Theodor Herzl

A journey · 8 stops

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Theodor Herzl · 1860 – 1904

1. Budapest 1860 – 1878
He is born into a comfortable, assimilated German-speaking Jewish family, near the Dohány Street Synagogue.
2. Vienna 1878 – 1890
The family moves after his sister's death. He takes a law degree, then gives it up to write plays and journalism.
3. Paris 1891 – 1895
Paris correspondent of the Neue Freie Presse. He covers the Dreyfus affair and hears crowds in the streets shouting death to the Jews.
4. Vienna 1895 – 1897
He publishes Der Judenstaat, The Jewish State, arguing that antisemitism can only be solved by a state of the Jews' own. He starts seeking out rulers and financiers.
5. Basel 1897 – 1897
He opens the First Zionist Congress. In his diary he writes: at Basel I founded the Jewish state. In fifty years, everyone will know it.
6. Vienna 1897 – 1898
Back home he runs the new movement from his own desk and funds its weekly, Die Welt, while keeping his newspaper job.
7. Jerusalem 1898 – 1898
His one visit to the land. He meets Kaiser Wilhelm II at Mikveh Israel and again in Jerusalem, and the Kaiser offers him nothing.
8. Vienna 1899 – 1904
Years of diplomacy with the Sultan, the Tsar's ministers and Britain, and the bitter Uganda debate. His heart gives out at forty-four. In 1949 he is reburied on Mount Herzl.