I have been twice to the historic city of Heidelberg, but I have never known of its connection to José Rizal until I saw an exhibit of rare Rizaliana items at the Phillipine Consulate in Frankfurt. This was in late June 2019 when I went there to renew my Philippine passport.
The exhibit, which included a mirror, some shelves, a dresser and a bed, is part of a collection owned by Dr. Fritz Hack Ullmer. It also included a table where Jose Rizal is said to have written the last chapters of his novel Noli Me Tángere. Now, that is an impressive piece of information for me! I have always been fascinated by the story of José Rizal's life, his travels and his works; so I tried to read more information about his stay in Germany.
Rizal was 25 years old when he arrived in Heidelberg on February 3, 1886. His purpose was to study opthalmology and to learn the German language. No records have been found to prove that José Rizal did enrol as a student in the University of Heidelberg, but he did study the works and trained under the world renowned opthalmologist Professor Otto Becker at the University Eye Clinic.In April 24, 1886, Rizal wrote a poem, To the Flowers of Heidelberg. The verse reflects Rizal's admiration for the beauty of Heidelberg, and at the same time it is a poignant manifestation of his sadness and longing for his family and his country.
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 that when dawn
opened your chalices for the first time
beside 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,
on 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;
but 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.
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| The city of Heidelberg with a view of the Karl Theodor Brücke. Photo taken when we visited the Heidelberger Schloss in 2018. |
During Rizal's stay in Heidelberg, he met and befriended Dr. Ullmer's great-grandfather, Pastor Karl Ullmer. Rizal stayed in the Pastor's home in Wilhelmsfeld for three months. It was there that he finished Noli Me Tángere.
After visiting Bad Dürkheim's Wurstmarkt in September 2019, my husband surprised me when he said we are going to visit Rizal. He took notice that I am interested in the subject of Philippines' National Hero.
Wilhelmsfeld is more or less 30 minutes from Heidelberg by car. My husband based the side-trip on me telling stories of what I have learned online, that there is a street named after Rizal and a park with his statue. I am very bad with directions, so he had little to get by in terms of how to find our way to there. He had to use Google map because the street was not easy to find. We did see the Rizal Park sign on our way out, it is a small sign and very easy to miss. If you want to visit the Rizal Park in Wilhelmsfeld, use this address as reference:
Christian-Morgenstern Grundschule
Schulstr. 14
69259 Wilhelmsfeld
The larger-than-life statue of José Rizal, posed with a quill in his right hand, seemingly in deep thought as he gazed towards the green hills can be found at the park beside the school.
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| Rizal in the town of Wilhelmsfeld. |
“How long have you been away from the country?" Laruja asked Ibarra.
"Almost seven years."
"Then you have probably forgotten all about it."
"Quite the contrary. Even if my country does seem to have forgotten me, I have always thought about it.”
― José Rizal, Noli Me Tángere
In the late summer of 1886, Rizal left Heidelberg and Wilhelmsfeld. He went to Leipzig and then to Berlin, where Noli Me Tángere was published.
