Rizal spent time in several European cities from 1885-1887, including Barcelona, Paris, Strasbourg, Heidelberg, Liepzig, Dresden, and Berlin. In these cities he studied medicine, attended university lectures, improved his art skills, associated with prominent scientists, and worked to publish his novel Noli Me Tangere. He struggled with poverty at times, pawning possessions and often going hungry, but remained dedicated to his studies.

1. Chapter 7
PARIS TO BERLIN (1885-87)
• Barcelona
- stopped in Barcelona to visit, Maximo Viola
- Befriended Eusebio Corominas – editor of La
publicidad. Don Miguel Morayta (owner)
- Article on the “Caroline’s Question”
• In Gay Paris November 1885 (four months)
- Worked as an assistant to Dr. Louis de Weckert ,
leading French Opthalmologist

2. Barcelona Maximo Viola

3. - Visited his friends: Tavera’s, Juan Luna. Felix
R. Hidalgo, Paz Pardo de Tavera
- “ The Monkey and the Turtle” Paz album JPR
drew a series of sketches
- spent happy hours in Luna’s studio,
improved his own painting technique and
posing as model in several paintings:
1. The Death of Cleopatria
2. The Blood Compact

4. • Rizal as musician:
“I learned the solfeggio, the piano, the voice
culture in one and a half, If you could hear me
sing, you would wish you were in Spain
because my voice is like the braying of the
asses” (Letter to de Lete dated Nov.27, 1878)
- Flute – the only instrument Rizal could play
- Compositions:
1. Alin Mang Lahi 2. La Deportacion

5. • Visited Strasbourg (capital of Alsace Lorraine)
February 1,1886
• Historic Heidelberg (Historic city of Germany)
- Lived in a boarding house with German law students
and made Rizal a member of the Chess Player’s Club
- Transferred near the University where he worked as
an assistant to Dr. Otto Becker, German
opthalmologists
- Attended lectures of Dr. Becker and Prof. Wilhelm
Kuehne
- Visited scenic spots around Heidelberg

6. - Observed that the German Catholics and
Protestants practiced ecumenism or they lived
together in harmony and cordiality.
-”To the Flowers of Heidelberg”
a fine poem Rizal wrote on April 22, 1886
• With Pastor Ullmer at Wilhemlmsfeld
- Spent a three-month summer vacation in
mountainous village near Heidelberg
- Stayed in the vicarage of a kind Protestant pastor
Dr. Karl Ullmer with Etta and Fritz

7. • First Letter to Blumentritt
- Prof. Ferdinand Blumentritt, director of the
Ateneo of Leitmeritz Austria,
- with the letter he sent a book Arithmetica
published in two languages – Spanish and
Tagalog – by UST Press in 1868 by Rufino
Baltazar Hernandez
- The prof in return send Rizal a gift of two
books which marked the friendship that lasted
all their lives.

8. • Fifth Centenaryof Heidelberg University
• In Liepzig and Dresden (two months & half)
- August 14,1886 arrived in Liepzig
-Attended lectures at the University on history and
psychology
-befriended Prof. Friedrich Ratzel (German Historian) Dr.
Hans Meyer (German Anthropologist)
- Translated Schiller’s William Tell (German-Tagalog)
- Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales
- Corrected some chapters of his novel
- Worked as proof-reader in a publisher’s firm

9. • Dresden (two days sojourn)
- met Dr. Adolph B. Meyer (Dir. of the Anthroplogical and
Ethnological Museum)
-heard the mass and which impresses him
• Rizal Welcomed in Berlin’s Scientific Circles
- Dr. Feodor Jagor (German Scientist-traveler and writer of
Travels in the Phillippines)
- Dr. Rudolf Virchow (German anthropologist)
- Dr. Hans Virchow (Prof. Descriptive Anatomy)
-Dr. W. Joest (German Geographer)
- Dr. Karl Ernest Schweigger (Famous Opthalmologist

10. - became a member of Anthropological,
Ethnological and Geographical society (1 st
Asian to
be accorded such honors)
- Tagalische Verkunst (Tagalog Metrical Art) a
scholarly paper written and lectured by Rizal
before the Ethnographic society of Berlin and
later was published by the society
• Reasons for staying in Berlin:
1. To gain further knowledge in Ophthalmology
2. Further his studies of sciences and languages
3. Observe the economic and political conditions of
the German nation

11. 4. To associate with famous German scientists
5. To publish his novel Noli Me Tangere
- Led a methodical and frugal life
-Worked as an assistant to Dr. Schweigger and
attended lectures at night in the University of
Berlin
-Practiced speaking in German, French and
Italian
- Took private lessons in French under Madam
Lucie Cerdole
-Perform daily exercises in Berlin gymnasium

12. - Tour the countryside observing keenly the
customs, dresses, homes and occupations of
the peasants
- Enjoyed promenading along Unter den
Linden
• On the German Women
“She is not gossipy, frivolous, and quarrelsome like
the Spanish women. She is not particular about
beautiful dresses and expensive jewelry, though she
could dress nicely like any other woman in the
world” (Letter to Trinidad dated March 11, 1886)

13. “Now that you are still young you should strive to
read, read and learn. You must not allow yourself to
be conquered by indolence because it cost so little to
cast it off”(Advice to Trinidad)
• German Customs
- Christmas custom - Self-introduction to stranger
• Rizal’s Darkest Winter
- The diamond ring was in the pawnshop
- Could not pay his landlord
- Scrimp eating only one meal a day
- Clothes are old and threadbare and washed them
himself