AUSTRIAN ACADEMIC DISCOVERS MISLABELED 1887 LETTER FROM JOSE RIZAL AT VIENNA CITY LIBRARY 

An Austrian academic recently discovered a mislabeled letter from Dr. Jose Rizal to an Austrian writer hidden among the collection of documents at the Vienna City Library. In September 2023, Dr. Johann Stockinger, Vice President of the Austro-Philippine Society, found an 1887 letter by Dr. Jose Rizal to Mr. Johannes Nordmann, Austrian writer and propagandist, when he requested to inspect a letter to Nordmann catalogued by the Library as coming from a “José Kisz.” 

The Library miscatalogued the letter’s author as “Jose Kisz” because they could not read the signature, which was immediately recognized by Dr. Stockinger. This discovery was discussed during Dr. Stockinger’s public lecture, “Reliving Rizal: Friendship with Austria’s Johannes Nordmann” organized by the Philippine embassy in Vienna on 24 January 2025 at the Vienna City Library. 

Dr. Rizal wrote to Nordmann in German in response to receiving Mr. Nordmann’s book, Spring Nights in Salamanca, sent to him in Geneva after they met in Vienna while Dr. Rizal was traveling with fellow Filipino and member of the Propaganda Movement Dr. Maximo Viola. The lecture was anchored on the letter’s contents and Rizal’s comparison of some aspects of Nordmann’s book to his own Noli Me Tangere, and provided a detailed discussion on Mr. Nordmann, the Austrian political context in 1887, and Mr. Nordmann’s book to better understand Dr. Rizal’s letter.

The original letter was on display during the lecture, and attendees were given the opportunity to view it up close, while online attendees were shown the letter live via video at the end of the lecture. END.

(Left) Pages 1 and 5 of the recently-discovered letter of Dr. Jose Rizal to Mr. Johannes Nordmann of the Concordia Press Club. (Right) Mag. Gerhard Murauer of the Vienna City Library and Ambassador Evangelina A. Bernas with the original letter on display. 

Filipino community representatives and Austrians attend and participate in the public lecture, “Reliving Rizal: Friendship with Austria’s Johannes Nordmann” on 24 January 2025 at the Vienna City Library.