Page - 163 - in Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918 - A Social History of a Multilingual Space

Chapter 4 ♦  163 ninety-eight scholars moved to Graz, twenty-nine as associate professors and forty-seven as full professors. Slightly fewer than a third of them (twenty-six) were subsequently appointed to another university—eleven to Vienna (for eight, this was a return), five to the German University in Prague (three were initially appointed to the undivided university, i.e., before 1882), and ten to German universities. Of all the scholars appointed from Graz, thirty-six had held their first position (including Privatdozentur) there. Of those, twenty-seven were grad- uates of the faculty. Of those twenty-seven, seven were appointed to Vienna and five to Chernivtsi; two went to Germany; and three were appointed at the technical academy in Graz. For thirty-two scholars, Graz was only a station in their career; most of these were appointed to a university with a higher standing, either the University of Vienna or a German university outside of the Habsburg monarchy. Five scholars returned to Graz: two from Vienna, one each from Chernivtsi and the German University in Prague, and one from Innsbruck via Freiburg. Twenty-seven scholars from Graz who received other appointments had been full professors in Graz before moving to Germany, Prague, or Vienna, while fewer had been associate professors (fourteen, of whom four went to Chernivtsi and four to Vienna) or Privatdozenten (seven left the university and habilitated elsewhere—three moved to Vienna—and eleven were appointed as professors, especially in Prague, Chernivtsi, or Innsbruck). Through the dominance of Vienna and its (in)formal privilege of ap- pointing the best scholars, the central institution had a considerably more stable faculty than the other universities. Given the low number of scholars for whom the university was only a transitional station (see table 11), in addition to some who returned there, it differed from Graz and Innsbruck, which were often only rungs on a career ladder. Still, Vienna did not turn into a place for retiring scholars, as had been the case before 1848. Although it had the highest average age for full professors43 and associate professors,44 the number of new scholars in the faculty (surveyed every ten years, includ- ing newly habilitated scholars and those promoted from other universities) was around 50 percent, similar to that for other universities in the empire.45 In comparison to other universities, however, the rate of promotions within faculties at the University of Vienna was lower by about half (if the award of a title is not considered a promotion),46 even if the faculties in Cracow and L’viv are taken into consideration. Although no policy explicitly condemned local appointments, the picture of scholars educated in Vienna pursuing