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116 ♦ Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918
The provincial government, however, not only offered assessments of
the faculty’s candidates but could also directly influence appointment pro-
cedures within faculties. In Innsbruck, for example, conservative Catholic
politicians, particularly the provincial governor Theodor Kathrein (governor
1904–16), strove to influence the faculty to promote the scholars they pre-
ferred. They achieved, among other things, the appointment of conservative
Catholic historians.117
Unlike at German-language universities, governors took a lively interest
in the appointments at both Bohemian and, in particular, Galician univer-
sities. Both Galician and Bohemian governors created special commissions
for assessing nominations for L’viv in 1871 and the Prague medical faculty
in 1882, arguing that the current faculties were incapable of preparing pro-
posals owing to their linguistic incompetence.118 While Bohemian governors
carefully read and commented on the acts prepared by the faculties but
avoided direct involvement, Galician governors were involved more often.
This ranged from establishing an extra commission in case the university
was unable to find suitable specialists119 to giving decisive votes in cases
where faculties were divided. Some of these decisions were indeed con-
troversial. In 1906 the Galician governor, Andrzej Potocki, interfered in a
nomination for the professorship of Polish history when the majority of the
faculty proposed Szymon Askenazy, a Jewish Polish historian of the early
nineteenth century. Potocki supported the candidate of the minority, who
was more convenient because of not only his religious denomination but also
Askenazy’s ideological views. Askenazy argued for an active struggle for in-
dependence, in contrast to the mainstream view of loyalty to the Habsburgs,
and criticized the dominant but pessimistic view of the Polish Lithuanian
past held by the Galician Cracow school of history. But even here Potocki
ensured that the ministry awarded the well-respected historian the chair of
modern history.120 The ministry and the governors most often became in-
volved in decisions in the humanities, which remained an important element
of symbolic policies in the provinces.
Most proposals were prepared with the knowledge that the scholars
named were willing to join the faculty. Prospective candidates were also
informed of the financial benefits and the facilities available. This was
accompanied in some cases by a possible visit to the university so the pro-
spective candidate could judge the conditions at the institute. Scholars’
demands, including renovation plans and the costs (or proposed expenses)
of acquiring the necessary books, were forwarded with the faculty proposal,
while in the Ministry of Education direct negotiations were conducted with
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book Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918 - A Social History of a Multilingual Space"
Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918
A Social History of a Multilingual Space
- Title
- Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918
- Subtitle
- A Social History of a Multilingual Space
- Author
- Jan Surman
- Publisher
- Purdue University Press
- Location
- West Lafayette
- Date
- 2019
- Language
- English
- License
- PD
- ISBN
- 978-1-55753-861-1
- Size
- 16.5 x 25.0 cm
- Pages
- 474
- Keywords
- History, Austria, Eduction System, Learning
- Categories
- Geschichte Vor 1918
Table of contents
- List of Illustrations vi
- List of Tables vii
- Acknowledgments ix
- Note on Language Use, Terminology, and Geography xi
- Abbreviations xiii
- Introduction A Biography of the Academic Space 1
- Chapter 1 Centralizing Science for the Empire 19
- Chapter 2 The Neoabsolutist Search for a Unified Space 49
- Chapterr 3 Living Out Academic Autonomy 89
- Chapter 4 German-Language Universities between Austrian and German Space 139
- Chapter 5 Habsburg Slavs and Their Spaces 175
- Chapter 6 Imperial Space and Its Identities 217
- Chapter 7 Habsburg Legacies 243
- Conclusion Paradoxes of the Central European Academic Space 267
- Appendix 1 Disciplines of Habilitation at Austrian Universities 281
- Appendix 2 Databases of Scholars at Cisleithanian Universities 285
- Notes 287
- Bibliography 383
- Index 445