The University of Graz (german: link=no, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, ), located in Graz, Austria, is the largest and oldest university in Styria, as well as the second-largest and second-oldest university in Austria.
History
The university was founded in 1585 by Archduke
Charles II of Austria
Charles II Francis of Austria (german: Karl II. Franz von Innerösterreich) (3 June 1540 – 10 July 1590) was an Archduke of Austria and ruler of Inner Austria (Styria, Carniola, Carinthia and Gorizia) from 1564. He was a member of the House o ...
. The bull of 1 January 1586, published on 15 April 1586, was approved by Pope Sixtus V. For most of its existence it was controlled by the Catholic Church, and was closed in 1782 by Emperor
Joseph II
Joseph II (German: Josef Benedikt Anton Michael Adam; English: ''Joseph Benedict Anthony Michael Adam''; 13 March 1741 – 20 February 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg lands from November 29, 1780 un ...
in an attempt to gain state control over educational institutions. Joseph II transformed it into a ''lyceum'', where civil servants and medical personnel were trained. In 1827 it was re-instituted as a university by Emperor Francis I, thus gaining the name ''Karl-Franzens-Universität'', meaning ''Charles Francis University''. Over 30,000 students are currently enrolled at the university.
Academics
The university is divided into six faculties, the two largest are the Faculty of Arts and
Humanities
Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...
and the Faculty of
Natural Sciences
Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...
. The other faculties are the Faculty of Law; the Faculty of Business, Economic and
Social sciences
Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of so ...
; the Faculty of Environmental, Regional and Educational Sciences; and the Faculty of
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
Theology. The Faculty of Medicine was separated from the university by state legislation in 2004 and became an independent university – the Medical University of Graz. The faculties offer a wide range of undergraduate (BA, BSc), graduate (MA, MSc), and doctoral degree (PhD) programmes, as well as special teaching degrees in their specific areas of expertise.
Since its re-installation, the university has been home to many internationally renowned scientists and thinkers.
Ludwig Boltzmann
Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann (; 20 February 1844 – 5 September 1906) was an Austrian physicist and philosopher. His greatest achievements were the development of statistical mechanics, and the statistical explanation of the second law of ther ...
was professor at the university twice, first from 1869 to 1873 and then from 1876 to 1890, while he was developing his statistical theory of heat. Nobel laureate
Otto Loewi
Otto Loewi (; 3 June 1873 – 25 December 1961) was a German-born pharmacologist and psychobiologist who discovered the role of acetylcholine as an endogenous neurotransmitter. For his discovery he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or M ...
taught at the university from 1909 until 1938 and
Victor Franz Hess
Victor Franz Hess (; 24 June 188317 December 1964) was an Austrian-American physicist, and Nobel laureate in physics, who discovered cosmic rays.
Biography
He was born to Vinzenz Hess and Serafine Edle von Grossbauer-Waldstätt, in Waldstein ...
(Nobel prize 1936) graduated in Graz and taught there from 1920 to 1931 and from 1937 to 1938. The physicist
Erwin Schrödinger
Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger (, ; ; 12 August 1887 – 4 January 1961), sometimes written as or , was a Nobel Prize-winning Austrian physicist with Irish citizenship who developed a number of fundamental results in quantum theo ...
briefly was chancellor of the university in 1936.
The University of Graz does not have a distinct faculty of engineering, however,
Graz University of Technology
Graz University of Technology (german: link=no, Technische Universität Graz, short ''TU Graz'') is one of five universities in Styria, Austria. It was founded in 1811 by Archduke John of Austria and is the oldest science and technology research ...
, which is focused on engineering and technology, offers inter-university undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in cooperation with the university's Faculty of Natural Sciences under the name "NAWI Graz". The main intention behind the cooperation was to avoid duplication of efforts and infrastructure, especially in cost-intensive subjects such as chemistry, industrial chemistry, physics, and geosciences, as both universities are located in close proximity to each other. Students enrolled in one of these programmes attend lectures and seminars at both universities and are awarded a combined degree at the end of their studies.
Because of the university's geographical location close to the Slovenian border and the two major Slovenian cities, Maribor and
Ljubljana
Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center.
During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the are ...
, it has traditionally attracted many students from Slovenia and served as a gateway to South-East Europe for Austrian scholars, scientists and businesses. The establishment of the Department for Slovene Language and Literature at the University of Graz, for example, laid the foundation for scholarly studies of Slovenian culture, literature, and language bundled in the so-called
Slovene studies
''Slovene Studies'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering research on Slovenes as ethnic group and on Slovene culture. It is published by the Society for Slovene Studies and was established in 1973 as ''Papers in Slovene Studies''. It was ...
.
International acclaim
The university ranks highest in Arts and Humanities, coming 287th in the 2018
QS World University Rankings
''QS World University Rankings'' is an annual publication of university rankings by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). The QS system comprises three parts: the global overall ranking, the subject rankings (which name the world's top universities for the ...
, whereas all other subject areas lag behind, with the Faculty of Social Sciences ranking at 451–500 and the Faculty of Natural Sciences ranking at 401–450.
Religious affiliation
Historically speaking, for most of its existence the University of Graz was controlled by the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
. Even after its re-installation in 1827, it took until 1848 for the university's basic principles to be readjusted in accordance with the ideals of
Wilhelm von Humboldt
Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand von Humboldt (, also , ; ; 22 June 1767 – 8 April 1835) was a Prussian philosopher, linguist, government functionary, diplomat, and founder of the Humboldt University of Berlin, which was named afte ...
and the Enlightenment, meaning that the university became autonomous from the state as well as from the church and their influence as far as possible.History of the University of Graz The Faculty of Catholic Theology has been retained as a part of the university ever since it was established, however, its importance in terms of number of students and its influence on the university board have been diminishing. Evidently, relations between the Catholic Church, especially the local bishop, and the university's Faculty of Theology remain strong, yet general policy is not influenced by these connections. To demonstrate the university's independence and its shift of focus, the Christogram IHS on the very top of the university's seal has been replaced with the sun, symbolising the Enlightenment and von Humboldt's ideas.
Nobel prize laureates
* Walther Nernst, 1920 in chemistry – studied in Graz in 1886
*
Fritz Pregl
Fritz Pregl ( sl, Friderik Pregl; 3 September 1869 – 13 December 1930), was a Slovenian-Austrian chemist and physician from a mixed Slovene-German-speaking background. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1923 for making important contribut ...
, 1923 in chemistry – in Graz 1913 to 1930
* Julius Wagner von Jauregg, 1927 in medicine – in Graz 1889 to 1893
*
Erwin Schrödinger
Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger (, ; ; 12 August 1887 – 4 January 1961), sometimes written as or , was a Nobel Prize-winning Austrian physicist with Irish citizenship who developed a number of fundamental results in quantum theo ...
, 1933 in physics – in Graz 1936 to 1938
*
Otto Loewi
Otto Loewi (; 3 June 1873 – 25 December 1961) was a German-born pharmacologist and psychobiologist who discovered the role of acetylcholine as an endogenous neurotransmitter. For his discovery he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or M ...
, 1936 in medicine – in Graz 1909 to 1938
*
Victor Franz Hess
Victor Franz Hess (; 24 June 188317 December 1964) was an Austrian-American physicist, and Nobel laureate in physics, who discovered cosmic rays.
Biography
He was born to Vinzenz Hess and Serafine Edle von Grossbauer-Waldstätt, in Waldstein ...
, 1936 in physics – studied in Graz 1893–1906 and taught 1919 to 1931 as well as 1937 to 1938
*
Gerty Cori
Gerty Theresa Cori (; August 15, 1896 – October 26, 1957) was an Austro-Hungarian and American biochemist who in 1947 was the third woman to win a Nobel Prize in science, and the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Me ...
, 1947 in medicine – in Graz before 1922
*
Ivo Andrić
Ivo Andrić ( sr-Cyrl, Иво Андрић, ; born Ivan Andrić; 9 October 1892 – 13 March 1975) was a Yugoslav novelist, poet and short story writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1961. His writings dealt mainly with life in ...
, 1961 in literature – received his doctorate in Graz in 1924
*
Karl von Frisch
Karl Ritter von Frisch, (20 November 1886 – 12 June 1982) was a German-Austrian ethologist who received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1973, along with Nikolaas Tinbergen and Konrad Lorenz.
His work centered on investigations o ...
, 1973 in medicine – in Graz 1946 to 1950
*
Peter Handke
Peter Handke (; born 6 December 1942) is an Austrian novelist, playwright, translator, poet, film director, and screenwriter. He was awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Literature "for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored t ...
, 2019 in literature – studied in Graz 1961–1965
Notable faculty
*
Hermann Beitzke
Hermann Beitzke (21 June 1875 – 8 June 1953) was a German pathologist born in Tecklenburg, Westphalia.
Beitzke studied medicine at several universities, earning his doctorate in 1899 from the University of Kiel. In 1900-01 he was an assistant a ...
, pathologist, professor at Graz (1922–1941)
*
Leopold Biwald
Leopold Gottlieb Biwald (February 26, 1731 in Vienna – September 8, 1805 in Graz) was a professor at the University of Graz.
At the age of sixteen Biwald joined the Jesuits. He became teacher of rhetoric at a secondary school in Ljubljana, Laib ...
, professor of
Physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
, late 18th century
*
Ludwig Boltzmann
Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann (; 20 February 1844 – 5 September 1906) was an Austrian physicist and philosopher. His greatest achievements were the development of statistical mechanics, and the statistical explanation of the second law of ther ...
, professor of
Mathematical Physics
Mathematical physics refers to the development of mathematical methods for application to problems in physics. The '' Journal of Mathematical Physics'' defines the field as "the application of mathematics to problems in physics and the developme ...
(1869–1873) and
Physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
(1876–1890)
*
Ludwig Gumplowicz
Ludwig Gumplowicz (March 9, 1838 – August 19, 1909), was a Polish sociologist, jurist, historian, and political scientist, who taught constitutional and administrative law at the University of Graz.
Gumplowicz was the son of a Jewish carpet ...
, taught
administration
Administration may refer to:
Management of organizations
* Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal
** Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an administrative officer, admini ...
Ernst Mally
Ernst Mally (; ; 11 October 1879 – 8 March 1944) was an Austrian analytic philosopher, initially affiliated with Alexius Meinong's Graz School of object theory. Mally was one of the founders of deontic logic and is mainly known for his contrib ...
, philosopher, founder of
Deontic logic
Deontic logic is the field of philosophical logic that is concerned with obligation, permission, and related concepts. Alternatively, a deontic logic is a formal system that attempts to capture the essential logical features of these concepts. It ...
(1925–1942)
*
Alexius Meinong
Alexius Meinong Ritter von Handschuchsheim (17 July 1853 – 27 November 1920) was an Austrian philosopher, a realist known for his unique ontology. He also made contributions to philosophy of mind and theory of value.
Life
Alexius Meinong ...
(1853–1920), philosopher, founder of the
Graz School The Graz School (german: Grazer Schule), also Meinong's School, of experimental psychology and object theory was headed by Alexius Meinong, who was professor and Chair of Philosophy at the University of Graz where he founded the Graz Psychological ...
Gustav Meyer
Gustav Meyer (25 November 1850 – 28 August 1900) was a German linguist and Indo-European scholar, considered to be one of the most important Albanologists of his time, most importantly by proving that the Albanian language belongs to the Indo-Eu ...
, linguist and considered to be one of the founders of
Albanology
Albanology, also known as Albanian studies, is an interdisciplinary branch of the humanities that addresses the language, costume, literature, art, culture and history of Albanians. Within the studies the scientific methods of literature, ling ...
religious law
Religious law includes ethical
Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, ...
professor (1875–1899)
*
Ludwig Karl Schmarda
Ludwig Karl Schmarda (23 August 1819 – 7 April 1908) was an Austrian naturalist and traveler, born at Olmütz, Moravia.
Early life and education
Schmarda was born at Olmütz where he attended the Grammar School and the Philosophical Course a ...
, founder of the school's Zoological Museum (circa 1851)
*
Roland Scholl
Roland Heinrich Scholl (30 September 1865 – 22 August 1945) was a Swiss chemist who taught at various European universities. Among his most notable achievements are the synthesis of coronene, the co-development of the Bally-Scholl synthesis, a ...
, chemist, professor at the university for some time between 1907 and 1914
*
Joseph Schumpeter
Joseph Alois Schumpeter (; February 8, 1883 – January 8, 1950) was an Austrian-born political economist. He served briefly as Finance Minister of German-Austria in 1919. In 1932, he emigrated to the United States to become a professor at H ...
, economist, later teaching at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
, in Graz (1912–1914)
*
Anton Wassmuth Anton Wassmuth (5 May 1844, Teplá Abbey, Stift Tepl near Marienbad – 22 April 1927, Graz) was an Austrian physicist.
He studied mathematics, philosophy and natural sciences at the Charles University in Prague, University of Prague, where he sub ...
, professor of
theoretical physics
Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experim ...
(1893–1914)
*
Alfred Wegener
Alfred Lothar Wegener (; ; 1 November 1880 – November 1930) was a German climatologist, geologist, geophysicist, meteorologist, and polar researcher.
During his lifetime he was primarily known for his achievements in meteorology and ...
, father of the
continental drift
Continental drift is the hypothesis that the Earth's continents have moved over geologic time relative to each other, thus appearing to have "drifted" across the ocean bed. The idea of continental drift has been subsumed into the science of pl ...
theory, professor of
Geophysics
Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and physical properties of the Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. The term ''geophysics'' so ...
Ivo Andrić
Ivo Andrić ( sr-Cyrl, Иво Андрић, ; born Ivan Andrić; 9 October 1892 – 13 March 1975) was a Yugoslav novelist, poet and short story writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1961. His writings dealt mainly with life in ...
, Yugoslav writer and Nobel Prize laureate
* Lasgush Poradeci, Albanian philologist, poet and writer
* Gabriel Anton, Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist
*
Count Anton Alexander von Auersperg
Count Anton Alexander von Auersperg, also known under the name Anastasius Grün (11 April 180612 September 1876), was an Austrian poet and liberal politician from Carniola, a former Habsburg crown land in today's Slovenia.
Biography
He was born ...
, Austrian poet and politician
*
Milko Brezigar
Milko Brezigar (6 October 1886 – 22 April 1958) was a Slovene and Yugoslav liberal economist.
Biography
Born to a Slovene family the village of Doberdò del Lago ( sl, Doberdob) in the Austrian Littoral (now part of Italy), he attended the S ...
Safet Butka
Safet Butka (10 August 190119 September 1943) was an Albanian professor, politician and nationalist. Son of famous patriot Sali Butka, he organized the student demonstrations in April 1939 during the Italian invasion and was interned in Ventoten ...
, Albanian politician
*
Izidor Cankar
Izidor Cankar (22 April 1886 – 22 September 1958) was a Slovenian author, art historian, diplomat, journalist, translator, and liberal conservative politician. He was one of the most important Slovenian art historians of the first part of the ...
, Slovenian art historian and Yugoslav diplomat
* Etbin Henrik Costa, Slovenian politician
*
Hellmut Fischmeister
Hellmut Fischmeister (14 May 1927 – 6 November 2019) was an Austrian metallurgist who was a pioneer in powder metallurgy.
Education and career
Fischmeister studied physics, mathematics, and chemistry at the University of Graz from 1945 to 195 ...
Emil Johann Lambert Heinricher
Emil Johann Lambert Heinricher (14 November 1856 – 13 July 1934) was an Austrian botanist from Laibach (Ljubljana).
In 1879 he received his doctorate from the University of Graz, where after graduation, he served as an assistant to botanist ...
, Austrian botanist
*
Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens
Ieronymos II ( el, Ιερώνυμος B’, ''Ierōnymos II'', ; born 10 March 1938) is the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece and as such the primate (bishop), primate of the Autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Orthodox Church of Greece. He ...
,
Archbishop of Athens
The Archbishopric of Athens ( el, Ιερά Αρχιεπισκοπή Αθηνών) is a Greek Orthodox archiepiscopal see based in the city of Athens, Greece. It is the senior see of Greece, and the seat of the autocephalous Church of Greece. It ...
* Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Austrian-born senior SS official of Nazi Germany, executed for war crimes
* Janko Kersnik, Slovenian writer
*
Ferdinand Konščak
Fernando Consag, known in his native Croatian as Ferdinand Konščak (December 2, 1703 – September 10, 1759), was a Croatian Jesuit missionary, explorer and cartographer, who spent most of his life in Mexico, in Baja California.
Education
Con ...
, Croatian Jesuit missionary and cartographer
* Karel Lavrič, Slovenian politician
*
Leo Leixner
Leo Leixner (1908–1942) was an Austrian journalist and war correspondent. He is known for his boo''From Lemberg to Bordeaux'' a first-hand account of war in Poland, the Low Countries, and France, 1939–40, during World War II.
Early life and e ...
, war correspondent
*
Franz Miklosich
Franz Miklosich (german: Franz Ritter von Miklosich, also known in Slovene as ; 20 November 1813 – 7 March 1891) was a Slovene philologist.
Early life
Miklosich was born in the small village of Radomerščak near the Lower Styrian town of Lju ...
Lovro Toman
Lovro Toman (10 August 1827 – 15 August 1870) was a Slovene Romantic nationalist revolutionary activist during the Revolution of 1848, known as the person who in Ljubljana, at the Wolf Street 8, raised the Slovene tricolor for the first tim ...
, Slovenian politician
*
Petina Gappah
Petina Gappah (born 1971) is a Zimbabwean lawyer and writer. She writes in English, though she also draws on Shona, her first language. In 2016, she was named African Literary Person of the Year by ''Brittle Paper''. In 2017 she had a DAAD Arti ...
, author and International lawyer
* Franz Unger, Austrian paleontologist
*
Leopold von Sacher-Masoch
Leopold Ritter von Sacher-Masoch (; 27 January 1836 – 9 March 1895) was an Austrian nobleman, writer and journalist, who gained renown for his romantic stories of Galician life. The term ''masochism'' is derived from his name, invented by h ...
, Austro-Ukrainian journalist and writer of Masochism
* Gregory Weeks, jurist and historian
* Milan Zver, Slovenian sociologist and politician
*
Heinrich Harrer
Heinrich Harrer (; 6 July 1912 – 7 January 2006) was an Austrian mountaineer, sportsman, geographer, ''Oberscharführer'' in the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS), and author. He was a member of the four-man climbing team that made the first ascent of th ...
, Austrian mountaineer, sportsman, geographer, and author.
See also
*
University of Graz Library
The University of Graz Library (german: Universitätsbibliothek Graz), in Graz, Austria is the largest scientific and public library in Styria and the third largest in Austria. It holds the right of legal deposit. It is part of the University of G ...
*
List of colleges and universities
This is a list of lists of universities and colleges.
Subject of study
* Aerospace engineering
* Agriculture
* Art schools
* Business
* Chiropractic
* Engineering
* Forestry
* Law
* Maritime studies
* Medicine
* Music
* Nanotechnology
* Osteopa ...
*
List of early modern universities in Europe
The list of early modern universities in Europe comprises all universities that existed in the early modern age (1501–1800) in Europe. It also includes short-lived foundations and educational institutions whose university status is a matter o ...
*
Utrecht Network
The Utrecht Network is a network of European universities. Founded in 1987, the network promotes the internationalisation of tertiary education through summer schools, student and staff exchanges and joint degrees.
Utrecht Network member univer ...
Catholic Encyclopedia
The ''Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church'' (also referred to as the ''Old Catholic Encyclopedia'' and the ''Original Catholic Encyclopedia'') i ...