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Chapter 2 ♦ 75
from the late 1860s he began to pursue a clear anti-Czech narrative and
became one of most energetic pro-German nationalist activists, founding
several German-Bohemian cultural institutions.134
The Habsburg Empire as an Entangled Space: Philologies
With the strengthening of philological and historical education—united in
one seminar—classical philology grew in importance. Based on the model
of the non-Habsburg German Confederation universities, the classics were
elevated to become a main humanist subject in the Habsburg Empire, serving
as a point of departure for humanist education.135 Here, private recommenda-
tions by Thun-Hohenstein’s network of trusted men were crucial, although
the ministry, cautious of Franz Joseph’s reactions, always highlighted its
choices with reference to the nominee’s religious denomination. Emblematic
here is the reasoning presented in the nomination of Ludwig Lange in 1855.
Lange was placed second on Prague’s philosophical faculty’s short list be-
hind the Catholic Karl Halm, but he cherished the support of his predecessor,
Georg Curtius: “Despite his outer religious commitment [to Protestantism],
he [Lange] lacks nothing of genuine Catholic conviction,” reads the min-
isterial document. Meanwhile, Halm was described as Catholic only in
denomination, and the document stated that his influence on the students
would be “more alarming than that of a Protestant.”136
As in the historical fields, scholars from abroad were valued highly, but,
in contrast to historiography, in philology several chairs had been occupied
by Habsburg scholars already since the Vormärz. Nevertheless, young schol-
ars from abroad were nominated from the outset, while older scholars were
either transferred to smaller universities or, if nearing retirement, pensioned
off. Bonitz, who served as Thun-Hohenstein’s confidant for classical phi-
lology and who consulted with the philologist Friedrich Haase in Wrocław/
Breslau,137 played a critical role here. Even in Cracow, where matters were
again complicated owing to language issues, the ministry appointed the
historian of classical literature Antoni Małecki, who had graduated from
Berlin and taught at a gymnasium in Poznań/Posen. While the deaths or
retirements of older professors meant that philology showed more mobility
among scholars than did the other humanistic disciplines, the younger gener-
ation of both professors and students had already been educated by scholars
who came from abroad.
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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