Page - 85 - in Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918 - A Social History of a Multilingual Space

Chapter 2 ♦  85 Josip Juraj Strossmayer, later instrumental in founding the Royal University of Franz Joseph I in Zagreb (Sveučilišta Franje Josipa I. u Zagrebu) and the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (Hrvatska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti).185 Others remembered the Habsburg universities of Thun- Hohenstein’s time critically, writing about the tense atmosphere at the universities and the police supervision of professors.186 Because Thun- Hohenstein’s time as minister was concomitant with the neoabsolutist regime, it is hard to say whether the critical voices requesting another intel- lectual and political restart were directed against him or against the political atmosphere in general.187 It is clear, however, that the assessment of Thun- Hohenstein’s tenure depended on one’s ideological position: positive voices came from the conservative and liberal Catholic milieus, and critical voices from the non-Catholic and also ultra-Catholic sides. It has often been claimed that Thun-Hohenstein’s plans were far from fully realized. For example, Alphons Lhotsky claimed that Thun-Hohenstein deliberately strove for a conservative and Catholic university through his appointments.188 Thun-Hohenstein’s admirers, in contrast, both at the time and later in the nineteenth century, claimed that his openness and liberal planning were hindered by neoabsolutism, stating that his reforms were a milestone in the academic policy of the empire and its successors.189 The impression that the reforms of 1848–49 were Thun-Hohenstein’s work was not only an outcome of his impressive propaganda campaign. Thun- Hohenstein became a symbol of Habsburg policies, one that was applied at different times and in the service of different needs.190 Some later reformers highlighted him as a protector of academic autonomy; that only those chosen by him experienced such autonomy was not important. Thun-Hohenstein also towered above Habsburg universities in a literal sense as well. In 1893 a monument for Thun-Hohenstein was unveiled in the Arkadenhof (arcade court) of the University of Vienna (figure 3), where famous university schol- ars are commemorated. Notably, it is the only full-figure monument in the university courtyard. By considering the university before and after Thun, one can certainly note a range of differences. The financial support universities received from the state allowed facilities such as libraries, institutes, observatories, and clinics to be enhanced considerably. Professors from universities abroad brought with them not only scientific knowledge but also a practical orien- tation as to what resources the libraries should include and how seminars should be organized. In the 1850s, though, the function of the universities did not change considerably; they remained teaching facilities and were only