In the footsteps of Wilhelm II

Some of the additions and improvements the city saw in 1898 for the kaiser’s iconic visit can still be viewed today.

By AVIVA BAR-AM
Mamilla Mall (photo credit: SHMUEL BAR-AM)
Mamilla Mall
(photo credit: SHMUEL BAR-AM)
Theodor Herzl, the father of modern Zionism, heard that Kaiser Wilhelm II planned to visit Jerusalem in 1898 to inaugurate the Church of the Redeemer. True, the kaiser, emperor of Germany and king of Prussia, wasn’t in the least interested in creating a home for the Jews in the Land of Israel, but Herzl hoped that if they met on the soil of the Holy Land he might be able to win him over.
Herzl docked at Jaffa port on October 28 and traveled by train to Jerusalem. Although a carriage was sent to bring him from the train station to his hotel, Herzl decided to walk – as it was Friday and Shabbat had already begun. (According to another source, there were so many people waiting for the emperor to arrive the next day that there wasn’t a carriage to be had.) Already ill when he landed, his fever rose as he made the trek from the station to his overnight lodgings at the Kaminitz Hotel.
Perhaps Herzl was tucked into a tiny, stuffy, out-of-the-way room at the Kaminitz because Jerusalem hotels were overbooked.
A view of the Old City from the Tower of David.
Or it could be that the proprietors worried he was contagious.
But most likely they were afraid to be hospitable: the city’s Old Guard Ashkenazi leaders – who were violently opposed to the Zionist idea – had put up posters warning Jerusalemites to boycott the great man. (They worked, too: Herzl wasn’t invited to any of the festive events.) Early the next morning, he packed up and moved to his friends, the Sterns, who lived on Mamilla Street just outside the Old City walls.
While Herzl spent the next four days biting his nails in anticipation of his meeting, Wilhelm gallivanted around the city. In fact, within the space of a week, the emperor managed to visit every German institution in Jerusalem, along with the Temple Mount, the Western Wall and the Mount of Olives. This week’s half-day Street Stroll follows in some of his footsteps, and takes you to Theodor Herzl’s overnight lodgings as well.
Begin at 42 Hanevi’im Street, which in that historic week was covered with imperial tents. It was here on November 2, 1898, that Herzl met with the emperor to discuss Zionist issues. Who knows what might have happened had Wilhelm given his wholehearted support to Herzl’s cause. But Wilhelm hemmed and hawed and remained annoyingly neutral. Indeed, Herzl wrote in his journal that “he didn’t say ‘yes’ and he didn’t say ‘no.’” At the beginning of the 20th century the German government built an imposing two-story building on the empty plot to house the head of the German Protestant community. Although the eagle and cross that symbolized the German empire have since been removed, two walls retain inscriptions. Look for them on the front and side of what is now the Jerusalem Ort Oleiski College.
Wilhelm, his wife, and an enormous entourage began making their way through the streets of Jerusalem by horse and by carriage on the afternoon of October 29. They proceeded along Hanevi’im Street as far as today’s Davidka Square across from the Clal Center – your next stop.
Three spectacular gates had been prepared for Wilhelm along Jaffa Road. The first was located next to the Alliance Israelite Universelle, founded in 1882 as one of the only two modern educational facilities in the city. Staff at the school included Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, who took the position on condition that classes would be held in Hebrew.
In 1970, Alliance and its lovely gardens were razed to the ground and replaced by the tall, ugly Clal Center. Look for the school’s decorative iron gate on the sidewalk. It’s all that remains of the historic school.
Jewish Gate, the most elaborate and impressive of the three, boasted silk curtains embroidered with silver and gold. Greeting the kaiser at the gate were the two chief rabbis and dignitaries from the local Jewish community.
Make a short detour before continuing to the site of the second gate and turn into No. 68 Jaffa Road (there is a lion on the second story).
Look through the parking lot to see the former Kaminitz Hotel.
The Church of the Redeemer.
In 1833, Menachem Mindel immigrated to Israel from Kaminitz, Lithuania. Less than a decade later, he became the first Jew to enter the Jerusalem hotel business, with an old-fashioned guest house inside the walls. That hotel’s restaurant provided European-style breads and may have been the only place in the city where you could buy any sustenance but pita bread.
Mindel’s son purchased this European-style house in 1883, five years after it was constructed by a Jerusalem banker. To turn it into a luxury hotel, he expanded the building, planted an exquisite garden and prepared a special driveway for carriages.
Take a good look: hard to believe that this shabby structure was once Jerusalem’s most elegant hostelry!
RETURN TO Jaffa Road and continue along the emperor’s route. City Council Gate was probably situated next to Gan Daniel, Jerusalem’s oldest public garden. Also known as Gan Ha’ir (City Garden), it was far larger when established in 1892 than it is today. Gan Daniel is named for Daniel Auster, who served as Jerusalem’s first Jewish mayor after the establishment of the State of Israel. In its early years the park hosted colorful outdoor concerts.
The gate of the former Alliance Israelite Universelle.
Conducted by a Russian Jew, they were performed by a Turkish orchestra in striking regalia.
Before entering the Old City, Wilhelm would also have passed through the nearby Sultan’s Gate, a marvelously ornate structure brought over from Constantinople and boasting two red and white minarets crowned with golden crescents.
Time for another side trip, this time to the Mamilla Mall. When the parking lots were constructed underneath, the handsome villa in which Herzl stayed overnight with his friends the Sterns had to be moved. But as you can see, each brick was numbered for future reconstruction and today has resurfaced as a Steimatzky bookstore. Climb the steps at the end of the mall to reach the plaza in front of Jaffa Gate.
Aware that Wilhelm and his extensive entourage would never make it through Jaffa Gate, the Turks breached a gap in the wall that connected the gate with the Citadel, plugged up the adjacent moat and created a second and wider point of access – today the vehicular entrance to the Old City.
Wilhelm dismounted, and Empress Augusta Victoria alighted from her carriage, next to the Tower of David. Just as they did, walk down the steps on David Street and turn left at Christian Street. At St. Helena Street turn right to reach the Church of the Holy Sepulchre – the traditional site of Jesus’ crucifixion, burial and subsequent resurrection.
Of some 300 churches erected under the Byzantines, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built in 335 CE, was the largest, most extravagant and most important. Little remains of this wondrous original basilica, which was destroyed by the Persian invaders in 614. What you see before you today is the Romanesque church constructed by the Crusaders over a 50-year period and inaugurated in 1149. It is far smaller and much less ornate than the original Byzantine basilica but still most impressive to behold.
In 1869, Turkish sultan Abed el-Aziz granted German crown prince Frederick the gift of land in Jerusalem on which to build a German Lutheran church. The plot came complete with a pile of ruins, the remains of a medieval sanctuary called the Church of St. Maria Latina.
Once a magnificent structure, St. Maria Latina was renovated by the Crusaders in the middle of the 12th century. The German Church of the Redeemer was designed to follow St. Maria Latina’s lines as closely as possible, and the architect even incorporated the ancient decorative entrance into an external wall.
Prince Frederick, who died of cancer only 99 days after taking the throne in 1888, did not live to see the church completed. Thus it was his son Wilhelm II who dedicated the sanctuary on this, his first visit to the Holy Land.
Recent excavations under the structure have revealed layers dating back almost 2,000 years.
Starting December 3, visitors to the church will be able to explore the excavations, examine artifacts on display in the church’s charming new museum and walk through the well-preserved Crusader cloister.
(Hours: Monday to Saturday 9 a.m. to 12 noon, 1 to 3:30 p.m.; tel. 626-6800, fee NIS 15.) Wilhelm and Augusta Victoria visited more than a dozen other sites in both Old and New Jerusalem, but this is where you part ways with them. When you exit the church, turn left and continue to David Street. Here, go right, all the way up to the Tower of David Museum, to enjoy “The Kaiser is Coming!” a superbly interactive, technologically advanced and extraordinarily visual temporary exhibit.
On display are newspaper reports about the visit, complete with photos – often humorous – that move.
View Wilhelm’s massive entourage as it proceeds through the city, the fabulous gates prepared for his visit, fancy attire worn by women (and men) of the day and vintage photos showing Jaffa Gate of old.
Added bonus: You can take your picture with the kaiser in his tent and email it to your family and friends!
The exhibition is open during regular museum hours: Sunday through Thursday 10 a.m.to 4 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. •
Take the tour
Nikky Strassman is scheduled to lead a fascinating Tower of David Museum tour in English called Redeemers and Dreamers in 19th-century Jerusalem.
Strassman will lead you to the Museum rooftop for descriptions of the stupendous view below, then through the market to the fascinating Muristan area. She will offer explanations of the political and historical implications of Wilhelm’s trip at a variety of Old City sites, take you on a tour of the Church of the Redeemer and bring you back to the Tower of David and the new Wilhelm exhibit.
Cost of the two-and-a-half-hour tour includes entrance to the museum and its new exhibit as well as the Church of the Redeemer excavations and museum. Price: NIS 80 adults and NIS 65 seniors and students. Tour dates: Friday, December 7 and Friday, December 28. You must register for the tours in advance. Call 626-5333 or go online at www.towerofdavid.org.il.