Autograph speech notes by Max Nordau, delivered before the opening of the Fourth Zionist Congress.

On August 11, 1900, two days before the opening of the Fourth Zionist Congress, the coordinators, wanting to introduce Zionist leaders to the Zionists of England, organised a gathering at the Great Assembly Hall in London. Over 8000 people crowded in the small hall in order to hear speeches by Theodor Herzl, Israel Zangwill, Frances Montefiore, Joseph Kaun and Max Nordau.
The offered speech notes were written by Nordau in dense handwriting on small leaves, with a typewritten title page. In this speech Nordau addresses at length the question of 'What is Zionism?', refuting the claims of the movement's opponents, rejecting the various solutions to 'The Jewish Question', as well as discussing antisemitism, Jewish financiers and other issues.

Max Nordau (1849-1923), physician, author and Jewish Zionist philosopher who coined the term 'Muskeljudentum' (Muscular Judaism), used to write down his speeches and read them to his listeners from the draft. There are several differences between the present manuscript and the speech Nordau eventually delivered, including an opening paragraph crossed out with a diagonal line, which was entirely omitted (see the final version of the speech in the book: Max Nordau's Zionistische Schriften, Cologne and Leipzig: Jüdischer Verlag, 1909, pp. 234-248).

14 pages (loose sheets) and [1] typed title page, approx. 21 cm.; text in German, handwritten in blue ink. Strips of paper mounted to left edge of leaves. Long tears to last leaf, reinforced with tape (on verso).