Page - 181 - in Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918 - A Social History of a Multilingual Space

Chapter 5 ♦  181 Consequently, for the first chair of internal medicine in 1881, the faculty proposed, unsurprisingly, three scholars with a German-language cultural background. The ministry, however, appointed associate professor Bohumil Eiselt, one of the few university scholars in Prague who published in both German and Czech and one of the most prominent organizers of academic medical research in the Czech language, as well as the founder of Časopis lékařův českých.22 Even though the ministry supported Czech-speaking scholars, those regarded as too nationalistic were treated differently. The following story of the events leading to the appointment of the third director of a medical institute, the surgeon Vilém/Wilhelm Weiss (who later continued his activity at the Czech University), exemplifies this. Pronounced Czech patriotism was perhaps no obstacle to obtaining a professorship at Habsburg universities, but Prague, seen as the main locus of conflict between German and Czech patriotism, was subject to special consideration in this regard, and the min- istry balanced these two opposing groups. In 1878, while teaching as a full professor in Innsbruck, Eduard Albert, a pronounced Czech patriot, was proposed for the chair of surgery in a minority opinion (Minoritätsvotum) of the Prague medical faculty. The ministry, however, decided not to appoint him because the “peaceful life of the faculty” might be troubled through the appointment of a scholar who “is not completely objective toward Czech national efforts.”23 In 1880 Albert tried once again to transfer to Prague after the previous incumbent, a Czech-speaking surgeon, retired. This time, the faculty decided overwhelmingly against including him in the proposal, pro- posing only German-speaking scholars for the position.24 (Albert received the chair of surgery at Vienna in 1881 only as a kind of compensation for his unsuccessful attempt to gain a position in Prague.) After long deliberations, the ministry decided to appoint a scholar from outside the terna, Weiss, who later taught at the Czech University after 1883. Weiss, like Eiselt, had previ- ously been active in Czech medical organizations and journals and had the support of the Czech public and scholars as well.25 There were, in fact, a large number of Czech scholars who were working abroad as well as at universities in the empire. Some of these professors had published in Czech as young scholars but for various reasons ceased to do so. This group included some professors who chose the German University in Prague after 1882, thus identifying with German culture.26 While in Prague the choice to publish in a language other than Czech was a conscious decision to reject direct participation in the Czech national