Page - 68 - in Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918 - A Social History of a Multilingual Space

68 ♦  Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918 utmost political significance to counterbalance the international influence of Prussian and French engineers. Although Thun-Hohenstein’s ministry did not complete the reform of the technical academies, they were awarded a professional status similar to the universities’. The Realschulen, which had been incorporated into the technical academies until 1852, became a type of secondary school The ministry began allowing Privatdozenten to teach at the technical academies and enlarged the number of instructors. While professorships at a university were more prestigious than those at a technical academy, their salaries were equal; thus, scholars in the academies were not necessarily interested in moving to a university post.92 Nonetheless, the technical academies experienced a sort of brain drain in the 1850s, because the ministry frequently nominated their experienced scholars for posts at universities. Other institutions also provided the phil- osophical faculties with professors for the natural sciences, however. In Vienna the imperial cabinets (Hofkabinetten) were the main source of pro- fessors for the natural sciences.93 The Joanneum in Graz and the Bohemian Museum in Prague were other prominent organizations from which scholars came.94 Since the pre-1848 medical faculties also included professors of chemistry and biological sciences, several scholars were moved from these faculties to the philosophical faculties, with a changed chair designation. Only a handful of scholars from abroad were nominated, and if local schol- ars were available, the ministry turned to them even if the faculties wished otherwise.95 For this reason, Habsburg scholars were employed, and the ministry clearly favored the students of only a few prominent natural scientists. In chemistry, for instance, Thun-Hohenstein appointed the students of the Viennese professor Joseph Franz von Jacquin throughout the empire, al- though most of them had also worked with the pioneer of organic chemistry, Justus Liebig, in Gießen.96 Stephan Endlicher in biology, Franz Zippe in mineralogy, and Karl Kreil in physics had a similar influence. Since these four scholars taught in Prague or Vienna, their influence reproduced the cen- tralization of Habsburg education, which, contrary to traditional narratives, was not confined to the Habsburg capital. Remaining within one’s own tradition had, however, some negative consequences. First, older professors mostly concentrated on teaching and writing textbooks rather than conducting research.97 Frequently, they also remained within the scholarly traditions of the Vormärz, such as in their insistence on descriptive approaches. For example, Zippe, an adherent of