Page - 93 - in Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918 - A Social History of a Multilingual Space

Chapter 3 ♦  93 Science for the People: Polonizing Galicia The discussion on the language of instruction in Cracow intensified after the fall of neoabsolutism and occupied many column inches for several months in the leading journal Czas.13 On 20 October 1860—the same day on which the October Diploma was issued, a decentralizing document that gave cer- tain powers back to the provincial aristocratic elites—Franz Joseph directed a letter to the minister of the interior, Agenor Gołuchowski, underscoring the importance of higher education for Galicia. In the letter Franz Joseph, clearly working on the image of a benevolent kaiser of the Habsburg peoples, requested an expert opinion on the change in the language of instruction, which led to the sending of delegations to Vienna.14 It is ironic that Piotr Bartynowski, who had been employed to prevent the rise of nationalistic tendencies at the university in the first place, headed the delegations. This process was concomitant with similar changes in the Russian Empire, where in 1857 a Polish-language medical-surgical academy was established. That academy was restructured in 1862 into the Warsaw Main School (Szkoła Główna Warszawska), which was, in effect, an imperial university.15 This development in the Russian Empire played no role in the discussions, but it is imaginable that Franz Joseph wanted to be as forthcoming with his Polish subjects as Alexander II of Russia was with his. While the importance of German as the state language dominated the 1853 deliberations in Galicia, several years later an argument arose on the value of a person’s native language for science and education. According to Czas, the use of Polish at the university was “natural, just, useful, for the youth, as well as for science,” and public education in Polish was “natural and inborn.”16 However, this “science” was not actually science and scholarship in a narrow sense but rather education, as the Polish word nauka includes both meanings. While in the texts mentioned earlier the terms Wissenschaft and nauka can be read as synonyms, scientific content was not within the bounds of the later debate. The Jagiellonian University in Cracow became a matter of national pride, and nationalist activists perceived it as the most important means to achieving national autonomy. Students’ need and right to be taught in Polish were equated with popular education, which would be fueled by the atmosphere of the university. While the needs of science and opportunities for employment were mentioned as decisive in 1853, in 1860 the needs of