Seite - 256 - in Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918 - A Social History of a Multilingual Space

256 ♦  Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918 called Soukromí docenti) advantaged the small universities, if only as far as the number of professors was concerned.60 Bratislava: Becoming (Czecho)Slovakian The new state of Czechoslovakia inherited three universities from the Habsburg period: the two universities in Prague and the Hungarian-language Royal Hungarian Elizabeth University in Bratislava, which had opened in 1914 with law and medical faculties. Bratislava was now a Slovak city, which meant major changes for the university. Although from the earliest period of the new state Prague politicians had signaled that they were interested in keeping Elizabeth University, it was dissolved in 1919–20, partly because of the lack of a Hungarian minority in the state that the university would serve. Slovak politicians were unanimous that Bratislava should get a Slovak uni- versity in exchange. Most wanted to have one built once Slovakian schools were producing students and young scholars, but the pressure of medical scholars in Prague lobbying for a new university moved the ministry to open Comenius University in Bratislava in June 1919.61 Yet, despite the efforts to find Slovak students and attract Czech ones, in the first few years students identifying as Hungarian or German made up the majority at the medical faculty, while in the law faculty Slovaks and Czechs prevailed.62 If we can trust the statistics, the medical and law faculties at Comenius University opened with only one scholar identifying as Slovak, Augustín Ráth. With the opening of the philosophical faculty two years later, three other Slovaks were nominated, although only one of them actively taught at the university.63 Surprisingly, while a few Slovak scholars had previously worked in Hungary, they were not considered for professorial positions; cultural separatism and an anti-Czech position were probably the reasons for their rejection.64 It seems that even though the principal aim of the university was the reinforcement of Slovak elites, the Slovak public remained skeptical of the project. Those favoring a national project certainly had reason for skep- ticism, since behind closed doors Prague politicians had asked the professors appointed to Bratislava to support and habilitate only those who accepted and promoted Czechoslovakism.65 For the tenth jubilee of the university’s es- tablishment, the rector, Albert Pražák, wrote openly in a German-language interview that “the Slovak public is somewhat cautious [about the univer- sity]. The reason is new scholarly methods . . . which changed the picture of