Page - 258 - in Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918 - A Social History of a Multilingual Space

258 ♦  Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918 Bratislava, where local scholars were scarce in the early 1920s, the Czech technical academy in Brno constituted a notable source of new professors for Masaryk University: three each in the law faculty and the faculty of sciences, and one each in the philosophical and medical faculties.71 For in- stance, the first rector of Masaryk University—one of the scholars most active in the political struggles for its creation—was the professor of eco- nomics at the technical academy, Karel Engliš. Since the new universities drew scholars from Prague, and several professors became political functionaries and ceased teaching, the Czech Charles University faced, after the war, a brief reduction in its teaching staff, which, however, was rapidly compensated for by the growing number of young lecturers.72 In comparison with the Polish case, where Cracow and L’viv were increasingly turning into local institutions, Prague retained its central status and dominated Czechoslovak education, serving as a nursery for future generations of Czechoslovak scholars and clearly gaining influ- ence after the Habsburg Empire’s collapse. Habsburg Poland The newly established universities in Poland, such as those in Poznań, Warsaw, and Vilnius, similarly drew on Habsburg cadres. By 1915 the Viennese ministry was more than willing to send L’viv professors there for the founding of the University of Warsaw under the German protectorate. But the final number of seven appointees was seen as a deliberate limitation of the Galician presence in the new institution on the part of the govern- ment of the protectorate.73 For the 1919 Stabilization Commission (Komisja Stabilizacyjna), which was held in Cracow for Galician convenience and was to decide on the final appointments for the University of Warsaw and, a little later, other institutions, the L’viv and Cracow universities sent thirty-four envoys, compared to fifteen from other institutions. This gave them more influence on the decision-making process than scholars from other regions and institutions.74 Galician professors headed the subcommissions and also the medical and natural sciences, and Kazimierz Twardowski (L’viv) had the deciding vote for the philosophical disciplines.75 Jan Łukasiewicz, a L’viv logician, was the minister of religion and education from 1919 to 1923, when most of the changes in academia were decided on; three further profes- sors and two graduates from Galician institutions held this position, with