Page - 70 - in Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918 - A Social History of a Multilingual Space

70 ♦  Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918 hospital facilities were concentrated in the capital and the number of stu- dents soared, the University of Vienna profited most from the possibility of including young scholars in teaching and research. By 1852 more than twenty scholars had attained positions as Privatdozenten there, with the same number of scholars habilitating in 1853–60, whereas Prague had fewer than ten throughout this period. In 1860 only eight scholars were teaching as Privatdozenten in Prague, while in Vienna there were twenty-one.103 For reasons unknown, until 1862 no physicians habilitated in Cracow (or the ministry did not confirm any); similarly, none were confirmed at the philo- sophical faculty, where political factors hindered some scholars’ careers.104 Owing to the lack of young academics, a result of the underdevelopment of assistantships before 1848, the first appointees for professorships after 1848 included mostly practicing physicians, eventually complemented by promoted Privatdozenten. Because transfers to and from other Habsburg academic institutions were limited by the practical orientation of such in- stitutions, and the university preferred theoretically versed physicians over practicing ones, almost no scholars changed their affiliation during Thun- Hohenstein’s ministry. The few who did were rarely influential and stable assets for their faculties, changing positions frequently. As in the philosophical faculties, the ministry was cautious about hiring foreign physicians in the medical faculties. Only one non-Habsburg scholar, Ernst Brücke, was appointed in Vienna in 1849; he was nominated during the time when Franz Stadion was responsible for nominations. The ministry fa- vored, however, scholars returning to the Habsburg Empire from other parts of the German Confederation. But their numbers were not overwhelming, with just one such scholar appointed in Vienna and three in Prague, among them Jan Evangelista Purkyně, the eminent Czech-Bohemian physiologist from Wrocław/Breslau.105 At the universities in Prague and Cracow, medicine remained closely tied to the language question, once again complicating the appointment procedures. The Prague faculty requested that the ministry appoint only scholars who knew both provincial languages, pleading also for the creation of parallel chairs in practical disciplines.106 In Cracow knowledge of Polish was essential for newly appointed staff since professorships were linked to clinics; thus, the ministry resorted to Galician-born scholars.107 The minis- try appointed no Polish speakers from abroad and rejected all proposals for Privatdozenten, probably because the scholars in question had a troublesome political past.108 But the ministry appointed only three professors who did not