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120 ♦ Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918
it. In contrast, the rejection of a habilitation by the faculty or the ministry was
seen as denying a scholar’s academic competence and thus any possibility for
a university career. Reactions to such rejections were often very emotional.
They could result in a quiet ending to a scholar’s career131 or prolonged
confrontations in the press and courts.132 In problematic cases, a rejection
could be contested with appeals to the faculty or directly to the ministry, or
even by trying one’s luck at a different university, although the latter was
rare and undertaken only in cases of obvious personal or political conflict
at the first university. In the appeal procedures, both sides often turned to
external experts for an assessment.133 Since the Ordinarienuniversität pro-
moted strong teacher-student relations, some professors felt offended by the
rejection of a habilitation and took the side of their students.134
A “strong tie” in the student-teacher relationship was in fact a prerequi-
site for habilitation, especially because the social capital within the faculty
was mostly concentrated in a few hands, as Pavel Kolář has demonstrated
for the historical disciplines.135 Nonetheless, habilitation involved all of the
professors in the faculty, first on the commission and then in the examina-
tion and public lectures. Thus, “weak ties” to all professors, or rather the
absence of “negative ties”136 with other scholars, to retain the terminology
of network theory, were significant. The habilitation of Władysław Natanson
in Graz was, for example, supported by Ludwig Boltzmann; given the lat-
ter’s uncertain health as well as his possible move to Munich, the young
scholar corresponded with the Graz sociologist Ludwik Gumplowicz about
choosing the best moment for filing the papers. Natanson failed to answer
questions on Kelvin’s theory of vortex motion (Wirbelbewegung), and both
he and Gumplowicz accused the questioner, Heinrich Streintz, of German
nationalism and fear of competition.137
In this regard, professors were in a privileged position, especially the
chairs of seminars and clinics, who controlled the resources a Privatdozent
would need in teaching. Conflict with the head of the Institute for Physiology
(Physiologisches Institut) in Vienna, Hermann Widerhofer, caused the
Privatdozentur of Leopold Unger to be terminated: he had written an arti-
cle on the misery of the Privatdozenten in Vienna, which provoked a harsh
reaction from Widerhofer, who had been directly criticized in the piece. Even
though the majority of the faculty stood behind Unger, Widerhofer succeeded
in having him dismissed. The young physiologist continued his career, how-
ever, habilitating once more as soon as Widerhofer retired in 1901.138
Heads of institutes were also legally allowed to refuse a Privatdozent
the use of teaching aids, which would have effectively ended a career before
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Buch Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918 - A Social History of a Multilingual Space"
Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918
A Social History of a Multilingual Space
- Titel
- Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918
- Untertitel
- A Social History of a Multilingual Space
- Autor
- Jan Surman
- Verlag
- Purdue University Press
- Ort
- West Lafayette
- Datum
- 2019
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- PD
- ISBN
- 978-1-55753-861-1
- Abmessungen
- 16.5 x 25.0 cm
- Seiten
- 474
- Schlagwörter
- History, Austria, Eduction System, Learning
- Kategorien
- Geschichte Vor 1918
Inhaltsverzeichnis
- List of Illustrations vi
- List of Tables vii
- Acknowledgments ix
- Note on Language Use, Terminology, and Geography xi
- Abbreviations xiii
- Introduction A Biography of the Academic Space 1
- Chapter 1 Centralizing Science for the Empire 19
- Chapter 2 The Neoabsolutist Search for a Unified Space 49
- Chapterr 3 Living Out Academic Autonomy 89
- Chapter 4 German-Language Universities between Austrian and German Space 139
- Chapter 5 Habsburg Slavs and Their Spaces 175
- Chapter 6 Imperial Space and Its Identities 217
- Chapter 7 Habsburg Legacies 243
- Conclusion Paradoxes of the Central European Academic Space 267
- Appendix 1 Disciplines of Habilitation at Austrian Universities 281
- Appendix 2 Databases of Scholars at Cisleithanian Universities 285
- Notes 287
- Bibliography 383
- Index 445