Maria-theresianische Neuordnung des Bildungswesens#

Maria-Theresian School Reforms: Maria Theresia´s long-term aim was to create a secularized educational system in which devout but enlightened Christians who were both able and willing to serve their monarchy were educated. Founded in 1760, the Studienhofkommission made education an issue of the state ("has always been and will always be a political issue", 1770) and thus took it out of the hands of the Catholic church (and particularly out of the hands of the Jesuits). Due to Maria Theresia´s initiative many new schools were created, e.g. Knights´ Academies, Orientalische Akademie, the Maria Theresia Military Academy (at the town of Wiener Neustadt in 1751), as well as an academy for mechanical engineering and a commercial academy. Both secondary (Latin schools, Gymnasium schools) and higher education were subordinated to the authority of the state. The teaching of the mother tongue was made the main subject of the lower forms. Six years of primary education were made compulsory, new primary schools were founded and the training of primary school teachers was institutionalized. Allgemeine Schulordnung, J. I. Felbiger.