CB - Education

2009/2010

CB - Education

Forschung als Waffe: Rüstungsforschung in der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft und das Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Metallforschung 1900-1945/48 [Research as Weapon: Research into Armaments during the Kaiser-Wilhelm Period, and the Kaiser- Wilhelm Institute for the Study of Metal, 1900-1945/48]. Helmut Maier. 2 vols. Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2007. 1235 p. ill. 23 cm. (Geschichte der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft im Nationalsozialismus, 16). ISBN 978-3-8353- 0109-2: EUR 75

This book, based on extensive archival research, provides a very significant contribution not only to the study of German military technology but also to the relationship between German universities and the German armaments industry in the period from 1900-1948. It conclusively contradicts a prevailing theory that the National Socialist government in Germany was not interested in scientific research by showing that there was a close interrelationship between state, military, science, and industry during this period. The book also traces the history of the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute for the Study of Metal from its foundation in 1919 to1948, when many of the Institute’s scientists were quickly de-Nazified and absorbed into American academic institutions. The author has made extensive use of German, French, and US archives, which are listed beginning on page 1,135. The work contains a 67-page bibliography and a 29-page personal name index. [frh/ldl]

Universitätsreformen vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart [University Reforms from the Middle Ages to the Present]. Ed. Rainer C. Schwinges and Rüdiger vom Bruch. Stuttgart: Steiner, 2010. 296 p. 24 cm. (Jahrbuch für Universitätsgeschichte, 13). ISSN 1435-1358: EUR 56.50, EUR 52 (Subscription price for the Jahrbuch)

The 2010 volume of the Jahrbuch für Universitätsgeschichte [Yearbook for University History] is composed of 12 articles that treat important reform movements and periods of significant change in European universities from their establishment up to the 20th century. Areas of special focus include: Medieval reforms in French and German universities with the goals of promoting orthodoxy and discipline; the changes in German universities in areas embracing the Reformation, characterized by the integration of orthodox Lutheranism and the adoption of curriculum and teaching reforms on the models of Philipp Melanchthon and Johannes Sturm; the volatile history of the University of Strasbourg as it alternated between German and French control; the explosive growth of West German universities in the 1960s; a plan to establish “Rabbi Seminaries” in 19th-century Prussia to promote Jewish studies at a time when non-Christians were prohibited from holding university positions (cf. Das Berliner Rabbinerseminar 1873-1938 in RREA 15/16:87); the University of Oslo and the fate of its students and faculty during the German occupation of Norway in the Second World War; the attempt to “re-found” the University of the Saarland as a “European” university in the 1950s, which was abandoned when Saarlanders chose incorporation into the Federal Republic of Germany; and the founding in 1950 of the International Association of Universities as a response to the increased globalization of science and scholarship.

An index of names would have been helpful, but English abstracts of each article provide quick access to basic information. Nevertheless, this work is a rich and varied contribution to historical research. [frh/jc]

Leben mit und in der Geschichte: deutsche Historiker Jahrgang 1943 [Living with and as a Part of History: German Historians Born in 1943]. Barbara Stambolis. Essen: Klartext-Verlag, 2010. 439 p. ill. 22 cm + 1 CD-ROM. ISBN 978-3- 89861-935-6: EUR 34.00

There has been a recent trend in German academia to conduct interviews with historians who combine the intellectual side of the discipline with actual life experiences—history as studied along with history as lived in first person. Over 1.2 million children were born in the German Reich in the war year 1943. Of these, 44 later became professors of history in West Germany, with a majority of them specializing in recent or contemporary history, including social and economic history. This book—with the accompanying CDROM files—comes from interviews with this subset of historians. Two such professors decided on the concept of this series of interviews, which was then mainly carried out by Barbara Stambolis (born in 1952), who has specialized in generational history. She was the one who visited the interviewees, asked the questions, and evaluated the results. The “authorized” interviews are transcribed on the CD disc, along with selected spoken sound files. The volume itself contains an analysis of the interviews from both general-biographical and scholarly-historical perspectives. Particularly important in the formative lives of the budding scholars were shared conditions of insecurity because of the consequences of war (flight; refugee status; family losses, especially of fathers; destitute material circumstances; building a future from the ground up; conservative values and an orientation toward accomplishment in politics, education and family life). The question that forces itself upon us is what distinguishes this accidental assemblage of historians (accidental by date of birth) from historians born a year earlier or a year later? Why not conduct interviews of all historians born during the war years? Why were GDR and Austrian historians not included? (See the review of Lexikon der DDR-Historiker in RREA 12:214, for example.) The volume is carefully done and offers a number of helpful appendix materials such as bibliographies and indexes. [frh/rdh]

Die Matrikel der Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin 1810-1850 [The Matriculation Records of the FriedrichWilhelm University in Berlin, 1810-1850]. Ed. Peter Bahl and Wolfgang Ribbe. 3 vols. Berlin [et.al.]: de Gruyter, 2010. 1266, 409 p. ill. 25 cm. (Einzelveröffentlichungen der Historischen Kommission zu Berlin, 86). ISBN 978-3-11-023116-8 (Print + eBookPLUS): EUR 498

By 1900 the largest and most important University in Germany was the FriedrichWilhelm University in Berlin (so named in 1828; since 1949 called the Humboldt University). Unlike many other German universities around the turn of the 20th century, this university did not issue a special publication on the occasion of its 100th anniversary. This publication, in its 200th anniversary year, fills part of that gap.

The university archives hold the 24 volumes of the Album Civium Universitatis Litterariae Berolinensis covering the period 1810-1914. Four of these volumes cover the first 40 academic years, during which some 30,000 students were enrolled. They are reproduced here in three volumes. Volumes 1 and 2 contain the matriculation books for academic years 1810-1833 and 1834-1850 in 1,266 pages. Volume 3 contains six indexes. The introduction to the volumes explains the detailed editing principles used in this publication, along with the conditions of admission to and dismissal from institutions of higher learning, as well as numerous regulations regarding student conduct.

A decree in 1768 from King Friedrich II of Prussia established the procedures for matriculation of students into state institutions of higher learning, procedures that for the most part remain unchanged to this day. Each entry contains the name of the student, his place of origin, elected field of study, status of the father or parents, from 1819 onward information on the student’s pre-university education, and finally, data on his departure from the university and the reason why (e.g., graduation, withdrawal, or expulsion). The handwritten entries are often not easy to decipher, but printed indexes of students from the 1821/22 year onward are helpful.

Except for the period of the Napoleonic wars, the University grew steadily in stature, attracting increasing numbers of students not only from the German-speaking realm. Many from other parts of the world flocked to this university on the Spree River, such as a Calcutta-born English student, the son of an American slave owner, and a law student from Crete. Prominent 19th-century graduates included Karl Marx, Otto von Bismarck, and Felix Mendelssohn. Since 1830, over 1,000 students were enrolled each academic year; the 1833/34 academic year saw a total of 2,001 students—1,411 from the German realm and 590 from elsewhere. From these records it is possible to determine the demographic status of the students (largely middle class) and also their exact place of origin, domestic or foreign.

The work concludes with an index of persons (by far the largest section in volume three), a geographical index, an index of non-German places, an index of other educational institutions in which the university’s students later enrolled, an index of fields of study, and a subject index.

Matriculation records provide a detailed, first-rate resource for the study of German universities. Similar publications have been produced for the University of Leipzig (see RREA 12:168) and the University of Greifswald (see RREA 10:192 and 193). The matriculation records of the University of Bonn, another Prussian Friedrich Wilhelm University founded at about the same time, are being edited for publication; those of the Friedrich Wilhelm University of Breslau have unfortunately been lost. Publication of the remainder of the Berlin university’s 24 matriculation record books, which produced a number of Nobel Prize laureates between 1850 and 1914, is unfortunately not being planned. [mk/sas]

Universalität in der Provinz: die vormoderne Landesuniversität Gießen zwischen korporativer Autonomie, staatlicher Abhängigkeit und gelehrten Lebenswelten. [Universality in the Provinces: The Pre-Enlightenment State University of Giessen between Corporate Autonomy, State Dependency and Scholarly Environment]. Ed. Horst Carl and Friedrich Lenger for the President of Justus Liebig University. Darmstadt: Hessische Kommission Darmstadt, 2009. xii, 362 p. ill. 25 cm. (Arbeiten der Hessischen Historischen Kommission: N.F., 30). ISBN 978-3-88443-053-8: EUR 36

The University of Giessen (Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen) celebrated its 400th anniversary in 2007 with a number of publications. The present volume of conference proceedings consists of six chapters, each with three essays dealing with various aspects of the development of Giessen’s university from its founding to the 20th century. Overarching themes range from “the context of the university’s founding” to “student life,” all of which attempt to make the connection between the early years and today, presenting historical vignettes of this relatively small university from the past 400 years. The high-quality essays, contributed by experts in their fields, serve to show that even this “provincial” university made important contributions to science and knowledge, especially in the field of chemistry, advanced significantly by Justus Liebig (1803-1873), who later became the university’s namesake. [mk/hh]

Heidelberger Gelehrtenlexikon [Lexicon of Heidelberg Academics]. Ed. Dagmar Drüll. Berlin; Heidelberg: Springer. 25 cm.

Vol. 4. 1933-1986. 2009. 714 p. ISBN 978-3-540-88834-5: EUR 89.95 (print); eISBN 978-3-540-88835-2: EUR 99.95

The Heidelberger Gelehrtenlexikon, which comes to a close with this fourth volume, is part of a noteworthy ensemble of university historical publications that bring honor to “Ruperto Carola,” the Latin appellation of the Ruprecht-Karls University of Heidelberg. Begun in 1986, on the occasion of the 600th anniversary of the University, Volumes 1 through 3 (1986, 1991, and 2002) cover the years 1386-1932. Other works in this esteemed group include the six-volume Festschrift Semper apertus: 600 Jahre Ruprecht- Karls-Universität Heidelberg 1386-1986, especially notable for its third volume on the 1918-1945 period (1985); Wissenschaftworganisation und Wissenschaftsförderung in Baden [Scholarly Organizations and Scholarly Research in Baden] (1994); and Die Universität Heidelberg im Nationalsozialismus [The University of Heidelberg Under National Socialism] (2006).

Dagmar Drüll-Zimmermann began her work in 1981, energetically and carefully gathering material for the biographies. She had to contend not only with hurdles at the state archives, but also with privacy laws and with the request of the university that there be no references to professorial party membership or functions during the Third Reich. Nonetheless, dates and facts speak for themselves, and the alert reader can deduce some information based on the lexical form of presentation itself.

The volume covers 975 tenured senior and junior professors (19 of them women) who served at Heidelberg during the period from January 1, 1933, to December 31, 1986. There are 795 biographies, as well as 180 brief entries for persons for whom no information was available or who did not wish to be covered or were included in the previous volume covering 1803-1932. When work on the final volume began in 2001, 63% of the faculty were still living and could be contacted for information, which gives this volume a high degree of currency. The four volumes together cover 2,843 Heidelberg professors, offering more biographical information than is available for faculty members at any other German university.

The entries were written with the assistance and under the supervision of Heidelberg historian Elke Wolgast. In addition to a 40-page list of sources and secondary literature, Dagmar Drüll-Zimmermann has included nine pages of abbreviations. The chronological list of professors and departments helps the reader to navigate the changes in bureaucratic titles of professors as well as the inevitable name changes, mergers and splits among the departments and schools of the university.

A thorough and reliable reference work such as this one serves numerous purposes, ranging from the simple provision of information to aiding in the production of collective biographies and histories of fields, schools, departments, or institutes. The separate listing of professors by department is especially helpful to those interested in the history of disciplines. Disappointing is only the work’s fixation on tenured professors. Untenured teachers often had an equally important impact on a discipline, and they include a number of eminent scholars employed in these roles in Heidelberg over the years. If they had been included, it would have been possible to follow the development of schools of thought and their interrelatedness at one of Germany’s most distinguished universities. But encyclopedias are always subject to constraints; still, for the tenured professoriate, there is a maximum of both information and cross references. Every research library should have a copy, either in print or in electronic format. [frh/nb,rb]

Erleuchtung der Welt: Sachsen und der Beginn der modernen Wissenschaften: 600 Jahre Universität Leipzig [Illumination of the World: Saxony and the Beginning of Modern Science. 600 Years of the University of Leipzig]. Ed. Detlef Döring for the Rector of the University. 2 vols. Dresden: Sandstein, 2009. 393, 479 p.: ill. maps. 28 cm. ISBN 978-3-940319-60-9 (vol. 1): EUR 25, ISBN 978- 3-940319-61-6 (vol. 2): EUR 25

These volumes are the catalog of a major exhibition held at the Leipzig City Historical Museum in 2009 to celebrate the 600th anniversary of the University of Leipzig. Even though this exhibition was sponsored by the city, the university, and the Saxon Academy of Sciences, this work seeks to avoid competing with the official five-volume Geschichte der Universität Leipzig, 1409-2009 (see RREA 15/16:155), which was sponsored by the office of the university president and the university senate. It concentrates on the epoch of the Enlightenment and places the university in the wider context of the social and intellectual development of the Electorate of Saxony. The authors of the essays in volume 1 (who are primarily members of the Albertina, the University Library) move beyond the confines of the university to cover the development and wider impact of the Enlightenment in Saxony as well as other institutions of higher learning and culture, such as learned societies and preparatory schools. Volume 2, the actual catalog volume, is richly illustrated in color and contains brief descriptions of the 676 items on display; each description includes source information and bibliographical references. Volume 2 concludes with a general bibliography and an index of names. The work constitutes a rich source of information, handsomely produced and available at a very reasonable price. [mk/crc]

Die Leipziger Rektoratsreden 1871-1933 [The University of Leipzig Rectors’ Speeches, 1871-1933]. Ed. Franz Häuser. 2 vols. Berlin: de Gruyter. 1795 p. ill. 25 cm. ISBN 978-3-11-020919-8 (set): EUR 195

Another of the several jubilee publications on the occasion of the 600th anniversary of the University of Leipzig, this work also covers a very important period of German history. These 62 years between the founding of the Second Empire and the end of the Weimar Republic saw the blossoming of academic life in a tradition-rich institution of higher learning, with high student enrolments and a renowned faculty.

Academic addresses were an established tradition in German universities since early modern times. Countless speeches marked ascensions, farewells, greetings, funerals, and the many changes of leadership at the rector level, and by the 19th century these addresses were a fixture on the academic calendar. They are understood to be “ritually recurring public speeches by the incoming or outgoing rector,” but not the rectors’ speeches at other occasions. Until the end of the 1860s these addresses were usually given in Latin.

In Leipzig the change of rectors took place on Reformation Day, the 31st of October. The outgoing rector’s address was a factual report on the past year’s work and the formal transfer of authority to the incoming rector, whose address in turn would be a scholarly perspective of the new rector’s discipline, both for the university faculty and the educated lay public. The Nazis’ 1933 Gleichschaltung [Coordination] of all universities and the lowering of the office to that of Universitätsführer [university leader] meant that these addresses took on a servile political character and brought this once lively and engaging genre down to a routine, empty ritual.

While the university library sustained enormous damage during World War II, the collection of these addresses survived relatively intact, under the call number Uni.381-r. -1871-1933 (there are many more from earlier and later years, as well). Volume 1 begins with a 27-page essay on the structure and organization of the office of the rector, and volume 2 concludes with name, place, and subject indexes that offer access to a wealth of information about the university over time. The subject entry Bibliotheca Albertina, for example, provides an extensive bibliography of source materials concerning the university library. The work is significantly enhanced by the on-line bibliography Rektoratsreden im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert [Rectors’ Speeches in the 19th and 20th Century] at http://www.historische-kommission-muenchen-editionen.de/rektoratsreden.

Not only is this work of great interest for the graduates and attendees of the Alma Mater Lipsiensis, it is also a rich source of biographical, historical, organizational, and statistical data for historians of the German university. [mk/ga]

Die Matrikel der Universität Leipzig [Admissions to the University of Leipzig]. Ed. Jens Blecher and Gerald Wiemers. Weimar: VDG, Verlag und Datenbank für Geisteswissenschaften. 29 cm.

Vol. 3. Die Jahre 1863 bis 1876 [The Years from 1863-1876]. 2008. 594 p. ISBN 978-3-89739-608-1: EUR 96

The matriculation registers for the University of Leipzig from 1409 (the year of its founding) through 1809 were published in six volumes from 1902 to 1909 by the historian Georg Erler. A new series was begun in anticipation of the university’s 600th anniversary in 2009; the first new volume (1809-1832) was reviewed in RREA 12:168; the second (1832-1863) in IFB 07-02-516. This third volume continues the same format and structure.

In the period of time covered by volume 3, which saw three almost successive wars, a total of 12,334 students—from many parts of Germany, from all over Europe, including Greece, Serbia, Russia, and Scandinavia, and the United States and Latin America—studied at the University of Leipzig. Despite its close ties to Lutheranism (e.g., matriculation day was always October 31, Reformation Day), the university by the later 19th century had achieved worldwide prominence, second in Germany only to Berlin. Numerous renowned scholars, for example theologian Adolf von Harnack and law professor Bernhard Windscheid, as well as great thinkers such as Friedrich Nietzsche and Edmund Husserl attracted droves of students.

Information on the students includes religious confession, which is a valuable tool for research into the plodding process of the emancipation of Jews in German academia during the 19th century. Data on each student’s place of origin show the enormous breadth of provinces and countries represented; data on students’ major fields of study show among other things the rapid increase in the number of law students, reaching 2,200 between 1873 and 1876. And the register of students’ addresses in Leipzig is relevant to the study of the city’s history. Both before and after German Unification in 1871, students were listed as belonging to one of two categories: domestic (the Kingdom of Saxony) or foreign (all other regions of Germany as well as all foreign countries).

Because of the ever increasing enrollments at the university, each successive register takes considerably more time to compile. Volume 3 covers 13 years, and future volumes will cover at most five to 10 years each. Reviews for volumes 4 and 5 (1876-1892 inclusive) are scheduled to appear in RREA 17 (2011). Volumes 6 and 7 (1892-1909 inclusive) are due to be published in 2011-2012. After that time, a unified index (by name, place of origin, field of study, and religious confession) will be compiled, but until then the researcher must be satisfied using the individual volume indexes. Each volume is also available as an e-book (see http://www.vdg-weimar.de/katalog/?fltFolder2=302 for more details). [mk/ga]

Geschichte der Universität Leipzig 1409-2009 [History of the University of Leipzig, 1409-2009]. Ed. Senatskommission zur Erforschung der Leipziger Universitäts- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte for the Rector der Universität Leipzig. 5 vols. Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag. ill. 25 cm. ISBN 978-3-86583- 310-5 (Complete set)

Vol. 4. Fakultäten, Institute, zentrale Einrichtungen [Schools, Institutes, Central Offices]. Ed. Ulrich von Hehl. 2 parts. 2009. 1641 p. ISBN 978-3-86583-304- 4: EUR 99

Vol. 5. Geschichte der Leipziger Universitätsbauten im urbanen Kontext [History of the University of Leipzig’s Buildings in the Urban Context]. Ed. Michaela Marek and Thomas Topfstedt. 2009. 796 p. ISBN 978-3-86583-305-1: EUR 84

One hundred years ago, on the occasion of its 500th anniversary, the University of Leipzig published a four-volume history that has some but not all things in common with the current work. The main difference is that the former publication concentrated on the history of the four traditional schools (Theology, Law, Medicine, and Philosophy), dedicating one volume to each, but at the expense of the general development of the institution, its administrative structures, its finances, its students, and its buildings. In the present publication, celebrating the 600th anniversary of the university’s founding, volumes 1-3 are devoted to university history, respectively covering the periods 1409- 1830/31, 1830/31-1909, and 1909-2009. Volumes 4 and 5 (reviewed here) deal with the schools as well as the overarching bodies and, for the first time, the university’s architecture. By 2009, the four original schools had grown to 14, mainly between 1871 and 1968. Each individual history adheres to a common guideline, covering the organization and structure of the discipline or school, the discipline’s history with emphasis on Leipzig faculty contributions, portraits of Leipzig leaders in the discipline, the university’s role in the general development of the discipline, and the importance of the discipline in the Leipzig canon. The school histories are necessarily rather brief, but they are competent and balanced. Taken together, the histories serve to point out how many luminaries worked and taught at Leipzig over the years and the important role it played in German university history and in academic history in general. Some schools and disciplines are covered in detail in monographs published earlier.

The volume on university architecture answers questions such as: Where were the university buildings located? If they no longer exist, what did they look like? Which functions did they have over time? The answers are provided in twelve essays covering the University of Leipzig from the late Middle Ages to the present. Leipzig differs from other old universities in that no buildings from prior to 1800 exist. They were replaced by modern buildings in the 19th and early 20th century, and the bombs of World War II and the neglect of the GDR did their part as well. The last surviving pre-1800 building, the university church St. Pauli, was demolished under great protest in 1968 to make way for new university buildings. Since reunification in 1989, attempts are being made to reestablish and rebuild the traditional university center around the Augusteum and St. Pauli Church.

The “Katalog der Universitätsbauten” [Catalog of University Buildings], pages 591- 686, is a superb compendium of architectural facts on all 146 buildings, arranged by street. City maps with the existing buildings drawn in and a set of colored maps from 11 different historical periods including the buildings help to complete the picture. A comprehensive bibliography and a reliable index of personal names and key words round out this successful volume.

We look forward to volumes 1-3 with their chronological history of the University of Leipzig. [mk/hh]

Leipziger Universitätsgeschichte(n): 600 Jahre Alma Mater Lipsiensis [Stories from the University of Leipzig: 600 years of the Alma Mater Lipsiensis]. Jonas Flöter. Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2009. 235 p. ill. 19 cm. ISBN 978-3-374-02698-2: EUR 12.80

This monograph is one of many published on the occasion of the 600th anniversary of the founding of the University of Leipzig (founded 1409). The author, Jonas Flöter, is a historian of education and a member of the commission tasked with writing the official history of the university. That large and unwieldy five-volume work, Geschichte der Universität Leipzig 1409-2009 (see RREA 15/16:155) was not meant for a general readership, and thus there was a need for a short and easily readable overview of the university’s 600-year history. The work reviewed here attempts to fill that need. Its eight chapters present the university’s history chronologically, from 1409, when about 1,000 German-speaking students and professors emigrated from Prague to establish a university in Leipzig, up to its situation in the first decade of the 21st century. Flöter dispenses with footnotes and includes many illustrations, among them portraits of significant personages and scenes of student life. There is a helpful bibliography and an index of personal names. The text flows easily and is lightened with a number of anecdotes; it is brief, to the point, and well-constructed. There is a glossary of terms specific to university culture, such as Quadrivium, Trivium, and the like. Those who desire a more in-depth treatment can turn to the five-volume work mentioned above or to Konrad Krause’s Alma Mater Lipsiensis (Leipzig, 2003). [mk/crc]

Die Professoren und Dozenten der Theologischen Fakultät der Universität Leipzig von 1409 bis 2009 [Professors and Lecturers of the School of Theology at the University of Leipzig from 1409 to 2009]. Ed. Markus Hein and Helmar Junghans. Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2009. 363 p. 25 cm. (Beiträge zur Leipziger Universitäts- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Reihe A, 8). ISBN 978-3-374-02704-0: EUR 58

The 600th anniversary of the founding of the University of Leipzig has been celebrated in numerous publications, of which several, like the volume reviewed here, are devoted to the School of Theology. The work contains 589 biographies of professors and lecturers who served, or currently serve, in the School of Theology, the oldest at the university. An overview of the types of scholars who could be found at the school during its long history is given in an introductory essay by Helmar Junghans. To do justice to the changing conditions wrought by the Reformation, the essay is divided into two parts: the first treats the period from 1409 to 1539, the “scholastic” period, to which 334 of the following biographies can be reckoned; the second part deals with the post- Reformation (Lutheran) era, encompassing 255 biographies.

Each biography is organized according to a uniform pattern: name, place of origin, date and place of birth, date and place of death, schools attended, academic career, genealogical information, other comments, and bibliographical references to source works containing further information about the biographees. (The lexicon does not attempt to provide lists of works written by the biographees.) These references utilize a set of abbreviations which refer the reader to the general bibliography found at the end of the volume. A third, very brief section lists the nine professors who have taught Hebrew, Latin, or Greek for the school since 1951; this list includes no biographical information. An appendix gives a chronology showing the professors who were teaching in each of the 1,200 semesters of the school’s existence. There is also an index of place names. [sh/crc]

60 Jahre Institut für Zeitgeschichte: München-Berlin, Geschichte, Veröffentlichungen, Personalien [SixtyYears of the Institute for Contemporary History: Munich-Berlin, History, Publications, Personnel]. Horst Möller and Udo Wengst. München: Oldenbourg, 2009. 204, [8] p. ill. 23 cm. ISBN 978-3-486-59048-7: EUR 24.80

On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Institute for Contemporary History this publication presents an interim appraisal of the activities of the Institute 10 years after the more comprehensive review published on its 50th anniversary (50 Jahre Institut für Zeitgeschichte: eine Bilanz, München, 1999). In the first part the Institute’s director, Robert Möller, presents a summary of the Institute’s work since 1949, with special emphasis on developments in the last 10 years. Now with branches in Berlin, the Foreign Office, and in Obersalzberg it is represented in four locations, and with its solid administrative and personnel structure the Institute can look forward confidently to the future. The branch in Obersalzberg, near Berchtesgaden, is located at the site of Hitler’s summer retreat and maintains a permanent exhibition, both on site (see RREA 15/16:185) for the review of a related work, Die tödliche Utopie) and online (http://www.obersalzberg.de/obersalzberg-home.html?&L=0), entitled Dokumentation Obersalzberg, covering the history of the Obersalzburg region and National Socialism.

The second part of the work presents updates of information from the 1999 work, concerning institutional chronology, publications, and personnel information. The list of scholarly personnel includes numerous researchers with first-class reputations, so that the Institute can be considered a training school for contemporary historians. This is an informative publication on 60 years of the Institute’s achievements. [jli/jc]

Geschichte der Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz: von den Anfängen bis in das Jahr 2008 [History of the Karl Franzens University in Graz: From Its Beginnings Through the Year 2008]. Walter Höflechner. 2d rev. and expanded ed. Graz: Grazer Universitäts-Verlag; Leykam, 2009. xvi, 435 p. ill. 28 cm. (Allgemeine wissenschaftliche Reihe / Grazer Universitätsverlag, 1). ISBN 978-3-7011- 0149-8 (Leykam): EUR 34.90

This 2008 history of the Karl-Franzens University is slightly revised and enlarged from the author’s 2006 work (same ISBN) and was published in time for the 525th anniversary of the University of Graz. Walter Höflechner is well qualified to write this book: he was a 1968 PhD graduate, received his post-graduate “Habilitation” in 1974, and was named Associate Professor for Austrian history and economic history in 1977. He was a leader in the building of the university archives, and in 1992 was a co-founder of the Austrian Society for the History of Science. Since 1997 Höflechner has held several administrative positions and has previously published articles on the history of the university.

The book is divided into three sections: (1) the university up to 1848, (2) the Karl- Franzens University, 1848-2002, and (3) the university since the legal reforms of 2002. The university was founded in 1585 by Archduke Karl II and that same year was turned over to the Jesuit Order, which administered the university until 1773, when it was taken over by the state. It reverted to a lyceum in 1782, chiefly for the training of administrative officials and physicians, but in 1827 the ruling Emperor Franz I restored it to university status, hence the two names in the official title. Only in 1848, in response to Wilhelm von Humboldt’s education reforms—considered a milestone in European university education and administration and widely adopted outside of Germany as well—was the university at Graz granted more freedom of teaching and learning and given more autonomy. Austria’s Universitätsgesetz [University Law] of 2002, which considerably centralized the country’s university system, represented another milestone. In contrast to Germany’s education system, which is decentralized at the provincial level, the Austrian educational system is centralized at the federal level, which allows for greater consistency among institutes of higher education.

Höflechner concentrates on the political history of the university, because universities have over the centuries been strongly affected by political relationships. So, for example, the 20th century is organized by political events: the end of the Hapsburg Monarchy, the First World War, Austria as small state 1918-1938, the establishment of the authoritarian corporate state (Ständestaat) in 1934, the absorption of Austrian universities into the German higher-educational system, the restoration to full-university status after 1945, and the post-2002 environment. Höflechner tells a precise, in-depth, and engrossing story.

The long chapter (p. 251-393) entitled Die Fakultäten 1848-2002 (bzw bis 2008) [The Faculty 1848-2002, up to 2008] includes a plethora of personages and a great number of portraits, but unfortunately there are no biographies as such. Throughout the course of the historical narrative, personal surnames names are highlighted in all capital letters. There is an eleven-page name index that does help to identify and locate professors, but no life dates are given. It is also to be regretted that a concluding bibliography is lacking.

On the other hand, the author includes a chapter on non-faculty departments, such as the administration, the library, the central information-systems operations, and the Institute of Sports. This information is often lacking in histories of other universities. In all, this is a balanced work with important, readily accessible information about a venerable and creative university. [frh/ga]

Zur Geschichte der Deutschen Technischen Hochschule Brünn: Professoren, Dozenten und Assistenten 1849-1945 [A History of the German Technical University at Brünn: Professors, Lecturers, and Assistants, 1849-1945]. Pavel Šišma. Transl. from the Czech by Josef Smolka. Linz: Trauner, 2009. 192 p. ill. 24 cm. (Schriftenreihe Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften und der Technik, 13). ISBN 978-3-85499-451-0: EUR 23.00

Until the publication of the current work, the reader had to rely on Josef Weinhold’s 80-page history of the Technische Hochschule at Brünn (München, 1991), which has now been supplanted by the much more substantive, biographically rich study by Pavel Šišma. While the first two sections cover the history and academic organization of the university, the third section is the most important, providing biographical information on the tenured faculty, the lecturers, and the assistants.

Reliable reference resources were utilized for this information, such as Johann Christian Poggendorf’s Biographisch-literarisches Handwörterbuch der exakten Naturwissenschaften (see RREA 12:267, 268, 277) and Ferdinand Seibt’s Biographisches Lexikon zur Geschichte der böhmischen Länder (see RREA 6:314). However, other resources, such as Kürschners deutscher Gelehrtenlexikon [Kürschner’s Almanach of German Scholars] for 1935-1940/41 and the several bio-bibliographic reports from individual universities were not. Still, Šišma has managed to assemble ample information on an extensive list of individuals associated with Brünn. It is only too bad that the translation from the Czech by Josef Smolka betrays a less than exacting attention to linguistic detail. [frh/rlk]

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