German Studies at the University of Vienna

During the first third of the 20th century more women acquired habilitation at the Viennese German Department than at any other Department in the German speaking countries. In 1921, the postdoctoral license to teach was awarded to Christine Touaillon (1978-1928), a literary historian and proponent of a socialdemocratic womens movement, based on her encompassing and pioneering study Der deutsche Frauenroman des 18. Jahrhunderts. In 1924, it was granted to Marianne Thalmann (1888-1975), a scholar of literary Romanticism and advocate of innovative contemporary scientific ideas, on the basis of her book Der Trivialroman und der romantische Roman. And in 1927, it was permitted to Lily Weiser (1898-1987), a German ethnologist, because of her concise treatise Altgermanische Jüngligsweihen und Männerbünde. Licensing female scholars to teach on a postdoctoral level was met with massive resistance at other Austrian universities despite the fact that men and women were guaranteed political and legal equality by the constitution of the First Republic. The utterly unique position of the Viennese German Department in this regard was due to fundamental transformations in its academic structures and practices. Analyzing the interplay of these transformations on an institutional, habitual, scientific, and political level allows for particularly exemplary insights into the workings of the university as institution and into the role of Viennese German Studies in the first third of the 20th century. It becomes cogent that both, the self-conception and the disciplinary differentiation of an academic field, substantially affect its personnel politics and the status of female scholars. Accordingly, this thesis first introduces the scientific and institutional constitution of Viennese German Studies, selection criteria for and controversies during negotiations of succession, the role of private lectureships, relations between teachers and students, and political directives for the discipline. These accounts provide the scaffold for detailed case studies of the three private lecturers, that focus on the positions and scopes of action available to these German scholars as well as on their research foci and their ideological implications. Not least, this analysis allows for conclusions about the relation between scientific specialization and academic career.