Chapter 9-14

• Rizal and Viola left Berlin


  May 11, 1887
• Rizal and Viola in Dresden

  • They tarried for sometimes in Dresden
  • They visited Dr. Adolph B. Meyer, who was overjoyed to see them
  • In the Museum of Art, Rizal was deeply impressed by painting of Prometheus Bound
  • They also meet Dr. Jagor and heard there plan about Leitmeritz in order to see Blumentritt. He advice to wire Blumentritt because the old professor might be shock of their visit
• First Meeting with Blumentritt

  May 1887
• First Meeting with Blumentritt

  • At 1:30 pm, the train with Rizal and Viola on board, arrived at the railroad station of Leitmeritz; Professor Ferdinand Blumentritt was waiting for them
  • Blumentritt helped the two find a room at Hotel Krebs
  • Professor Blumentritt was at the station carrying a pencil sketch of Rizal which he sent to identify his friend
  • Rizal stayed in Leitmeritz from May 13 to 16, 1887
• Rizal and Viola's stay in Leitmeritz

  • They enjoyed hospitality of Blumentritt family. The professor's wife, Rosa, was a good cook
  • Blumentritt invited them to a beer garden Rizal met some Germans including the Burgomaster
  • They were impressed with Rizal's ability to speak in German, and when asked how long it took him to master the language, he said, 11 months
  • To commemorate his happy hours at the Blumentritt home, Rizal gave Blumentritt a portrait
• Rizal and Viola's visit to Prague


  • They carried letters of recommendation from Blumentritt to Dr. Wilkom, professor in University of Prague
  • They visited the tomb of Copernicus (the great astronomer), museum of natural history, bacteriological laboratory, the famous cave where San Juan Nepomuceno, the Catholic saint, was imprisoned
• Rizal and Viola's visit to Vienna

  • They met Norfenfals, one of the greatest novelist in that time
  • He received his lost diamond stickpin, which was found by a maid in Hotel Krebs
  • They also meet two good friends of Blumentritt - Masner and Nordman, Austrian scholars
• Danubian Voyage to Lintz


  1. May 24, they left Vienna on a river boat to see the beautiful sights of the Danube River

  2. Rizal observed keenly the river sights, the barges loaded with products, the flowers and plants growing along the river banks, boats with families living on them, and settlements on the riverbanks
• Rizal and Viola's journey from Lintz to Rheinfall

  • They went to Munich then proceeded to Nuremburg, one of the oldest cities in Germany
  • Savored the famous Munich beer
  • They visited Ulm where they saw the "largest and tallest cathedral in Germany"
  • At Rheinfall, they saw the "most beautiful waterfall of Europe"
• Rizal and Viola's journey in Switzerland

  • They stayed from June 2 to 3 1887 and continued tour to Basel (Bale), Bern, and Laussane
  • Geneva was one of the most beautiful cities in Europe
  • On June 19, 1887 on his 26th birthday – Rizal treated Viola to a blowout. Rizal and Viola spent fifteen days in Geneva
  • On June 23, they parted ways. Viola decided to return to Barcelona while Rizal continued his tour to Italy
• Rizal Resents Exhibition of Igorots in 1887 Madrid Exposition
• Rizal's reaction to the exhibition of Igorots

  • He received sa news from his friends in Madrid of the deplorable conditions of the primitive Igorots who were exhibited in this exposition. Some of the Igorots died
  • Rizal was outraged by this degradation of his fellow countrymen
  • Wrote letter to Blumentritt stated, "We want an industrial revolution, but not an exhibition of human beings who are compelled to live almost outdoors and died of nostalgia and pneumonia or typhus"
• All the alluring beauties of foreign countries and all the beautiful memories of his sojourn in alien lands could neither make Rizal for his fatherland nor turn his back to his own nationality
• Rizal remained at heart a true Filipino with an unquenchable love for the Philippines and an unshakable determination to die in the land of his birth
• Reasons for Rizal's decision to return home

  • Because of the publication of the Noli Me Tangere and the uproar it caused among the friars, Rizal was warned by Paciano (his brother), Silvestre Ubaldo (his brother-in-law), Chengoy (Jose M. Cecilio), and other friends to return home
  • To operates on his mother's eye's
  • To serve his people who had long been oppressed by the Spanish tyrants
  • To find out for himself how the Noli and his other writings were affecting the Filipinos and Spaniards in the Philippines
  • To inquire why Leonor Rivera remained silent
• Rizal wrote to his father, announcing his homecoming


  June 29, 1887
• Rizal's trip from Rome to Manila

  1. Rizal left Rome by the train for Marseilles, a French port, which he researched without mishap

  2. Rizal was the only one among the passengers who could speak many languages, so that he acted as interpreter for his companions

  3. Near midnight of August 5, the Haiphong arrived in Manila. Rizal went ashore with a happy heart for he once more trod his beloved native soil. He stayed in the city for a short time to visit his friends
• Rizal's homecoming in Calamba


  • August 8th – he returned to Calamba, His family welcomed him affectionately, with plentiful tears of joy
  • The rejoicings of Rizal's return over, his family became worried for his safety. Paciano did not leave him the first day of his arrival to protect him from any enemy assault. His own father would not let him go out alone, lest something might happen to him
  • In Calamba, Rizal established a medical clinic
  • Patients from Manila and the provinces flocked to Calamba
  • Rizal who came to be called "Doctor Uliman" because he came from Germany, treated their ailments and soon he acquired a lucrative medical practice
  • He opened a gymnasium for young folks, where he introduced European sports
• A few weeks after his arrival, a storm broke over his novel Noli Me Tangere
• Reactions to the Noli Me Tangere

  • Governor General Emilio Terrero (1885-88) requested Rizal to come in Malacañan Palace. Somebody had whispered to the governor's ear that the Noli contained subversive ideas
  • Report of the faculty members of the University of Santo Tomas stated that the Noli was "heretical, impious, and scandalous in the religion order, and antipatriotic, subversive of public order, injurious to the government of Spain and its function in the Philippine Islands in the political order"
  • Governor General Terrero was dissatisfied with the report of the Dominicans, for he knew that the Dominicans were prejudiced against Rizal
  • What the hated Spanish masters did not like, the oppressed masses liked very much. Despite the government prohibition and the vigilance of the cruel Guardia Civil many Filipinos were able to get hold of copies of the Noli which they read at night behind closed doors
• Attackers of the Noli

  • Fr. Jose Rodriguez , Prior of Guadalupe, published a series of eight pamphlets under the general Cuestiones de Sumo Interes (Questions of Supreme Interest) to blast the Noli and other anti-Spanish writings
  • Many Filipinos were forced to buy them in order not to displease the friars, but they did not believe what their author said with hysterical fervor
  • It was fiercely attacked on the session hall of the Senate of the Spanish Cortes by various senators
• Defenders of the Noli

  • Marcelo H. Del Pilar, Dr .Antonio Ma. Regidor, Graciano Lopez Jaena, Mariano Ponce and other Filipino reformists in foreign lands, rushed to uphold the truths of the Noli
  • A brilliant defense of the Noli came from an unexpected source. It was by Rev. Vicente Garcia, a Filipino Catholic priest-scholar, theologian of the Manila Cathedral, and a Tagalog translator of the famous Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis
• During the days when Noli was the target of heated controversy between the friars (and their minions) and the friends of Rizal, all copies of it were sold out and the price per copy soared to unprecedented level
• Rizal and Taviel de Andrade

  • While the storm over the Noliwas raging in fury, Rizal was not molested in Calamba. This is due to Governor General Terrero's generosity in assigning a bodyguard to him. Between this Spanish bodyguard, Lt. Jose Taviel de Andrade, and Rizal, a beautiful friendship bloomed
• Calamba's Agrarian Trouble


  • Governor General Terrero, influenced by certain facts in Noli Me Tangere ordered a government investigation of the friar estates to remedy whatever inequities may have been present in connection with land taxes and with tenant relations
• Rizal's forced departure from Calamba


  • Rizal's exposure of the deplorable conditions of tenancy in Calamba infuriated further his enemies. The friars exerted pressure on Malacanang Palace to eliminate the latter because there was no valid charge against Rizal in court
  • Anonymous threats against Rizal's life were received by his parents
  • One day Governor General Terrero summoned Rizal and "advise" him to leave the Philippines for his own good. He was giving Rizal a chance to escape the fury of the friar's wrath
  • Reasons why Rizal had to leave Calamba: 1) His presence in Calamba was jeopardizing the safety and happiness of his family and friends, 2) He could fight better his enemies and serve his country's cause with greater efficacy by writing in foreign countries
• Shortly before Rizal left Calamba in 1888 his friend from Lipa requested him to write a poem in commemoration of the town's elevation to a villa (city) by virtue of the Becerra Law of 1888. Gladly, he wrote a poem dedicated to the industrious folks of Lipa. This was the "Himno Al Trabajo" (Hymn to Labor). He finished it and sent it to Lipa before his departure from Calamba.
• Rizal left Manila for Hong Kong on board the Zafiro


  February 3, 1888
• Rizal's trip to Hong Kong

  • He did not get off his ship when it made brief stopover at Amoy on February 7. For three reasons; 1) He was not feeling well, 2) It was raining hard, and 3) He heard that the city was dirty
  • February 8 – he arrived in Hong Kong
  • February 16, 1888 – He wrote a letter to Blumentritt, expressing his bitter and sadness
  • Rizal stayed at Victoria Hotel, he was welcomed by the Filipino residents, including Jose Maria Basa, Balbino Mauricio, and Manuel Yriarte
  • A Spaniard, Jose Sainz de Veranda, who was a former secretary of the Governor General Terrero shadowed Rizal in Hong Kong
  • There are some Filipinos, the majority of whom being those who had been exiled to the Marianas Islands in 1872. They are poor, gentle, and timid. Formerly, they were rich mechanics, industrialists and financiers
• Rizal's visit to Macao

  • February 18 – Rizal, accompanied by Basa
• Rizal

  27 years old, practicing physician
• Rizal did not get off his ship when it made brief stopover at Amoy on February 7 for three reasons: (1) He was not feeling well, (2) It was raining hard, and (3) He heard that the city was dirty
• Rizal arrived in Hong Kong

  February 8, 1888
• Rizal wrote a letter to Blumentritt, expressing his bitter and sadness


  February 16, 1888
• Rizal stayed at Victoria Hotel, he was welcomed by the Filipino residents, including Jose Maria Basa, Balbino Mauricio, and Manuel Yriarte
• A Spaniard, Jose Sainz de Veranda, who was a former secretary of the Governor General Terrero shadowed Rizal in Hong Kong
• There are some Filipinos, the majority of whom being those who had been exiled to the Marianas Islands in 1872. They are poor, gentle, and timid. Formerly, they were rich mechanics, industrialists and financiers
• Rizal, accompanied by Basa, boarded the ferry steamer Kiu-Kiang for Macao


  February 18, 1888
• Rizal, wrote in his diary, that Macao, "is small, low and gloomy… It looks sad and is almost dead."
• In Macao, Rizal stayed at the home of Don Juan Francisco Lecaros, a Filipino gentleman married to a Portuguese lady