Seite - 116 - in Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918 - A Social History of a Multilingual Space

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