Rizal -- Why Germany?
Rizal's letter to Blumentritt (Dated 20. July 1887) Years ago I was asked by a Dutch colleague about what to him was Rizal's 'strange' affinity with Germany and the Germans. Knowing his country's sad experience at the hands of the Nazis during World War II, right away I felt that his question was laced with something of the bitter past: Warum Deutschland? (Why Germany? ). I told him the Germany Rizal admired was that which stands for Schiller, Goethe, Heine, etc those great men of Philosophy and Letters, above all, Science. But I knew then he was half-convinced if only I had in my hand that time the collection of the correspondence between Rizal and Blumentritt, then perhaps he would have understood more of Rizal with these lines in the letter: "I always argued with a young German from Schwerin, because he was a fanatic, that he claims Germany is at the top of everything. I never agreed and told him that Germany is a great nation but one cannot clai