Der Kaiser reist ins Heilige Land: Die Palastinareise Wilhelms II.

• Author: BECKMAN, GARY
• Position: Review

Der Kaiser reist ins Heilige Land: Die Palastinareise Wilhelms II. 1898. By ALEX CARMEL and EJAL JAKOB EISLER. Stuttgart: VERLAG W. KOHLHAMMER, 1999. Pp. 187 [German] + 11 [Hebrew]. Illustrated. DM 79.

In 1898 Kaiser Wilhelm II traveled to Palestine to participate in the dedication of the Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem, which had been built to serve the German protestant community there. Accompanied by the Kaiserin and an extensive entourage, the Hohenzollern monarch used the occasion to visit many of the holy Sites of Christendom and inspect German colonies and charitable institutions in Jerusalem and environs. Much was made of this journey in Europe, where some French and British commentators attributed an ulterior political motive to Wilhelm's pilgrimage (p. 58).

This book, which was produced under the aegis of the Gottlieb-Schumacher-Institut of the University of Haifa, commemorates the hundredth anniversary of the emperor's trip. Short essays by Eisler discuss the early activities of German--and English--protestants in Jerusalem and the planning and construction of the Erloserkirche. Carmel's chapters consider the role of Christians in the economic development of nineteenth-century Palestine and detail the day-to-day events of the imperial progress of 1898.

Carmel makes a convincing case that, although Wilhelm was indeed concerned with the contemporary political situation of the Near East, he had no territorial designs on Palestine. Indeed, his well-documented interest in cultivating good relations with Sultan Abdul Hamid greatly limited his willingness to exert German influence in support of his Christian subjects residing in the region.

More interesting, however, is the Kaiser's attitude toward the early Zionists. Although he had promised Theodore Herzl to ask the Sultan to allow the establishment of a German protectorate over the Jewish...