papers and candies.
Another interesting custom in Germany is that, when a man has nobody to introduce him to the other guests, he bows his head to the guests and introduces himself to the other guests and shakes hands of everyone in the room. Not all the experiences of Rizal in Germany were good, there is this one winter time wherein he lived in poverty because no money arrived from Calamba and he was flat broke. During that time, he only eats one meal a day and had to wash his clothes himself because he could not afford to pay the laundry. On Calamba, Paciano tried to raise money but crops have failed due to locusts and the sugar market collapsed.
NOLI ME TANGERE PUBLISHED IN BERLIN Noli Me Tangere during Rizal’s stay in Berlin was unable to be published. But with the help of Maximo Viola, who gave him the necessary funds to publish the novel, Noli Me Tangere was published. Viola loaned
Rizal money for publishing and for Rizal’s living expenses. With that, Rizal and Viola happily celebrated the Christmas of 1886 in Berlin. During the printing of the Noli, the chief of police Berlin paid a sudden visit to Rizal’s boarding house. The chief asked for Rizal’s passport, but Rizal couldn’t show any.
The chief told him to secure a passport within four days, otherwise he would be deported. Rizal failed in obtaining his passport and presented himself at the German police office, politely apologizing for his failure. The police then told him that Rizal was suspected as a French spy because he came fro Paris and knew the language of the French people so well. Rizal explained in German to the police that he was not a French spy, but a Filipino physician and scientist. With that, he was allowed to stay freely in Germany. On March 21, 1887, the Noli Me Tangere came off the printing press.
Rizal immediately sent copies to his intimate friends, including Blumentritt, Dr. Antonio Jaena, Mariano Ponce, and Felix R. Hidalgo. As a token of his appreciation and gratitude, Rizal gave Viola the galley proofs of Noli carefully rolled around the pen that he used in writing. It also has a dedication “To my dear friend, Maximo Viola, the first to read and appreciate my work—Jose Rizal. ” Noli Me Tangere was solely dedicated to the Philippines. He described the Philippines as a patient with cancer that even with the most careful touch; it awakens in it the sharpest pains.
The friends of Rizal hailed the novel, appreciated its content and deeply touched and awakened by its fine truth. Of all the
congratulatory letters received by Rizal about Noli, that from Blumentritt was significant. After the publication of Noli, Rizal planned to visit the important places in Europe. Rizal received his money from Paciano worth 1,000 pesos. He immediately paid viola the sum of 300 pesos from his kind loan. At dawn of May 11, 1887, Rizal and Viola left Berlin by train. Spring was in the air and Europe is blooming with flowers. Their destination was Dresden, “One of the best cities in Germany”.
