The University of Graz (, formerly: ''Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz'') is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

research university A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are "the key sites of Knowledge production modes, knowledge production", along with "intergenerational ...

located in

Graz Graz () is the capital of the Austrian Federal states of Austria, federal state of Styria and the List of cities and towns in Austria, second-largest city in Austria, after Vienna. On 1 January 2025, Graz had a population of 306,068 (343,461 inc ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. It is the largest and oldest university in

Styria Styria ( ; ; ; ) is an Austrian Federal states of Austria, state in the southeast of the country. With an area of approximately , Styria is Austria's second largest state, after Lower Austria. It is bordered to the south by Slovenia, and cloc ...

, as well as the second-largest and second-oldest university in Austria. The university is associated with numerous Nobel prize laureates and is highly regarded.

History

The university was founded in 1585 by Archduke Charles II of Austria. The bull of 1 January 1586, published on 15 April 1586, was approved by Pope Sixtus V. For most of its existence it was controlled by the Catholic Church, and was closed in 1782 by Emperor Joseph II in an attempt to gain state control over educational institutions. Joseph II transformed it into a ''lyceum'', where civil servants and medical personnel were trained. In 1827 it was re-instituted as a university by Emperor Francis I, thus gaining the name ''Karl-Franzens-Universität'', meaning ''Charles Francis University''. About 30,000 students are currently enrolled at the university.

Academics

The university is divided into six faculties, the two largest are the Faculty of Arts and

Humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...

and the Faculty of

Natural Sciences Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...

. The other faculties are the Faculty of Law; the Faculty of Business, Economic and

Social sciences Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of society, societies and the Social relation, relationships among members within those societies. The term was former ...

; the Faculty of Environmental, Regional and Educational Sciences; and the Faculty of

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

Theology. The Faculty of Medicine was separated from the university by state legislation in 2004 and became an independent university – the Medical University of Graz. The faculties offer a wide range of undergraduate (BA, BSc), graduate (MA, MSc), and doctoral degree (PhD) programmes, as well as special teaching degrees in their specific areas of expertise. Since its re-installation, the university has been home to many internationally renowned scientists and thinkers.

Ludwig Boltzmann Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann ( ; ; 20 February 1844 – 5 September 1906) was an Austrian mathematician and Theoretical physics, theoretical physicist. His greatest achievements were the development of statistical mechanics and the statistical ex ...

was professor at the university twice, first from 1869 to 1873 and then from 1876 to 1890, while he was developing his statistical theory of heat. Nobel laureate

Otto Loewi Otto Loewi (; 3 June 1873 – 25 December 1961) was a Germany, German-born pharmacology, pharmacologist and psychobiologist who discovered the role of acetylcholine as an endogenous neurotransmitter. For this discovery, he was awarded the Nobel ...

taught at the university from 1909 until 1938 and Victor Franz Hess (Nobel prize 1936) graduated in Graz and taught there from 1920 to 1931 and from 1937 to 1938. The physicist

Erwin Schrödinger Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger ( ; ; 12 August 1887 – 4 January 1961), sometimes written as or , was an Austrian-Irish theoretical physicist who developed fundamental results in quantum field theory, quantum theory. In particul ...

briefly was chancellor of the university in 1936. The University of Graz does not have a distinct faculty of engineering, however, Graz University of Technology, which is focused on engineering and technology, offers inter-university undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in cooperation with the university's Faculty of Natural Sciences under the name "NAWI Graz". The main intention behind the cooperation was to avoid duplication of efforts and infrastructure, especially in cost-intensive subjects such as chemistry, industrial chemistry, physics, and geosciences, as both universities are located in close proximity to each other. Students enrolled in one of these programmes attend lectures and seminars at both universities and are awarded a combined degree at the end of their studies. Along with the NAWI collaboration, the university is cooperating with the TU Graz to combine their two physics institutes into one, the Graz Center of Physics. The project is planned to be finished in 2030 and located on the campus of the University of Graz instead of the former Vorklinik. Since Graz was the capital of the then multiethnic

Duchy of Styria The Duchy of Styria (; ; ) was a duchy located in modern-day southern Austria and northern Slovenia. It was a part of the Holy Roman Empire until its dissolution in 1806 and a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary until its dissolution i ...

, Slovenes from Lower Styria came there to study. It has served as a gateway to South-East Europe for Austrian scholars, scientists and businesses. The establishment of the Department for Slovene Language and Literature at the University of Graz, for example, laid the foundation for scholarly studies of Slovenian culture, literature, and language bundled in the so-called Slovene studies.

Organization

The university has 6 faculties. Each of the 6 faculties is in turn divided into institutes and centers: # Faculty of Humanities # Faculty of Catholic theology # Faculty of Natural Sciences #

Faculty of Law A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In North America, academic divisions are sometimes titled colleges, sc ...

# Faculty of Social and economic sciences # Faculty of Environmental, regional and educational sciences ReSoWi UniGraz 3

In addition to the institutes and centers of the 6 faculties, there are other university and cross-faculty service areas: # Center for Digital Teaching and Learning # Center for teaching competence # Center for Pedagog:ic Education # Center for Regional Sciences # Center for Social Competence # Center for Southeast European Studies # the 7th faculty - center for society, knowledge and communication # Doctoral Academy Graz # Habilitation Forum Subject Didactics & Teaching Research # IDea_Lab - The interdisciplinary digital lab of the University of Graz # Confucius Institute # Coordination Office for Gender Studies and Equality # treffpunkt sprachen - Center for Language, Plurilingualism and Subject Didactics # University Museums # Vestigia - Center for the Study of Book and Scripture Heritage # Polar Research Station Sermilik, Greenland

International acclaim

The university ranks highest in Arts and Humanities, coming 287th in the 2018

QS World University Rankings The ''QS World University Rankings'' is a portfolio of comparative college and university rankings compiled by Quacquarelli Symonds, a higher education analytics firm. Its first and earliest edition was published in collaboration with '' Times ...

, whereas all other subject areas lag behind, with the Faculty of Social Sciences ranking at 451–500 and the Faculty of Natural Sciences ranking at 401–450.

Religious affiliation

Historically speaking, for most of its existence the University of Graz was controlled by the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. Even after its re-installation in 1827, it took until 1848 for the university's basic principles to be readjusted in accordance with the ideals of

Wilhelm von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand von Humboldt (22 June 1767 – 8 April 1835) was a German philosopher, linguist, government functionary, diplomat, and founder of the Humboldt University of Berlin. In 1949, the university was named aft ...

and the Enlightenment, meaning that the university became autonomous from the state as well as from the church and their influence as far as possible.History of the University of Graz The Faculty of Catholic Theology has been retained as a part of the university ever since it was established, however, its importance in terms of number of students and its influence on the university board have been diminishing. Evidently, relations between the Catholic Church, especially the local bishop, and the university's Faculty of Theology remain strong, yet general policy is not influenced by these connections. To demonstrate the university's independence and its shift of focus, the

Christogram A Christogram () is a monogram or combination of letters that forms an abbreviation for the name of Jesus Christ, traditionally used as a Christian symbolism, religious symbol within the Christian Church. One of the oldest Christograms is the C ...

IHS on the very top of the university's seal has been replaced with the sun, symbolising the Enlightenment and von Humboldt's ideas.

Nobel prize laureates

Walther Nernst Walther Hermann Nernst (; 25 June 1864 – 18 November 1941) was a German physical chemist known for his work in thermodynamics, physical chemistry, electrochemistry, and solid-state physics. His formulation of the Nernst heat theorem helped ...

, 1920 in chemistry – studied in Graz in 1886 * Fritz Pregl, 1923 in chemistry – in Graz 1913 to 1930 * Julius Wagner von Jauregg, 1927 in medicine – in Graz 1889 to 1893 *

, 1933 in physics – in Graz 1936 to 1938 *

, 1936 in medicine – in Graz 1909 to 1938 * Victor Franz Hess, 1936 in physics – studied in Graz 1893–1906 and taught 1919 to 1931 as well as 1937 to 1938 *

Gerty Cori Gerty Theresa Cori (; August 15, 1896 – October 26, 1957) was a Bohemian-Austrian and American biochemist who in 1947 was the third woman to win a Nobel Prize in science, and the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Me ...

, 1947 in medicine – in Graz before 1922 *

Ivo Andrić Ivo Andrić ( sr-Cyrl, Иво Андрић, ; born Ivan Andrić; 9 October 1892 – 13 March 1975) was a Yugoslav novelist, poet and short story writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1961 Nobel Prize in Literature, 1961. His writ ...

, 1961 in literature – received his doctorate in Graz in 1924 *

Karl von Frisch Karl Ritter von Frisch, (20 November 1886 – 12 June 1982) was a German-Austrian ethology, ethologist who received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1973, along with Nikolaas Tinbergen and Konrad Lorenz. His work centered on investi ...

, 1973 in medicine – in Graz 1946 to 1950 *

Peter Handke Peter Handke (; born 6 December 1942) is an Austrians, Austrian novelist, playwright, translator, poet, film director, and screenwriter. He was awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Literature "for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has ...

, 2019 in literature – studied in Graz 1961–1965

Notable faculty

* Hermann Beitzke, pathologist, professor at Graz (1922–1941) * Leopold Biwald, professor of

Physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

, late 18th century *

, professor of

Mathematical Physics Mathematical physics is the development of mathematics, mathematical methods for application to problems in physics. The ''Journal of Mathematical Physics'' defines the field as "the application of mathematics to problems in physics and the de ...

(1869–1873) and

(1876–1890) *

Ludwig Gumplowicz Ludwig Gumplowicz (9 March 1838 – 19 August 1909) was a Polish sociologist, jurist, historian, and political scientist, who taught constitutional and administrative law at the University of Graz. Gumplowicz was the son of a Jewish carpet an ...

, taught

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal: the process of dealing with or controlling things or people. ** Administrative assistant, traditionally known as a se ...

(1897–1909) * Rudolf von Jaksch, taught

pediatrics Pediatrics (American English) also spelled paediatrics (British English), is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, Adolescence, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, pediatrics covers many o ...

(1887–1899) *

Ernst Mach Ernst Waldfried Josef Wenzel Mach ( ; ; 18 February 1838 – 19 February 1916) was an Austrian physicist and philosopher, who contributed to the understanding of the physics of shock waves. The ratio of the speed of a flow or object to that of ...

, taught mathematics and physics (1864–67) *

Ernst Mally Ernst Mally (; ; 11 October 1879 – 8 March 1944) was an Austrian analytic philosopher, initially affiliated with Alexius Meinong's Graz School of object theory. Mally was one of the founders of deontic logic and is mainly known for his co ...

, philosopher, founder of Deontic logic (1925–1942) *

Alexius Meinong Alexius Meinong von Handschuchsheim (; 17 July 1853 – 27 November 1920) was an Austrian philosopher, a realist known for his unique ontology and theory of objects. He also made contributions to philosophy of mind and theory of value. Lif ...

(1853–1920), philosopher, founder of the Graz School of phenomenological psychology after 1894 * Gustav Meyer, linguist and considered to be one of the founders of Albanology, as a discipline of study, professor since 1881 * Rudolf von Scherer,

religious law Religious law includes ethical and moral codes taught by religious traditions. Examples of religiously derived legal codes include Christian canon law (applicable within a wider theological conception in the church, but in modern times distin ...

professor (1875–1899) * Ludwig Karl Schmarda, founder of the school's Zoological Museum (circa 1851) * Roland Scholl, chemist, professor at the university for some time between 1907 and 1914 *

Joseph Schumpeter Joseph Alois Schumpeter (; February 8, 1883 – January 8, 1950) was an Austrian political economist. He served briefly as Finance Minister of Austria in 1919. In 1932, he emigrated to the United States to become a professor at Harvard Unive ...

, economist, later teaching at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, in Graz (1912–1914) * Anton Wassmuth, professor of

theoretical physics Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain, and predict List of natural phenomena, natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental p ...

(1893–1914) * Alfred Wegener, father of the

continental drift Continental drift is a highly supported scientific theory, originating in the early 20th century, that Earth's continents move or drift relative to each other over geologic time. The theory of continental drift has since been validated and inc ...

theory, professor of

Geophysics Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and Physical property, properties of Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. Geophysicists conduct i ...

(1924–1930) * Gustava Aigner (1906–1987), Austrian geologist and palaeontologist

Notable alumni

, Yugoslav writer and Nobel Prize laureate * Lasgush Poradeci, Albanian philologist, poet and writer * Gabriel Anton, Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist *

Count Anton Alexander von Auersperg Count Anton Alexander von Auersperg, also known under the name Anastasius Grün (11 April 180612 September 1876), was an Austrian poet and liberal politician from Carniola, a former Habsburg crown land in today's Slovenia. Early life He was bor ...

, Austrian poet and politician * Milko Brezigar, Yugoslav economist * Safet Butka, Albanian politician * Izidor Cankar, Slovenian art historian and Yugoslav diplomat * Etbin Henrik Costa, Slovenian politician * Katharina Dobler, Austrian folklorist * Hellmut Fischmeister, Austrian chemist * Monika Fludernik, Austrian literary scholar * Karl Gurakuqi, Albanian linguist and folklorist * Juraj Habdelić, Croatian writer * Emil Johann Lambert Heinricher, Austrian botanist * Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens,

Archbishop of Athens The Archbishopric of Athens () is a Greek Orthodox archiepiscopal see based in the city of Athens, Greece. It is the senior see of Greece, and the seat of the autocephalous Church of Greece. Its incumbent (since 2008) is Ieronymos II of Athens. ...

Ernst Kaltenbrunner Ernst Kaltenbrunner (4 October 1903 – 16 October 1946) was an Austrian high-ranking SS official during the Nazi era, major perpetrator of the Holocaust and convicted war criminal. After the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in 1942, and a ...

, Austrian-born senior SS official of Nazi Germany, executed for war crimes * Janko Kersnik, Slovenian writer * Ferdinand Konščak, Croatian Jesuit missionary and cartographer * Karel Lavrič, Slovenian politician * Leo Leixner, war correspondent *

Franz Miklosich Franz Miklosich (, also known in Slovene as ; 20 November 1813 – 7 March 1891) was a Slovenian philologist and rector of the University of Vienna. Early life Miklosich was born in the small village of Radomerščak near the Lower Styrian town ...

, Austrian-Slovenian linguist * Heinz Oberhummer, Austrian physicist * İbrahim Saraçoğlu, Turkish biochemist * Vladimir Šubic, Slovenian architect *

Lovro Toman Lovro Toman (10 August 1827 – 15 August 1870) was a Slovenes, Slovene Romantic nationalist revolutionary activist during the Revolution of 1848, known as the person who in Ljubljana, at the Wolf Street (Ljubljana), Wolf Street 8, raised the Sl ...

, Slovenian politician * Petina Gappah, author and International lawyer * Franz Unger, Austrian paleontologist * Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Austro-Ukrainian journalist and writer of Masochism * Gregory Weeks, jurist and historian * Milan Zver, Slovenian sociologist and politician * Heinrich Harrer, Austrian mountaineer, sportsman, geographer, and author.

References

Further studies

* * Clary, David C. (2022)
''Schrödinger in Oxford''
World Scientific Publishing. .

External links

*
Video portrait of University of Graz

Institute of Geography and Regional Science – Karl-Franzens University Graz

Centre for Southeast European Studies- Karl-Franzens University Graz

– History from the

Catholic Encyclopedia ''The'' ''Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church'', also referred to as the ''Old Catholic Encyclopedia'' and the ''Original Catholic Encyclopedi ...

Pictures from Graz
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