Heartsick, Max Nordau Writes About the Death of Theodor Herzl

July 26, 1904

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Heartsick, Max Nordau Writes About the Death of Theodor Herzl
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages | SMC 235

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  • Theodor Herzl

    Background

    Writing just three weeks after the sudden death of his friend and political partner Theodor Herzl, Nordau thanks an American journalist for his “very interesting and spontaneous appreciation of my lamented friend Herzl whose loss has been a terrible shock to me and to all those that have known and loved him.” He notes that the way he is mentioned in the article is also extremely kind - but he cannot think of himself, now, in his bereavement.

    Nordau and Herzl had first met in the early 1890’s when they were both  Paris correspondents for the German-language newspaper Neue Freie Presse. Their friendship began, however,  when Herzl, pressed to see a psychiatrist because of his outré Zionist beliefs, saw Nordau – who understood him at once, and fervently agreed. “If you are insane,” he said, “we are insane together. Count on me!”

    At Herzl’s death, Nordau was offered the presidency of the World Zionist Organization, but declined.

    Autograph Letter Signed (“Dr. M. Nordau”), in English, 1 page, duodecimo, 8, Rue Leonie, Paris, France, July 26, 1904. To Charles J. Rosebault in New York. With autograph envelope.
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    Page 1/2

    Page 1 transcript
    8, Rue Leonie, 8

    Paris, July 26th 1904

    My dear Sir,

    I thank you for your kind attention of forwarding me your very interesting and spontaneous appreciation of my lamented friend Herzl whose loss has been a terrible shock to me and to all those that have known and loved him.  The way you mention me is extremely kind also.  But how can I think of myself in my bereavement?
     
    Yours sincerely,
     
    DR. M. Nordau

    Page 2/2

    Page 2 transcript
    [M]r. Charles J. Rosebault
    The Sun Building,
    170 Nassau Street,
    New York

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    Historic Context
    Theodor Herzl
    Wikimedia Commons

    Theodor Herzl

    Theodor Herzl (1860 - 1904) was born in Pest (currently the Eastern part of Budapest), Hungary, in 1860 to an assimilated Jewish family. When his elder and only sister Pauline died in 1878, the family moved to Vienna to escape their grief. There, Herzl pursued a law degree before devoting himself to the writing of all forms; plays, essays, tracts, novels, and feuilletons. He also met his wife, Julie Naschauer, whom he married in 1889. The marriage produced three children, though it was an unhappy one. Herzl was often away from his family and was, for the most part, a distant father. He was the Paris correspondent for Central Europe’s most prestigious newspaper, Die Neue Freie Presse, from 1891-1895, where he reported on the Dreyfus trial. That year, he returned to Vienna to accept his promotion to literary editor of the newspaper (a position which he maintained until his death in 1904). Though Theodor Herzl’s Zionism was predated by other Zionist thinkers and movements, he is acknowledged in the Israeli Declaration of Independence as the spiritual father of the State of Israel. Herzl catapulted Zionism onto the world stage as a serious nationalist movement by uniting various Jewish Zionist movements under the umbrella of the Zionist Organization. Furthermore, his reputation as one of Europe’s most distinguished journalists granted him access to many heads of state to plead his cause. Herzl presaged his early death, which happened in July of 1904 of cardiac sclerosis when he was only forty-four years old. He was first buried in Vienna, and later, as his will stipulated, his remains, and those of his family, were reinterred in Israel in 1949 (one year after the State of Israel was declared) on Mount Herzl, which subsequently became the country’s national cemetery, and the resting place of many of its prime ministers.


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