Travel with Rizal in Germany

Book excerpt: To Filipinos, Jose Rizal is the greatest Filipino hero who ever lived. Many historians and scholars had written and continues to study his life and works even today. Jose Rizal traveled extensively during his lifetime in Europe, Asia and the United States, spending a lot of his time traveling in Germany. Some Filipinos think he is the most traveled of all the national heroes of the Philippines. Rizal traveled to Germany from the beginning of 1886 to mid-1887. He chronicled almost every detail of his life and travels in Germany including his travels with fellow Filipino expat Maximo Viola who joined him during the latter half of his travels. This book is written to provide and inform Filipinos about his time in Germany, the places he had seen, the places he would have seen and what became of them over the decades. Many had changed in Germany since the 1880's and the country became prominent in the history of the 20th century Europe. To our generation, Germany is a very different country from the time of Rizal both politically, economically, and culturally. This book will also discuss a short history of the various German cities Rizal visited in his travels, how he found it and its political, economic and cultural standing today. This book also offers new information about some of the places where Rizal had lived in Germany.