27 April 1887

Berlin

Berlin, April 27, 1887

Jager Strasse 71, Berlin

My dear Brother:

I received your letter and the 1,000 pesos or 4,000 marks.

From now on do not send me a cent more. Wait for my return which will take place this year.

As to the Doctorate, since it is necessary for me to go to Madrid to get it, I shall see if I will have money left to make the round trip to Madrid. At any rate, I shall pay for the title and I will send my thesis with the object of finding out if they want to admit me in this manner, without the necessity of presenting myself personally.

I shall go to Switzerland; my trip will include Bohemia, Austria. And on leaving, I will pass through Italy. I am waiting only for copies of my book[1] to arrive in Madrid in order to see what opinion they have of my work. Until now those who have read it . . . . .

[The rest of the letter is missing]

NOTES

After receiving the 1,000 pesos mentioned in the above letter, remitted to him by his brother through Juan Luna in Paris, Rizal began to prepare for his return home. He paid all his debts, including that advanced by Dr. Maximo Viola for the printing of the Noli Me Tangere. Then, daily for two weeks, they roamed the streets of Berlin and its suburbs, taking in the sights, looking at monuments, the Column of Victory formed with the cannons captured from the French in the Franco-Prussian War, Jewish synagogues, libraries, museums, castles, theaters, government buildings, parks and gardens, important boulevards, the mausoleum of Frederick the Great, the historic windmill near the palace of this monarch in Potsdam, etc.

Rizal also wrote letters of farewell to his numerous friends in Europe, many of whom answered that they were opposed to his going home, because of the danger to his life in the Philippines. But he stuck to his decision and even Dr. Viola could not dissuade him from his determination to go home, to join his parents and brothers and demonstrate to his countrymen that he practiced what he said in the Noli Me Tangere.

Leaving Berlin at dawn of May 11, 1887, these two friends went to Leitmeritz, via Dresden and Tetschen, to meet for the first time Rizal’s good friend, Dr. Ferdinand Blumentritt with whom he had been corresponding since February of 1886. Blumentritt met them at the railroad station, and after they were appropriately installed in the Krebs Hotel, he took them to his house where they were showered with all affection and hospitality by the wife, Da. Rosa, and their children. Their German host took them around Leitmeritz, to the museums, historical spots, scenic places with big and tall trees, the churches and the residence of the bishop, the saloon where the best beer of Bohemia was served. In this last place, Rizal gave an impromptu speech in German before the club of tourism, saying that he was struck by the Germans’ love for their own country, its beauty, its forests, flowers, birds. For being able to make an extemporaneous talk in German which he began to study only eleven months before, he became the recipient of congratulations and admiration. They were also invited to the houses of the German naturalists, Dr. Robert Klutschak and Dr. Karl Czepelak.

To reciprocate the hospitality showered on them by the Blumentritts, Rizal and Viola gave them a modest dinner in the Krebs Hotel on the night previous to their departure for the rest of their tour across Europe.

With a letter of recommendation from Dr. Blumentritt, they visited Professor Velcom of natural history at the University of Prague, now in Chezoslovakia, who accompanied them to see various places of interest, like the museum of natural history, bacteriology laboratories, the tomb of Copernicus, the bridge from which the martyr San Juan Nepomuceno, was thrown into the waters of the Danube.

They spent four days in Vienna where they admired the big and beautiful buildings for which this city is famous and saw the exposition of antiques and artistic religious images and ornaments which was going on then. Boarding a river boat they went up the Danube to enjoy the sights on both banks; they got off at Linz; from there they took the railroad to Salzburg. Crossing the border back to Germany they stopped at Munchen (more known as Munich) to have the pleasure of drinking the best beer produced in Germany, and here they were surprised to be served with paper napkins.

In Nuremberg, one of the oldest cities of Germany, they saw the different instruments of torture used by the agents of the Roman Church Inquisition, they went to look at the deepest well in Europe, and were allowed to visit the extensive factories of dolls. In Ulm they ascended the tower of the biggest and tallest cathedral in all Germany, which was then under construction. Passing through Stuttgart and Baden, they headed for the most grandiose cascade in Europe, the Rhinefall, in front of which they crossed the Rhine in a small banca.

In Switzerland, they visited Schaffhausen, Bassel, Bern, Lausanne and its beautiful lake; they stayed in Geneva five days where Rizal found French, German and Italian spoken, and they enjoyed boating by themselves on the lake. On June 23, 1887, the two travelers boarded the train, separating from each other at the border, Viola returning to Barcelona through France while Rizal proceeded to Italy. From Rome he sent a postal card to his father on June 29 listing what he saw—the cities of Turin, Milan, Venice and Florence; in Rome, the Basilica of St. John Lateran with its 28 marble sacred steps, the monastery of San Clemente, the Roman Forum, the temple of Jupiter on Capitoline Hill, the wonderful Colosseum, the Catacombs where the early Christians used to hold their services in secret so as to be safe from their persecutors, the Palatine Hill on which the palaces of the Ceasars were built; and when he went to witness the feast of St. Peter and St. Paul, he saw the Vatican.

He arrived in the Philippines on August 6, and after a few days in Manila, he proceeded to Calamba. Practising his medical profession, he was constantly under observation, an army Officer Lt. Andrade having been detailed as his bodyguard. But he was not to have peace and tranquility; many stories and rumors were circulated about him; the friars conducted a sort of psychological warfare, which scared not Rizal, but his family and true friends; so they urged him to leave the Philippines.

Thus, after a stay of only six months in his homeland, but not before he had drafted a document, which was signed by the people of Calamba, giving the true facts about the Calamba estate as the tenants and townspeople saw them, he left again his family, his home and his country in February 1888.

03-219 [Reformists]