Page - 33 - in Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918 - A Social History of a Multilingual Space

Chapter 1 ♦  33 The philosophical faculty (Philosophicum), reformed throughout the empire in 1805, had the same semi-university status as the medical academies, forming a preparatory level between the gymnasium and the university.57 The philosophical faculty taught a wide range of disciplines, including humanities and the sciences (except medicine), but with special consideration to philosophy, which was defined as a “medium of high in- tellectual culture” and a “groundwork science [Wissenschaft] for all other vocational sciences”58 and was clearly denoted as preparation for the subjects taught at the university. University lectures were held based on the so-called Vorlesungsbücher, textbooks that had to be approved by the Ministry of Education and which were literary read aloud. Disobedience was severely punished; some nota- ble scholars were removed from their universities for violating this rule.59 Although professors were allowed to submit their own books as the basis for their lectures, only a few decided to do so, as this path was highly compli- cated and uncertain. It wasn’t until the late 1820s that free lectures based on the lecturer’s own manuscripts were allowed for noncompulsory subjects.60 The restrictions within the Habsburg monarchy also influenced the ways in which universities could interact with scholars and institutions in other countries. The possibility of studying abroad (including in the non-Habsburg parts of the German Confederation)—which was especially tempting for non-Catholic students since Habsburg universities were Catholic institu- tions—was restricted greatly in 1829; foreign courses and diplomas were not accepted, and students attempting to cross the border required police authorization.61 The government was seemingly alarmed that the freedom of learning and teaching introduced at some foreign universities could open a channel through which liberal or anti-absolutist ideas could travel.62 Students who wanted to study outside the empire but were not members of the priv- ileged aristocracy63 could bribe functionaries, but this could bring its own problems with the police.64 Restrictions on the exchange of ideas were reinforced in other areas as well. From 1815 on, libraries produced lists of banned books; these could not be read in the library and included Johann Gottlieb Fichte’s Staatslehre (Doctrine of the state, 1813) and Joseph von Hormayr’s Taschenbuch für vaterländische Geschichte (Pocket book of the history of the father- land, 1811–48). Further, authors such as Goethe, Schlosser, and Kant could be read only erga schedam, that is, with permission from the local