Page - 73 - in Nikola Tesla and the Graz Tech

73 The Archduke formulated the fundamental importance of the subject of his- tory in his letter of 16 September 1811 to all the districts of the Duchy of Styria and Carinthia requesting them to send historical monuments to the new institute: ‘”It is shameful to be a foreigner in one’s own country” was the saying of one of the wisest statesmen of antiquity, and was the firm, intimate conviction of all excellent men and patriots, past and present. A knowledge of the physical and natural history of the country is indispensable, but a no less comprehensive and highly important repository of the wonderful teachings of experience is granted by history.’ It is characteristic of the Archduke’s enlightened view of the world that he calls Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 – 43 B.C.), the most important representative of the free state at the time of the late Roman Republic, as a witness to the importance of knowledge of one’s own history. In his dialogue ‘De Oratore’ (written around 55 B.C.), the latter asks a main sub-speaker of the conversa- tion about the ideal speaker the following question: ‘Why can’t we therefore also be sufficiently equipped in civil law – especially since the processes, the business and the forum take up a lot of our time – at least for not acting like strangers and newly arrived persons in our own homeland?’ Archduke Johann places the bon mot of the stranger in his own homeland, associated by Cicero with the knowledge of the civil law and the laws of the old time, in the new context of having knowledge of one’s own history. The practically minded Archduke Johann speaks of the other subjects listed in the statutes and, against the background of the incipient industrial revolu- tion, anchored precisely those disciplines at his institute which were neces- sary for coping with this time, but until then had not been considered in the educational canon of the Inner Austrian educational institutions. After its foundation, the institute showed a clear and uniform line of develop- ment as an educational institution with technical and scientific subjects. The path led from the expansion of this educational institution (1827 – 1847) via the regional polytechnic and the technical college (1848 – 1866) to the state technical college (1874) and to the final and spatial separation of the museum area and the technical college by its inner-city relocation to Rechbauerstraße (1888). Outline of the course of development