Prague student associations (1859–1868)

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The first student associations in Prague began in 1859. The German students from the Prague Polytechnic and Charles University gathered in them . Hated by the Czechs , the student associations were on a losing streak after the German war .

Schiller celebration

In the summer of 1859 the "Beer Duchy Lichtenhain" was founded in Prague. The name and the pub ceremony of this non-colored student pub society referred to the Corps Thuringia Jena and its beer state . The Prague Beer Comment was also based on the Jena, not the Leipzig Comment . In November of the same year, Friedrich Schiller's 100th birthday was celebrated. For the great Prague connoisseurs Adolf Siegl and Karl Hans Strobl , the Schiller celebration was of historical importance:

“The great upswing of the Schiller Celebration had left the German color student on the floor of the Charles University as a permanent sign. Much to the anger of the Czechs, who under the protection of the government had become more and more cocky. Didn't Magister Hus already say in a pamphlet from 1409 "that God had given the Czechs the Bohemian land just as Israel once did the promised land, and that they should therefore be left there without being disturbed by the Germans." And in any case it was a cruel disorder of self-conceit when the colored cap of the German student showed every stranger in the most clear way that Germans still lived in the country and were sending their sons to study in Prague. "

- Karl Hans Strobl

First connections

Corps Rugia pub in Grosse Karlsgasse

Immediately after the celebration, on November 9th, 1859, the “Tabula rotunda” split off from the much too large beer duchy. Its members, mostly lawyers, were the first to introduce black (later white) student hats (without any other colors). On March 15, 1860 the association declared itself to be the Academic Association Rugia. In the following summer semester it took on the colors black-white-red and declared itself a corps in the spring of 1862. Rugia's motto was Stante unione virebo . Rugia suspended in 1867.

In the same year (1860), further connections were established which later became corps. On November 1, 1860, Egerländer founded the Academic Association Hilaria. The Corps Moldavia I later emerged from it. According to the student historian Ernst Hans Eberhard , Moldavia's colors refer to the Bohemian Forest . On January 12, 1861, the Teutonia Academic Association was established. They were mainly recruited from the north and northeast of German Bohemia. On February 23, 1861, the Academic Association Austria was founded. The Corps Austria emerged from it. These connections corresponded to the "exposed connections" at German universities. On March 15, 1861, Rugia celebrated her foundation festival in Kundratitz. For the first time in the history of the Prague corporations, the country's father (custom) was celebrated.

In the Prague municipal elections on March 11, 1861, the Germans lost their decade-long majority. They only won 15 seats. Immediately after the election, the majority of the Czech council sought the formation of a Greater Prague with the incorporation of the purely Czech suburbs.

After the Prime Minister Anton von Schmerling visited Prague on April 16, 1861, the Prague corporations were tacitly tolerated by the authorities. Nevertheless, the corporates were insulted and mocked in public. Alois von Brinz , who is highly respected by the German student body , has been insulted several times. Occasionally there were nightly attacks on colored students. Police had to intervene when attempting to storm their pub.

Delegate Convention

Rugia and Hilaria got on well and founded a delegates convention. On March 4, 1861, Austria came to the DC. In addition to the exclusively “academic” (university) connections, there was the Polytechnia . Also founded by Egerländer on May 1, 1861, it was recognized by the DC on June 6, 1861 and included in the DC, which had grown to eight associations. The DC corporations celebrated their inaugural summer in Dejwitz on May 1, 1861, with 80 participants. He was the first to be allowed by the authorities. Rugia and Hilaria introduced the scale length based on the German model. In the following winter semester, on October 10, 1861, the technical connection Constantia opened .

At the beginning of 1862 the students of the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin asked their fellow students in Prague to take part in the collection for the Prussian Navy . They agreed to do this if the funds were not only used to protect the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, but also the Adriatic . The unfulfillable demand was signed by the president of the German reading room and the senior citizens of the corporations.

For the further existence of the student associations in Prague as well as in Austria in general, a grade v. Loach important. His agents had found out about the liaison regulations and institutional authority in Tübingen. The Prime Minister's note was passed on by the Prague governor to the Prague police chief for an expert opinion. As a result, the connection ban was de facto lifted. The DC of the "connections" dissolved in the spring of 1864 because Carolina had left in February and Teutonia had declared itself a Corps in April. The Carolina Academic Association declared itself a fraternity on June 1, 1866. In doing so, it blew up DC, which was only newly founded in November 1865.

Seniors' Convent

Schimann Frankoniae ./. Pick Rugiae (1866)

In the winter semester 1861/62 the first groupings had formed, Rugia and Franko-Arminia on the one hand, Austria, Gothia and Teutonia in their own DC on the other. Polytechnia declared itself a (technical) corps on March 3, 1862. At the same time, Rugia and Moldavia followed, forming the first senior citizens' convention with the Corps Frankonia . The corps met in Café Paris and fought in the Eggenberg inn in Smíchov . If necessary, people turned to Wolschan . Opposite the SC were the four academic associations Albia, Austria, Carolina, Teutonia and - not officially - Constantia, which were combined in a DC association. They met in the Café zur Traube . The relationship between DC and SC was tense.

The German student body of Prague took a deep interest in the fate of the Elbe duchies . On December 2, 1863, 413 of 1121 students declared "to want to stand up for the good rights of Schleswig-Holstein as a brother". With recourse to the disciplinary code of 1849, which was believed to have been overcome, the rector ordered an investigation. On New Year's Eve of 1863/64 there were fights in a Prague wine tavern between Moldavians and Franconians on the one hand and Czechs on the other. The incident was hyped in the Czech press. Fearing a ban, Rugia broke the SC relationship with the two corps. Moldavia decided on the suspension . Most of the Moldavians left Prague; some moved to the University of Innsbruck .

It was then that Kösener Corps students first visited the Prague Corps. The Corps Bavaria Munich , Franconia Würzburg , Nassovia and Rhenania Würzburg were represented at the Rugia Foundation Festival on March 15, 1864 in the “Zur Stadt Pilsen” inn in Smíchov . Frankonia did not initially join the Prager SC, newly established by Rugia and Teutonia. In 1864 the Prague Polytechnic received a college-like constitution. On October 24th, the reorganized technical institute was opened with a celebration in the Dominican Church. Five days later, students from both nations took part in the torchlight procession. They celebrated the Kommers in the “Leitmeritzer Bierhalle”. The pharmaceutical association of Thessalia , which was founded at the end of 1864, was refused recognition by the Corps. The doctor Georg Teicher was responsible for the agreement between Rugia and Baruthia . He had fought 39 lengths. The Bohemia reported well- meaning about the foundation festival of the Corps Rugia on March 15, 1865 in the hotel "Zum englisch Hof". On July 3, 1865, the Corps Rugia, Teutonia and Frankonia, reunited completely in the Prager SC, celebrated a farewell summer in Prague's New Town .

Prague Corps students of those years were Alois Bauer , Vincenz Czerny , Robert Gersuny , Emil Guntermann , Michael Haubtmann , Johann Kiemann , Alfred Knotz , Rudolf Korb , Horaz Krasnopolski , Julius Lippert , Theodor Petrina , Otto Polak , Alfred Přibram , Richard Pribram , August Leopold von Reuss , Viktor Wilhelm Russ , Anton Tausche , Josef Tschan and Ludwig Wrba . Philipp Knoll was of particular importance for the history of the university in Prague .

Prussia in Prague

As early as May 1866, the students at the university and the Polytechnic had prepared steps to obtain approval for the establishment of a student legion in the event of the outbreak of war. After the outbreak of war, lectures were discontinued in mid-June and the year-end exams were postponed to the beginning of the next academic year. The authorities and offices have been moved away from Prague. Many residents left the city. On July 1, 1866, the garrison also withdrew, with Austrian soldiers looting the corporation house of the Thessalia. The guard and security service was handed over to the armed civil corps. A week later - after the battle of Königgrätz  - the advance guard of the Prussian army entered Prague. The flag of Prussia waved on the Prague Castle , which was obtained by Eduard Vogel von Falckenstein and Albrecht von Roon . The Peace of Prague had serious repercussions for Germans in Austria. The focus of the Danube Monarchy shifted to the east. The student body found itself exposed to a renewed increase in official pressure. The influx of Corps students from neighboring German states , which was valued as an enrichment, ceased almost completely after 1866.

Aftermath of the war

Teutonia's efforts to close a cartel with Saxonia Vienna remained without an official response. Rugia, Prague's oldest corporation, had to suspend it in the spring of 1867 after only eight years due to a lack of young talent. Only the Academic Corps Teutonia remained at the Charles University. On January 25, 1868, the technical association Suevia , the later Corps Suevia Prague , emerged from a table company . The connecting corporations - Albia, Austria, and temporarily the Carolina fraternity - founded a new DC on March 11, 1867. Although the declarations of disrepute were lifted, the relationship with the SC remained tense. On November 15, the new law on associations came into force, according to which the connections could officially secure their existence.

Compared to other Austrian universities, Progress also found its way into Prague rather late . In November 1867, the Germania student society was founded. With the beginning of the summer semester of 1868 he called himself "Academic-Progressist Burschenschaft Germania". She was hardly noticed. With imperial approval, the Bohemian Landtag decided in the same year to maintain a Czech technical university in addition to the German one. The “reading hall of the German students” became the “reading and speech hall” by reintroducing the speech evenings that were forbidden during the reaction time.

In 1868 there were serious conflicts with the Czechs. With their increasing national awareness in Austria-Hungary , they demanded a separate constitution and a separate legislature and executive for the countries of the Bohemian Crown, based in Prague. As an outward sign of this Czech constitution, Franz Joseph was to be crowned king on the Hradschin . The Germans in Bohemia resolutely defended themselves against this threat to their independence. The situation worsened to such an extent that a state of emergency had to be imposed on Prague and the surrounding area. The rector, Johann Friedrich von Schulte , called the seniors of the connections to him and asked them not to organize any public rallies or public events during the state of emergency. The Prague plempe remained the student fencing weapon .

1870-1939

literature

  • Gustav Karl Laube : The origin of the colored connections at the Prague universities . German work, I vol. (1902), no. 7.
  • Robert Hein: The Austrian student associations and the German question 1859–1866 . Once and Now, Yearbook of the Association for Corps Student History Research, Vol. 8 (1963), pp. 36–44.
  • Adolf Siegl: From the time the Prague Corps was founded . Einst und Jetzt, Vol. 16 (1971), pp. 131-144.
  • Adolf Siegl: The suspended Corps of Prague SC - The Corps Moldavia I . Einst und Jetzt, Vol. 18 (1973), pp. 202-203.
  • Adolf Siegl: The suspended corps of the Prager SC - Rugia . Einst und Jetzt, Vol. 19 (1974), pp. 222-223.
  • Adolf Siegl: The suspended corps of the Prager SC - Teutonia 1861–1869 . Einst und Jetzt, Vol. 21 (1976), pp. 134-136.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Black-white-green, green cap.
  2. ↑ Black-gold-blue on white, white caps
  3. ↑ Violet-white-black, black velvet hat, later violet silk hat
  4. ↑ Red-white-yellow, red caps.
  5. ↑ The Eggenberg was also a Franconian corps pub.
  6. ↑ The Café zur Traube was opposite the German State Theater. Mozart recovered from his work on Don Juan by playing billiards .
  7. ↑ Rugia's cartel with Herulia Vienna broke up in 1862.
  8. ↑ Green-white-gold, white cap. The name probably referred to Friedrich Schiller's Swabian homeland.
  9. ↑ Black-red-gold, initially red, later green cap

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b A. Siegl: From the time when the Prague Corps was founded . Einst und Jetzt, Vol. 16 (1971), p. 131
  2. ^ A. Siegl: The Schiller Celebration in Prague 100 years ago, the cradle of the Corps in Austria . Deutsche Corpszeitung 1959, No. 6, p. 183.
  3. ^ Karl Hans Strobl: Prague , in: Vivat Academia. 600 years of German university life , with 144 illustrations on art print panels. Carl Behrendt, publishing house bookstore, Essen undated (around 1931).
  4. ^ Adolf Siegl: The suspended corps of the Prager SC - Rugia . Einst und Jetzt, Vol. 19 (1974), pp. 222-223.
  5. ↑ Schwarz und Grün, the mountain and forest colors , in: Academische Monatshefte, summer semester 1904, No. 245/246, p. 177.
  6. ↑ a b c A. Siegl: From the founding time of the Prague Corps . Einst und Jetzt, Vol. 16 (1971), p. 132
  7. ^ A b A. Siegl: From the time when the Prague Corps was founded . Once and Now, Vol. 16 (1971), p. 133.
  8. ^ A. Siegl: From the time when the Prague Corps was founded . Einst und Jetzt, Vol. 16 (1971), p. 134
  9. ^ A b A. Siegl: From the time when the Prague Corps was founded . Einst und Jetzt, Vol. 16 (1971), p. 140
  10. ↑ Österreichische Corpszeitung, 1st year, 1918, issue 8.
  11. ^ A. Siegl: From the time when the Prague Corps was founded . Einst und Jetzt, Vol. 16 (1971), p. 138
  12. ^ Academic monthly books, Jhrg. XXIII, Heft 7, p. 238.
  13. ↑ Prague daily Bohemia, March 16, 1865
  14. ^ A b A. Siegl: From the time when the Prague Corps was founded . Einst und Jetzt, Vol. 16 (1971), p. 141
  15. ^ Josef Neuwirth : The Academic Corps Saxonia in Vienna 1850 to 1900 . Vienna 1900.
  16. ^ Robert Paschke: Suburb in the Kösener Seniors Convents Association 100 years ago (1866/67). At the same time a contribution to the history of Erlanger SC . Einst und Jetzt, Vol. 13 (1968), pp. 20–
  17. ^ A. Siegl: From the time when the Prague Corps was founded . Einst und Jetzt, Vol. 16 (1971), p. 142
  18. ↑ Bohemia of June 19, 1868.