Page - 238 - in Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918 - A Social History of a Multilingual Space

238 ♦  Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918 had previously considerably enriched Polish scholarship.112 Reactions to this article were of one sort: letter writers argued that there were countless exam- ples of Poles who could not get university positions, and thus one should not criticize the fact that Jews were not being promoted but rather, for the sake of Polish scholarship, should promote Poles, implying that they should, by default, be Catholics.113 Certainly, several Jewish professors (both converted and not) worked in Galicia, along with a number of Privatdozenten, pre- dominantly in L’viv; their numbers rose only after 1918.114 One also finds a preponderance of Jewish scholars among Galician-born, German-speaking, university-habilitated scholars,115 some of whom also began their studies in Cracow and L’viv. This fact points to the trend mentioned by the anonymous Dr. K.L.; however, as there are insufficient data on the situation leading to the migrations and conversions, this statement should be taken with caution. Felicitas Seebacher has impressively shown, using the example of the medical faculty in Vienna, that such a discourse also occurred in the Austrian capital, although there migration induced by discrimination was not geo- graphic but intra-urban, that is, to other medical institutions in the city.116 The most prominent issue there was the covert and overt anti-Semitism among scholars and students.117 The best-known instance of anti-Semitism is Theodor Billroth’s 1876 book on the teaching of medical sciences,118 in which the author used a stereotype of a low-income Jewish student from Galicia to degrade the University of Vienna; the book was heavily criticized, and Billroth ultimately withdrew his statements.119 Nevertheless, his argument remained influential, being used, for example, in the above-mentioned par- liamentary speeches in 1907. Adolf Wahrmund, a professor at the Academy for Oriental Languages (Akademie für Orientalische Sprachen) in Vienna, and August Rohling, a professor of theology in Prague, published a number of widely read and translated pamphlets with anti-Semitic content, supported by their academic authority.120 After the rise of right-wing parties, not infre- quently with reference to Catholicism,121 and through the consolidation of opposing fronts owing to political affairs,122 anti-Semitism in its modern racial version gained a firm place in the political landscape of the empire.123 Harsh commentaries appeared in the press claiming that Wahrmund, Masaryk, and, in 1910, the students who protested in Cracow against pro-Catholic university policy were all Jewish,124 illustrating how radical parties forged a link between Catholicism and anti-Semitism. Indeed, anti-Semitism was prevalent in the mass media and the public, but one should not forget that it was not the only, or even the most popular, ideology. For example, in 1891