Erika Weinzierls Salzburger Antrittsvorlesung über Universität und Politik. Vortrag anlässlich des 50. Jubiläums 1968/2018

Abstract

Erika Weinzierl presented her inaugural lecture, “University and Politics in Austria”, as the newly appointed professor of Contemporary History at the University of Salzburg on June 11, 1968. She did so in a time of political dissent that also reached into universities and the epicenter of which was to be found in the Parisian student protests in May 1968. Never the less student protests all over Europe led to (more or less significant) changes in the outdated structures inside and outside (European) Universities. By contrast, May 1968 touched Austrian universities like a gentle breeze – even though some university teachers of the time who still worked as professors in Austria had built their careers in both Austrian dictatorships – or at least in one of them. With her lecture that was published in 1969, Weinzierl gave the first important impulse for the historiography on Austrian universities of the interwar period, which, however, only gained momentum in recent years. On the occasion of its 50th anniversary, the University of Vienna dedicated a lecture to Weinzierl’s inaugural lecture, which forms the basis of this paper.