Page - 80 - in Nikola Tesla and the Graz Tech

80 This separation meant that only the library and the museum collections were left to the Joanneum. It was now obvious that it had to be transformed into a state museum and expanded. The immediate cause was a motion by the member of the provincial parliament, Gundakar Graf Wurmbrand, in the Land- tag on 17 October 1878 to set up a commission of inquiry ‘to maintain surveys and work out proposals on how a reorganisation of the Joanneum and the for- mation of a state museum could be carried out’. The activities of the commis- sion, which included Franz Graf Meran, Gundakar Graf Wurmbrand, Dr. Moritz von Schreiner (the Joanneum official in the provincial committee) and Prof. Dr. Johann Rumpf (as representative of the heads of the collection), covered the period from 1878 to 1884. The mere fact that this commission was not set up until 1878 – twelve years after the statute was enacted and four years after the College of Technolo- gy was taken over by the state – and that its work dragged on for six years, shows how much effort it took to persuade the Landtag to make a definitive decision on the continued existence of the Joanneum. Although it is not ex- plicitly emphasized in the sources available as printed works, one cannot avoid the impression that there will also have been a position in the Landtag, based on financial considerations, to separate the Joanneum collections from the care of the province or to use them as capital in the negotiations with the Imperial and Royal Ministry of Education on the financing of the new site of the Technical University. However, in accordance with the proposals of the commission of enquiry, the Landtag decided on 5 July 1880 to ‘provisionally preserve all currently existing collections in their entirety. In the interest of the future character of the Joanneum as a state museum, however, it was desirable that from now on objects relating only to Styria and those of Styrian origin should be acquired by purchase’. Nevertheless, the sale of the botanical garden and the surrender of a large number of collection objects to the Col- lege of Technology imposed sensitive sacrifices on the Joanneum. The Joannean cause received unexpected support in 1883 with the large anniversary exhibition on the occasion of the 600th anniversary of Styria’s affiliation to the house of Habsburg, which awakened public awareness and provided the commission of enquiry with supportive argumentation for the pursuit of its goal. In the same year, the Landesmuseumsverein Joanneum (Association of the State Museum Joanneum) was founded, whose remit was to enrich the existing state collections and shape them in a contemporary way. Members of this association included, among others, Franz Graf Meran, Gundakar Graf Wurmbrand and Karl Lacher.