In the Arrupe Saal, a hall attached to Vienna’s Jesuit church downtown, a historian displayed pages of a letter Rizal had written in German in 1887. The guests admired the handwriting.
The occasion was a public lecture, “1887: Tracing Rizal’s Footsteps in Vienna”, organized by the Philippine Embassy as part of the programme marking 80 years of diplomatic relations between the Philippines and Austria. Billed for Thursday, 28 May 2026, it also belonged to Philippine Heritage Month. Admission was free. Seats were limited.
A hero in the imperial capital
The speaker was Dr. Johann Stockinger, who leads the Austro-Philippine Society. He placed the visit within the arc of Jose Rizal’s intellectual and political life. Rizal had published his landmark novel, “Noli Me Tangere”, and was travelling through several European cities in the company of a friend, Dr. Maximo Viola. Stockinger rebuilt their days from Rizal’s correspondence, both sent and received, and from what Viola wrote down.
He briefly mentioned Johannes Nordmann, a writer and journalist from Austria. Rizal found him likable and said he looked like his father. Nordmann’s friend Ferdinand Blumentritt, an educator, historian and ethnologist, grew into one of Rizal’s nearest confidants and wrote to him for life. A road in Sampaloc, Manila, carries Blumentritt’s name.
In September 2023, Stockinger himself made a discovery: a letter from Rizal to Nordmann dated June 17, 1887. Some of its pages were displayed. Guests were struck by Rizal’s fluency in German and the elegance of his Kurrent script.
The city as it was
Old photographs did much of the work of bringing nineteenth-century Vienna back. Rizal stayed at the grand Hotel Metropole, a landmark of imperial Vienna that was destroyed in the turmoil of the Second World War. Leopold-Figl Hof stands on the site now, and a memorial plaque there recalls his stay.
Much of what Rizal and Viola saw can still be found, ABS-CBN reported. They walked Griechengasse, the city’s oldest street, home to the Griechenbeisl, the oldest tavern in town, whose signed room preserves the names of Mozart, Mark Twain, Pavarotti and Rilke. The pair also visited museums and art galleries, although their memoirs do not say which.
Voices in the room
Ambassador Evangelina Lourdes Arroyo-Bernas welcomed the audience and said such cultural and historical programmes strengthen the bonds between the two countries. She was delighted by the turnout. “It is wonderful to see such a large turnout, especially with so many young Filipinos joining us today, alongside our Austrian friends,” she said.
Among those present was Elke Pickert, a descendant of Blumentritt four generations on. “It’s really great to see that many are still interested in the friendship of Dr. Rizal and my great-great-grandfather,” she said. Learned Cruz, a student in Vienna, said the talk made him want to study German harder, knowing how fluent Rizal had been in it.
Sources
- Tracing Rizal's footsteps in Vienna to mark 80 years of PH-Austria relations (ABS-CBN News)
- Invitation to a Public Lecture 1887: Tracing Rizal's Footsteps in Vienna (Philippine Embassy, Vienna, via Austrian News)
