Alexandra Schulze

Jose Rizal's 'Frankfurt Era', courtesy of historian Ambeth Ocampo

Article (news)

Jose Rizal's 'Frankfurt Era'

<div><em>DISCLAIMER:</em></div><div><em>I wish to show no disrespect to Dr. Jose Rizal, nor to his surviving family (one of whom I&#x27;ve gotten to know quite well in Barcelona) by addressing him as &#x27;Jose&#x27; in this article. I am merely trying to highlight his ultimate relatability—that he was also very much a regular human being outside of his martyrdom—as explained to a group of us who joined the walking tour of historian and Rizal expert Professor Ambeth Ocampo during this year&#x27;s Frankfurt Book Fair. My hope is that this piece will reignite a genuine interest in our national hero, who is often viewed from below...looking up at a mighty, unreachable pedestal. May rediscovering his body of work inspire us all to love our country a little bit more, despite its current upheaval and uncertainty.</em></div><div><br/></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>JOSE AND I WOULD&#x27;VE BEEN FRIENDS: EXPLORING THE HUMAN SIDE OF A NATIONAL HERO</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>When I first caught wind of the news over a year ago that the Philippines would be Guest of Honour at the 2025 Frankfurt Book Fair, I knew I had to make my way over there somehow. Since I had already migrated to Barcelona from Manila then, I easily convinced myself to see it as visiting my neighbor—like I used to with cities like Hong Kong, Bangkok, Tokyo, Seoul.</p><p>And to have a slice of home by rubbing shoulders with some of the most creative Filipino minds I had had the pleasure of meeting or working with or interviewing in my past life as a media practitioner? National artists. Award-winning novelists and poets. Globally recognized filmmakers. Talk about a major bonus.</p><p>Armed with nothing but a press pass and one minuscule overhead luggage that miraculously fit both winter gear and some Filipiniana pieces I’d collected over the years to proudly represent the country throughout the fair, I was generally overwhelmed and didn’t know what to expect nor how to choose from the gazillion activities planned by the GoH organizing committee.</p><div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:615.998px;display:block" width="615.998"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1767040926909Press Pass Photo.jpeg" style="width:615.998px;display:block;height:auto" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="615.998"/><span class="fr-inner">Press pass, passport, and a map of the labyrinth that is the Messe Frankfurt!<em> Image courtesy of Lexi Schulze</em><br id="isPasted"/></span></span></span></div><p>The one thing I was sure of, however, was that I was intrigued by the GoH theme: &quot;Imagination peoples the air&quot;. Taken from <em>Noli Me Tangere</em>. Written by Dr. Jose Rizal. Finished <em>and</em> published in Germany.</p><p>As a fellow Filipino, if I asked you how much you knew about Jose Rizal...how would you reply? With the brazen confidence of someone who aced history and literature, able to recount his travels all over the world and name his books in order of publish date? Or with a few tidbits about how short he was and that it was his face on the now defunct blue two-peso note? (Millennials and Gen Zers: stick to the one-peso coin.)</p><p>I, admittedly, leaned more towards the latter. (I have a proper excuse for this that will be explained later on.) So I was determined to get (re)educated about this elusive martyr who died by firing squad for love of country.  </p><p>As Guest of Honour in this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, the Philippines not only had a full itinerary within the Messe itself, but a sprinkling of fun and enlightening activities throughout the city. One popular event was the heritage walking tour of author, historian, and Rizal specialist Ambeth Ocampo entitled &quot;Jose on the Go&quot;. </p><p>Ocampo was expected to regale an excitable crowd of over 100 participants with stories and landmarks that retraced some of Rizal&#x27;s steps through the streets of Frankfurt during his year spent in Germany…where he penned the final chapter of <em>Noli Me Tangere</em> in Berlin in 1887. I was ready to become a serious student in Professor Ocampo&#x27;s class.</p><div> </div><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px;display:block" width="960"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1767041564946IMG_2780.jpeg" style="width:960px;display:block;height:auto" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/><span class="fr-inner">Historian and academic Ambeth Ocampo is a Rizal expert; he&#x27;s been studying our national hero for 40 years. <em>Image courtesy of Lexi Schulze</em></span></span></span></div><p>You see that huge, genuine smile? The minute Ambeth Ocampo started talking, I realized I had to throw all expectations out the window. What I thought was to be a stuffy lecture turned out to be more of a Rizal tea-spilling session (in the most well-researched and respectful way, of course). The short of it is, this brilliant professor managed to humanize our national hero; he made Rizal palatable in an non-intimidating way, and it definitely made me see this once untouchable force in a way where I said to myself, &quot;If we were alive at the same time, we definitely would&#x27;ve been friends—Jose and I.&quot; </p><p>Here are several reasons why...</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>Jose was well-traveled, but he also had his own set of bumps in the road.</strong></div><p>U.S. immigration troubles, wanting to travel in first-class despite budget constraints, complaining about his allowance when it would come late—sounds like an entitled child from gen next, doesn&#x27;t it? this is exactly what I loved so much about my day with Jose thanks to Ambeth Ocampo: he keeps it real, and the proof is in the primary sources.   </p><p>&quot;The family was wealthy enough to send him to study abroad, but they were not as wealthy for him to actually live in a very, very comfortable style,&quot; admitted Ocampo. &quot;If you actually read Rizal&#x27;s letters, he was always complaining about his allowance, and the allowance when it comes late. Remember, they did not have a smartphone, so his allowance was literally sent from Manila in cash through someone in a boat.&quot;</p><p>At one point, when funds were sparse, Jose had written to his mother that he had to forego taking a shower. For three months. Because water was expensive. </p><p>For context, Ocampo explained that water plays a huge role in all of Jose&#x27;s writing. About how when he looks back at history, he says &quot;We were not a people who were separated by water, but we are a people connected by water. So before the Spanish came, they did not need roads and bridges and the wheel because their exit was the Pasig River. To get from one island to the other, either you swam or you took a boat, we have actually forgotten the waterways that actually made the city live.</p><p>&quot;And so when you read Rizal, there&#x27;s a lot of writing on rivers, waterways. The whole idea of being with water was something that he remembered. </p><p>Ocampo then continued to defend Jose by saying he had yearned to go back home to Calamba and swim in the stream every day—again the connection to water. An aspect of our national hero that apparently has to be studied further.</p><div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:526px;display:block" width="526"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1767062625786IMG_2769 (2).jpeg" style="width:526px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="526"/><span class="fr-inner">A Frankfurt fountain was a fitting backdrop for Ocampo&#x27;s explanation of Rizal&#x27;s constant use of water in his writing. <em>Image courtesy of Lexi Schulze</em> </span></span></span></div><div><strong></strong> <strong></strong></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>Jose enjoyed documenting his life and times.</strong></div><p>If Jose were alive today, he would have probably used social media to keep in touch with his friends and share all his adventures in digital photos—which would have been a nightmare for historians like Ocampo, who has been very lucky in his Rizal research thanks to primary sources such as his printed photographs, diaries, letters, and drawings.</p><p>Ocampo had many interesting copies of artifacts to share, including drawings of the Rhine river cruise Jose got to experience at some point. Perhaps the most interesting project the historian got to invest time and energy to was during the pandemic, where he did a chronological photo collection of Rizal.</p><p>&quot;I got all the pictures of Rizal from the time he was 12 years old until the time that he became a skull, and I arranged it in chronologically,&quot; admitted Ocampo. &quot;I&#x27;m actually looking for someone who will animate it, so you will see him growing older. Rizal is one of our most documented heroes.&quot;  </p><div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:647px;display:block" width="647"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1767060057751IMG_2823 (1).jpg" style="width:647px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="647"/><span class="fr-inner">Ambeth Ocampo&#x27;s pandemic project: Rizal photos in chronological order. <em>Image courtesy of Lexi Schulze</em></span></span></span></div><div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:652px;display:block" width="652"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1767055208966IMG_2758.jpeg" style="width:652px;display:block;height:auto" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="652"/><span class="fr-inner">Castles, mountains, and all sorts of landmarks Rizal witnessed and drew in his notebook during his Rhine river cruise.<em> Image courtesy of Lexi Schulze</em></span></span></span></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>Jose was the voice for his people, but the villain to the powers that were.</strong></div><p>He penned the last chapter of <em>Noli Me Tangere</em>, his first novel, in Berlin in 1887. He became a published author at 27 years old. And a controversial one at that. Because his work exposed the abuse of Spanish colonizers and the Catholic church in the Philippines, people were not allowed to engage in his brand of literature.</p><p>&quot;We&#x27;re always scared of book burning and censorship, and Rizal experienced this,&quot; Ocampo stated. &quot;Not that they burned his books, but they actually banned them during the Spanish period. And just to show you how strong the Catholic Church was, in 1957, Jose P. Laurel and Claro M. Recto filed a bill that would make the reading of the Novels of Rizal compulsory for all college students in the Philippines. And the opposition actually came from the Catholic Church. So they were seeing the censorship again, even when the Philippines was already a free and independent republic.&quot;</p><p>I was, in fact, a victim of this continued censorship in some of the stricter Catholic schools in the country, who deemed Jose&#x27;s books as absolute blasphemy. My high school refused to make Noli and El Fili part of the required reading list no thanks to the prayles and their sexual exploits. (God forbid these priests were ever viewed as fallible human beings.)</p><p>As an academic and historian, Ocampo felt the need to highlight the Book Burning Monument that is often overlooked, but holds great significance: &quot;These things are here so that we will remember and hope that things will remain the same and that books will be free and read freely throughout the world.&quot;</p><div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:607px;display:block" width="607"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1767054802723IMG_4975.jpg" style="width:607px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="607"/><span class="fr-inner">The book burning memorial in Frankfurt, a necessary stop in Ambeth Ocampo&#x27;s walking tour of Rizal. <em>Image courtesy of Lexi Schulze</em></span></span></span></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>Jose was a profound writer, but he was also funny as hell.</strong></div><p>In a way, I&#x27;m glad that my upcoming experience of reading Jose&#x27;s books is something I&#x27;ve chosen to do myself, and not forced down my throat in a way that would have tainted them as torturous. Ocampo himself admitted to getting by in school through reading the comics version, while he had to eventually read the actual books because he was the one doing the teaching.</p><p>&quot;And when I read it, because it was not school, I realized then how funny Rizal was,&quot; Ocampo shared. &quot;And I said, how come this was not taught to me? Because the Rizal that is taught in school is a Rizal who&#x27;s national hero. We&#x27;re looking for nationalistic things. We&#x27;re always seeing him in a serious way. But the novel should be read as literature, and enjoyed as literature.&quot;</p><p>And Jose&#x27;s humor was evident in his journal entries as well. According to Ocampo, while he was in Frankfurt, he only cared to see two monuments: Gutenburg, the father of printing; and Goethe, whom he admired for his literary works. He found the former to be a horrendous structure not worth his time, and the latter was worthy of a sketch and a side comment: &quot;They made a very nice monument to Goethe, but he doesn&#x27;t look like a poet, he looks like a banker. A very industrious banker.&quot;</p><div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:575px;display:block" width="575"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1767051180247IMG_2752.jpg" style="width:575px;display:block;height:auto" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="575"/><span class="fr-inner">Rizal&#x27;s diary sketch of the Goethe monument in Frankfurt. <em>Image courtesy of Lexi Schulze</em></span></span></span></div><div><strong>Jose was a polyglot trickster.</strong></div><p>Who wouldn&#x27;t want a travel buddy who spoke several languages? Only, Jose&#x27;s gift didn&#x27;t necessarily come in handy for leisure, but to make sure his letters while in exile in Dapitan were not understood by the guards who were tasked to watch him in exile.  </p><p>&quot;He knew that the police were opening his mail,&quot; said Ocampo. &quot;So to confound [them], he wrote in different languages. </p><p>&quot;Here he starts in German, then he writes in French, then he writes in English, then he writes in Spanish, then he writes in Italian. So he&#x27;s always telling the people he&#x27;s writing to, please try to be in these languages because I might forget the languages I learned when I was in Europe.&quot; </p><div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:685px;display:block" width="685"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1767057548605IMG_2761.jpeg" style="width:685px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="685"/><span class="fr-inner">A sample of Jose Rizal&#x27;s handwriting in a very curious letter written in several languages. <em>Image courtesy of Lexi Schulze</em></span></span></span></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>Jose always left his heart in the Philippines despite constantly being abroad.</strong></div><p>One of my favorite takeaways from the &quot;Jose on the Go&quot; tour of Ambeth Ocampo was his take on the 19th century Filipino traveler, and how they described Europe as Filipinos abroad, and not the same old tune of foreigners describing how they viewed the Philippines. In effect, Ocampo explained that it was a great way for Asians to have a voice and come up with their own views of the world. </p><p>One of the letters Ocampo told the tour group about was one that Jose wrote to a friend who asked him to be godfather to his son had been born in Barcelona. Since Jose couldn&#x27;t attend, he sent a letter instead, saying:</p><p>&quot;Congratulations on your son. I will miss the lechon and the adobo and the sinigang that you will eat. Not only will I miss that, but I see in your little boy that this boy will grow up in a foreign country, in a land that is free and that is liberal.</p><p>&quot;And my greatest pain is that this boy will be like Luna&#x27;s son...he will be one Frenchman more and one Filipino less.&quot; </p><p>For Ocampo, Jose&#x27;s love for country grew stronger whenever he was away. &quot;I think if he did not go abroad,&quot; he said, &quot;we would have had a completely different person. </p><p>&quot;When Rizal was abroad, he missed his family, he missed the food, and he was so scared of forgetting Tagalog,&quot; explained Ocampo. &quot;So, in his luggage, he carried two things: he carried the <em>Florante at Laura</em>, which he read repeatedly; and there was a book which was written in Tagalog, which he read because he was so scared to forget his own language. So, Rizal&#x27;s coming of age actually comes with being abroad. So it&#x27;s one of the things that most people forget, that Rizal loved his country <em>because </em>he went abroad.&quot;</p><div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px;display:block" width="960"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1767038049830Noli Books.jpeg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/><span class="fr-inner">The German translation of &#x27;Noli Me Tangere&#x27; at the 2025 Frankfurt Book Fair. <em>Image courtesy of Lexi Schulze</em> </span></span></span></div><p>A few months after my &quot;Jose Hangover&quot; from the Frankfurt Book Fair in October, I&#x27;m waiting with baited breath for my copy of Noli Me Tangere (I’m an idiot for not having gotten one during the book fair) to arrive in January—thanks to a dear friend who’s coming back from visiting home for the holidays. And instead of leading with a sense of dread at the iconic nature of the book (or being petrified at the thought of a failing grade after having to read it in Tagalog), I will dive in with the mentality of having been handed the manuscript by my other dear friend Jose—who saw the world and still maintained with one hundred per cent certainty that nothing would ever compare to the Philippines. </p><p>And maybe, just maybe, he&#x27;ll get me to agree with him.</p><p>For now, I celebrate Rizal day from Spain, and remind myself to be more like Jose. Not just a lover of my homeland from afar, but someone who would take a figurative bullet for it by loving it more than any other place in the world.</p>

<p>In a Rizal walking tour during the recent Frankfurt Book Fair, historian Ambeth Ocampo managed to humanize our national hero, presenting him in a palatable in an non-intimidating way. So much so that, for one attendee, she felt that she and "Jose" would've been friends had they crossed paths.</p>

In a Rizal walking tour during the recent Frankfurt Book Fair, historian Ambeth Ocampo managed to humanize our national hero, presenting him in a palatable in an non-intimidating way. So much so that, for one attendee, she felt that she and "Jose" would've been friends had they crossed paths.

Jose and I would've been friends: exploring the human side of our national hero

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Jose and I would've been friends: exploring the human side of our national hero

Lexi Schulze

Published Dec 30, 2025 11:29 AM PHT

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Updated Dec 30, 2025 06:36 PM PHT

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ABSlifestyle

Jose Rizal

National Hero

Rizal Day

Noli Me Tangere

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