125 years ago, the Viennese journalist Theodor Herzl gathered Jews from all over the world in Basel – and changed the world. Review of a visionary project.
Master of staging: Theodor Herzl on the terrace of the Hotel Drei Könige in Basel in August 1897.
At the end of August 1897, the locals were amazed. On the streets of Basel they see strangers with long beards and kaftans, hear exotic languages. Around 250 Jews have traveled from all over the world to be there when world history is being written. “We want to lay the cornerstone of the house that will one day house the Jewish nation,” says the man who organized the first Zionist congress: Theodor Herzl, a 37-year-old lawyer and journalist from Vienna.