Page - 89 - in Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918 - A Social History of a Multilingual Space

89 cHApter 3 Living Out Academic Autonomy We do not want to always be your pupils! We feel in us . . . enough power and energy to finally stand on our own, to cultivate knowledge and science on our own. —Jan EvangElista Purkyně, 18621 Dear friend and Ritter! We are searching for a minister of education. Perhaps you would like to take this office? This position is not so evil. You can accomplish much good; one should pursue great deeds of cul­ ture. It is curious that so many people point out trivia: one only wants everything liberal, primary schools, tolerance for all religious denom­ inations, improvement of spiritual development—but the Concordat has to be preserved. Universities are to be flirted with; sciences are to be boosted—only the Catholic character cannot be touched; the arch­ bishop has to remain the university chancellor as afore. You can fire all the people who bewail the archaic laws of the faculties; a lot of new things could be formed here—but the old doctors’ council guilds have to be preserved. Much is to be organized, not only in Vienna, to build a university, establish various scientific institutes, double the number of teachers, as the whole of Hungary and the Danube principalities want to obtain their culture from us—but it should cost no money! —tHeodor billrotH to WilHelM lübke, 30 JAnuAry 18702 Leo Thun-Hohenstein’s resignation in 1860 and the end of neoabsolutism meant yet another significant change for the Habsburg university system,