Page - 66 - in Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918 - A Social History of a Multilingual Space

66 ♦  Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918 the dean of the philosophical faculty, Brunner published a series of articles depicting the university as infiltrated by followers of materialist doctrines and people “in part religiously indifferent, in part Josephine-superstitious, in part humanistic-anti-Christian liberal.”83 The official position of the ministry was not far from Brunner’s antimaterialist views,84 and Thun-Hohenstein, even if hesitant, removed scholars who favored materialism.85 With such critics in the government, the universities’ consistories, and the public sphere, further appointments from abroad for chairs in which local research traditions existed were certainly a risk for the ministry, especially given the difficulty of presenting such appointments as aiming to prevent further revolution, as Thun-Hohenstein argued in his nominations of pro- fessors in the humanities. That the natural sciences did not command as much political interest in the post-1848 era as the humanities does not mean that they stagnated. The innovation taking place in the humanities, prompted by imported scholars, certainly did not occur here; however, supporting education in the gymnasia, where the natural sciences were better represented after 1848, also required the speedy filling of chairs. Thun-Hohenstein made it clear that the gymnasia stood at the forefront of these changes; in April 1851 he asked those teaching the natural sciences to pay special attention to the preparation of teachers when choosing the topics covered in their lectures.86 Finally, professorial duties at the university were often linked to responsibilities in other institutions, especially the directorships of botan- ical gardens, observatories, and Viennese institutions such as the Central Bureau for Meteorology and Terrestrial Magnetism (Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Erdmagnetismus) and the Geological Survey (Geologische Reichsanstalt). These positions had to be filled swiftly, which created dis- parities in the treatment of universities that had such institutions (Vienna, Prague, Cracow) and those that did not (Graz, Innsbruck). Much thus needed to be done if the universities were to equal those in Prussia. With the reorganization of the philosophical faculties, the natural sciences were in many cases institutionalized academically and profession- alized in form and content for the first time. For instance, the new chairs of botany, mineralogy, and zoology replaced the chair of natural history; a new chair in geography was created, although initially only at the universities in Vienna and Cracow. Chemistry and botany had been taught as one subject at the medical faculty before 1848, without seriously taking into consideration the scholarly interests of the teachers, who were required to cover a broad