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THE UNIVERSITY OF KOLOZSVÁR/CLUJ AND THE STUDENTS OF THE MEDICAL FACULTY (1872-1918)

THE UNIVERSITY OF KOLOZSVÁR/CLUJ AND THE STUDENTS OF THE MEDICAL FACULTY (1872-1918) By

Victor Karady and Lucian Nastasã

CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY

ETHNOCULTURAL DiVERSITY RESOURCE CENTER BUDAPEST/CLUJ, 2004

Victor Karady, Lucian Nastasã THE UNIVERSITY OF KOLOZSVÁR/CLUJ AND THE STUDENTS OF THE MEDICAL FACULTY (1872-1918) Budapest/Cluj-Napoca Central European University – Ethnocultural Diversity Resource Center 394 p.; 16x23,5 cm ISBN: 973-86239-3-6

I. Karady, Victor II. Nastasã, Lucian

323.1(498) 949

© CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY ETHNOCULTURAL DIVERSITY RESOURCE CENTER Budapest/Cluj-Napoca, 2004

Proofreading by Mária Kovács Index by Gyula Szabó D. Layout by Gyula Szabó D. Cover and series design by Elemér Könczey

CONTENTS FOREWORD .....................................................................................................7 Part I. UNIVERSITY EDUCATION AND CULTURE IN KOLOZSVÁR/CLUJ Historical precedents and preliminaries.................................................15 Towards the foundation of the modern Transylvanian University........21 The beginnings of the new University....................................................29 Kolozsvár/Cluj as a mature academic centre of the late Dualist Period .......................................................................37 Part II. MEDICAL HIGHER EDUCATION IN KOLOZSVÁR/CLUJ The beginnings of medical instruction ...................................................49 Medicine at the “Franz Josef” University ................................................52 Epilogue of the Hungarian Medical School ............................................68 Part III. SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL PROFILE OF THE STUDENT BODY AT THE MEDICAL FACULTY (1872-1918) Social and eductional profile of the student body at the medical faculty (1872-1918) .......................................................71 The medics from Kolozsvár/Cluj and the training of doctors in Hungary............................................................................73 The logic of recruitment differentials ....................................................83 Patterns of ethnic and confessional recruitment ...................................91 Paradigms of regional selection: place of birth, residence, locality of Matura-granting schools ...................................................................99 Circumstances of secondary studies (’educational selection’) ............109 Social structure and social selection ...................................................125 Tuition and the conditions of study......................................................135 Part IV. STUDENT POPULATION Listing of students at the Faculty of Medicine (1872-1918).................151 ILLUSTRATIONS..........................................................................................369 INDEX OF PERSONS’ NAMES....................................................................389 INDEX OF PLACE NAMES ..........................................................................392

FOREWORD With this volume the authors initiate a hopefully large set of publications intended to contribute to the acceleration of a rather new development in the study of modern and modernising elite groups in the Carpathian Basin during the long nineteenth century. This was, as it is well known, the period of nation building in East Central Europe, where various national projects elaborated by regionally based elite groups, endowed with historically accumulated but very unequal political, economic, intellectual and symbolic assets, converged or collided in the Magyar nation state emerging after the 1867 Compromise with Austria. The study of these elite groups appears to be crucial for the understanding of all major social processes leading to the 1919 disruption, including such different ones as industrialisation, urbanisation, the creation of parliamentary statehood and contemporary patterns of political mobilisation, the establishment of the intellectual infrastructure of modern societies (the press, the school network, agencies of cultural production), the evolution of ethnic power relations (as expressed in national antagonism, antisemitism, assimilation), new models of class identity together with their expressions and conflicts (for example, embourgeoisement versus gentrification), modern demographic structures, etc. In one way or another elites were responsible for the invention, the realisation or the imposition of often contrasted or even antagonistic patterns of modernity in this part of Europe, explicable only via their recruitment (by ethnicity, religion, properties, noble or plebeian birth), inherited ‘social capital’, aggregate interests, strategies of self-assertion, representations of collective future as well as the utopias and salvation ideologies they adopted (whether liberal, socialist, free masonic or other) or the claims they extended for leadership in ‘imagined communities’. Hitherto the study of elites remained largely fragmented by fields of activities (the economy, politics, administration, academe, literature, the arts, etc). In the last decades West European social history has produced some precious research on top elite segments and even larger, institutionally defined elite clusters – like alumni of outstandingly prestigious educational institutions. This scholarly orientation draws heavily on historical statistics, occasionally produced by national statistical agencies, and local prosopographies, listing members of selected institutions. Recently the technological revolution of computer science has opened new vistas in elite studies. A number of biographical data banks have been published on what 7

The University of Kolozsvár/Cluj and the Students of the Medical Faculty

may be qualified as ‘reputational elites’ – men of some fame or in charge of public functions of high visibility in the given society. The computerisation of serialised biographical information permits the massive, possibly exhaustive treatment of data pertaining to members of elite groups regardless of their size – which was hitherto practically unfeasible –, on the sole condition that they are fed into an appropriate programme of data processing. Our present study is an attempt to promote the renewal of social studies of elites in our region by the presentation in both published and computerised form (on CD rom) of all the biographical information accessible in local archival sources related to students of the Medical Faculty of the Hungarian University in Kolozsvár/Cluj (1872-1918). This volume will be shortly followed by two other ones dedicated to the Faculty of Law and to the Faculties of Letters (Arts) and Sciences of the same University, since the prosopographic research for these volumes is close to completion. Subsequently, a special volume is envisaged for pharmaceutical students in Kolozsvár/Cluj. These publications will cover some 20% to 30% of those having pursued higher studies in the Carpathian Basin during the epoch of the Dual Monarchy. Up to now only students born or residing in Hungary and enrolled in foreign universities have received similar treatment. The combination of these two types of major prosopographic collections will add up to maybe as much as 40% to 50% of higher graduates and affiliated clusters (without graduation proper) in pre-1919 Hungary. The importance of this work is enhanced by the fact that most of the archival material pertaining to students of the University of Budapest, the first institution of this kind in the Carpathian Basin, have been destroyed with a few exceptions: lists of students and of graduates of some Budapest Faculties have survived, as well as archival evidence of the social background and educational career of some specific student clusters. The senior author of this study has collected a large amount of biographical information – prepared for a later publication – of students admitted to as well as applicants refused at, the Eötvös Kollégium in Budapest (1895-1949), members of two major Catholic teaching congregations in the period 1880-1947 (the Piarists and the Benedictines), as well as several samples of graduates of the four inter-war universities in Hungary. The junior author has gathered biographical information concerning the education, higher studies abroad and home, academic career, marriage strategies, etc of university professors in Transylvania in the inter-war years in a comparative perspective as to the integration of the region into the Romanian academic market. We are planning the ultimate merger of all these prosopographic data banks on upcoming educated elites in the Carpathian Basin, in a first instance up to the collapse of the Dual Monarchy. With this an overall basis can be provided for elite studies during the long 19th century in the region, whereby each graduate and presumably the great majority of students of any sorts will be identified and characterised thanks to an – obviously variably 8

Foreword

rich – collection of personal data. Ideally, the final outcome of this work will result in a unique data collection which can be heuristically rewarding to confront with ‘reputational lists’ (like entries in computerised national encyclopaedias or biographical dictionaries), other computerised registers related to specific elite segments (like free-masons, those having Magyarised their surnames) or individuals with certified creativity, achievement or public competence (authors in national biographies, academicians, members of learned societies, higher civil servants, members of Parliament, casinos, clubs of entrepreneurs, etc). Even if we may not bring this vast project to completion, the present series of publications has been started with this intention in mind as the ultimate target worth aiming at. In the meantime here is some elementary information about our work. Our work is limited to medical students proper in Kolozsvár/Cluj, excluding those in pharmacy, though they studied formally in the same Faculty. Pharmaceutical studies contrasted indeed to medical ones by their shorter duration (two years) and their educational conditions of access. Pharmaceutical students were admitted in the beginning with six years of secondary education only. Later, eight years had to be completed for admission, but the Matura was not required in Kolozsvár/Cluj, even when it was made compulsory in Budapest. Thus students in pharmacy could not earn a university degree in the Transylvanian alma mater, unlike their codisciples in the capital city. This was why some of them actually moved to Budapest. A separate volume is being planned for pharmacy students in Kolozsvár/Cluj. Though the project has been drafted and conceived of in agreement by the two authors, in practice the whole prosopographic collection is due to the perseverance and dedication of the junior author, who, sometimes with the help of occasional assistants, accomplished all the detailed exploration of the archival sources. The coding of data for the study of the senior author was kindly done by Katalin Kisgyörgy and the data processing was realised by Zoltán Kisgyörgy. The following sources have been resorted to, all in ‘Franz Josef University’ Fund of the State Archive of Cluj/Kolozsvár : 1. ‘files of origin’ of students (származási ívek) – 419 registers; 2. ‘certificates of the completion of studies’ (végbizonyítványok); 3. ‘certificates of departure’ (távozási bizonyítványok); 4. medical doctor’s diplomas; 5. register of students attending the Institute of Medicine (1919-1929). Since our sources are exclusively in Hungarian and this is a publication of original source material, we have not tried to translate or to modify in any way the data appearing in our sources. As each biographical entry is organised in a uniform manner and most, if not all, information appears in a standardised form (the only significant exception concerns fathers’ profession), the entries are easily accesible to non-Hungarian readers as well. 9

The University of Kolozsvár/Cluj and the Students of the Medical Faculty

For each identified student the following information was recorded (when available), numbered and enumerated always in the order indicated herewith : 1. place and date of birth; 2. ethnic identity (by mother tongue); 3. religion; 4. father’s or tutor’s name, professional status and residence (address); 5. nature and locality of secondary school attended and the date of the Matura (érettségi); 6. year of the first enrollment to the Faculty in Kolozsvár/Cluj or when the student transferred there; 7. period of studies including the number of semesters in the Medical Faculty at Kolozsvár/Cluj; 8. date of obtaining the title of doctor; 9. scholarship and the amount of the grant; 10. complementary or other branches of study (if any). In the biographical entries the following abbreviations were used (besides common ones for the months of the year): ág. ev. (=ágostai evangélikus) – Lutheran áll. (=állami) – state managed, public dr. (=doktor) – doctor (academic degree granted by universities) félév (=féléves) – (for) one semestre gimn. (=gimnázium) – classical secondary or high school (with Latin) gör. kat. (=görög katolikus) – Greek Catholic; gör. kel. (=görög keleti) – Greek Orthodox izr. (=izraelita) – Jewish m. (=megye) – county (regional administrative district) örm. kat.(=örmény katolikus) – Armenian Catholic öszt. (=ösztöndíj) – scholarship, grant özv. (=özvegy) – widow(er) pf (=pótfélév) – replacement (or complementary) semester in the war years róm. kat. (=római katolikus) – Roman Catholic szül. (=született) – born unit. (=unitárius) – Unitarian It is an agreeable duty to express our gratitude to the Ethnocultural Diversity Resource Center in Cluj/Kolozsvár, represented by Levente Salat and Gábor Ádám, who have made this publication materially possible. Our thanks go to the Central European University Press as well for the endorsement of our project. The ground work for this volume could not have been carried out without the generous support secured by Hungarian, American and Romanian institutions. Our ground research has benefited from financial backing from two Hungarian agencies, the National Fund for Scientific Research (OTKA) and the Hungarian Foundation for Scientific Research of Special Interest (OKTKK). Similarly substantial help was granted by the Research Support Fund of the Central European University in Budapest. The extended scholarly activities of the junior author over several years, indispensable for the 10

Foreword

achievement of our target, were performed under the aegis of the Institute of History in Iaºi and (later) in Cluj/Kolozsvár of the Romanian Academy of Sciences. The collaboration of the two authors also benefited from the efficient assistance of the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme in Paris, which has several times invited the junior author to France to this effect.

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I. UNIVERSITY EDUCATION AND CULTURE IN KOLOZSVÁR/CLUJ

Lucian Nastasã UNIVERSITY EDUCATION AND CULTURE IN KOLOZSVÁR/CLUJ1 Although there have been higher education institutions in Transylvania th since the 16 century, the idea of a university – in the modern sense of the word – only imposed itself after the 1848 Revolution, to be materialised finally after the Austrian-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 (Ausgleich) and the administrative unification of the “two Hungarian fatherlands” (Hungary proper and Transylvania), by the setting-up, in Kolozsvár/Cluj, in 1872, of the “Ferenc József” [Franz Joseph] University. Until then, higher instruction was available for those in the region mostly in Danubian Hungary, outside the country (notably in Vienna) and, to a rather limited extent, in the few academic colleges of Transylvania. The latter were developed especially th from the second half of the 18 century onward, playing some role as strictly vocational institutions, preparing professionals without higher academic qualification proper, mostly local civil servants, lawyers, clerics, lower medical staff (”surgeons” and midwives) and other literati. There can hardly be question of a coherent regional network of higher education until the last th quarter of the 19 century, since the establishments concerned remained disconnected or weakly connected with each other. More often than not they even obstructed each other mutually, operating under the patronage of competitive and sometimes antagonistic religious confessions (Roman- Catholic, Calvinist, Lutheran, Greek Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and Unitarian) in conflict with each other for supremacy in various local, regional or ethnicity based markets of the exercise of spiritual power.

Historical precedents and preliminaries Reformation and Counter-Reformation in Transylvania led – like elsewhere – to major changes in the social functions attributed to education, the new atmosphere of denominational competition generating a need for the 1

For reasons of equity and scholarly neutrality, even at the risk of historical anachronism, place names in Transylvania and elsewhere in ethnically mixed territories of the Carpathian Basin will be quoted here in both Hungarian and Romanian (exceptionally in German or Slovakian as well). For instance, the Transylvanian capital city will be referred to as Kolozsvár/Cluj for the period up to 1919 and as Cluj/Kolozsvár afterwards.

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The University of Kolozsvár/Cluj and the Students of the Medical Faculty

institutional representation of major religion-based cultural options and, implicitly, for the promotion of scholarship and scientific investigation. It also gave rise to a demand for the consolidation and the extension of educated elites, which resulted directly in the foundation of a number of colleges and gymnasiums run by the various churches following patterns elaborated in Western Christianity. This emerging system of elite training was indeed heavily dependent on the West, in most concrete terms, via the well documented renewal of the medieval peregrinatio academica of Transylvanian students into European university centres, which, hence2 forth, were decisively marked by their denominational persuasion. The idea of starting a university in Transylvania (with a rather medieval terminological connotation) came to Prince János Zsigmond as early as 1567. The headquarters were planned to be located in Gyulafehérvár/Alba Iulia, and renowned humanists like Petrus Ramus and Calsio Curio were consid3 ered for appointment as professors. But the project never materialised. Soon afterwards however, on 18 May 1581, Prince István Báthory, also elected King of Poland, issued a founding document in Vilna for a University in Kolozsvár/Cluj placed under the patronage of the Jesuit order and includ4 ing three faculties: Theology, Philosophy and Legal Studies. This was a usual arrangement for new universities in the Renaissance, where the medical faculty was often suffering from want of qualified staff. The institution actually started to function in the very same street where the main building of the present-day University is located. Its rector was for a while the Italian Antonio Possevino, who came to Kolozsvár/Cluj accompanied by 32 monks, 2

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There is by now a considerable body of literature of high scholarly quality on Transylvanian students in Western universities before the contemporary era. See particularly Sándor Tonk, Erdélyiek egyetemjárása a középkorban, Bucharest, Edit. Kriterion, 1979; Géza Katona, Erdélyi unitárius tanulók külföldön 1711-ig, Keresztény Magvetõ, 1979; Miklós Szabó, Sándor Tonk, Erdélyiek egyetemjárása korai új korban 1521-1700, Szeged, József Attila Tudományegyetem, 1992; László Szögi, Magyarországi diákok a Habsburg Birodalom egyetemein. I. 1790-1850, Budapest-Szeged, Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem Levéltára, 1994; Bálint Keserû, “Peregrinatio academica dissidentium der Siebenbürger Unitarier”, in the volume Universitas Budensis, 1395-1995, eds. László Szögi and Júlia Varga, Budapest, ELTE, 1997, pp. 189-198; Miklós Szabó, László Szögi, Erdélyi peregrinusok. Erdélyi diákok európai egyetemeken 17011849, Marosvásárhely, Mentor Kiadó, 1998; László Szögi, Magyarországi diákok németországi egyetemeken és fõiskolákon, 1789-1919, Budapest, Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem Levéltára, 2001; Ádám Hegyi, Magyarországi diákok svájci egyetemeken és akadémiákon, 1526-1788 (1798), Budapest, Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem Levéltára, 2003. Klára Jakó, “Petrus Ramus és az elsõ kísérlet egyetem alapítására Erdélyben (János Zsigmond uralkodásának idején, 1570)”, in Korunk, no. 2/1990, pp. 246-249. The document is re-published in Régi magyar egyetemek emlékezete. Memoria universitatum et scholarum maiorum regni Hungariae, 1367-1777, ed. László Szögi, Budapest, Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem, 1995, pp. 168-171.

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University Education and Culture in Kolozsvár/Cluj

to ensure the organisation of the institution. However, after only two decades, in 1603, the University was wound up because of religious dissentions. The Protestants expelled the Jesuit scholars, devastated the head 5 offices of the University, and even destroyed a significant part of the library. A loyal supporter of Catholicism in Transylvania and an advocate of its consolidation through the development of a network of Catholic secondary education, István Báthori set up two gymnasiums in Nagyvárad/Oradea and Gyulafehérvár/Alba Iulia, all these institutions being run by the Jesuit order, which since 1559, through its influential Ratio Studiorum, had defined the strategy of organisation, the methods and contents of teaching applicable in 6 the first worldwide network of Christian elite education. But the failure of the first university foundation in Kolozsvár/Cluj had nevertheless positive results as well. It set a precedent and, to some extent, a model for the local satisfaction of demand for higher education, which was a reference for later similar attempts. In 1622, Prince Gábor Bethlen initiated in Gyulafehérvár/Alba Iulia, his residence, the foundation of a Calvinist (Reformed) Academic College, after the model of the Heidelberg University. Included were three faculties: Theology, Philosophy, and Letters and professors of international renown were mobilised to staff them. Such was Martin Opitz, the author of a reputed work presenting the Transylvanian society of the age, Johann Heinrich 7 Bisterfeld and Ludwig Philipp Piscator. They brought prestige to the institution headed by Johan Heinrich Alstedt between 1629-1638. However, Bethlen’s project to change the College into a genuine university did not 8 finally succeed. His successor to the throne, György Rákóczi I, wanted to support financially several academies. For this he encouraged especially Protestant students, through different stipends, to pursue studies at Western European universities, forming thus a body of learned men liable to take up 9 teaching positions in the Intra-Carpathian region. In fact, the Academic College of Gyulafehérvár/Alba Iulia operated for a short period only. In 1658 5

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Endre Veress, “A kolozsvári Báthory Egyetem története lerombolásáig 1603-ig”, in Erdélyi Múzeum, XXIII, 1906, pp. 169-193, 249-263, 319-320, 405; Klára Jakó, “A kolozsvári Báthory-egyetem és könyvtárának története 1607-ig”, in Korunk, no. 11/1990, pp. 1500-1504, and no. 12/1990, pp. 1636-1643. The Jesuit Ratio Studiorum: 400th Anniversary Perspectives, ed. Vincent J. Duminuco, New York, Fordham University Press, 2000. The last two were also authors of a project to organise the Academy, republished in the volume Régi magyar egyetemek emlékezete. Memoria universitatum et scholarum maiorum regni Hungariae, 1367-1777, p. 115-120; see also pp. 123-125. Zsigmond Vita, “Bethlen Gábor mûvelõdési politikája”, in Mûvelõdés, Bucharest, no. 6/1995, pp. 43-45. For further reading about these pilgrims, see also Lucian Nastasã, “Das EuropaBild bei den Klausenburger Memoirenschreibern des 17. Jahrhunderts”, in Die Rumänen und Europa vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart, ed. Harald Heppner, Wien-Köln-Weimar, Böhlau Verlag, 1997, pp. 47-61.

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The University of Kolozsvár/Cluj and the Students of the Medical Faculty

it was burnt down during the Turkish-Tartar invasion, and by the same token the library founded by Prince Bethlen, rich of a large number of valuable 10 works, acquired from all over Europe, was also destroyed. From this time on, the Academy was degraded to the rank of a secondary school, and moved to Nagyenyed/Aiud. It later gained a leading position though, within the confessional secondary school network that developed in Transylvania along the th th 11 18 and 19 centuries. th At the end of the 17 century, in 1698, a Jesuit University called “Leopol12 dina” (Academia Societatis Jesu Claudiopolitana, also known as “Báthori”) was re-established in Kolozsvár/Cluj. Teaching was done as usual in Latin in all the three faculties: Theology, Philosophy and Sciences (including both mathematics and natural sciences). However, this establishment was not notably active either, and it soon turned into an academic college of sorts, and by the end of th 13 the 18 century into a merely Latin secondary school. Despite all these attempts, in Transylvania, the secondary colleges were the most widespread institutions to offer classical intellectual training. Some of them made up for the lack of a university by hosting some courses in law, philosophy, theology or even in scientific disciplines that would generally be found in university faculties. In 1780 for example philosophy courses were introduced into the College of Nagyvárad/Oradea, so that the institution could be raised to the rank of a Royal Academy, a position confirmed in 1788 by the addition of a department of legal studies with a four14 year curriculum. In spite of their rudimentary aspect, even considering it was the 18th century, these establishments had a major role concerning the dissemination of ideas of the Enlightenment. They contributed thus to the change of mentalities th in regional elite circles. In 1818, upon the 100 anniversary of the Calvinist College of Marosvásárhely/Târgu Mureº, professor János Antal, the future Bishop of the Reformed Church in Transylvania, summed up the benefits that the school had brought to the town and its environment by training a Calvinist 15 elite capable of contributing to the development of the region. In fact, the col10

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Zsigmond Vita, “A gyulafehérvári Kollégium (1622-1658)”, in Mûvelõdés, Bucharest, no. 8/1992, pp. 36-38. About this and further evolutions, see Zsigmond Jakó and István Juhász, Nagyenyedi diákok 1662-1848, Bucharest, Edit. Kriterion, 1979. Régi magyar egyetemek emlékezete. Memoria universitatum et scholarum maiorum regni Hungariae, 1367-1777, pp. 176-177. See Vencel Bíró, “A kolozsvári jezsuita egyetem szervezete és építkezései a XVIII. században”, in Erdélyi Múzeum, L, 1945, pp. 1-13. Alajos Bozóky, A nagyváradi királyi Akadémia százados múltja 1788-tól 1888-ig, Budapest, 1889, pp. 2-3; about the edition, see A. Ionaºcu, “Le rôle de la Faculté de droit d’Oradea dans le développement de l’enseignement juridique en Transylvanie”, in Noesis, VII, 1981. A Marosvásárhelyi Református Kollégium diáksága 1653-1848, ed. Sándor Tonk, Szeged, József Attila Tudományegyetem, 1994, p. V.

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University Education and Culture in Kolozsvár/Cluj

lege concerned had been teaching, since 1718, the courses of two faculties – Theology and Philosophy – and opened courses of legal studies in 1794. th Progress was obvious especially from the second half of the 18 century on, when the political power of Vienna started to secularise the whole higher education of the kingdom, passing it from under the authority of different churches to that of the state. Moreover, in the 1860s the Transylvanian Reformed (Calvinist) Church intended to set up an inter-confessional university, the principle of which was approved by Maria Theresa. However, the Saxons also wanted to have a Lutheran university of their own in Nagyszeben/Sibiu. This university was to include, in addition to the classical faculties, a faculty of medicine, too. The Catholic Bishop of Gyulafehérvár/Alba Iulia opposed the project, and suggested instead the development of the existing Jesuit University in Kolozsvár/Cluj. Higher education in Kolozsvár/Cluj had been indeed organised in the th 18 century (as in several other European countries) under the authority of the Jesuit order until 1773, when the Order was suppressed by the Pope. After the expulsion of the Jesuits it was taken over by the rival Piarist teaching congregation. From 1774, during the reign of Maria Theresa, besides the two existing faculties (Theology and Philology), the faculties of Legal 16 Studies and Medicine-Surgery were also started. Within these, since 1781, German temporarily replaced Latin in many courses as the language of instruction. Later on teaching in Hungarian was progressively introduced and, from 1843 on, it was definitely imposed by law, being henceforth the official language of the Hungarian nation state. At the same time, in order to give it the shape of a complete university, the Roman-Catholic Seminary of Gyulafehérvár/Alba Iulia was moved to Kolozsvár/Cluj and made into a Faculty of Theology. Despite all these developments, Maria Theresa’s initial plan to start a real university here was not achieved. When the first Hungarian university was transferred in 1777 from the West Hungarian town of Nagyszombat/Trnava to Buda, it was felt that a second establishment would not be needed. In this context, the Faculty of Medicine of Kolozsvár/Cluj was requalified as an Institute of Surgery and Gynaecology, and the Roman Catholic theology was reestablished in Gyulafehérvár/Alba Iulia. Thus, the institute of Kolozsvár/Cluj fell back to the rank of a second17 ary college. If the project of a Transylvanian university was dropped until the second th part of the 19 century, the demand for formal training in law was strongly expressed from much earlier onwards, since legal competence represented 16

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In fact, in 1762, Maria Theresa intended – upon the initiative of Gerhard von Swieten – to set up a Protestant University. Cf. Ferencz Szilágyi, “Erdélyi protestáns egyetem a XVIII-dik században”, in Kelet, Kolozsvár/Cluj, II, 1872, no. 241/19 October, no. 242/20 October and no. 243/22 October. See Júlia Varga, A kolozsvári királyi líceum hallgatósága, 1784-1848, Budapest, Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem Levéltára, 2000.

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The University of Kolozsvár/Cluj and the Students of the Medical Faculty

after the end of the religious wars the main cognitive asset expected from politically active members of the ruling classes. In this way, in a relatively short time, three Legal Academies emerged in Transylvania at the turn of the th 18 century, each with a three-year curriculum: the Academy of Law in Kolozsvár/Cluj opened in the 1774/1775 academic year in close connection with the secondary royal college. Its counterpart in Nagyvárad/Oradea followed suit in 1788. Similarly, the Augustine Evangelical (Lutheran) gymnasium of Nagyszeben/Sibiu was set up in 1812. It started to include a course of Legal Studies in 1844, which further developed into a separate Law 18 Academy. In 1830 a department of Legal Studies was organised in the Calvinist College of Székelyudvarhely/Odorheiu Secuiesc, too, which – at that time – included three departments (Theology, Philology and Law). 19 However, the curriculum was only for two years. A similar development occurred in the College of Máramarossziget/Sighetul Marmaþiei, which in 20 1837 became a Calvinist Academy of Legal Studies. As it was mentioned above, in 1784 the Academy of Kolozsvár/Cluj was turned into a secondary school, and not long after that, the Roman Catholic Theology moved to Gyulafehérvár/Alba Iulia, while the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery became a separate institute in 1817. Within this latter institute, teaching was done in an essentially empirical manner, the aim being to prepare students for minimal medical tasks. The graduates remained active only in the region, except for those who went on to further study at different European universities. The main reasons why the establishment did not grow into a veritable Medical Faculty might be identified in the lack of adequately specialised teaching staff. As an illustration, anatomy, surgery and gynaecology were all taught for a long time by the same professor: József Laffer. The intellectual effervescence of the Hungarian Reform Era preceding 1848 pointed again to the need of a university in Transylvania. In the spring of 1842, the Calvinists worded once more their wish to raise the scholarly standing and, consequently, the institutional rank of the existing colleges. They formulated at the same time the project of a local university. Professor József Salamon proposed that such an institution be set up in Kolozsvár/Cluj 18

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For the context of the evolution of higher education in Hungary, during the “Vormärz”, see János Kalmár, “L’Université hongroise au temps des reformes”, in Études Danubiennes, t. III, no. 2, 1987, pp. 141-145. On the Academy of Nagyszeben/Sibiu, which operated until 1885, see G.H. Tontsch, “Die Rechtsakademie zu Sibiu (1844-1887”)”, in Studia Universitatis Babeº-Bolyai. Jurisprudentia, XIV, 1969, pp. 97-104; Monica Vlaicu, “Hermannstädten Rechtsakademia und ihre rumänische Studenten”, in Forschungen zur Volks- und Landeskunde, XXXI, 1988, no. 1, pp. 30-40. Gusztáv Hermann, Székelyudvarhely mûvelõdéstörténete, Bucharest, Edit. Kriterion, 1993. Gergely Bakcsy, A szatmár-németi ev. ref. Fõgymnásium története, Szatmár, 1896.

20

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in the form of a Central Higher school. The idea was not materialised in the suggested form, but the revolutionary year of 1848 was going to bring more strength to such a project.

Towards the foundation of the modern Transylvanian University Indeed, after the proclamation of the unification of Hungary and Transylvania (on 30 May) and the voting of Law XIX/1848 by the Diet of Pest, to the effect that the University of Pest passed under the authority of the new Ministry of Public Instruction, the idea of a Transylvanian university in Kolozsvár/Cluj was gaining force in the framework of the projects due to the independentist government appointed by Vienna after the revolutionary upheaval of 15 March 1848. Two major orientations were emerging in the given historical juncture propitious for radical reforms in cultural as well as political matters. The first, already existing idea was supported by József Szabó, a medical doctor and professor of the Institute of Medicine and Surgery, who – in an article published in Erdélyi Híradó on 29 June 1848, entitled “Tudományos egyetem (universitas) Kolozsvárt” [A University (universitas) for Kolozsvár/Cluj] – proposed “on behalf of several outstanding sons of our town” who were interested in the advancement of science, to set up a university by unifying the efforts of the three major confessions. This was, in other words, the old project that the established confessional high schools – Roman Catholic, Calvinist and Unitarian – reunite under the same aegis, putting together their resources in terms of estate, equipment and staff to start a 21 university, thus keeping the financial effort down to a minimum. This suggestion gathered less support than the other one, because some of the wouldbe contributors – the Unitarians, to start with – did not wish to give up their high school. This was indeed the only institution of this type for the small Unitarian denomination and it served as a central agency for the preparation of their ecclesiastic body. In case of the unification of their collegium with the other two confessional schools Unitarians saw themselves in an endangered position. The second project was proposed by Károly Szász, professor of the College of Nagyenyed/Aiud, who thought that the university must be set up by the transformation of the Catholic high school in Kolozsvár/Cluj. The new university would operate with the financial support of the state, as had been formerly planned under István Báthory and Maria Theresa. His proposal was favored by the union commission, which, on 16 August 1848, actually proclaimed the promotion of the Roman Catholic high school of Kolozsvár/Cluj 21

Erdélyi Hiradó, Kolozsvár/Cluj, 1848, no. 17 (29 June), p. 65.

21

The University of Kolozsvár/Cluj and the Students of the Medical Faculty

to the rank of a “Scholarly University” (Tudományegyetem), whose functioning was to be regulated after the model of the University of Pest, under the tutelage of the recently instituted Ministry of Public Education of the new 22 Hungarian government. In the same revolutionary year, in the Petiþia naþionalã [National Petition] of Balázsfalva/Blaj, the Transylvanian Romanians also claimed their right to set up a national university, with the financial support of the state. The idea was promoted on 28 December 1848, in a petition addressed 23 to the Emperor. Immediately after the fall of the independentist Magyar government, the Transylvanian Romanians, under the leadership of bishops Andrei ªaguna and Al. Sterca ªuluþiu, demanded, in a petition addressed to the Ministry of Cults in Vienna on the 1 September 1849, the setting up 24 of an Academy of Legal Studies of their own. Further, they also requested the foundation of a Romanian university, since “the nation is short of people who are equipped with the necessary scientific knowledge to fill the 25 political and legal positions that it is entitled to hold.” However, the authorities in Vienna only approved the establishment of a private university, which made bishop ªaguna return with a second petition addressed to the Emperor on 10 April 1850, followed by another, submitted by a delegation headed by the same bishop and addressed to Leo Thun, Minister of Cults, which this time only asked for a Faculty of Legal Studies in Kolozsvár/Cluj. Similar Romanian projects continued to be presented later on as well – without success – with the primary idea of arriving at the creation of an autonomous Romanian institution of higher education for secu26 lar disciplines. 22

23

24

25

26

Cf. László Makkai, “A kolozsvári kir. Ferenc József Tudományegyetem története 1872-1919”, in the volume Erdély Magyar Egyetemei. Az Erdély Egyetemi Gondolat és a M. Kir. Ferenc József Tudományegyetem története, Kolozsvár/Cluj, 1941, pp. 152-153; György Nagy, “Egyetemi gondolat az 1848-as forradalom idején Erdélyben”, in the volume Emlékkönyv Imreh István születésének nyolcvanadik évfordulójára, Kolozsvár, 1999, pp. 348-366. Teodor V. Pãcãþian, Cartea de Aur sau luptele politice naþionale ale românilor de sub coroana ungarã, I, Second edition, Nagyszeben/Sibiu, 1904, pp. 332, 512. Nicolae Albu, “Problema facultãþii juridice pentru românii din Transilvania dupã revoluþia din 1848-1849”, in Studia Universitatis Babeº-Bolyai, Historica series, Cluj, XIII, 1968, fasc. 1, pp. 59-71. Miºcarea naþionalã a românilor din Transilvania între 1849-1918. Documente, I, eds. G. Cipãianu, S. Retegan, D. Suciu, Cluj, Fundaþia Culturalã Românã, 1996, p. 64. Simion Retegan, “Lupta burgheziei române din Transilvania pentru înfiinþarea unei Facultãþi juridice româneºti”, in Anuarul Institutului de istorie din Cluj, X, 1967, pp. 307-316; N. Albu, Problema facultãþii juridice pentru românii din Transilvania dupã revoluþia din 1848-1849, quote; Miºcarea naþionalã a românilor din Transilvania între 1849-1918. Documente, I, quote, pp. 487-488; Cornel Sigmirean, “Efforts to create a Romanian system of higher education in Transylvania (1848-1872)”, in the volume University and Society. A history of

22

University Education and Culture in Kolozsvár/Cluj

After the revolution of 1848 was put down, the issue of starting a university in Kolozsvár/Cluj did not surface publicly for a while. Moreover, during the post-revolutionary absolutist period, the old Law Academies were temporarily forced to introduce German as the language of tuition instead of Latin and Hungarian, each of the academies evolving in a specific way. From 1850 on, the Law Academy of Nagyvárad/Oradea suspended its department of Philosophy, while in Nagyszeben/Sibiu, the Legal Studies course was developed into a Royal Academy of Legal Studies, funded by the state. In the same year, 1851, the Ministry of Education of Vienna decided the setting up of a similar Royal Academy of Legal Studies in Kolozsvár/Cluj too, on condition that the teaching language was German. Starting with 1860, the Austrian politics concerning Hungary and Transylvania started to loosen, and the obligation to use German in higher education was removed. The project of the Kolozsvár/Cluj Law Academy was accomplished in 1863 only, when the Diet of Nagyszeben/Sibiu on 15 June of the same year, provided financial support for it, and the authorities in Vienna agreed that the language of instruction would be Hungarian. From 1868 onward, the institution decided that the curriculum would be extended to four years, so as to allow graduates the pursuit of doctoral studies at 27 any other university. After the Austrian-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 (Ausgleich) and the formal unification of Hungary and Transylvania, it became increasingly obvious that Hungary was far from having enough higher education institutions, and therefore it became imperative to develop and also decentralise the exist28 ing network, hitherto heavily concentrated in Budapest. This latter showed signs of overcrowding, and had difficulty catering for the growing flow of stu29 dents, and appeared to fail to prepare enough specialists for the state. Therefore, by the start of the new constitutional era, the chance seemed realistic to develop another educational pole likely to counterbalance or complement (at least in quantitative terms) the influence of the capital city. On the other hand, the new political, economic and social realities, the subsisting ethnic and social tensions (at that time somewhat latent) in Transylvania, even the rivalries and political conflicts between the centre

27

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29

higher education in Cluj in the 20th Century, edited by Vasile Puºcaº, Cluj, University Press, 1999, pp. 21-37. For a wider context, see S. Retegan, “Delegaþia naþionalã de la Viena din 1850. Contribuþia lui Alexandru Sterca ªuluþiu”, in Anuarul Institutului de istorie Cluj, XXXVII, 1998, pp. 101-126. Cf. S. Mândruþ, “Învãþãmântul universitar juridic ºi agronomic din Transilvania în epoca dualismului austro-ungar”, in Anuarul Institutului de istorie Cluj, XXXII, 1993, pp. 169-178. In fact, the capital city of Budapest was created administratively via the reunion of its three components, Pest, Buda and Óbuda in 1873 only. See Az Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem története, 1635-1985, Budapest, ELTE, 1985, pp. 163-220.

23

The University of Kolozsvár/Cluj and the Students of the Medical Faculty

and the periphery as well as the special status of Transylvania inside Hungary, all converged to claim the setting up of a higher education institution in this part of the would-be nation state, which should be integrated in the state apparatus and capable of developing ideologies promoting national unity. The idea found a particularly dedicated supporter in baron József Eötvös, the prestigious, liberal Minister of Cults and Public Education of Hungary. Of the two locations considered for the new university, Pozsony/Pressburg/Bratislava or Kolozsvár/Cluj, the latter was found to be the ideal place for setting up the establishment. th In the second half of the 19 century, Kolozsvár/Cluj was the biggest town in Transylvania, a region that already had a valuable academic tradition and a valuable past in the promotion of science through predecessors such as István Báthory, Gábor Bethlen, János Apáczai Csere, György Aranka, Gábor Döbrentei, Imre Mikó and others. It was an ethnically and socially rather homogeneous, Magyar dominated settlement (contrary to most sizable townships in the region – or, for that matter, Hungary as a whole), thus lending itself for purposes of symbolic identification as a regional capital of the Hungarian nation state. As concerns religion, the population was divided between the main denominations active in Transylvania. At the 1880 census the town recorded a total population of 32,831 inhabitants, out of whom the Roman Catholics and the Calvinists were almost equal in number (11,127 for the former, 11,071 for the latter); there were also 5,529 Greek Catholics, 1,299 Evangelical Lutherans, 1,010 Greek Orthodox, 1,047 Unitarians, and 1,639 Israelites. The latter were actually almost entirely assimilated Hungarians of the ‘neolog’ (reform) persuasion – though, for political reasons, even ethnic Romanians were willingly considered at that time as “Hungarians of an eastern religion”. As to mother tongue, the census recorded an overwhelming majority of Hungarians (23,676), as compared to 5,618 Romanians and 1,437 30 Germans, the rest being made up of Slovaks, Ruthenians, Serb-Croats, etc. In addition, the town was considered the historic capital of Transylvania, a space that represented a territorial unit with numerous specificities. Besides the fact that it was situated somewhat far from the metropolis, the population 31 of Transylvania had reached 2.15 million. After turning Transylvania into an Austrian province as a result of a diploma issued by Emperor Leopold I, 32 Kolozsvár/Cluj became the provincial capital city – in the administrative seat of which even the university was hosted at the beginning – and in 1786 30

31

32

Recensãmântul din 1880. Transilvania, coord. Traian Rotariu, Cluj, Edit. Staff, 1997, p. 135. (In the context of the current political-administrative realities, the volume processes the data from A Magyar Korona országaiban az 1881. év elején végrehajtott népszámlálás fõbb eredményei megyék és községek szerint részletezve, II, Budapest, 1882). In 1869, 14% of the population of the Kingdom of Hungary (Magyar statisztikai közlemények, vol. 27. p. 7). Guberniu (in Romanian).

24

University Education and Culture in Kolozsvár/Cluj

it became the centre of the county bearing the same name. One of the two 33 Royal District Tables also established its headquarters here. It was a fairly modern town, with imposing edifices, in which the Renaissance and Neo-Renaissance, Baroque, Classical and Neo-Classical styles of architecture achieved an often impressive blend. It was connected to 34 the countrywide railway network and, since 1871, it had gas lighting. Therefore, the town appears to have been historically preempted, in a way, for the seat of the new University, all the more that there was already an institutional nucleus represented by the Law Academy and the Institute of Medicine and Surgery. The University was not only designed to be a centre of scientific development and production, but also an engine of the efficient exploitation of human and spiritual resources of the region. In other words, the University of Kolozsvár/Cluj had to be not only the product, but also the supporter of the modernisation process that had started unfolding in Hungary. In terms of political symbolism, the new University was based on the idea of national emancipation and unity. It was conceived of in the framework of the integration into and harmonisation with Hungary proper of this eastern geographic region of the country, which had been under the direct authority of the Court in Vienna for a century and a half. József Eötvös was probably the first to think coherently about a plan to reform the Hungarian higher education system and he was also known for his efforts for the most efficient integration of Transylvania in the state structure, initiated by the 1867 act. It was not accidental that he paid a lot of attention to the seat of the future university about which, until 1859, he did not know much. This was also the reason why, once in the position of Minister of Cults and Education, he appointed the famous professor Károly 35 Szász of Nagyenyed/Aiud as state secretary, the very personality who, in 1848 already, had developed a university project for Kolozsvár/Cluj. In addition, the strong connections that József Eötvös had with Imre Mikó – looked upon as the “Széchenyi of Transylvania” –, and the similarity between their 36 aspirations were additional sources of his interest in the project. Eötvös

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For further information on this period, see Péter Sas, “Kolozsvár a századfordulón. A hagyományõrzõ, modern nagyváros”, in Mûvelõdés, 50, 1997, no. 10, pp. 40-44. About the town, also see Maria Mirel, “Contribuþii privind dezvoltarea urbanisticã a oraºului Cluj în prima jumãtate a secolului XIX”, in Acta Musei Napocensis, XII, 1975, pp. 301-317; Mircea Þoca, Clujul baroc, Cluj, Edit. Dacia, 1983; Ákos Egyed, “Kolozsvár vonzása és vonzáskörzete a XIX században”, in Korunk, 41, 1982, no. 4, p. 279-286; Károly Kós, “Középkori város – korszerû város”, in Korunk, I, 1990, no. 3, pp. 344-354. Zsigmond Vita, “Szász Károly, a mûszaki értelmiség nevelõje” in Korunk, 42, 1983, no. 8, pp. 653-657. See also József Galántai, Nemzet és kisebbség Eötvös József életmûvében, Budapest, Korona Kiadó, 1995.

25

The University of Kolozsvár/Cluj and the Students of the Medical Faculty

came to Kolozsvár/Cluj for the first time in 1859, as a representative of the Hungarian academy, to attend the inauguration of the Transylvanian Museum Association (Erdélyi Múzeum Egyesület), an organisation that had been planned for a long time to coordinate the scientific and cultural activities of Hungarians in Transylvania, and which was actually destined to an important role in this field. Once back in Budapest, in a plenary session of the Academy, József Eötvös made a presentation of his trip, stating that the fear that Transylvania might want to separate culturally from the rest of 37 Hungary was absolutely unjustified. In fact, the concrete initiative to set up a university in Kolozsvár/Cluj also belonged to professors of the Academy of Legal Studies in town, who were aware of the scholarly backwardness of the old establishments. But the origin of their support also lay in the desire to improve their own professional and social status, since their membership in a university staff would make their position comparable – formally equal – to that of their counterparts in the University of Budapest. The system of “Academies” offered them indeed little hope to play a significant role in the field of specialised scholarship. Lecturers at the Institute of Medicine and Surgery were particularly frustrated as regarded the chance to carry out serious research work, due to the scarcity of available equipment to this effect. In addition, in 1868, a National Commission for Public Healthcare was set up in Budapest, which in 1869 proposed that, in general, courses of gynaecology and surgery should be removed from the curriculum, because they were not adequate to the requirements of the time. Thus, the Institute of Cluj was in an uncertain position, which contributed to the increased state of anxiety of the medical teaching staff in Kolozsvár/Cluj. The movement of intellectual emancipation generated not only corporate actions, but also individual initiatives, including press campaigns and the mobilisation of personal connections with influential circles in Budapest. In this respect the close contact and ideological affinities between Imre Mikó and József Eötvös appear to have been decisive. Subsequent to proposals emanating from professors of the academy of 38 Legal Studies, presented in the speech of Áron Berde, that the Institute of Medicine and the Academy of Legal Studies be changed into university departments, on 8 February 1868, József Eötvös asked the two institutions 39 for concrete suggestions as to their reorganisation. On 24 February, the 37

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György Kristóf, Báró Eötvös József utazásai Erdélyben, Cluj/Kolozsvár, Minerva Irodalmi, 1932, p.15 (in the series “Az Erdélyi Múzeum-Egyesület Kiadása”, no. 42). Also see György Gaál, “Berde Áron pályája a tanügy és tudomány szolgálatában”, in Keresztény magvetõ, Cluj/Kolozsvár, no. 4/1992, pp. 234-260; idem, “Berde Áron, Erdély elsõ közgazdász professzora”, in Az erdélyi magyar gazdasági gondolkodás múltjából (XIX-XX. Század), ed. József Somai, Cluj/Kolozsvár, Romániai magyar közgazdász társaság, 2001, pp. 113-122. Sándor Márki, A M. Kir. Ferenc József Tudományegyetem története 1872-1922, Szeged, 1922, p. 31.

26

University Education and Culture in Kolozsvár/Cluj

government in Budapest discussed the issue and asked for a report on the possible modalities of how to set up a university in Cluj. At the same time, negotiations were held with the Transylvanian Museum Association, founded a decade before, to transfer its patrimony to the university for a period of fifty years, especially its impressive library and scientific collections, including the premises where they were held, so as to provide an infrastructure for a high quality institution of advanced learning. Shortly afterwards, on 2 April 1868, the two existing academies in Kolozsvár/Cluj submitted a memorandum including their proposals to the ministry. The memorandum contained the basic principles to guide the foundation of the new university. In September 1869, during another visit to Transylvania, József Eötvös stayed in Kolozsvár/Cluj for three days, gathering information on issues related to the university, and promised firmly on that occasion to further the project. On 11 May 1870 Eötvös indeed submitted a set of draft laws to the Parliament in Budapest, regarding the reorganisation of higher education in Hungary. Among them was Law no. 429 stipulating the setting up of the University of Kolozsvár/Cluj, justified by the fact that “the most appropriate place for a second university in Hungary is Kolozsvár, which is the social centre of the entirety of Transylvania and the regions which are less well 40 connected to Budapest.” According to the draft law, the University of Kolozsvár/Cluj was to include three faculties, after the German model, the humanities and the sciences belonging to the same ‘Philosophical faculty’. Later on, in 1871, a few intellectuals of Kolozsvár/Cluj published an article entitled “A kolozsvári egyetem mint kultúrai szükséglet” [The University of 41 Cluj as a cultural need], which was sent to all the members of the Budapest Parliament. They intended to reconcile the political elite in the capital with Transylvanian public opinion. Though archive sources are not very informative in this respect, one can talk about the mobilisation of intellectuals in Kolozsvár/Cluj in a genuine pressure group, which took concrete action visà-vis political decision-makers in Budapest. Obviously, this “lobby” would be worth investigating and analysing in detail, in order to decode the messages and mechanisms that permitted the finalisation of the project of the second Hungarian university. Before the parliamentary commission (including 15 members) gave its approval, József Eötvös died and the issue of the second university was postponed for a short time. On 29 May 1872, King Franz Josef I finally authorised

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Apud György Gaál, Egyetem a Farkas utcában. A kolozsvári Ferenc József Tudományegyetem elõzményei, korszakai és vonzatai, Kolozsvár, Erdélyi Magyar Mûszaki Tudományos Társaság, 2001, pp. 40-41. The 70-odd-page volume was written by Ernõ Mátrai and was published in Pest, at the Aigner Lajos Printing House (cf. Cluj/Kolozsvár University Library, no. 92972).

27

The University of Kolozsvár/Cluj and the Students of the Medical Faculty

Tivadar Pauler, the new Minister of Cults and Education, to present the draft 42 law and its budgetary provisions to Parliament. The apparent adjournment could not be blamed on political reservations, but rather on the wish of the government to develop a comprehensive law, in the perspective of a thorough nationwide modernisation of elite training in the whole country, including the University of Budapest. The draft developed by Pauler contained 12 paragraphs, and differed from the previous one by that the University was organised into faculties. Even before the approval of the Parliament, Franz Josef I ordered the organisation of the University. Prime Minister Menyhért Lónyai, accompanied by two other ministers, Tivadar Pauler (education and cults) and Lajos Tisza (communications), came to Kolozsvár/Cluj on 11 June 1872 to prepare the opening of the establishment. They searched for the appropriate building to house the institution, and finally decided on the old seat of the county administration. On this occasion, they publicly announced the availabili43 ty of teaching positions. In parallel, in Budapest, the lobbying for the new university without institutional artifices and hybrid solutions was taking place, invoking, for instance, the feasibility of an older project of János Apáczai Csere – a leading cultural figure of Hungarian Transylvania in the th 44 first half of the 18 century . In the plenary session of the Hungarian Academy on 27 June 1872, Károly Szabó presented Apáczai’s scheme, highlighting the personality of the author, who – through his work – militated for a thorough reform of the educational system and for the university as an urgent issue of his time, “which cannot be delayed any more”. The manner in which the topic was elaborated on at the Academy, the reference to János Apáczai Csere, the description of the obstacles that the document encountered until it was made public (its successive transfer from the collections of the Reformed College of Nagyenyed/Aiud, to Aranka, to Imre Mikó and to the Transylvanian Museum Association), all confirm the resolute support given to the idea of the new university by the dominant Hungarian scholarly estab45 lishment. The task to submit the draft law to the Parliament (17 September 1872) was to be Ágoston Trefort’s, the new Minister of Cults and Public Education, 42

43

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45

A report of the Parliamentary Commission on the draft law to set up the University of Kolozsvár/Cluj was published also in the local newspaper Kelet, Kolozsvár/Cluj, II, 1872, no. 44 (24 February). Publishing the call for applications and listing the vacant positions in Magyar polgár, Kolozsvár/Cluj, VI, 1872, no. 150 (4 July). Ernõ Fábián, Apáczai Csere János. Kismonográfia, Cluj/Kolozsvár, Edit. Dacia, 1975; also see Apáczai Csere János, Magyar Encyclopaedia, including an Introduction and edited by József Szigeti, Bucharest, Edit. Kriterion, 1977. Apáczai Csere János, Barcsai Ákos fejedelemhez benyújtott terve a magyar hazában fölállítandó elsõ tudományos egyetem ügyében, presented by Károly Szabó, Pest, Eggenberger-Féle Akad. Könyvkereskedés (Hoffmann és Molnár), 1872.

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University Education and Culture in Kolozsvár/Cluj

whose name was not only associated to the foundation of the new University, but also to energetic efforts to overcome the hardships inherent in its organisational beginnings. The King promulgated the draft law which was passed by Parliament on 12 October 1872. From this day on, articles XIX and XX of 1872 provided for the existence of a University in Kolozsvár/Cluj – the second modern institution of that sort in Hungary – organised according to the same functional regulations as that of the University in Pest. Shortly afterwards, in 1869, the Croatians also set up an institution of higher education in Zagreb, following the pattern of symbolic self-assertion of new-born east European nation states. It began to operate officially on 19 October 1874, also under the name of “Franz Josef”, the reference to the Emperor representing the loyalty of Croatians (at that time still associated with anti-Hungarian independentism) to the House of Habsburg. But the Zagreb institution remained for long incomplete, lacking a Faculty of Medicine.

The beginnings of the new University Therefore, Law XIX laid the foundations of the University of Kolozsvár/Cluj, according to the principles of liberal education, much along the Prussian-German model, influential in the region. In concrete terms, until the development of specific functional dispositions, the regulations of the Unversity of Pest were applied in Kolozsvár/Cluj, too. From the organisational point of view, the University had the originality of having four faculties, but not exactly the same as in Budapest: Legal and Political Studies, Medicine – including a two-year course of Chemistry –, Philosophy (Letters and History) and Sciences. Thus, unlike in Budapest (and in the traditional German pattern), Theology was absent and the Philosophy faculty was divided into Humanities and Sciences, following in this respect the Napoleonian system of French faculties. The faculties were endowed, as usual, with internal autonomy, headed by annually elected deans, while the whole University was presided by the rector and managed by the University Council with some independence (given the constraints of the state allocated budget). Both the ordinary and the extraordinary (assistant) professors earned an annual salary, while the rest of the staff (consisting essentially of academically qualified ‘private lecturers’ – Privatdozenten) received a stipend depending on the lectures they delivered. Professors were appointed by the King, following the recommendations of the faculty council and the proposals of the Ministry of Cults and Education. Private lecturers gained the right to teach from the same minister, depending on their specialisation, upon proposals made by the faculty. In addition to the Faculty of Philosophy, Letters and History, and that of Mathematics and Sciences, it was decided to establish a Pedagogical Institute 29

The University of Kolozsvár/Cluj and the Students of the Medical Faculty

– relying on the model of Budapest – to train secondary school teachers. On 13 January 1873, János Szamosi was elected as its director, and at the same time the first training course started. However, functioning proper only began in the 1873/4 academic year, with 16 ordinary students, future teachers, each benefiting from a 300-forint grant. Also in 1873, the National Commission was set up for the examination of candidates to secondary teacher’s positions, under the presidency of Sándor Imre, and the first vice-president and later leader of the institution, Ottó Homán. The latter would become one of the prominent personalities of the Hungarian cultural establishment, serving later as general director of the school district in the area of Budapest. The regulations of both the Pedagogical Institute, and the Examination Commission changed several times and the teacher education institution was several times under the threat of dissolution. It was thought that one Pedagogical Institute in Budapest would suffice for the country, so the abolition of the one in Kolozsvár/Cluj was demanded. The problem generated heavy discussions, including in the press, until a ministerial commission came to Kolozsvár/Cluj again in 1874 only to conclude that the functioning of the Institute was satisfactory, and that its dissolution would prejudice the training of future teachers. Despite this, the Institute was faced with financial problems all the time, and until 1918 it was never complete with a gymnasium of pedagogical application (mintagimnázium), like its counterpart in the capital city. Shortly after the adoption of the foundation law, the first 34 ordinary and the 5 extraordinary professors were appointed to the four faculties, as the result of a contest, among 120 applicants. On 19 October 1872, in the hall of the Roman Catholic gymnasium, the professors took their oath and the University formally started its operation in the presence of the royal com46 missioner Imre Mikó. The first rector was a professor of the Faculty of Legal Studies, Áron Berde, who had held the same position at the local Law 47 Academy. The deputy rector was Sámuel Brassai, the famous mathematician, a corresponding member and later full member of the Hungarian Academy. Their investment in their positions took place on 10 November, an event which occasioned ample festivities. 48 The activity of the University began effectively on 11 November 1872 with 258 students. Abroad, the new university was only announced in 1874 46 47

48

Cf. Magyar Polgár, Kolozsvár/Cluj, VI, 1872, no. 242 (22 October). For further information about the two, see Vasárnapi újság, XIX, 1872, pp. 657658 (including their portrait). Also see György Gaál, “Brassai Sámuel és a kolozsvári egyetem”, in Nyelv és irodalomtudományi Közlemények, Cluj/Kolozsvár, 41, 1997, no. 2, pp. 155-169. (Reprinted in György Gaál, Egyetem a Farkas utcában. A kolozsvári Ferenc József Tudományegyetem elõzményei, korszakai és vonzatai, Cluj/Kolozsvár, Erdélyi Magyar Mûszaki Tudományos Társaság, 2001, pp. 179-197). About the festivities and the speeches delivered, see also Magyar Polgár, Kolozsvár/Cluj, VI, 1872, no. 259 (12 November).

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through the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The University of Padova was the first to send its congratulations. The divisions of the university included, as mentioned, four faculties, with a seperation of the humanities and the natural sciences. This arrangement was unknown elsewhere, outside France and – uniquely enough in the German academic market – Tübingen. In the beginning, József Eötvös wanted to open a Faculty of Protestant Theology too, since there had been attempts to attach the Roman Catholic and Greek Catholic Theologies as well to the University. All these endeavours proved to be unsuccessful. The issue of theological preparation of the different confessions was solved differently later. In 1895, a Faculty of Calvinist (Reformed) Theology was set up in Kolozsvár/Cluj as a distinct institution, given the liberal atmosphere of the 49 epoch. At the beginning, as mentioned above, the main building of the University was the old estate seat of Kolozs county. The Faculty of Legal Studies went on to operate for a while in the Catholic Gymnasium, where the Academy of Law had been located before, and the institutes of the Faculty of Medicine were temporarily placed in the building of the Karolina Hospital. For long after its foundation, the Transylvanian university was considered second rate, compared to its counterpart in Budapest. Its establishment was regarded by many as a concession made to the vehement requests of the Magyar political and cultural leaders in Transylvania, or – as István Apáthy th expressed it later at the 40 anniversary of the University – a kind of symbolic 50 “confirmation” of the union of the region with Hungary . It could thus be looked upon by candidates to higher degrees as well as professors as an antichamber of sorts for the University of Budapest. Against such an image, local academics did their best to stand up from the very beginning, as did the rector of the University, Henrik Finály, in his very inaugural speech on 12 October 1874. He stressed the manifold significance of such an establishment 51 and its importance for the development of the region. Thanks to its historically well established academic tradition, the number of its confessional gymnasiums, the private cultural collections from different aristocratic families, the flourishing cultural infrastructure of the town (theatre, museum, publishing houses, press), its architectural patrimony, etc, Kolozsvár/Cluj was far from deserving the label of a merely “provincial university city”. 49

50

51

Géza Nagy, A Kolozsvári Református Theologiai Fakultás története, Cluj/Kolozsvár, Az Erdélyi Református Egyházkerület kiadása, 1995. István Apáthy, “Egyetemeink bajairól és azok orvoslásáról”, in Beszédek, a melyek a kolozsvári M. K. Ferencz József Tudományegyetem alapítása XL évfordulójának ünnepén tartattak (in the series Acta Universitatis Litterarum Regiae Hungaricae, fasc. II), Kolozsvár, Nyomatott Ajtai K. Alebert Könyvnyomdájában, 1912, p. 26. Cf. A kolozsvári magyar királyi Ferencz József Tudomány Egyetem története és statisztikája, Kolozsvár, Ajtai K. Albert Könyvnyomdája, 1896, p. 49.

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The University of Kolozsvár/Cluj and the Students of the Medical Faculty

In spite of all these, at the beginning of the University, the conviction prevailed about its lack of functionality. It was often regarded as a source of unnecessary expenditure (and no income), and this was clearly reflected in the budget allocated to it in the next two decades, a budget falling short of the needs of the new institution. The fact led to the submission of numerous complaints and memoranda, addressed by local professors to the central forums, which led the minister of cults and education Ágoston Trefort (in fact, one of the people having doubts about the usefulness of the University) to admit in Parliament that “the needs of the University of Kolozsvár/Cluj are yet too serious, and the repeated requests, worries and complaints in the 52 memoranda of the professors of Kolozsvár/Cluj are not unfounded.” However, Trefort was much concerned with the least details of the administration of the University, always imposing rigour and order in the good management of funds. First of all, the allocated budget was for mere subsistence, not for development; the University had no premises of its own equipped for its specific educational and scholarly needs, and many of the disciplines offered in the curriculum had not even a specialised staff. Such was the case of important branches like theoretical geography and physics, for example. In the first year, all the faculties had a total of 40 ordinary and extraordinary 53 professors, and 11 assistant professors only. The few local initiatives, as well as the funds supplied by the Town Hall of Kolozsvár/Cluj for awards, or the creation in Szamosújvár/Gherla in November 1873 of two foundations, destined to collect funds in support of the University, etc, all this was far from enough to complement the absence of massive investments requested for an efficient new institution of higher education. Though, legally speaking, the two Hungarian universities were equal in rank, in fact, the government and the ruling elites – both materially and spiritually – favored the metropolitan institution. The press of the time did not abstain from ridiculing the Kolozsvár/Cluj establishment for the scarcity of serious students and the eager claims of its professors for pay raises – as well as the benefit of the official rank of “excellency” (méltóságos úr). Obviously, there were shortcomings in the way the government distributed its subsidies, but the main responsibility for this image lay probably with the Kolozsvár/Cluj staff itself. Some of them saw their position essentially as a 54 means of obtaining a similar one in Budapest, while others were satisfied with the status they had without making notable efforts to enhance the scholarly prestige of the University, all the more that their initial appointment was far from being always grounded on criteria of purely scholarly

52

53

54

L. Makkai, A kolozsvári M. Kir. Ferenc József Tudományegyetem története, 18721919, Budapest, 1942, p. 7 For a critical position concerning the bad management of the University, see Kolozsvári közlöny, 1872, no. 233 and no. 235. From its opening up to 1918 no less than 39 professors moved to Budapest.

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merit. In fact, from this last perspective, the situation did not change much th until the end of the 19 century. Even the local press happened to highlight the lack of normal academic relations among professors and students as masters and disciples – or the “deplorable malfunction” –, a situation generating no intellectual ambitions proper, but the development of partnerships of mutual interest, based on “letters of protection”, the promotion of the professor’s self-image, the sense of recourse to “influential persons” for the pro55 motion of academic careers as a substitute for scholarship. In 1912, István Apáthy summed up his vision of the initial development of the University in a harsh statement. It started its activity with “a sponge and two pieces of chalk”, and its entire evolution was placed under the sign of mistakes made at the outset, so that in the first two decades of its existence the University “stayed at the level of an old gymnasium, i.e. of a provincial Academy of Legal Studies and of a School of Surgery.” The lack of decisive educational reform adapted to modern times, replaced as it was by petty legal stipulations, blocked the chances of a fundamental renovation of the University of Kolozsvár/Cluj, together with the whole system of elite training 56 in Hungary. At the same time, after the enthusiasm of local public opinion at the outset, to have gained for the town the status of a university centre, for a long time the activity of the institution did not raise much interest among rank and file citizens of the town, either. Reading the local press of the last quarth ter of the 19 century, one can find that events linked to the University were seldom presented. “All these prove – an editorial of the Kolozsvári újság stated – that in our town, unfortunately, the University does not hold the place that it should in a healthy national culture, with deep roots.” One of the causes mentioned was the inadequate organisation, from the setting-up of the University, in agreement with the local traditions and specificities, its entire activity having too little to do with the “cultural aspirations” of the epoch, as there was a gap between the retrograde manner of some professors to deal with science, and the social-cultural progress that the society had recorded up to the end of the century. For this reason, the students here always seem disoriented when confronted with various intellectual currents of modernity, and between them and the professors there were, in principal, only “relations of commercial counselling”, in which the diploma – the piece 57 of paper – seems to be the only reason for being a student. However, these were hardships inherent to any beginning, characteristic of any provincial university of the time, which had to overcome not only the complex of marginality, but also economic, social and local political obsta55 56

57

“A tanév vége”, in Kolozsvári újság, I, 1901, no. 45 (20 June), p. 1. István Apáthy, op. cit., p. 14. Also see Kolozsvári Hirlap, XIII, 1912, no. 124 (30 May), pp. 3-4. “Az Egyetem”, in Kolozsvári újság, I, 1901, no. 24 (30 May), p. 1.

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The University of Kolozsvár/Cluj and the Students of the Medical Faculty

cles. Also, the fragility of the University of Kolozsvár/Cluj at its beginnings must not be viewed separately from the fragility of the new state construction of Hungary in the post 1867 years, when the whole society concerned entered in a process of accelerated modernisation, which demanded big investments in a variety of fields. Not accidentally, following massive investments in urbanisation, beginning with the year 1895, significant funds were going to be allocated for the new building of the University and the campus of the medical faculty clinics, the latter receiving the best equipment available at that time. Step by step, the University of Kolozsvár/Cluj would also prove its academic usefulness and assert itself as an academic rival – not an equivalent – of Budapest. Only a decade after its start, the number of students doubled, most of them being of Transylvanian origin. This growth confirmed the success of the young university, in which not many had earlier believed, bringing advantages to the state itself. The tenacity of the staff, the results obtained in structuring the curricula, the increasing number of students, all converged to convince Minister Trefort to give up his intention to move the university to Bratislava. He became, indeed, one of the most enthusiastic supporters of the Transylvanian option. In fact, the state itself began to show th more and more interest for this University at the end of the 19 century – manifested in increased funding –, when intellectual capital and productivity started to play a significant role in the modernisation of Hungarian society. In other words, the changing of the demographic balance of students between Kolozsvár/Cluj and Budapest exerted a real pressure upon governmental decision-makers to invest more in the Kolozsvár/Cluj University. Besides the state authorities, the reformers heading the Ministry of Instruction and Cults, the lobby of local university professors, the influence and the aspirations of the provincial elite (whose offspring made up the bulk of students), played a significant role in the later evolution of the establishment. Discontent with the centralisation of higher education, and the poverty in which this provincial University found itself, preventing it from having a more significant impact in Hungary – and in Transylvania in particular – started to diminish after 1890 with the University gaining more facilities, a guarantee of its further progress. This evolution was due not only to the investments in excellent equipment (quite visible by the end of the century), but more generally to fundamental changes in the Hungarian society. This resulted in the unprecedented growth of demand for elite training since the 1890s – following decades of stagnation, which both ensured and justified 58 educational reforms and new investments. The increasing number of stu58

On the problem of stagnation of the demand for higher education in the 1870s and 1880s, see Victor Karady, “A középiskolai elitképzés elsõ történelmi

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University Education and Culture in Kolozsvár/Cluj