Herzl's comedy "Kompagniearbeit" is printed.

July 27: Herzl passes his first legal exam.

Herzl joins the "Akademische Burschenschaft Albia", a German nationalist student fraternity.

The Herzls move to the "Innere Stadt", the elegant inner city of Vienna, a favored area for affluent Jews

Theodor Mommsen (1817-1903), German historian and classical scholar, writes "Another Word About Our Jewry" in which he publicly attacks Heinrich von Treitschke's antisemitic writings. Although he is supportive of Russian Jewry, Mommsen urges Jews to assimilate.

Sir Laurence Oliphant (1829-1888), British journalist, novelist, explorer, diplomat, utopian, writes "The Land of Gilead". He proposes that Jewish settlements be established east of the Jordan under the auspices of the Turks and with the support of Great Britain and France. Oliphant settles in Palestine, in the Druse village of Usafiya near Haifa. He continues to assist the Jewish settlers.

Total population in the Land of Israel is 450,000, of which 24,000 are Jewish. The population of Jerusalem is 25,000, of which more than half are Jewish.

March: The "Akademische Lesehalle" is dissolved after an address by Georg Ritter von Schönerer, a Pan-German anti-semitic member of the Reichstag. Schönerer was winning many followers among the sons of the small bourgeoisie.

May 11: Herzl fights his only duel in the fraternity Albia.

Herzl completes his novel "Hagenau".

 

After the assassination of Czar Alexander II, a wave of pogroms occurs in more than 100 Russian communities.

Am Olam, a Russian Jewish society is formed in Odessa to encourage the settling of Jews in the U.S.

Mass emigration of Russian Jews. Jewish communities in Germany, France and England are anxious to help the victims of the pogroms. But they are afraid to engulf their countries and therefore create a network of organizations to facilitate the emigration to America.

Eliezer Ben Yehuda settles in Jerusalem.

Karl Eugen Dühring (1823-1921), German economist and philosopher, writes the first of a series of tractates on racial antisemitism.

Austrian Crown Prince Rudolf of Habsburg reaches Jaffa and proceeds to Jerusalem.

January: Herzl starts to keep a diary in which he analyzes and criticizes his course of reading. He gives his observations of on more than forty works.

February: Herzl competes for three prizes offered by the "Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung" for the best feuilleton. His feuilleton is published in May.

February: Herzl reads Wilhelm Jensen's "The Jews of Cologne", an episode out of the Jewish persecution in the middle of the 14th century.

Herzl reads Eugen Dühring's book "The Jewish Problem as a Problem of Race, Morals and Culture".

Herzl completes the one act comedy "Die Causa Hirschhorn" ("The Hirschhorn Case") and sends it to the famous actor Ernst Hartmann with the request to submit it to the Hofburgtheater, the leading theatre institution in Vienna. Hartmann sends a friendly reply and forwards the play to the Hofburgtheater which rejects it.

January: A group of young Russian Jews found the Bilu movement in the house of Israel Belkind in Charkow. Later in the year the first group arrives in Palestine.

Nathan Birnbaum (1864-1937), Ruben Bierer (1835-1931), and Moritz Schnirer (1861-1941) found "Kadimah", the first Jewish nationalist students' association at Vienna University to encourage settlement in Palestine.

Blood libel accusation against 15 Jews in Tiszaeszlar, a small Hungarian village at Passover, when a 14 year old Christian girl disappears. The Jews will be acquitted, but the incident causes a widespread outburst of antisemitism in Hungary.

Foundation of Rishon LeZion.

New prohibitions against Jews in Russia, the Jewish flight is intensified.

Leon Pinsker (1821-1891), a Russian physician who observed the pogroms of Odessa, writes "Auto-Emancipation". He analyzes the psychological and social roots of antisemitism and concludes that assimilation is impossible. The Jews will have to emancipate themselves in their own land. He writes in German in the hope of securing the support of Western Jews.

March 7: Herzl withdraws from the Akademische Burschenschaft Albia.
("Ich sagte den edlen jungen Leuten Lebewohl und fing nun an, mich ernstlich an die Arbeit zu setzen." - "I said farewell to my noble young colleagues and sat down seriously to my work.")

Herzl passes his second legal examination and goes to a trip to Switzerland.

November: Herzl completes "Der Desillusionierte" (The Disillusioned).

August Rohling, professor of Catholic Theology in Prague, offers to testify at the Tiszaeszlar blood libel trial that Jews practice ritual murder. He is challenged in the press by Rabbi Joseph Samuel Bloch who accuses him of perjury. Rohling sues Bloch for libel but will withdraw his charges during the last stages of the trial where Protestant theologians Franz Delitzsch and Hermann L. Strack discredit him.

Esra, an association for the support of Jewish farmers in Palestine and Syria is founded in Berlin. One of the founders is Willi Bambus (1863-1904) who will later oppose Herzl's political Zionism.

Moses Leib Lilienblum and Leon Pinsker found the Zerubbabel organization in Odessa. It becomes the center for contacts with other Zionist groups.

Moses Leib Lilienblum writes "The Future of Our People". He urges to initiate "our efforts for the renaissance of Israel in the land of its forefathers, where the next generation may attain, to the fullest extent, a normal national life."

Max Nordau (1849-1923), philosopher and physician writes "The Conventional Lies of Our Civilization", an attack on hypocrisy and intellectual dishonesty of society's institutions. At that time, Nordau is an assimilated intellectual. The Dreyfus Affair will result in his return to Judaism and Zionism.

Isaak Rülf (1831-1902), German-born rabbi of Memel, writes "Aruhat Bat Ami", an essay advocating the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine with Hebrew as its language as the way to solve the Jewish problem in Europe.

Colonel Albert Edward Williamson Goldsmid (1846-1903) visits Palestine and is inspired to return to the Judaism his parents had abandoned. He will become one of the founders of Chovevei Zion in England and cooperate with Herzl in adopting the political Zionist program and forming the English Zionist Organization in 1898.

May: Herzl is graduated as Doctor of Laws.
He sets out for a holiday in Paris.

July 30: Herzl is admitted to the bar in Vienna.

August 4: Herzl enters his law practice in the service of the state.

Completion of "Tabarin".

 

Joseph Samuel Bloch is elected to the Austrian Parliament.

First conference of Hovevei Zion groups in Kattowitz, Silesia. The conference is led by Leon Pinsker who calls for Jews to return to agriculture in Palestine but does not stress a national renaissance and political independence. Professor Zvi Hermann
Schapira proposes the establishment of a body “that would redeem the land of Israel."

Foundation of Gederah by members of the Bilu movement.

Naphtali Herz Imber (1856-1909), Hebrew poet, writes "HaTikvah", which appears in his first volume of poems, and is dated "Jerusalem 1884". It becomes the national anthem of the Jews and of the state of Israel after its founding.

William Hechler (1845-1931) writes "The Restauration of the Jews to Palestine According to the Prophets". He "proves" that Palestine would be given back to the Jews in 1897-1898.

June: Herzl is transferred to the "Landesgericht" (Provincial Court) of Salzburg.

August 5: Herzl withdraws from the court service in order to become a writer.

Journey to Belgium and Holland.

Herzl writes a weekly column for the humorous periodical "Der Floh" - "The Flea".

Completion of the comedy "Muttersöhnchen" ("Mother's Little Boy").

Journey to Berlin in order to seek a producer for his plays.
On the way back to Vienna, he visits Prague for the first time.

Successful production of "Tabarin" in New York by the famous actor Friedrich Mitterwurzer.

Herzl seeks his identification with Vienna's artistic culture.

Nathan Birnbaum founds and edits the first Jewish nationalist journal in German "Selbstemanzipation" - "Self-Emancipation".

Edmund Menachem Eisler (1850-1942), Slovakian author who writes in German, publishes "Ein Zukunftsbild" - "A Sign of the Future", a novel that envisions the exodus of the Jews from Europe to a Zionist Utopia, where Hebrew is the national language.

Second journey to Paris and to the Normandy after the completion of "Seine Hoheit" (His Highness"), a satire on the power of money in bourgeois society which evaluates all human beings according to their possessions.

October: Second visit to Berlin. Herzl starts his friendship with Arthur Levysohn, editor-in-chief of the "Berliner Tageblatt". Levysohn commissions Herzl to send a regular weekly article from Vienna. Herzl calls these sketches "Die Siebentagereise" - "The Seven Day Journey".

Photo.

David Gruen, later David Ben Gurion is born ins Plonsk.

The Jewish Theological Seminary of America is founded in New York.

Journey to Italy. Herzl writes feuilletons for the "Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung". Herzl describes the ghetto in Rome with both repulsion and sympathy and the memory of a shared history of suffering.

Herzl's view of Judaism in the 1880s.

April 15: Herzl is installed feuilleton editor of the "Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung" but holds the post only a short time.

July: The comedy "Seine Hoheit" is accepted for production by the Wallner Theatre in Berlin.

Herzl's first book, a collection of articles, sketches and stories is published: "Neues von der Venus" - "News from the Venus".

Completion of the comedy "Der Flüchtling" - "The Fugitive".

Second Hovevei Zion conference in Druskieniki. Rabbi Samuel Mohilever (1824-1898) wants to transform it into a religious movement but is opposed by secular delegates.

Eliezer Ben Yehuda and David Yellin (1864-1941) publish the first children's book in Palestine.

February: "Seine Hoheit" is produced in Prague and well received by public and critics alike.
In March the play is transferred to Berlin.

Journey to Belgium and England. Herzl experiences for the first time the dread medieval cry of "Hep! Hep!"

Herzl writes dozens of feuilletons during the journey and sends the best of them to the "Neue Freie Presse". They are printed immediately.

Herzl publishes "Das Buch der Narrheit" - "The Book of Folly", a collection of feuilletons and dedicates it to Arthur Levysohn.

Together with Hugo Wittmann, the leading feuilletonist, he writes the comedy "Wilddiebe" - "Poachers". The play is produced by the Hofburgtheater in Vienna.

Baron Maurice de Hirsch (1831-1896), German financier, establishes the Baron de Hirsch Foundation to foster educational work among the Jews in Galicia and Bukovina.

July 25: Herzl marries Julie Naschauer (1868-1907) in Reichenau.

The young couple travels to Switzerland and France and awaits the completion of their home in Vienna.

Completion of the comedy "Was wird man sagen?" - "What will People say?" which deals with the conventionality of fear of public opinion. The play is refused by the Hofburgtheater but produced later in Berlin and Prague. It is an ignominious failure with both critics and public.

Russian and Galician Jewish students found the Russian-Jewish Scientific Society in Berlin. They support Zionism.

Ahad HaAm (1856-1927) publishes his first important essay: "The Wrong Way".