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 claim that they are the first in every respect. Later, he became less and less of a fanatic....we became friends"

I am telling myself now, it would have been revealing to hear the debate between Rizal and this German from Schwerin, word for word, in detail. How much Rizal was armed, how much cunning there was on him to answer chauvinistic pretensions? Right there and then, Rizal had said - enough..basta!! And to think that decades later, a kind of collective thinking, if not mentality of a nation will lead to the catastrophes of two wars, indeed something to ponder upon.

Sorry but I am such a convinced Rizal reader. 

~Pasig City  July 2018

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