Page - 74 - in Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918 - A Social History of a Multilingual Space
Image of the Page - 74 -
Text of the Page - 74 -
74 ♦ Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918
The universities in Prague and Galicia also experienced new trends in
historiographical research. Thun-Hohenstein searched for bilingual scholars
who would support his idea of Catholic state patriotism, and thus finding
candidates was not always easy. It proved especially complicated in Galicia,
as most known Polish-speaking historians had either been involved in Polish
uprisings or actively supported Polish nationalism and thus were unsuitable.
Thun-Hohenstein also shunned nominating the towering figure of historiog-
raphy in Prague, “the historian of the Czech nation,” the Hussite promoter
Palacký.126 Nevertheless, the minister also clearly hesitated to appoint
scholars to these universities who could be regarded as cultural or national
foreigners or could spark nationalistic conflicts. Even in L’viv, fluency in
all three languages of the city—German, Polish, and Ruthenian—was seen
as a prerequisite.127
While agreeing with the need for knowledge of local languages,
Thun-Hohenstein appointed only those men who supported his ideologi-
cal principles. The universities protested vehemently, claiming that more
prominent historians were available. In Cracow, ignoring faculty protests,
Thun-Hohenstein decided to nominate Antoni Walewski, a conservative
loyalist with no major historical publications and no formal education
in history.128 Walewski was rumored to be a formal secret agent of the
Habsburg government whose aim was to undermine the Polish character of
the Jagiellonian University, for example, in the actions against the allegedly
nationalist agitation of several professors in 1853.129
With cultural conflict looming in Bohemia, the ministry decided on a
two-professor solution in Prague: one chair of history would be associated
with German culture, the other with Czech culture. As the Czech chair,
Thun-Hohenstein appointed his close friend, Václav Vladivoj Tomek, who
not only was conservative and Catholic but also promoted a positive picture
of German-Czech relations, making him an apt candidate for a university
position in the bilingual province.130 As I demonstrate later, Tomek was
a loyal supporter of Thun-Hohenstein’s administration and philosophy re-
garding the development of the university. His “German” counterpart was
Constantin Höfler, the Großdeutsch131 ultramontane historian of Catholicism
recently dismissed by Munich, who seemingly also cherished Tomek’s sup-
port.132 In his first years in Prague, Höfler published a broad range of studies
on Bohemian history, and he befriended and cooperated with Palacký and
Šafárik, managing the cultural tensions well.133 While German culture and
a German civilizing mission had always been at the forefront of his writing,
back to the
book Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918 - A Social History of a Multilingual Space"
Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918
A Social History of a Multilingual Space
- Title
- Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918
- Subtitle
- A Social History of a Multilingual Space
- Author
- Jan Surman
- Publisher
- Purdue University Press
- Location
- West Lafayette
- Date
- 2019
- Language
- English
- License
- PD
- ISBN
- 978-1-55753-861-1
- Size
- 16.5 x 25.0 cm
- Pages
- 474
- Keywords
- History, Austria, Eduction System, Learning
- Categories
- Geschichte Vor 1918
Table of contents
- List of Illustrations vi
- List of Tables vii
- Acknowledgments ix
- Note on Language Use, Terminology, and Geography xi
- Abbreviations xiii
- Introduction A Biography of the Academic Space 1
- Chapter 1 Centralizing Science for the Empire 19
- Chapter 2 The Neoabsolutist Search for a Unified Space 49
- Chapterr 3 Living Out Academic Autonomy 89
- Chapter 4 German-Language Universities between Austrian and German Space 139
- Chapter 5 Habsburg Slavs and Their Spaces 175
- Chapter 6 Imperial Space and Its Identities 217
- Chapter 7 Habsburg Legacies 243
- Conclusion Paradoxes of the Central European Academic Space 267
- Appendix 1 Disciplines of Habilitation at Austrian Universities 281
- Appendix 2 Databases of Scholars at Cisleithanian Universities 285
- Notes 287
- Bibliography 383
- Index 445