A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY IN EUROPE

GENERAL EDITOR
WALTER RÜEGG

This is the third volume of a four-part History of the University in Europe, written by an international team of authors under the chairmanship of Professor Walter Rüegg. The series has been sponsored by the Standing Conference of Rectors, Presidents and Vice-Chancellors of the European Universities (CRE), now European University Association (EUA), and is intended for the general reader as well as the specialist. It covers the development of the university in Europe (east and west) from its origins to the present day, focusing not on the history of individual institutions, nor on the universities in any individual country, but on a number of major themes viewed from a European perspective.

   The originality of the work lies in its comparative, interdisciplinary, collaborative and transnational nature. It is not a history of ideas, even though each volume has a ‘Learning’ section dealing with the content of what was taught at universities during this time, but rather an appreciation of the role of the universities seen against a backdrop of changing conditions, ideas and values.

   Volume III, ‘Universities in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries’, attempts to situate the universities in their social and political context throughout the one and a half centuries spanning the period from 1800 to 1945.

A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY IN EUROPE

General Editor and Chairman of the Editorial Board: Walter Rüegg (Switzerland)

Asa Briggs (United Kingdom)
Alison Browning (United Kingdom)
Aleksander Gieysztor† (Poland)
Notker Hammerstein (Germany)
Olaf Pedersen† (Denmark)
Hilde de Ridder-Symoens (Belgium)
John Roberts† (United Kingdom)
Edward Shils† (United States of America)
Jacques Verger (France)

This four-volume series, prepared under the guidance of an editorial board, has been directed by the Standing Conference of Rectors, Presidents and Vice-Chancellors of the European Universities (CRE), now European University Association (EUA). The EUA, which is a non-governmental organization based in Brussels and Geneva, has over 650 member universities in both eastern and western Europe. Its Brussels and Geneva secretariat oversees the administration of the project.

The university is the only European institution to have preserved its fundamental patterns and basic social role and function over the course of the last millennium. This History shows how and why the university grew to encompass the whole of knowledge and most of the world, how it developed an intellectual tradition common to all Europeans, and how it trained academic and professional elites whose ethos transcends national boundaries.

Volumes in the series

A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY IN EUROPE

GENERAL EDITOR
WALTER RÜEGG

VOLUME III
UNIVERSITIES IN THE NINETEENTH AND EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURIES (1800–1945)

EDITOR
WALTER RÜEGG

PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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© Cambridge University Press 2004

This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2004

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

Typeface Sabon 10/12 pt.   System LATEX 2_e   [TB]

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 0 521 36107 9 hardback

To the memory of our dear colleagues
John Roberts and Edward Shils
In grateful recognition of their human and scholarly qualities

CONTENTS

CONTRIBUTORS AND EDITORS

PAUL BOCKSTAELE (Belgium), born in Melle near Ghent in 1920, is emeritus professor of mathematics and the history of mathematics at the Catholic University of Leuven. He is a member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for the Sciences and of the International Academy of the History of Science.

ASA BRIGGS (United Kingdom), from 1976 Lord Briggs of Lewes, was born in Yorkshire in 1921. He is former provost of Worcester College, Oxford (1976–92), former vice-chancellor of the University of Sussex (1967–92), former chancellor of the Open University (1978–94), former chairman (1974–80) of the European Institute of Education and Social Policy in Paris, and former president of the British Social History Society (1966–71). His writings span economic, social and cultural history and the history of broadcasting. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

ALISON BROWNING (United Kingdom/USA) was born in Buckinghamshire in 1951. In her role as Deputy Secretary General of the CRE, the Association of European Universities (1986–94), she had responsibility for a number of the organization’s international and interdisciplinary projects, including the preparation of this History of the University in Europe. She now divides her time between the USA and Europe.

CHRISTOPHE CHARLE (France) was born in Paris in 1951. He is professor of contemporary history at the University of Paris Ⅰ Panthéon (Sorbonne) and director of the Institut d’Histoire moderne et contemporaine (CNRS/École normale supérieure). He has published several books, some of them translated into several languages, on the history of intellectuals and the comparative history of cultures and societies in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Europe.

PAUL GERBOD (France) was born in Paris in 1925. Emeritus professor of contemporary history at several French universities, president of the Association des historiens contemporanéistes des universités françaises and of the Comité français des sciences historiques, he has published a dozen books and more than a hundred review articles on themes related to the history of education and culture.

LIEVE GEVERS (Belgium), born in Turnhout in 1947, is professor of church history in the Faculty of Theology at the Catholic University of Leuven, where she teaches on the history of the church and religion in modern times. A former visiting fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, she has published several books and articles on the European and Belgian history of the Catholic Church, secondary and higher education, religion and nationalism, student movements and youth associations.

ANNA GUAGNINI (Italy), born in Milan in 1952, is a researcher in the department of philosophy at the University of Bologna. Her interests lie in the history of technology in Europe in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; she is the author of several publications on the organization of technological education and research in Britain and Italy.

NOTKER HAMMERSTEIN (Germany) was born in Offenbach-am-Main in 1930. Emeritus professor of early modern history at the University of Frankfurt-am-Main, he has published several works on the history of German universities and the history of learning. He is a member of the editorial board of History of Universities.

KONRAD JARAUSCH (Germany/USA), born in Magdeburg, Germany, in 1941, is Lurcy Professor of European Civilization at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and co-director of the Zentrum für zeit- historische Forschung at the University of Potsdam in Germany. He is the author or editor of more than twenty books on modern German history, and co-authored recently with Michael Geyer The Shattered Past: Reconstructing German History (Princeton, 2003).

MATTI KLINGE (Finland), born in Helsinki in 1936, was professeur associé at the University of Paris-Sorbonne (1970–72) and professor of history at the University of Helsinki (1975–2001), where he directed its monumental history. He has taught and published extensively on the political and cultural history of the Nordic countries and their relationship to other parts of Europe. Former president of the Société d’étude du XVIIe siècle in Finland and President of the Societas Scientiarum Fennica, he has an honorary doctorate from the University of Uppsala and is a member of the Royal Academy of History and Literature in Stockholm.

ANTO LEIKOLA (Finland), born in Helsinki in 1937, was professor of history of science at the University of Helsinki from 1988 until his retirement in 1997. He was also a docent in history of science at the University of Oulu from 1980 until 2002 and at the University of Helsinki from 1998 until 2002. He chaired the Finnish Society of the History of Science and Ideas from 1976 to 1997, and is a member of the International Academy of the History of Sciences, of the Finnish Society of Sciences, and of the Latvian Academy of Sciences.

ANTONIE M. LUYENDIJK-ELSHOUT (The Netherlands), born in Gorinchem in 1921, is emeritus professor of the history of medicine at the University of Leiden. She was actively involved in the work of the Boerhaave Museum in Leiden, and has published on the history of universities in relation to the history of medicine.

HILDE DE RIDDER-SYMOENS (Belgium), born in Sint-Jans-Molenbeek (Brussels) in 1943, is professor of early modern history at the University of Ghent (Belgium) and president of the International Commission for the History of Universities. She has published on European university history and education in the Middle Ages and the early modern period.

FRITZ RINGER (Germany/USA), born in Ludwigshafen (Germany) in 1934, is visiting adjunct professor of history at the BMW Center for German and European Studies at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, and Mellon Professor of History emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh. He has taught and published extensively on modern European intellectual history, the history of higher education, and the history and philosophy of the cultural and social sciences.

JOHN ROBERTS (United Kingdom) was born in Bath in 1928 and died in the county of Somerset in 2003. Warden of Merton College, Oxford (1984–94), where he was previously fellow and tutor in modern history, he was also vice-chancellor of the University of Southampton (1979–83). From 1967 to 1976 he was joint editor of the English Historical Review.

WALTER RÜEGG (Switzerland), born in Zurich in 1918, was professor of sociology at the universities of Berne (1973–86) and Frankfurt-am-Main (1961–73), he also served as rector of the latter (1965–70). He was president of the Westdeutschen Rektorenkonferenz (1967–68) and a president of the International Federation of Social Science Associations (1976–78). He is a member of the Academia scientiarum et artium europea. His numerous publications focus on humanism, historical sociology, and the history of higher education.

EDWARD SHILS (USA) was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1910, and died in Chicago in 1995. He was professor of social thought and sociology at the University of Chicago, a fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge, and of the London School of Economics. Founder and editor of the journal Minerva, he was the author of many works on sociology, with special reference to the role of science and scholarship in contemporary societies.

JACQUES VERGER (France) was born in Talence near Bordeaux in 1943. He is professor of medieval history at the University of Paris IV-Sorbonne and Directeur d’études at the École pratique des Hautes Études, IVe Section (Paris). He is a leading medievalist whose publications on the intellectual and cultural world, especially on the universities of the Middle Ages, have been translated into several foreign languages.

LOUIS VOS (Belgium), born in Mol in 1945, is professor of history in the Faculty of Arts at the Catholic University of Leuven. A former visiting professor at the universities of Pennsylvania and Nijmegen, he teaches on contemporary European history and the history of Poland. He has published several books and articles on the history of student movements, youth associations and nationalism in Belgium.

READER’S GUIDE

This series, although compiled by specialists, is destined for the general reader. The notes and bibliographies accompanying the different chapters have therefore been kept to a minimum. The notes are either bibliographical references to specify sources, generally the most important or recent works relating to the subject, or they have been introduced to justify quantitative data or to explain any significant differences between two interpretations of a particular point. Select bibliographies follow the chapters, designed to stimulate further reading and are not exhaustive. The reader will find more complete bibliographical references in the works indicated. As a number of well-known works for the period are quoted in several chapters, abbreviations of the titles of these works have been used in the notes. A list of bibliographical abbreviations follows this page. Furthermore, the reader will find a more general bibliography at the end of chapter 2 (‘Patterns’), as this chapter locates the presence and nature of universities during the period covered by this volume. In order to avoid unnecessary overlaps between the various chapters, the editors have made cross-references to other chapters in the text as well as in the notes, thereby informing the reader that more ample information on the subject can be found elsewhere in the volume (see also the subject index). The standard English version of proper names has been used throughout; when necessary, a form more commonly used in continental Europe is indicated by means of a cross-reference in the name index.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE NOTES

Bildungsbürgertum W. Conze and J. Kocka (eds.), Bildungsbürgertum im 19. Jahrhundert, vol. Ⅰ: Bildungssystem und Professionalisierung in internationalen Vergleichen (Stuttgart, 1985).

Charle, République des universitaires C. Charle, La République des universitaires (1870–1940) (Paris, 1994).

Forschung im Spannungsfeld R. Vierhaus and B. vom Brocke (eds.), Forschung im Spannungsfeld von Politik und Gesellschaft. Geschichte und Struktur der Kaiser-Wilhelm-/Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (Stuttgart, 1990).

Gerbod, Condition universitaire P. Gerbod, La Condition universitaire en France au XIXe siècle (Paris, 1965).

Hammerstein, Universität Frankfurt am Main N. Hammerstein, Die Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main, vol. Ⅰ: 1914 bis 1950 (Neuwied and Frankfurt-am-Main, 1989).

History of Oxford Ⅵ M. G. Brock and M. Curthoys (eds.), The History of the University of Oxford, vol. Ⅵ: The Nineteenth Century (general editor: T. H. Aston) (Oxford, 1997).

History of Oxford Ⅶ M. G. Brock and M. Curthoys (eds.), The History of the University of Oxford, vol. Ⅶ: Nineteenth-Century Oxford (Oxford, 2000).

History of Oxford Ⅷ B. Harrison (ed.), The History of the University of Oxford, vol. Ⅷ: The Twentieth Century (general editor: T. H. Aston) (Oxford, 1994).

Jarausch, Students Imperial Germany K. H. Jarausch, Students, Society and Politics in Imperial Germany: The Rise of Academic Illiberalism (Princeton, NJ, 1982).

Jílek, Historical Compendium L. Jílek (ed.), Historical Compendium of European Universities/Répertoire historique des universités européennes (Geneva, 1984).

Kassow, Students Tsarist Russia S. D. Kassow, Students, Professors and the State in Tsarist Russia, V. E. Bonnell and L. Hunt (eds.), Studies on the History of Society and Culture 5 (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London, 1989).

Klinge, Universität Helsinki M. Klinge, Eine nordische Universität. Die Universität Helsinki 1640–1990 (Helsinki and Göttingen, 1992).

Nipperdey, Bürgerwelt T. Nipperdey, Deutsche Geschichte 1800–1866. Bürgerwelt und starker Staat (Munich, 1983).

Paul, Knowledge H. W. Paul, From Knowledge to Power: The Rise of the Science Empire in France 1860–1939 (Cambridge, 1985).

Peset, Universidad Española M. Peset and J. L. Peset, La Universidad Española (siglos XVIII y XIX). Despotismo ilustrado y revolución liberal (Madrid, 1974).

Ringer, Education and Society F. K. Ringer, Education and Society in Modern Europe (Bloomington and Londen, 1979).

Schwabe, Deutsche Hochschullehrer K. Schwabe (ed.), Deutsche Hochschullehrer als Elite 1815–1945 (Boppard, 1988).

Shinn, Savoir scientifique T. Shinn, Savoir scientifique & pouvoir social: L’Ecole polytechnique, 1794–1914 (Paris, 1980).

University of Cambridge Ⅳ C. N. L. Brooke, A History of the University of Cambridge, vol. Ⅳ: 1870–1990 (Cambridge, 1993).

Verger, Universités en France J. Verger (ed.), Histoire des universités en France (Toulouse, 1986).

Weisz, Emergence G. Weisz, The Emergence of Modern Universities in France (1863–1914) (Princeton, NJ, 1983).

FOREWORD

WALTER RÜEGG

Nonumque prematur in annum: ‘let it be kept quiet till the ninth year.’ This famous advice given by Horace in his Ars poetica applied to poetry. When the same time-span occurs in the publication of a history book that was planned and carefully prepared for 1994, the reader may ask for an explanation.

   As outlined at some length in the Foreword to the first volume, in 1982 the Standing Conference of Rectors, Presidents and Vice-Chancellors of the European Universities (CRE), now the European Association of Universities (EUA), which meets regularly to discuss the contemporary problems and the future requirements of its more than 650 member universities, decided that it needed a better knowledge of the history of universities. Since a modern work of this kind was lacking, it undertook a feasibility study with the help of university historians and sociologists. In March 1983 a conference was held in Berne, Switzerland, which gave a positive evaluation for such an undertaking. In September of the same year the CRE appointed an editorial board entrusted with the task of publishing a History of the University in Europe in four volumes, on the basis of the current state of the art – paying all due attention to a comparative and comprehensive thematic analysis of historical changes and regional differences. The first volume was published in English in 1991, in German in 1992, and the second in 1996 in both languages. Spanish and Portuguese translations followed from 1994 on, while a Russian edition is currently being prepared in Moscow, and a Chinese one in Hebei.

   The planning for volume Ⅲ began in July 1985 at the University of Salamanca. In view of the complex development of the history of universities in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a ‘brain-storming’ session with specialists was organized in March 1986 at Bad Homburg, near Frankfurt-am-Main. As a result of this meeting, guidelines were drawn up by the editorial board in September 1986 at the São Marcos Palace in Portugal, an historic building belonging to the University of Coimbra. Potential authors met with the board for a first workshop in June 1988 at the University of Oxford and then presented their drafts for discussion in May 1990 at the University of Bochum. When, in September 1992 at the University of Ghent, the editorial board examined the draft contributions for volume Ⅲ, three chapters were still lacking. Owing to previous unfortunate experiences with an author of volume Ⅱ who, after many delays, delivered an unsatisfactory draft, the editorial board decided to replace the renegade authors by others who promised to finish their chapters by the end of 1993. This solution succeeded only partially. In the case of one chapter, the delivery was postponed from one year to the next. Twice the volume editor travelled hundreds of miles in order to urge the delivery of the text. Eventually, in September 2002, he received the last part of the missing chapter.

   Even had we received this chapter in 1994, the fatal illness of our colleague Edward Shils, which led to his death in 1995, would have postponed the publication by a few years. With his sociological knowledge of the world-wide expansion and social impact of the modern university and its scientific discoveries, with his acute judgement and friendly and reliable advice, he was not only a most active member of the editorial board; he had also written the first draft of three chapters in volume Ⅲ. The draft of chapter 1 (Themes) served as a kind of map for the whole volume and would have needed to be adjusted according to the conclusions of the other authors. With his passing this introductory chapter became obsolete, and it was duly rewritten by the volume editor. His preliminary sketch of chapter 6 (‘The Diffusion of European Models outside Europe’) was an impressive testimony of his first-hand knowledge of universities on other continents, but his death interrupted his work on this topic. Our co-editor John Roberts – with the help of specialists for each region – duly revised the whole chapter and supplemented it with references and recent information. The opposite occurred in the case of the sub-chapter on the social sciences. Edward Shils had expanded the draft of this topic – so familiar to him – to the size of a monograph, and his illness prevented him from shortening it. Eventually our co-editor Asa Briggs decided to add to the sub-chapter on history in chapter 11 the most significant developments in the social sciences before World War II. In fact, with the exception of law and the new economics, most social sciences such as sociology, social anthropology and political science were not generally included in university curricula in Europe before the 1950s.

   These circumstances may explain, although not excuse, the fact that volume Ⅲ only went to press some nine years later than originally planned. It is parallel in its structure to the first two volumes, but this structure has been adapted to reflect three important changes in the history of the universities. First, the traditional university model, common to all European universities until the end of the eighteenth century, was replaced by different models of higher education; second, the modern university focused increasingly on specialized scientific research; and third, student movements began to play an important role in both national and international struggles for individual, social and political freedom.

   For this reason, the former chapter 8 of the previous two volumes (‘Student Education, Student Life’) concentrates in this volume on ‘Student Movements’. It presents the first comparative survey of the political power that emerged from universities and illustrates it with numerous examples from different European countries. The other facets of student life in colleges, fraternities or private circles remained essentially unchanged throughout this period, with the exception of the two world wars that are treated in the Epilogue. Student mobility, described in a separate chapter in previous volumes, lost its educational and cultural importance for whole generations of students. The most important changes in student education related to innovations in the humanities, sciences, medicine and technology, as these gradually became recognized as parts of the curriculum. These innovations are treated in Part IV (Learning).

   The huge expansion and specialization of research-orientated studies was related to the replacement of the traditional university, consisting of four faculties, by three different institutional models of higher education, leading to new faculties, schools and departments. These are analyzed in Parts I (Themes and Patterns) and II (Structures). The ‘List of European Universities’ that figured in the first two volumes at the end of the second chapter has been enlarged to a list of ‘European Universities and Similar Institutions of Higher learning in Existence Between 1812 and the End of 1944’ and placed at the end; besides the universities it includes similar institutions of higher education which, from the eighteenth century, were founded in the fields of technology, commerce and teacher training. To comply with multiple requests, the list indicates as far as possible the introduction of new faculties and departments.

   Following the death of Edward Shils in 1995 the editorial board lost further members: in 1997 the Danish historian of science, Olaf Pedersen, and in 1999 the Polish Historian, Aleksander Gieysztor. With their particular expertise and broad European horizons they were not only instrumental in assuring the success of the first two volumes, but they also enriched them as authors: Gieysztor wrote in the first, Pedersen in the second volume. On 30 May 2003 the editorial board lost one of its most active members, John Roberts. Professor Roberts was distinguished by an unusual combination of talents and accomplishments. A wide-ranging historian, he wrote well-regarded volumes on vast subjects; one of his books has been praised as the ‘best modern presentation of the history of the world’. A practised academic administrator, he served as vice-chancellor of the University of Southampton and as Warden of Merton College, Oxford. A true and always helpful friend, he contributed substantially to the planning and critical review of our project. He edited the chapter in our second and third volumes on the world-wide effects of the European university models. His intention of writing the introductory chapter to the fourth volume was frustrated by his debilitating illness, which he bore with admirable fortitude.

   In 1995, a new member, Alison Browning, joined the editorial board; as deputy secretary general of the CRE, she had played a major role in bringing about this History, promoting with tireless devotion and alertness the harmonious – indeed friendly – co-operation between so many European scholars, and participating actively in the English edition of the volumes.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The preparatory work for A History of the University in Europe has been generously supported by Dutch, German, Portuguese, Swedish, Spanish and Swiss foundations and sponsors, the European Cultural Foundation in Amsterdam, the Fritz-Thyssen-Stiftung in Cologne, the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung in Sankt Augustin, the Robert Bosch Stiftung in Stuttgart, the Stifterverband für die deutsche Wissenschaft in Essen, the Stiftungsfonds Deutsche Bank in Essen, the Volkswagen-Stiftung in Hanover, the Portuguese Secretary of State for Higher Education, the National Institute for Scientific Research as well as the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, the Fondación Ramón Areces in Madrid, the Antonio de Almeida Foundation in Oporto, the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Fund in Stockholm, the Crédit Suisse in Zurich, Hoffmann-La Roche & Co. in Basle, the Jubiläumsstiftung der Versicherungsgesellschaften Zürich/Vita/Alpina in Zurich, the Max und Elsa Beer-Brawand-Fonds of the University of Berne, the Nestlé Corporation in Vevey, and the Schweizerische Nationalfonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung in Berne.

   Among the national correspondents mentioned in volume Ⅱ, Walter Höflechner (Graz), Mariano Peset Reig (Valencia), Ilaria Porciani (Bologna) and Griigori A. Tishkin (St Petersburg), helped especially in giving the volume a ‘European’ dimension. The assistance of other colleagues is recognized in the chapters concerned.

   We are very grateful for all the financial and scholarly support of the project. We thank the universities at which our conferences and discussions have taken place, notably the universities of Berne, Salamanca, Coimbra, Eichstätt, Oxford, Bochum, Bologna and Ghent. Above all we thank the CRE and its successor, the EUA, their long-standing Secretary General, Dr Andris Barblan, and their Geneva office for their invaluable help. Last but not least we wish to thank the authors, sponsors and publishers for their patience and understanding during the long delay of this publication.