Batangas 1st District Representative Leandro Leviste has acquired a house in Wilhelmsfeld, Germany, where national hero Jose Rizal once lived while working on portions of the manuscript of his novel Noli Me Tangere.
Leviste confirmed the acquisition in a social media post in Filipino, where the billionaire lawmaker-businessman said he wanted to “preserve the house and promote Philippine history.”
The son of Senator Loren Legarda, however, declined to tell the DAILY TRIBUNE how much he paid for the property.
The house, located in the small village of Wilhelmsfeld, was where Rizal stayed in 1886 as a guest of Pastor Karl Ullmer, the village’s Protestant vicar.
Rizal stayed in Germany in 1886 and 1887. He trained in ophthalmology in Heidelberg, where he continued working on the novel.
Historians note that the novel itself was written across several European cities between 1884 and 1886, including Madrid, Paris, Heidelberg and Berlin.
In the biography The First Filipino: A Biography of José Rizal, written by Leon Ma. Guerrero — which won first prize in the Rizal Biography Contest in 1961 — Wilhelmsfeld is mentioned in Chapter IX, A Novelist’s Diagnosis.
Banned
Biographers say the quiet rural environment at Wilhelmsfeld and the intellectual exchanges there helped Rizal polish the Noli Me Tangere, the first of his two novels.
The second, El Filibusterismo, was later published in 1891. Both novels were banned by the Spaniards and were considered to have contributed to Rizal facing a firing squad in 1896.
Historians generally note, however, that Rizal later completed the final manuscript of Noli Me Tangere in Berlin, where he lived at Jägerstraße 71 in the city center.
It was there, in late 1886, that he finalized the work before arranging its publication in 1887 with the financial help of his friend Maximo Viola.
The Berlin house still stands today and bears a commemorative plaque marking Rizal’s stay there. During his official visit to Germany in March 2024, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. visited the site to pay tribute to the national hero.
Still intact
Other places associated with Rizal in Germany also remain preserved.
In Heidelberg, where Rizal trained in ophthalmology under German physicians, the former University Eye Clinic along Bergheimer Straße — where he studied and worked during his stay — still exists and is marked as part of the city’s historical record of Rizal’s presence.
In his post, Leviste shared a photo of him with Dr. Franz Hack Ullmer, grandson of Pastor Ullmer; representatives of the Protestant Church that owns the house; Dr. Tobias Dangel, mayor of Wilhelmsfeld; and Herbert Ehses, Germany chapter commander of the Knights of Rizal.
The purchase comes amid controversies involving Leviste in recent months, including statements he made about alleged irregularities in government flood control projects and his sale of a significant stake in his renewable energy company.