University of Vienna

The University of Vienna (in German Universität Wien and in Latin Alma Mater Rudolphina Vindobonensis ) is a century-old Austrian public university. It was founded in 1365 by Rudolf IV, being -after the University of Prague- the second oldest of those founded in the Holy Roman Empire. It currently has about 91,000 enrolled students, making it the largest university in Austria and the German-speaking area and one of the largest in Europe as a whole.

Although it is no longer a university with coverage of the entire spectrum of knowledge (since the Faculty of Medicine was separated in 2004 to become an independent entity: the Medical University of Vienna), its offer of studies It continues to be very broad, with a total of 188 races. 9,400 collaborators work at the university, of which 6,700 are researchers, scientists and academics.

Origins and foundation

The University of Vienna is one of the European universities created ex papal and imperial privilege, that is, with a charter of foundation approved both by the highest ecclesiastical authority, in this case Pope Urban V, as by the emperor, Charles IV. When Duke Rudolf IV of Austria began negotiations with Pope Urban V to obtain his permission for a university in Vienna, Charles IV initially refused. Carlos IV feared that the new university would overshadow the fame and prestige of the University of Prague that had been founded in 1347. However, it would happen that both Vienna and the other new universities founded at this time (Krakow, Heidelberg and Erfurt) in to a large extent, they initially drew on professors from the University of Prague to complete their teaching staff.

In search of a compromise solution, Urbano V responded to Rodolfo IV's request by authorizing the foundation of the university, but demanding that the creation of a Theology faculty be excluded. In this way, the leadership of the University of Prague in the region would be guaranteed. After the death of the founder, Alberto de Saxony was appointed rector, but he did not have the support of Rudolf IV's brothers, Alberto III and Leopold III. On the one hand, they were both too young to really take an interest in the matter, and on the other, they entered into a vertiginous power struggle that did not favor the development of the University in the first period either. It was not until 1376, when the spirits between the dukes had calmed down and when the rectory was in charge of Johann von Randegg, the new Pope Urban VI finally authorized the creation of a theology faculty and with it the academic offer in Vienna was completed.

Featured Academics

Current and former scholars and researchers who have taught at the University of Vienna include several Nobel Prize winners: Robert Bárány, Julius Wagner-Jauregg, Hans Fischer, Karl Landsteiner, Erwin Schrödinger, Victor Franz Hess, Otto Loewi, Konrad Lorenz and Friedrich von Hayek. Also among those who have passed through the university is Sigmund Freud, a neurologist and father of psychoanalytic theory and one of the greatest influences in the 20th century. Ludwig Boltzmann was an Austrian physicist who pioneered statistical mechanics, author of the so-called Boltzmann constant, a fundamental concept of thermodynamics, and of the mathematical expression of entropy from the point of view of probability (the relationship between macroscopic and microscopic states).

On the other hand, the University of Vienna is recognized as the cradle of the Austrian school of economics. Founders of this school who studied at it include Carl Menger, Eugen Böhm-Bawerk, Friedrich von Wieser, Joseph Schumpeter, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, and Christian Andreas Doppler.

Among the women associated with the University, the following stand out: Gabriele Possanner von Ehrenthal, Christine Touaillon, Hedwig Kenner, Sylvia Bayr-Klimpfinger, Margret Dietrich, Carmen Coronini-Kronberg, Margarete Mecenseffy, Susanne Heine, Ingeborg Gerda Gabriel, Renée Schroeder and Gabriele Moser.

Former students

Some of the most notable alumni include: Josef Breuer, Elias Canetti, Ivan Cankar, Christian Doppler, Felix Ehrenhaft, Mihai Eminescu, Paul Feyerabend, Heinz Fischer, O. W. Fischer, Ivan Franko, Sigmund Freud, Alcide De Gasperi, Hilda Geiringer, Kurt Gödel, Ernst Gombrich, Theodor Herzl, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Edmund Husserl, Marie Jahoda, Elfriede Jelinek, Hans Kelsen, Arthur Koestler, Richard Kuhn, Gustav Mahler, Gregor Mendel, Karl Popper, Otto Preminger, Wilhelm Reich, Arthur Schnitzler, Joseph Schumpeter, Wolfgang Schüssel, Kurt Waldheim, Otto Weininger or Stefan Zweig.

Genocide denial

Menachem Rosensaft of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) has warned that propaganda that minimizes the genocide against Bosniaks in Srebrenica is reminiscent of Nazi anti-Semitism. Rosenhaft was referring to the report co-authored by Professor Walter Manoschek - member of the faculty of the University of Vienna: "The report is an embarrassment to academics and goes against the established record in international law. In addition to being a legal and factual abomination, he blatantly ignores trial after trial. by the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)."