Wilhelm II's voyage to the Levant in 1898

After visiting Jerusalem and Bethlehem, the Kaiser went back to Jaffa to embark to Beirut, where he took the train passing Aley and Zahlé to reach Damascus on 7 November.

Deeply moved by this imposing spectacle, and likewise by the consciousness of standing on the spot where held sway one of the most chivalrous rulers of all times, the great Sultan Saladin, a knight sans peur et sans reproche, who often taught his adversaries the right conception of knighthood, I seize with joy the opportunity to render thanks, above all to the Sultan Abdul Hamid for his hospitality.

One of the Kaiser's traveling companions, Colonel Joseph von Ellrichshausen, initiated the formation of a society for the advancement of the German settlements in Palestine, named the Gesellschaft zur Förderung der deutschen Ansiedlungen in Palästina, in Stuttgart.

The non-Templar colony of Waldheim (now Alonei Abba) was subsequently founded next to Bethlehem of Galilee in 1907 by proselytised Templers now affiliated with the Old-Prussian State Church.

These were no mere coincidences, but the visible signs of accomplished facts The visit resulted in the highest-profile political event in the life of Theodor Herzl, considered the founder of Zionism.

Wilhelm II and his wife Augusta Victoria (under the umbrella) lead the royal cortege past the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, Jerusalem , which they had come to dedicate on 31 October 1898
The Kaiser passing through an arch erected by the Jewish community of Jerusalem.
Photomontage of Herzl's brief meeting with the Kaiser, outside Mikveh Israel .
Breach in the wall of Jerusalem made at the Jaffa Gate to accommodate the Kaiser's triumphal entry
The monogram of Wilhelm II and the tughra of Abdul Hamid II on the dome of the German Fountain in Istanbul , commemorating the Kaiser's visit to Turkey in 1898.