Page - 88 - in Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918 - A Social History of a Multilingual Space

88 ♦  Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918 to conflicts in the faculties. In historiography, the nonteleological auxiliary sciences of history strengthened, especially with the establishment of the IAHR in Vienna. However, the creation of a grand narrative largely failed, at least at the university level. The Slavic appointees who were supposed to create such grand narratives, Tomek and Walewski, were ultimately un- successful; the former was unable to enforce his idea of writing a “shared” Slavic-German history, and the latter was severely criticized for his glo- rification of the “Austrian” and “Catholic” elements in history and finally ostracized by both the university and the public.195 With regard to spatial policy, Thun-Hohenstein opened the empire to outside scholars but only those from the German Confederation. This policy, however, stimulated the Poles and Ruthenians, whose scholars often lived in the Russian Empire, to argue for the privilege of appointing them. The encouragement of pan-Habsburg mobility for scholars meant that for the first time there was also a united space, including Pest and Galicia. While this space still centered on Vienna, and the most important location for entering a career remained the University of Vienna, exchanges among provincial universities were possible, including of scholars who identified as Poles or Czechs. This strain of mobility dried out in the liberal period, challenged by nationalist conflicts. In the 1850s the hierarchical structure of the university system did not change. While the period is too short for me to sketch more than a few career paths, the structure laid down in 1848, along with its salary regulations, was clearly decisive. There were exceptions, though, since salaries could also be individually negotiated and could be higher than the official ones. Although no full professors moved from Vienna to Innsbruck, for example, a few transferred from Cracow to Graz, even though, according to the law, Cracow scholars earned two hundred guldens per year more. It is also important to note that the Vienna-centric legacy of the Vormärz was reinforced. The IAHR became the central Habsburg institution in historiography, and most future professors had studied there. In turn, the Medical-Surgical Joseph’s Academy, which had reopened in 1854, was able to appoint full professors from any Habsburg university.196 This moved Carl Rokitansky, the foremost Viennese physician, who from 1863 served as a counselor in the Ministry of Education, to request, shortly after Thun-Hohenstein’s resignation, the lessening of salary differences between universities, a measure that he saw as absolutely necessary for an efficacious university system.197