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The Circulation of Scientific Knowledge in the Late Habsburg Monarchy: Multicultural Perspectives on Imperial Scholarship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2015

Jan Surman
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The question of how to categorize and study science in multicultural empires has in recent years increasingly occupied historians of science and of empires. Issues of intercultural mediation, brokerage, or cultural translation have been particularly influential in the study of science in colonial empires. However, the question for continental empires was about science as a reaction to pluricultural reality. Ernest Gellner, Deborah Coen, and Johannes Feichtinger, among others, have taken a similar approach to the Habsburg monarchy, which notwithstanding its legal status as a monarchy shared several characteristics of an empire. These reactions to empire also included nationalisms, which, as recent publications have shown, largely defined the shape of the late-nineteenth-century scientific landscape in Central Europe. In this article, I want to look at the imperial scientific landscape from yet another perspective, concentrating on itinerant scholars and the circulation of knowledge in the Habsburg Empire. In my view, this constitutes an imperial culture of its own that has not yet been thoroughly analyzed.

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Austrian History Yearbook , Volume 46 , April 2015 , pp. 163 - 182
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Copyright © Center for Austrian Studies, University of Minnesota 2015 

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References

1 Research done for this article was part of my PhD project, “Habsburg University 1848–1918: Biography of a Space,” completed at the Vienna University under the supervision of Mitchell G. Ash. For comments on earlier versions of this draft, I want to thank Klemens Kaps and an anonymous AHY reviewer. I am also indebted to Mollie Madden and Sharon Park for their editorial help.

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15 This part is based on Jan Surman, “Habsburg University 1848–1918: Biography of a Space,” (PhD diss., Vienna University, 2012).

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22 See: Surman, Jan, “Die Figurationen der Akademia. Galizische Universitäten zwischen Imperialismus und multiplen Nationalismus,” in (De-) Konstruktionen Galiziens, ed. Galizien, Doktoratskolleg (Innsbruck, Vienna, Bozen, 2009), 17–40 Google Scholar.

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25 Józef Dietl, “O instytucji docentów w ogóle, a szczególnie na Uniwersytecie Jagiellońskim” [About the Institution of Privatdozenten, especially at the Jagiellonian University], Czas, no. 251 (31 Oct. 1861): 1–2.

26 See: Bałłaban, Teodor, Michał Borysiekiewicz, wspomnienie pośmiertne [Posthumous Recollections on Michał Borysiekiewicz] (Kraków, 1899)Google Scholar; Томашевский, Ярема, “110 діяльності лікарської комісії НТШ [110 Years of Medical Comission of NTSh],” Праці наукового товариства імені Шевченка—Том XXIV, Лікарський збірник, Медицина і біологія, Нова серія [Works of Scientific Shevchenko Society—vol. 24, Physicians Collection, Medicine and Biology. New Series] 16 (2009): 9–12 Google Scholar, here 10.

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28 See: Brentano, Franz Clemens, Meine letzten Wünsche für Oesterreich (Stuttgart, 1895)Google Scholar (published first in Neue Freie Presse, 2./5./8.12.1894)

29 Austrian State Archives, General Archive of Administration, fond Ministry of Religion and Education (further ÖStA, AVA, MCU), fasc. 896, PA Cornu, Z. 3365, 4.4.1901

30 National Archives (Prague), fond Ministry of Religion and Education 1882–1918(1923) (further NA, MKV/R), inv.č. 2, fasc. 97, PA Kukula.

31 See: Zakłady uniwersyteckie w Krakowie. Przyczynek do dziejów oświaty krajowej podany w pamięci pięćset-letniego istnienia Uniwersytetu Krakowskiego [University Institutions in Cracow: Contribution to the History of Provincial Education, for the Memory of the 500th Anniversary of Cracow University] (Kraków, 1864)Google Scholar.

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34 Pánek, Augustin, “O životě a působení Dr. Emila Weyra [About Life and Work of Dr. Emil Weyr],” Časopis pro pěstování matematiky a fysiky [Journal for Mathematics and Physics] 24, no. 3 (1895): 163–224 Google Scholar; Bečvář, Jindřich, “Rodina Weyrů [Weyr Family],” in idem (ed.), Eduard Weyr (1852–1903) (Praha, 1995), 7–34 Google Scholar, here 13–20.

35 Surman, Jan, “Imperiale ‘go betweeners’: Józef Dietl und Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk,” in Imperiale Biographien: Elitekarrieren in den Vielvölkerreichen der Romanows, Habsburger und Osmanen (1850–1918), ed. Buchen, Tim, Rolf, Malte (Berlin, forthcoming)Google Scholar.

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38 Ibid., Seebacher, Das Fremde, 143–54.

39 ÖStA, AVA, MCU, fasz. 1121, PA Gussenbauer, Z. 21118, 15.4.1878.

40 ÖStA, AVA, MCU, fasz. 1123, PA Weiss, Z. 17116, 4.11.1881.

41 In 1862–1874, Hofmann published thirteen original articles in Časopis lékařův českych [Journal of Czech Physicians], and after his appointment in Vienna, published several articles in Czech. On the probable influence of Josef Skoda/Škoda on Albert's appointment, see: Jirásek, Arnold, Eduard Albert: Pokus o kroniku a rozbor života, práce i vyznamu E. Alberta, učiněny ke stému vyročí jeho narození (20. ledna 1941) [Eduard Albert: Essay on Chronicle and Analysis of His Life, Work and Importance] (Prague, 1946), 82–84 Google Scholar. For the appointment, see ÖStA, AVA, MCU, fasz. 596, PA Albert, Z. 92, 25.1.1881.

42 Schönbauer, Leopold, “Albert, Eduard,” in Neue Deutsche Biographie, vol. 1 (Berlin, 1953) 137–38Google Scholar. Albert was also one of the founders of Deutsche Zeitschrift für Chirurgie.

43 AGAD, MWiO, fasz. 117u, PA Liske, Z. 460, 24.6.1869; DALO, fond 26, opis 7, sprava 148, Z. 50, 20.1.1871; 11.2.1871; On the scholarly level of Zakrzewski's work, DALO, fond 26, opis 7, sprava 142, N. 245, 19.1.1871; DALO, fond 26, opis 7, sprava 148, Z. 1544, 17.3.1871.

44 See the appointment records of his successor Euzebiusz Czerkawski: AGAD, MWiO, fasz. 118u, PA Czerkawski, Z. 8147, 19.6.1871.

45 More on Zeissberg in L'viv can be found in: Козловський, С. О., “Медієвістичні студії Генріха фон Цайссберга у Львівському університеті [Medieval Studies of Heinrich von Zeissberg at the L'viv University],” Гілея: науковий вісник [Gileya: Scientific Journal] 55, no 12 (2011): 23–29 Google Scholar.

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47 Nieciowa, Helena, Członkowie Akademii Umiejętności oraz Polskiej Akademii Umiejętności 1872–1952 [Members of Academy of Sciences and Arts and of Polish Academy of Sciences and Arts 1872–1952] (Wrocław etc., 1973)Google Scholar.

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54 The most recent biography of Gumplowicz can be found in: Surman, Jan and Mozetič, Gerald, eds., Dwa życia Ludwika Gumplowicza: Wybór Tekstów [Two Lives of Ludwik Gumplowicz: Chosen Texts] (Warsaw, 2010)Google Scholar; for his theory, see Adamek, Wojciech and Radwan-Pragłowski, Janusz, “Ludwik Gumplowicz: A Forgotten Classic of European Sociology,” Journal of Classical Sociology November 6, no. 3 (2006): 381–98CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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64 See esp. passages from the promotional leaflet for Ladin Song project, distributed in 1906, quoted in: Chiocchetti, Fabio and Starec, Roberto, “In Search of the ‘Ladin Song’: The Project Das Volkslied in Österreich in the Ladin Areas of Tyrol and East Friuli (1904–1914)” Traditiones 34, no. 1 (2005): 61–77 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, here 66.

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66 Szumera, Grażyna, “Filozofia dziejów według Jana Karola Kochanowskiego [Philosophy of History According to Jan Karol Kochanowski],” Folia Philosophica 24 (2006): 298–314 Google Scholar.

67 Bruckmüller, Ernst, “Was There a ‘Habsburg Society’ in Austria-Hungary?” Austrian History Yearbook 37 (2006), 1–16 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, here 15–16.

68 Biographical data in Staliński, Zbigniew, “Leopold Adametz (1861–1941),” in Złota Księga Akademii Rolniczej [Golden Book of the Academy of Agriculture], Staliński, Zbigniew, ed. (Cracow, 2000), 62–67 Google Scholar.