Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.17234/RadoviZHP.56.29
For the Prosperity of the Homeland and for the Benefit of Art and Science. Congratulations from Kiel to Zagreb (Summary)
Ludwig Steindorff
orcid.org/0000-0001-6332-6735
Abstract
Among other scientific institutions all over Europe also the University of Kiel in the north of Germany obtained an invitation to send delegates to the celebrations on the occasion of the opening of the University of Zagreb on October 1874. In their answer in Latin from 25th September the rector and the senate of the University of Kiel regretted that due to the long distance from the “Swedish sea” they were not able to attend the celebrations, but they would pray to the Almighty, that he may protect the new university and allow it to bear the finest fruits for the prosperity of the homeland and for the benefit of art and science.
The letter clearly expresses what the founding of the university based on contemporary models meant. It was immediately accepted into the large community of universities in Europe.
The wish for „fruits for the prosperity of the homeland“ obviously refers to the state, the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, as well as to the Croatian nation, and this ambiguity refers also to the role of historiography. We meet similar ideas in other congratulatory letters and toasts during the banquet, too.
In fact, if we look at the future activities of the University of Zagreb as well as the Yugoslav Academy of Science and Arts, which was founded in 1867, the identification as a national institution was much stronger than the identification with the Monarchy. Also, the speech of the first rector Matija Mesić on the celebration fits with this attitude.
Notwithstanding the different accentuation of the university as institution in the interests of the state or the nation, all agree about the „benefit of art and science“ as universal purpose of universities.
In 2022 the Seminary of history at Kiel celebrated its 150th anniversary. In Zagreb a Seminary of history was established only in 1886, but even before the foundation of the University Franjo Rački had already insisted upon the need of seminaries for the preparation of future schoolteachers.
The establishment of the chairs of history within the foundation of the University of Zagreb in 1874 fits with the general European trend of professionalization of historiography and the establishment of corresponding institutions. The new chairs were a contribution to modernization within the existing political system, but at the same time the university, at which the language of instruction was Croatian, and the chairs of history were important factors for the development and affirma¬tion of the modern Croatian nation.
Keywords
Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel; University of Kiel; University of Zagreb; chairs of history; Austria-Hungary; Croatian nation; Yugoslavism; universality of science; opening of Zagreb University 1874
Hrčak ID:
336387
URI
Publication date:
23.12.2024.
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