with Herzl's pragmatic solution to the Jewish problem through restoration of the Jews to Palestine. The Grand Duke became a lifelong advocate of Herzl and the Zionist cause. He used his office and his relationship with his nephew, Kaiser Wilhelm II to support Herzl and Zionism. Zionist political legitimacy Early meetings with Herzl Throughout 1897, Hechler worked to introduce Herzl to the Christian world, speaking at every opportunity or writing to every interested clergyman. August 1897, Theodor Herzl convoked the First World Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland. Herzl invited Hechler to the Congress as a non-voting delegate and the "first Christian Zionist." The Zionist movement was still tiny and was not recognised as legitimate by the majority of Jews or any major European world power. Hechler continued working to secure an audience for Herzl with the Kaiser. Through the German ambassador to Austria, Philipp-Fuerst-von-Eulenburg (1847–1921), whose wife had been a student of Hechler's, Hechler arranged an introduction to the Ambassador for Herzl. Von Eulenburg was a very close personal friend of the Kaiser's. Meetings with the Kaiser Hechler's plans to bring Herzl before the Kaiser were coming together. The Kaiser was well apprised of Herzl and Zionism through the Grand Duke of Baden who continued his solicitations for Herzl. He was now also approached as to the political expediency of Zionism and Herzl by von Eulenburg. During the early fall of 1898, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany planned a trip to Palestine to visit the German settlements there and dedicate the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, Jerusalem. Theodor Herzl was invited to a private audience with Kaiser Wilhelm on 15 October 1898, when the Kaiser stopped in Constantinople for a State visit. The Kaiser asked Herzl what he wished him to ask of the Sultan: "Tell me in a word what I am to ask the Sultan.' "A Chartered Company – under German protection," was Herzl's request. It would be the foundational backing and protection for the Jewish State – Herzl's and Hechler's goal. The Kaiser brought the subject up twice with the Sultan. The Sultan refused to consider granting the Jews a charter to Palestine even in return for the Jews assuming the Turkish foreign debt. Palestine, 29 October 1898, outside a small Rothschild funded Jewish agricultural settlement, Herzl publicly awaited the Kaiser on his way to Jerusalem. The Kaiser's and his cortege stopped to speak briefly with Herzl.