Page - 102 - in Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918 - A Social History of a Multilingual Space

102 ♦  Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918 Initially, most of its lectures were conducted in German. However, the number of Czech lectures gradually rose, and within five years, with the ex- ception of several prominent scholars who lectured in German, lectures were held almost exclusively in Czech. Curiously, the trajectories of the founders’ careers reflect an early Bohemian dualism. Those who entered academic careers taught across the empire, in institutions with various languages of teaching. Some later published only in German, remaining, however, mem- bers of the Union of Czech Mathematicians and thus symbolically aligned with Czech scholarship.47 An analogous step to the creation of bilingual Bohemian scholarly orga- nizations to strengthen the Czech language were proposals to provide legal guarantees for Czech lectures at the university. Some politicians already wanted a separate institution in the early 1860s, but they constituted a mi- nority.48 Student petitions from this time argued for a few chosen lectures in Czech and did not favor a complete division.49 The Bohemian Diet preferred this proposal, although German representatives of the university diligently reminded them that habilitation was open to scholars of all nationalities; the government, however, rejected the proposal.50 In subsequent years, Czech politicians and scholars several times proposed making the university bilin- gual (utraqustisch),51 but German Bohemians, who saw the university as a historical monument of German culture, fiercely opposed this.52 As in other discussions about language change, arguments about natu- ral rights to education in one’s own language and the role of the university for Habsburg subjects stood at the forefront. The petition of Czech medical doctors in 1872 summarized their political claims: “The Bohemian Nation has an entitlement to a Bohemian university not only through natural law, but also because of its intellectual development and education.”53 Nationalists argued that a Czech university would be epoch making for Czech culture54 and would bring peaceful coexistence to Bohemia.55 Demands for a second Czech university in Brno or Olomouc repeated similar arguments: “The sec- ond university would bring more freedom for the students and, to a certain extent, also for professors, [and] would accelerate and strengthen scientific [vědecký] development”;56 it was generally hailed as a “cultural necessity” (Kulturnotwendigkeit) for Czechs.57 Even in 1880, however, Czech scholars wondered whether the early opening of a separate Czech university would be premature and do Czech culture more harm than good. And if the political situation made it necessary,