Main Topics

In its 650 years of history various traditions have developed and were used for representational purposes at the University of Vienna. Apart from old traditions that date back to the Middle Ages such as the university’s insignia, this includes monuments which have especially shaped the University of Vienna’s Main Building with the arcaded courtyard as a memorial to Austrian scientific history. Some of these monuments have remained topics of public discussion until today. Academic celebrations – including anniversaries of the foundation of the university – and tributes to laureates can ...Read more

The university’s accommodations were already considered at its foundation in 1365: A whole neighborhood inside the city walls, called “Pfaffenstadt” (priest city) was reserved for the university. This ambitious plan could not be realized, however. With the Duke’s College (collegium ducale), the university received its own building inside the city as late as 1385. It was located near the Stubentor, where partially newly built, partially purchased buildings were soon added. In the 17th century the Society of Jesus replaced it with a completely new, large university complex: the Academic College. ...Read more

In its beginnings, the university was a legally privileged association of people, the “ universitas magistrorum et scholarium ” (community of teachers and students). The egalitarian ideal represented in this term was never really fulfilled. Instead, the university was a differentiated organism of individuals and groups who were distinguished by age, graduation, status, gender, affiliation to various university bodies and other criteria. They have influenced the history of the University of Vienna in so many ways in the past 650 years that only select examples can be presented.Read more