By Noralyn O. Dudt
IT WAS 1898 at the Parque de
Luneta—a huge 140 acre (58 hectares)—park overlooking the Manila Bay. Kommandant Krueger
monitored the placement of the large statue of Kaiser Wilhelm II, offset from
Jose Rizal's. His aides were putting up new signs. It was going to be the
"Kaiser Wilhelm und Jose Rizal Stadtgarten." It had taken several
days to remove the "Paseo de Luneta and Paseo Maria Cristina" signs
along the way and replaced them with "Kaiser Wilhelm PrachtStrasse." From
what he could see, it would be difficult to properly teach these natives proper
respect for the Kaiser and to ferret out their resistance. It pained him that
there was so little enthusiasm for cooperation especially after completion of a
German non-aggression treaty with Japan. He has been quite certain that the
Philippines would have a brighter future as a German protectorate.Vice Admiral Otto von Diederichs
That's a scenario that has been going on in my head. What if the
German Asiatic Squadron under the command of Vice Admiral Otto von Diederichs did
not move away from the American Commodore Dewey's fleet on that day in May of
1898 on Manila Bay? Had the German Vice Admiral really known how
Commodore Dewey really felt and how
alarmed he was to see the German
squadron of five warships and two auxiliaries that easily outnumbered his men,
the vice admiral may not have withdrawn
his troops. Dewey later confessed about
feeling so intimidated that he ordered a blockade of Manila on that same day.
It had only been 28 years
since Chancellor Otto von Bismarck gathered the 39 individual states together
in 1871 and created the nation of Germany under Kaiser Wilhelm the 1st.
Politically, Germany was still a new nation by 1898. Kaiser Wilhelm I wanted a "place in the
sun" and was trying to play catch-up with the British and French in acquiring colonies—coaling
stations—around the world. Germany just
acquired Namibia in southwest Africa and New Guinea in the Pacific a decade
earlier. If the United States was not going to annex the Philippines, the
Germans were apparently itching to do so. "Die Philippinen" would be
a prized possession. A German division
in Hongkong under the command of Prince Henry of Prussia had been on
standby. The American Commodore Dewey
and the German Prince Henry had met and although they had been cordial to each
other, Prince Henry was apprehensive about the United States' ambitions
and just might "snatch the
plum" for which Germany was trying to reach. According to a November 1955
article in the Proceedings by the U.S. Naval Institute, Prince Henry was heard
to say to Commodore Dewey at a banquet, "what would you want in the event
of Spain's defeat?"
A Philippines under German protectorate would have had
geopolitical implications. Her
territorial waters are the shipping routes to Japan and Korea. Without these
routes, no ship would ever reach northeast Asia. With her strategic location
along these sea lanes, the
Philippines was a "treasure"
to be had.
It was in the Philippines where Spain based her Asiatic
mercantile fleet. Spain's galleons sailed across the vast Pacific from the Port
of Manila to Acapulco which was then called New Spain for 250 years
(1565-1815). Manila had one of the best ports for trade at the time. The spices, porcelain and other
treasures that the galleons carried enriched
Spain's treasury in Madrid immensely.
A Deutscher (German) Philippinen would not have been invaded by
Japan in the Second World War. The
Japanese and the Germans were allies. Could this alliance have yielded a
different outcome of the war in the
Pacific? There would have been no General Douglas MacArthur in the
Philippines. He would definitely not be returning. A German Philippines would
have had no Filipino soldiers and guerillas fighting for the United States.
Japan would have had an easier time in her conquest of Southeast Asia and in
attaining her goal of the "Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere" with Germany on her side. This was a dynamic that would have produced a world completely different from what we know today. Ahh,
the what-ifs... and the would-have-beens….
DR. JOSE RIZAL
(1861-1896)
JOSE RIZAL IST EIN NATIONALHELD DER PHILIPPINEN. ER WAR EIN ARTZ UND EIN
DICHTER. ALS REFORMER VERURTEILTE ER DAS
KOLONIALREGIME SPANIENS, GLAUBTE ABER AUCH AN DEN GEWALTLOSEN WIDERSTAND. SEINE
AUTOBIOGRAPHIE, DIE ER WAEHREND SEINES AUFENTHALTES IN WILHELMSFELD
FERTIGSTELLTE, PRAEGTE SEINEN ROMAN "NOLI ME TANGERE"
"National Hero of the Philippines, a doctor and a poet. As a Reformer. he
condemned the Spanish colonial regime
but stood for nonviolent
resistance. He completed his
autobiography, characterized in his novel "Noli Me Tangere" in
Wilhelmsfeld, Germany."
A statue of Dr. Rizal in
Wilhelmsfeld, a town within the shadow
of the renowned UniversitaetHeidelberg demonstrated that the Germans had a very
high regard for the young man who possessed exceptional courage and skills to
write thought-provoking novels against the mighty Spanish Crown. Rizal was in
Heidelberg to advance his knowledge and
skills in the praxis of ophthalmology
under the tutelage of the renowned Herr Dr. Otto Beck, a UniversitaetHeidelberg
professor who pioneered ophthalmic pathology and authored numerous writings on
the eye. It was in Berlin where his
novel "Noli Me Tangere" was first printed. The Germans must have
admired this young man of superior intelligence that their depiction of the
statue they built for him was that of a man who was standing tall and in deep thought. Would they have extended
this high regard to the land and the
people who nurtured this man?
Kommandant Krueger and his crew moved on. They had other signage
to replace—the papal university of Santo Tomas that was founded in 1611, was
going to be renamed Universitaet Sankt Thomas. The Germans had ambitious designs—they wanted to make this institution
of higher learning a world-class institution for the study of Medical Science,
Chemistry, Physics and Engineering. By
the late 19th century, Germany's leadership in chemical research in the
universities and industrial laboratories made the country dominant in the world's
chemical industry. Germany's engineers had a stellar reputation worldwide. Her
prowess in engineering has been indisputable.
Engineers who were trained in the country's institutions have been world
leaders in their field, renowned for their dedication to precision, function and power. Ahhh...the what-ifs...
and the would-have-beens....
The what-ifs...the could-have-been....the would-have-been....one
could keep pondering.
Of course, Germany was not to be the colonial Master of the
Philippines.
It was the United States of America...and the rest is history.
Germany did come later...in 1911 but not with her military
squadrons. It was through a very
dedicated group of priests of the CICM Order that was founded in neighboring
Belgium. It was not to "colonize"
but to share what God had endowed her citizens
with: a noble purpose and the
funds to pursue Sapientia Aedificat
(Wisdom Builds) by establishing a college that eventually became
the Saint Louis University of Baguio City. The massive Engineering
Building was named after Herr Professor Otto Hahn who was awarded the Nobel
Prize in Chemistry in 1944. The well-equipped Science Building was named after
Herr Konrad Adenauer, a former Chancellor of Germany and a well-respected
statesman. And not to forget the esteemed
Dr. Jose Rizal whose name is on the 9-storey building that is the Saint
Louis University Library. A scenario no longer...they were real events that
shaped a university into the high caliber institution that has been producing
good doctors and engineers... just as its founders envisioned in the University
logo: SAPIENTIA AEDIFICAT....WISDOM BUILDS.
Special thanks to my friend
Frau Erika Lange of Northern Germany for her advice and input into my German
translation.
Noralyn Onto Dudt has been
retired for two years but still has fond
memories of the time she spent studying and working in the well-equipped labs
on the 3rd floor of the Adenauer Science Building when she attended Saint Louis
University of Baguio City over 5 decades ago.
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