Philippine-German Relations (V)

    Klaus

November 25, 2007 by Klaus  
Filed under Klaus

Following, or in other words, completing the chronology of Philippine-German Relations, allow me also to mention June 12, 1898, when the first Philippine Republic was proclaimed with Emilio Aguinaldo as President, after Spanish sovereignty over the islands had ended.

Another remarkable date was October 6, 1896, the death of Jacobo Zobel y Zangroniz, a Filipino of German and Spanish blood, before his departure to Germany.

The Zobels came from Hamburg/Germany. In 1832 Johannes Andreas Zobel, his wife Cornelia Hinsch and their son Jacobo, arrived in Manila to seek their fortune “at a time when Germany had not lost its democracy through emigration” (Quotation Austin Craig, “A Little Known Filipino Worth of Greater Fame”, The Sunday Tribune, no date, P.4).

Jacobo Zobel y Zangroniz (1842-1896) was born in Manila. After the death of his mother in 1848, he was sent to study in Germany. His studied at the private school of Dr. Brandman up to 1852. In the public school “Johanneum” he finished his segunda ensenanza, where he excelled in Greek and Latin.

In 1858, the older Jacobo, who managed the Botica Zobel in Manila, came back to Hamburg and took his son to Madrid.

Professor Austin Craig said of Jacobo: “He didn’t forget his democratic ideas. He gathered about him a circle of kindred ambitious spirits … succeeded in stirring up the educational reforms embodied in the decrees of 1863. Though these reforms were all for Spain, his interests were primarily for the Philippines”.

The year 1898 has been mentioned already several times in my former write ups regarding the six German battleships under the command of Vice Admiral Diedrichs appearing in Manila Bay. Further speculations about this incident are idle and pointless, as many people told me, when I asked them about it.

Up to 1920 many “religious German people” arrived in the Philippines, as I learnt from my mentor Prof. Dr. Hermogenes E. Bacareza:

1906 - Arrival inManila of German Benedict Missionary Sisters from Tutzing/Bavaria/Germany;

1909 - First German SVD Missionaries came to the Philippines and started their first mission work in Abra, Northern Philippines. (Personal note: I was very blessed to be columnist of the SVD owned and mission oriented “Tinig ng Bayan” - “Voice of the Nation” during the 1980s, published in Abra);

1912 - Arrival of the German Missionary Sisters of the Holy Spirit in Manila;

1920 - First German Missionary Sisters Servants (Pink Sisters) established their first convent in Lipa, Batangas at the request of Bishop Alfredo Verzosa, D.D.

The time of fascism came. Between 1936 - 1945 facism gained foothold also in the Philippines, i.e. the establishment of the Falange Exterior of the Philippines in Manila. A state of undeclared war between the Philippines and Germany remained from 1941 till 1954. The end was signed by the famous Laurel-Langley Agreement.

(To be continued!)

About the Author:  Klaus is from Germany, but has been living in the Philippines since the late 1990’s. Klaus is a journalist by trade, having written for a number of newspapers, studied also Publishing House Management and Marketing and has also been a Radio Host here in the Philippines.