Universities in Central Europe: Changing Perspectives in the Troubled Twentieth Century

Abstract

During the twentieth century, in Central Europe perceptions about scientific and educational centres and peripheries were moulded by dramatic political changes. Disintegration of the Habsburg Empire (1918), newly established national states in interwar period (1919–1938), the Nazi order (1939–1945), socialist societies within the Soviet bloc (1945–1989), disintegration of the bloc, and (re-integration) of East-Central Europe into European and North Atlantic organisations, after 1989, have induced administrative, political, social, and cultural changes in the context in which universities had to fulfil their tasks as top educational and research centres. Focusing on universities in present-day Czech Republic, this chapter addresses two main trends: 1. Upward processes: transformation of the Czech University in Prague from an Austrian provincial school, before 1918, to the leading nation-wide institution in Czechoslovakia, and its role in the creation and development of “daughter” institutions, after 1918 and 1945; 2. Regionalisation of university education and research: creation and development of new universities in the provinces (Austria before 1918, interwar and post-1945 Czechoslovakia). Shifting perceptions on universities’ scale, perspective and focus (regional—provincial versus national and international or peripheral versus central) were mirrored both on the role of universities and their presence in the public sphere.