Die Welt (German pronunciation: [diː ˈvɛlt], "The World") was a weekly newspaper founded by Theodor Herzl in May 1897 in Vienna.

[4] Shortly before, on 14 May, Herzl wrote to his supporter Max Nordau, joking that "The Neue Freie Presse is like my legitimate wife.

[7] It sought articles from non-Jews promoting Zionism as a solution to the "Jewish question", and remained largely uncritically focussed on the positive aspects of the aspiration, tending to ignore objections.

[4] Controversy was created by an extremely aggressive article by Nordau attacking the cultural Zionist Ahad Ha'am, who had challenged Herzl's vision.

Nordau's abusive language, calling Ha'am "crippled, hunchbacked" and the "despised slave of intolerant knout-wielding pogromchiks", caused outrage among Jewish nationalists and Zionists.