Page - 32 - in Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918 - A Social History of a Multilingual Space

32 ♦  Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918 However, the lack of funding for new institutes and research opportuni- ties hampered innovation. At the same time, universities in other German states—not only in Prussia (Berlin or Halle) but also in Bavaria (Munich), the Kingdom of Hannover (Göttingen), and the Grand Duchy of Hesse (Gießen)—gained more of a reputation, turning toward new educational methods and experimental science. Even the Russian Empire was more liberal toward universities at this time, allowing them considerable auton- omy in order to facilitate the modernization of the state; it both invested in foreign professors and sent leading Russian academics abroad.55 Habsburg scholars knew this and demanded changes to bring their universities up to par with the provincial academies. As in other states, supervision by the Studiendirektoren,56 the censorship of schoolbooks, and strong political control over the subject matter (both the curriculum and the content of each lecture) were among the factors blamed for academic misery. As a result, university reform was one of the most prominent demands during the 1848 revolution. The number of Habsburg universities and faculties varied over time, but they remained closely linked to the existing educational premises of the cen- tral government. Most universities (apart from those in Vienna, Prague, and Pest) were demoted to Lyzeen (lyceums) in the late eighteenth century, but in the early nineteenth century Francis I reinstated  universities in L’viv (1817), Innsbruck (1826), Graz (1827), and Olomouc (1827), but without medical fac- ulties. In the provinces, medical studies were taught in university-connected medical-surgical academies (mediko­ chirurgische Lehranstalten); these had a limited number of teachers, and the courses were oriented toward the practical education of midwives and surgeons (Wundärzte). The Imperial and Royal Medical-Surgical Joseph’s Academy (k.k. medizinisch-chirurgische Josephs-Academie) in Vienna, established in 1785, had the same practical orientation; in the 1820s it became de facto the second medical faculty of the university, serving as an important place for teaching and practicing medicine, even if it was not formally incorporated into the university. The medical faculties themselves were divided into a two-year surgical course of study for civil physicians and surgeons (Chirurgisches Studium für Civil und Wundärzte, including courses for midwives), structured similarly to the courses at the medical academies, and a five-year study of pharmacol- ogy and the higher surgical arts (Studium der Arzneykunde und höheren Wundarzneykunst); this reflected the duality between practical education and “higher” education.