The University of Graz (german: Universität Graz; old: Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz) is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

research university A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are the most important sites at which knowledge production occurs, along with "intergenerational kno ...

located in

Graz Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popul ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. It is the largest and oldest university in

Styria Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to ...

, 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. 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 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 Francis I or Francis the First may refer to: * Francesco I Gonzaga (1366–1407) * Francis I, Duke of Brittany (1414–1450), reigned 1442–1450 * Francis I of France (1494–1547), King of France, reigned 1515–1547 * Francis I, Duke of Saxe-Lau ...

, thus gaining the name ''Karl-Franzens-Universität'', meaning ''Charles Francis University''. About 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 soci ...

; 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 Medical University of Graz is a public medical university located in Graz, Austria. History The faculty of medicine at the Karl-Franzens-University of Graz was established in 1863 by Franz Joseph I. In 2004, the former faculty became a ...

. 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 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 Med ...

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 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, 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. Since Graz was the capital of the then multiethnic

Duchy of Styria The Duchy of Styria (german: Herzogtum Steiermark; sl, Vojvodina Štajerska; hu, Stájer Hercegség) was a duchy located in modern-day southern Austria and northern Slovenia. It was a part of the Holy Roman Empire until its dissolution in 180 ...

, Slovenes from Lower Styria came there to study. It has 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.

Organization

The university has 6 faculties. Each of the 6 faculties is in turn divided into institutes and centers: # Faculty of Humanities # Faculty of Catholic theology # Faculty of Natural Sciences #

Faculty of Law A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In American usage such divisions are generally referred to as colleges ...

# Faculty of Social and economic sciences # Faculty of Environmental, regional and educational sciences ReSoWi UniGraz 3

In addition to the institutes and centers of the 6 faculties, there are other university and cross-faculty service areas: # Center for Digital Teaching and Learning # Center for teaching competence # Center for Pedagog:ic Education # Center for Regional Sciences # Center for Social Competence # Center for Southeast European Studies # the 7th faculty - center for society, knowledge and communication # Doctoral Academy Graz # Habilitation Forum Subject Didactics & Teaching Research # IDea_Lab - The interdisciplinary digital lab of the University of Graz # Confucius Institute # Coordination Office for Gender Studies and Equality # treffpunkt sprachen - Center for Language, Plurilingualism and Subject Didactics # University Museums # Vestigia - Center for the Study of Book and Scripture Heritage # Polar Research Station Sermilik, Greenland

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 after ...

and the

Enlightenment Enlightenment or enlighten may refer to: Age of Enlightenment * Age of Enlightenment, period in Western intellectual history from the late 17th to late 18th century, centered in France but also encompassing (alphabetically by country or culture): ...

, 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 A Christogram ( la, Monogramma Christi) is a monogram or combination of letters that forms an abbreviation for the name of Jesus Christ, traditionally used as a Christian symbolism, religious symbol within the Christian Church. One of the oldes ...

IHS on the very top of the university's seal has been replaced with the sun, symbolising the Enlightenment and von Humboldt's ideas. Graz - Universität, Hauptgebäude (a)

Nobel prize laureates

Walther Nernst Walther Hermann Nernst (; 25 June 1864 – 18 November 1941) was a German chemist known for his work in thermodynamics, physical chemistry, electrochemistry, and solid state physics. His formulation of the Nernst heat theorem helped pave the wa ...

, 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, 1933 in physics – in Graz 1936 to 1938 *

, 1936 in medicine – in Graz 1909 to 1938 *

, 1936 in physics – studied in Graz 1893–1906 and taught 1919 to 1931 as well as 1937 to 1938 * Gerty Cori, 1947 in medicine – in Graz before 1922 * Ivo Andrić, 1961 in literature – received his doctorate in Graz in 1924 * Karl von Frisch, 1973 in medicine – in Graz 1946 to 1950 * Peter Handke, 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, professor of

Mathematical Physics Mathematical physics refers to the development of mathematics, 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 t ...

(1869–1873) and

(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 and ...

, taught

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative assistant, Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an admini ...

(1897–1909) *

Rudolf von Jaksch Rudolf von Jaksch, also Rudolf Jaksch von Wartenhorst (16 July 1855 – 8 January 1947), was an Austrian-Czech internist. He was the son of physician Anton von Jaksch (1810–1887). In 1889 he described the disease ''anaemia leucaemica infantum' ...

, taught

pediatrics Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until th ...

(1887–1899) *

Ernst Mach Ernst Waldfried Josef Wenzel Mach ( , ; 18 February 1838 – 19 February 1916) was a Moravian-born Austrian physicist and philosopher, who contributed to the physics of shock waves. The ratio of one's speed to that of sound is named the Mach ...

, taught mathematics and physics (1864–67) *

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 (1925–1942) * 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 ...

phenomenological Phenomenology may refer to: Art * Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties Philosophy * Phenomenology (philosophy), a branch of philosophy which studies subjective experiences and a ...

psychology after 1894 *

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, linguis ...

, as a discipline of study, professor since 1881 *

Rudolf von Scherer Rudolf Ritter von Scherer (11 August 1845, Graz – 21 December 1918, Vienna) was an Austrian religious law professor. Life Rudolf von Scherer was the son of Anton Ritter von Scherer and of the writer Sophie Ritter von Scherer, née Sockl. H ...

religious law Religious law includes ethical and moral codes taught by religious traditions. Different religious systems hold sacred law in a greater or lesser degree of importance to their belief systems, with some being explicitly antinomian whereas others ...

professor (1875–1899) *

Ludwig Karl Schmarda Ludwig Karl Schmarda (23 August 1819 – 7 April 1908) was an Austrians, Austrian natural science, naturalist and traveler, born at Olomouc, Olmütz, Moravia. Early life and education Schmarda was born at Olomouc, Olmütz where he attended the ...

, founder of the school's Zoological Museum (circa 1851) * Roland Scholl, chemist, professor at the university for some time between 1907 and 1914 * Joseph Schumpeter, 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 higher le ...

, in Graz (1912–1914) *

Anton Wassmuth Anton Wassmuth (5 May 1844, Stift Tepl near Marienbad – 22 April 1927, Graz) was an Austrian physicist. He studied mathematics, philosophy and natural sciences at the University of Prague, where he subsequently became an assistant to Ernst Ma ...

, 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, father of the continental drift 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'' som ...

(1924–1930) *

Gustava Aigner Gustava Kahler, née Aigner, (29 April 190622 March 1987) was an Austrian geologist and palaeontologist. She was noted in particular for her work with Franz Heritsch and with her husband, Franz Kahler. In recognition of her discovery of graptolit ...

(1906–1987, married: Gustava Kahler), Austrian geologist and palaeontologist

Notable alumni

* Ivo Andrić, Yugoslav writer and Nobel Prize laureate * Lasgush Poradeci, Albanian philologist, poet and writer *

Gabriel Anton Gabriel Anton (28 July 1858 – 3 January 1933) was an Austrian neurology, neurologist and psychiatry, psychiatrist. He is primarily remembered for his studies of psychiatric conditions arising from damage to the cerebral cortex and the basal gang ...

, Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist * Count Anton Alexander von Auersperg, Austrian poet and politician * Milko Brezigar, Yugoslav economist * Safet Butka, 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 2 ...

, Slovenian art historian and Yugoslav diplomat *

Etbin Henrik Costa Etbin Henrik Costa (18 October 1832 – 28 January 1875) was a Slovene national conservative politician and author. Together with Janez Bleiweis and Lovro Toman, he was one of the leaders of the Old Slovene political party. He was born in a w ...

, Slovenian politician * Katharina Dobler, Austrian folklorist *

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 ...

, Austrian chemist *

Monika Fludernik Monika Fludernik (born 1957), a native Austrian, is professor of English literature and culture at the Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg, Germany. Fludernik earned her doctorate at the University of Graz, Austria, where she studied with profess ...

, Austrian literary scholar *

Karl Gurakuqi Karl Gurakuqi (24 March 1895 – 6 December 1971) was an Albanians, Albanian linguist and folklorist. Life Born in Shkodër in 1895 he first studied in the Shkodër Jesuit College, Jesuit Saverian College of Shkodër and later Salzburg. In the m ...

, Albanian linguist and folklorist *

Juraj Habdelić Juraj Habdelić (17 April or 27 November 1609 – 27 November 1678) was a Croatian lexicographer, writer and Jesuit priest. Born in Staro Čiče, his parents were Boldižar Habdelić and Margarita Kraljić. He went to gymnasium in Zagreb, studied ...

, Croatian writer *

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,

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. Its ...

Ernst Kaltenbrunner Ernst Kaltenbrunner (4 October 190316 October 1946) was a high-ranking Austrian SS official during the Nazi era and a major perpetrator of the Holocaust. After the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in 1942, and a brief period under Heinrich ...

, Austrian-born senior SS official of Nazi Germany, executed for war crimes *

Janko Kersnik Janko Kersnik (4 September 1852 – 28 July 1897) was a Slovene writer and politician. Together with Josip Jurčič, he is considered the most important representative of literary realism in Slovene. Biography Kersnik was born in Brdo Ma ...

, 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 Karel Lavrič, also spelled Laurič or Lauritsch (1 November 1818 – 3 March 1876), was a Carniolan Liberalism, liberal politician and lawyer from the Austrian Littoral. He was of Slovenes, Slovene descent and was one of the most prominent activ ...

, Slovenian politician * Leo Leixner, war correspondent * Franz Miklosich, Austrian-Slovenian linguist *

Heinz Oberhummer Heinz Oberhummer was an Austrian physicist and skeptic. Biography Heinz Oberhummer was born in Bischofshofen and grew up in Obertauern, Austria. He studied physics at the University of Graz and the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. He l ...

, Austrian physicist * İbrahim Saraçoğlu, Turkish biochemist *

Vladimir Šubic Vladimir Šubic (23 May 1894 – 16 November 1946)Bernik, Stane. 1999. "Vladimir Šubic." ''Enciklopedija Slovenije'', vol. 13. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, p. 163. was a Slovene architect. He designed many buildings, most notably Nebotičnik ...

, Slovenian architect * Lovro Toman, 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 Franz Joseph Andreas Nicolaus Unger (30 November 1800 in ''Gut Amthof'' near village Leutschach in Styria, Austria – 13 February 1870 in Graz) was an Austrian botanist, paleontologist and plant physiologist. Life and work Initially, Ung ...

, Austrian paleontologist * Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Austro-Ukrainian journalist and writer of Masochism * Gregory Weeks, jurist and historian *

Milan Zver Milan Zver (born 25 May 1962) is a Slovenian politician and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Slovenia. He is a member of the Slovenian Democratic Party, part of the European People's Party. He is the Vice-President of the Slovenian D ...

, 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.

References

Further studies

External links

*
Video portrait of University of Graz

Institute of Geography and Regional Science – Karl-Franzens University Graz

Centre for Southeast European Studies- Karl-Franzens University Graz

– History from the

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 ...

Pictures from Graz
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