Seite - 233 - in Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918 - A Social History of a Multilingual Space

Chapter 6 ♦  233 most of this period (the chair for the latter was separated from philosophy only in the last decades of the century), leading academic philosophy into a dilemma about how to cope with such a belated change. Finally, the chair of philosophy was divided into one professorship devoted to the natural sciences and logic, and a second focusing on historical aspects, devoted to “social and moral pedagogy.”85 However, as with other disciplines in the em- pire, the differentiation of chairs depended on the university, leaving smaller institutions, such as Innsbruck and Chernivtsi, disadvantaged. An Invisible Ghetto Wall: Jewish Scholars Catholic scholars were not the only people whose mobility was influenced by confessional issues. One of the most pressing questions was that of Jewish scholars. Recently, a number of publications have addressed the issue of latent and open anti-Semitism at Habsburg universities. Also, models of the effects of exclusion have been proposed, underscoring in particular that Jewish scholars who could not find a place at a university were vital to the establishment of independent institutes; in this way they contributed to the cultural thriving of cities, especially the metropolitan capitals. Below I want to delve more into the detailed sphere of negotiations and identity questions and to look beyond the centers; I argue that at the smaller univer- sities, processes took place that enabled the centers, in particular Vienna, to function in the way they did. To begin with, I want to mention a contradiction between the official view and the public view. While the controversies over the appointments of Jewish scholars were broadly discussed, this issue remained almost com- pletely absent from the official records of the universities and the ministry. These records make precise statements on the confession of professors and Privatdozenten impossible. Since numbers of Jewish scholars converted to Protestantism or Catholicism to facilitate their careers at universities, birth certificates and early life information do not help here either.86 Conversions remained frequent at least until 1918, and scholars changed religion not only for career reasons but also for the sake of marriage or out of ideological con- viction.87 Hans Kelsen, for instance, born to Jewish parents, was baptized a Catholic in 1905 (for career reasons) and then converted to Lutheranism in 1912 to marry Margarete Bondi.88 According to the law at least, one’s religion could be changed, but not so in the public eye, as I argue later.