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Updated: June 6, 2025
On August 29, 1897, the First Zionist Congress was assembled, not in Munich but in Basle, Switzerland. The majority of the delegates to the First Zionist Congress, drawn to Basle from all parts of the world, saw Herzl for the first time. The total number of delegates at the first session was 197. The first act of the Congress was the adoption of a resolution of thanks to the Sultan of Turkey.
The third was the creation of a press to influence public opinion and to prepare the Jewish masses for the great migration. Through the Rev. Hechler, a chaplain of the British Embassy in Vienna, who believed in the Jewish return to the Holy Land, Herzl was introduced to the Grand Duke of Baden, a Christian of great piety and influence in political circles.
The Kaiser recognized him from a distance. He said a few words about the weather, about the lack of water in Palestine, and that it was a land that had a future. In the petition Herzl later submitted to the Kaiser, many of the pregnant passages were deleted by the Kaiser's advisers.
At this point it is important to refer to his family life. He had married Julie Naschauer on July 25, 1889. She was the daughter of wealthy parents and grew up in a conventional social circle. When she married Herzl he was already a rising young author who was highly regarded among those with whom she associated.
There were to be two billion shares at £1 each. The bank was to be directed by men acquainted with banking affairs, but the movement would be placed in a position to control its policy. The hopes of Herzl grew from week to week. As he approached the practical situation he became less and less confident of the cooperation of men of wealth.
On his return to Vienna, Herzl made the following entry in his diary: "If I were to sum up the Basle Congress in a single phrase I would say: In Basle I created the Jewish State. Were I to say this aloud I would be greeted by universal laughter. But perhaps five years hence, in any case, certainly fifty years hence, everyone will perceive it.
Herzl insisted that his leadership in the movement was impersonal and that now its direction was vested in its instruments the Congress and the Actions Committee. But he had all the authority of an accepted leader. The evolution of Herzl's conception of the Jewish problem since he saw the degradation of Dreyfus can be measured by a study of the articles he wrote after the First Congress.
By now Herzl was no longer content with a simple acceptance of the facts; he was looking for the deeper significance of the universal enmity directed against the Jews. For the world it is a lightning conductor. But so far it was only a flash of insight which ended in nothing more than a literary paradox. However, from now on it gave him no peace.
Herzl may have been nothing more than amiability on the part of the Sultan, but it certainly showed that his Majesty was not displeased with the doctor's mission. The leaders of this new movement are not, however, pinning all their faith on the Sultan. If it becomes impossible to secure Palestine they will treat for a tract of land in some healthy part of South America.
"What is more, everyone knows it. The Jewish question is neither nationalistic nor religious. It is a social question." Then came the summer, 1894, and at its close Herzl took a much needed vacation. He spent the month of September in Baden, near Vienna, in the company of his fellow-feuilletonist on the Neue Freie Presse, Ludwig Speidel. Herzl has left a record of their conversation.
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