Seite - 227 - in Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918 - A Social History of a Multilingual Space

Chapter 6 ♦  227 Martin Spahn to the (Protestant) University of Strasbourg. In response to the proposed appointment, Theodor Mommsen and Lujo Brentano started a fierce campaign accusing Catholics of representing “science with presup- positions,” which differed from the liberal Protestant non-presuppositional approach (voraussetzungslose Wissenschaft). Although this term had been used previously, Mommsen stabilized it, marking the German-language discussion on the relation between religion and objectivity, even though the term’s philosophical substance (Voraussetzungslosigkeit) had already been abandoned in philosophy. In their quest to discredit Spahn, his opponents argued less against Spahn himself and more against the church and papal influence on the matters studied and taught at universities.50 The point of departure was a critique of ultramontanism, a version of Catholicism in which the pope and the curiae were the highest authorities, in opposition to the liberal and state-led versions popular in the German and Habsburg Empires in various forms, from the Altkatholiken (Old Catholics) to the Los­ von­ Rom movement (Away from Rome!, a movement aiming at converting Austrian Catholics to Protestantism). Whereas in the Kulturkampf (culture war) of the 1870s in the German Empire, cultural Protestantism and a secularization movement became strong,51 papal-led Catholicism remained influential in the Habsburg Empire. Not only was it the basis of the dynasty, but it also achieved addi- tional political representation with the creation of the right-wing Christian Social Party under the direction of Karl Lueger. This was strengthened by Lueger’s anti-Semitic rhetoric.52 In particular, Lueger proposed on sev- eral occasions a strategy of re-Catholicization of universities, criticizing the Jewish and socialist presence and the supposed discrimination against Catholic and German students and scholars. Between 1902 and 1908, Wahrmund, a professor of canonical law in Innsbruck and a member of the Leo Society, became the symbol of the new anticlerical struggle.53 In 1902, in response to the Spahn affair, Wahrmund published a brochure titled Religion und Klerikalismus (Religion and cler- icalism), proposing a division of state and church and the acceptance of universities as state institutions.54 Hotly debated, both in academia and in Parliament,55 this brochure had, however, no serious repercussions. Shortly afterward, in 1907, Lueger announced at the Sixth Catholic Rally (6. Allgemeiner Katholikentag) a Catholic “reconquista” of the universities,56 leading to days-long debates in Parliament.57 Wahrmund answered this with a critique of the Catholic Church, titled Katholische Weltanschauung und