Chemistry at Austrian Universities from 1848 to 1938

Considering the development of European universities for the whole period of their existence, particularly the development of (natural) science at Austrian universities during the 2nd half of the 19th century until the 2nd World War must be considered exceptionally successful. Having been characterised by stagnation for a long time, the Austrian university system greatly benefited from the 1848 reforms of philosophical faculties, which resulted in Austrian universities being internationally competitive. This reformed university system managed to benefit from the population resources of the multiethnic Habsburg monarchy in a very efficient way. The enormous qualitative and quantitative changes at universities indicate the exceptional efforts that were taken in order to improve the situation at these institutions of research and teaching. In the following years, this new structure allowed renowned researches such as Ludwig Boltzmann, Ernst Mach, Erwin Schrödinger, Josef Loschmidt, Fritz Pregl and Hermann Mark (to name but a few) to develop and evolve, thus forming some of the most influential protagonists of the revolutionary change in scientific world view. Although performances of some single scientists are well explored, historians are yet to discover the structural background of this success story. This research task is to be performed in the frame of an overall project regarding natural science, a part of this being the proposed project dealing with the section of chemistry. Chemistry represents a special case within the scope of natural sciences because it was not part of the septem artes and was established at university level as a complementary science of medicine. At the time of its installation at the philosophical faculties, this complementary status caused chemistry to have a much lower degree of theorisation than for example those subjects which amalgamated to physics in the beginning of the 19th century. During the period discussed by the proposed project, this initial academic phase was followed by a process of theorisation of chemistry as well as by a highly successful feedback effect with chemical technology, especially with organic synthesis. The project aims to detect and to uncover inter- and intra-university developments (such as, for example, the organization or the politics of science) and to explore the share of Austrian science in the considerable success of international chemistry in the 19th century. The most important sources for this project are ministerial documents concerning the philosophical faculties of Vienna, Prague, Graz and Innsbruck. Copies of these documents are already available at the research centre. In addition, documents from university archives, schedules of lectures, annual reports, registers of persons, almanacs (especially the one of the "Austrian Academy of Sciences") and scientific papers of both Austrian and international chemists will be examined, the latter category in order to outline import and export of scientific contents.

Considering the development of European universities for the whole period of their existence, particularly the development of (natural) science at Austrian universities during the 2nd half of the 19th century until the 2nd World War must be considered exceptionally successful. Having been characterised by stagnation for a long time, the Austrian university system greatly benefited from the 1848 reforms of philosophical faculties, which resulted in Austrian universities being internationally competitive. This reformed university system managed to benefit from the population resources of the multiethnic Habsburg monarchy in a very efficient way. The enormous qualitative and quantitative changes at universities indicate the exceptional efforts that were taken in order to improve the situation at these institutions of research and teaching. In the following years, this new structure allowed renowned researches such as Ludwig Boltzmann, Ernst Mach, Erwin Schrödinger, Josef Loschmidt, Fritz Pregl and Hermann Mark (to name but a few) to develop and evolve, thus forming some of the most influential protagonists of the revolutionary change in scientific world view. Although performances of some single scientists are well explored, historians are yet to discover the structural background of this success story. This research task is to be performed in the frame of an overall project regarding natural science, a part of this being the proposed project dealing with the section of chemistry. Chemistry represents a special case within the scope of natural sciences because it was not part of the septem artes and was established at university level as a complementary science of medicine. At the time of its installation at the philosophical faculties, this complementary status caused chemistry to have a much lower degree of theorisation than for example those subjects which amalgamated to physics in the beginning of the 19th century. During the period discussed by the proposed project, this initial academic phase was followed by a process of theorisation of chemistry as well as by a highly successful feedback effect with chemical technology, especially with organic synthesis. The project aims to detect and to uncover inter- and intra-university developments (such as, for example, the organization or the politics of science) and to explore the share of Austrian science in the considerable success of international chemistry in the 19th century. The most important sources for this project are ministerial documents concerning the philosophical faculties of Vienna, Prague, Graz and Innsbruck. Copies of these documents are already available at the research centre. In addition, documents from university archives, schedules of lectures, annual reports, registers of persons, almanacs (especially the one of the "Austrian Academy of Sciences") and scientific papers of both Austrian and international chemists will be examined, the latter category in order to outline import and export of scientific contents.