Charles University in Prague (also simply
Charles University; ; ; ) is the oldest and largest
universityA university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
in the Czech Republic. Founded in 1347, it was the first university in the
Holy Roman EmpireThe Holy Roman Empire was a union of territories in Central Europe during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period under a Holy Roman Emperor. The first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire was Otto I, crowned in 962. The last was Francis II, who abdicated and dissolved the Empire in 1806 during...
and in
Central EuropeCentral Europe is the region lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe. The term and widespread interest in the region itself came back into fashion after the end of the Cold War, which, along with the Iron Curtain, had divided Europe politically into East and West,...
in general. It is one of the
oldest universities in Europe.
Its seal shows its
protectorProtector, sometimes spelled protecter, is used as a title or part of various historical titles of heads of state and others in authority...
,
Emperor Charles IVCharles IV , born Wenceslaus , was the second king of Bohemia from the House of Luxembourg, and Holy Roman Emperor....
, with his coats of arms as
King of the RomansKing of the Romans was the title used by the elected ruler of the Holy Roman Empire, the Imperator futurus prior to his imperial coronation performed by the Pope, King of the Romans was the title used by the elected ruler of the Holy Roman Empire, the Imperator futurus ("Emperor to-be"—...
and King of Bohemia kneeling in front of St. Wenceslas, the
patron saintA patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, or person. Patron saints, because they have already transcended to the metaphysical, are able to intercede effectively for the needs of their special charges...
of
BohemiaBohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands, currently the Czech Republic...
. It is surrounded by the inscription,
Sigillum Universitatis Scolarium Studii Pragensis .
According to the recent
Academic Ranking of World UniversitiesThe Academic Ranking of World Universities is compiled by Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The ranking compared 1200 higher education institutions worldwide according to a formula that took into account alumni winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals , staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals ,...
by
Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityShanghai Jiao Tong University , located in Shanghai, is one of the oldest and most influential universities in China...
, it ranked as the leading university in the Czech Republic and the second one in
CentralCentral Europe is the region lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe. The term and widespread interest in the region itself came back into fashion after the end of the Cold War, which, along with the Iron Curtain, had divided Europe politically into East and West,...
and
Eastern EuropeEastern Europe is a region lying in the Eastern part of Europe. The term is highly context-dependent and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
after the Moscow University.
Medieval university (1349–1419)
The establishment of a
medieval universityMedieval university is an institution of higher learning which was established during High Middle Ages period and is a corporation.The first European medieval institutions generally considered to be universities were established in Italy, France, and England in the late 11th and the 12th centuries...
in
PraguePrague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Nicknames for Prague have included "the mother of cities" , "city of a hundred spires", or Stověžatá Praha in Czech and "the golden city" or Zlaté město in Czech.Situated on the River Vltava in central Bohemia, Prague has been the...
was inspired by
Charles of LuxembourgCharles IV , born Wenceslaus , was the second king of Bohemia from the House of Luxembourg, and Holy Roman Emperor....
. He asked his friend and ally,
Pope Clement VIPope Clement VI , bornPierre Roger, the fourth of the Avignon Popes, was pope from May 1342 until his death.-Biography:...
, to do so. On 26 January 1347 the pope issued the bull establishing a university in Prague, modeled on the
University of ParisThe historic University of Paris was founded in the mid 12th century, likely between 1160 and 1170 , In 1970 it was reorganized as 13 autonomous universities...
, with the full (4) number of
facultiesA faculty is a division within a university comprising one subject area, or a number of related subject areas...
, that is including theological. On 7 April 1348 Charles, the king of Bohemia, gave to the established university privileges and immunities from the secular power in a
Golden BullA Golden Bull or chrysobull was a golden ornament representing a seal , attached to a decree issued by Byzantine Emperors and later by monarchs in Europe during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The term was originally coined for the golden seal itself but came to be applied to the entire decree...
and on 14 January 1349 he repeated that as the
King of the RomansKing of the Romans was the title used by the elected ruler of the Holy Roman Empire, the Imperator futurus prior to his imperial coronation performed by the Pope, King of the Romans was the title used by the elected ruler of the Holy Roman Empire, the Imperator futurus ("Emperor to-be"—...
. Most Czech sources since the 19th century—encyclopedias, general histories, materials of the University itself—prefer to give 1348 as the year of the founding of the university, rather than 1347 or 1349. This was caused by an anticlerical shift in the 19th century, shared by both Czechs and Germans.
The university was actually opened in 1349. The university was sectioned into parts called
nationsA nation are regional corporations of students at university, once widespread across central and northern Europe in medieval times, they are now largely restricted to the two ancient universities of Sweden. The students, who were all born within the same region, usually spoke the same language,...
: the
BohemiaBohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands, currently the Czech Republic...
n,
BavariaBavaria , with an area of and almost 12.5 million inhabitants, is located in the southeast of Germany and is the largest state of Germany by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
n, Polish and
SaxonThe Free State of Saxony is a federal state of Germany, located in the southeastern part of present-day Germany. It is the tenth-largest German state in area and the sixth largest in population , of Germany's sixteen states.Long in the heart of German-speaking Europe, Saxony became one of the new...
. The Bohemian
natio included Bohemians, Moravians, southern Slavs, and Hungarians; the Bavarian included Austrians,
SwabiaSwabia, Suabia, or Svebia is both a historic and linguistic region in Germany. Swabia consists of much of the present-day state of Baden-Württemberg , as well as the Bavarian administrative region of Swabia...
ns, natives of
FranconiaFranconia is a region of Germany comprising the northern parts of the modern state of Bavaria, a part of southern Thuringia, and a much smaller region in northeastern Baden-Württemberg called Heilbronn-Franken...
and of the Rhine provinces; the Polish included
SilesiaSilesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in present-day Poland, with parts in the Czech Republic and Germany....
ns, Poles, Russians; the Saxon included inhabitants of the Margravate of Meissen,
ThuringiaThe Free State of Thuringia is located in central Germany. It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen
Bundesländer...
, Upper and Lower Saxony, Denmark, and Sweden. Ethnically Czech students made 16 – 20 % of all students. Archbishop
Arnošt of PardubiceArnošt of Pardubice was the first Archbishop of Prague. He was also an advisor and diplomat to Emperor Charles IV.Ernst inherited the town of Pardubice in 1340...
took an active part in the foundation by obliging the clergy to contribute and became a
chancellorChancellor is the title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the Cancellarii of Roman courts of justice—ushers who sat at the cancelli or lattice work screens of a basilica or law court, which separated the judge and counsel from the...
of the university (i. e. director or manager).
The first graduate was promoted in 1359. The lectures were held in the colleges, of which the oldest was named for the king the
Carolinum, established in 1366. In 1372 the Faculty of Law became an independent university.
In 1402
Jerome of PragueJerome of Prague was one of the chief followers and most devoted friends of John Hus. He was born in Prague to a wealthy family; after taking his bachelor's degree at the University of Prague in 1398, he secured in 1399 permission to travel...
in
OxfordOxford is a city, and the county town of Oxfordshire, in South East England. The city has a population of just under 165,000, with 151,000 living within the district boundary. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through Oxford and meet south of the city centre...
copied out the
Dialogus and
Trialogus of
John WycliffeJohn Wycliffe was an English theologian, lay preacher, translator, reformist and university teacher who was known as early dissident in the Roman Catholic Church during the 14th century...
. The dean of the philosophical faculty,
Jan HusJan Hus aka Jan Huss, John Hus, John Huss , often referred to in English as John Huss or variations thereof, was a Czech Catholic priest, philosopher, reformer, and master at Charles University in Prague.He is famed for having been burned at the stake for what the Roman Catholic Church considered...
, translated
Trialogus into the
Czech languageCzech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. Czech is similar to and mutually intelligible with Slovak and, to a lesser extent, to Polish and Sorbian. - Official status :Czech is widely...
. In 1403 the university forbade its members to follow the teachings of Wycliffe, but his doctrine continued to gain in popularity.
In
Western SchismThe Great Schism of Western Christianity or Papal Schism was a split within the Roman Catholic Church from 1378 to 1417. By its end, three men simultaneously claimed to be the true pope. Driven by politics rather than any real theological disagreement, the schism was ended by the Council of...
, the Bohemian
natio took the side of king Wenceslaus and supported the
Council of PisaThe Council of Pisa was an unrecognized ecumenical conference of the Roman Catholic Church held in 1409 that attempted to end the Western Schism by deposing Benedict XIII and Gregory XII...
(1409). The other
nationes of the university declared their support for the side of
Pope Gregory XIIPope Gregory XII , born Angelo Correr or Corraro, Pope from 1406 to 1415, succeeded Pope Innocent VII on November 30, 1406....
, thus the vote was 1:3 against the Bohemians. Hus and other Bohemians, though, took advantage of Wenceslaus' opposition to Gregory. By the
Decree of Kutná HoraThe Decree of Kutná Hora or Decree of Kuttenberg was issued in Kutná Hora, Bohemia, by King Wenceslas IV to give members of the Bohemian university nation a decisive voice in the affairs of the Charles University in Prague....
on 18 January 1409, the king subverted the university constitution by granting the Bohemian masters three votes. Only a single vote was left for all other three
nationes combined, compared to one vote per each
natio before. The result of this
coup was the emigration of foreign (mostly German) professors and students, founding the
University of LeipzigThe University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in Europe and the second-oldest university in Germany...
in May 1409. Before that, in 1408, the university had about 200 doctors and magisters, 500 bachelors, and 30,000 students; it now lost a large part of this number, accounts of the loss varying from 5000 to 20,000 including 46 professors. In the autumn of 1409, Hus was elected rector of the now Czech-dominated university.
Thus, the Prague university lost the largest part of its students and faculty. From then on the university declined to a merely regional institution with a very low status. Soon, in 1419, the faculties of theology and law disappeared, and only the faculty of arts remained in existence.
Protestant academy (1419–1622)
The faculty of arts became a centre of the
HussiteThe Hussites were a Christian movement following the teachings of Czech reformer Jan Huss , who became one of the forerunners of the Protestant Reformation...
movement, and the chief doctrinal authority of the Utraquists. No degrees were given in the years 1417–30; at times there were only eight or nine professors. Emperor
SigismundSigismund was one of the longest ruling Kings of Hungary, reigning for fifty years from 1387 to 1437, and was also Holy Roman Emperor for four years from 1433 until 1437, and the last Emperor of the House of Luxemburg. He was also King of Bohemia from 1419, of Lombardia from 1431, and of Germany...
, son of Charles IV, took what was left into his personal property and some progress was made. The emperor Ferdinand I called the Jesuits to Prague and in 1562 they opened an academy—the
ClementinumThe Clementinum is a historical complex of buildings in Prague. It is currently in use as the National Library of the Czech Republic....
. From 1541 till 1558 the Czech humanist Mattheus Collinus (1516–1566) was a professor of Greek language. Some progress was made again when the emperor
Rudolph IIRudolf II , Holy Roman Emperor as Rudolf II , King of Hungary as Rudolf , King of Bohemia as Rudolf II and Archduke of Austria as Rudolf V...
took up residence in Prague. In 1609 the obligatory celibacy of the professors was abolished. In 1616 the Jesuit Academy became a university. (It could award academic degrees.)
Jesuits were expelled 1618–1621 during the early stages of the
Thirty Years' WarThe Thirty Years' War was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history. The war was fought primarily in Germany and at various points involved most of the countries of Europe...
, which was started in Prague by anti-Catholic and anti-Imperial Bohemians. By 1622 the Jesuits had a predominant influence over the emperor. An Imperial decree of 19 September 1622 gave the Jesuits supreme control over the entire school system of Bohemia,
MoraviaMoravia is a historical region in central Europe in the east of the Czech Republic, one of the former Czech lands. It takes its name from the Morava River which rises in the northwest of the region.-Geography:...
and
SilesiaSilesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in present-day Poland, with parts in the Czech Republic and Germany....
. The last four professors at the Carolinum resigned and all of the Carolinum and nine colleges went to the Jesuits. The right of handing out degrees, of holding chancellorships and of appointing the secular professors was also granted to the Jesuits.
Charles-Ferdinand University (1622–1882)
Cardinal Ernst Adalbert von Harrach actively opposed union of the university with another institution and the withdrawal of the archiepiscopal right to the chancellorship and prevented the drawing up of the Golden Bull for the confirmation of the grant to Jesuits. Cardinal Ernst funded the
Collegium Adalbertinum and in 1638 emperor
Ferdinand IIIFerdinand III was Holy Roman Emperor 15 February 1637 – 1657. King of Hungary, King of Bohemia, Archduke of Austria, King of the Romans.-Life:...
limited the teaching monopoly enjoyed by the Jesuits. He took from them the rights, properties and archives of the Carolinum making the university once more independent under an imperial protector. During the last years of the
Thirty Years' WarThe Thirty Years' War was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history. The war was fought primarily in Germany and at various points involved most of the countries of Europe...
the
Charles BridgeThe Charles Bridge is a famous historical bridge that crosses the Vltava river in Prague, Czech Republic. Absolute Location: . Its construction started in 1357 under the auspices of King Charles IV, and finished in the beginning of the 15th century...
in Prague was courageously defended by students of the Carolinum and
ClementinumThe Clementinum is a historical complex of buildings in Prague. It is currently in use as the National Library of the Czech Republic....
. Since 1650 those who received any degrees took an oath to maintain the
Immaculate ConceptionThe Immaculate Conception is, according to Roman Catholic Dogma, the conception of the Virgin Mary without any stain of original sin. Under this aspect Mary is sometimes called the Immaculata , particularly in artistic contexts...
of the Blessed Virgin, renewed annually.
On 23 February 1654 emperor
Ferdinand IIIFerdinand III was Holy Roman Emperor 15 February 1637 – 1657. King of Hungary, King of Bohemia, Archduke of Austria, King of the Romans.-Life:...
merged
Carolinum and
Clementinum and created a single university with four faculties—Charles-Ferdinand University.
Carolinum had at that time only the faculty of arts, as the only faculty surviving the period of the
Hussite WarsThe Hussite Wars, also called the Bohemian Wars involved the military actions against and amongst the followers of Jan Hus in Bohemia in the period 1420 to circa 1434. The Hussite Wars were arguably the first European war in which hand-held gunpowder weapons such as hand cannons made a decisive...
. Starting from this time the university designated itself Charles-Ferdinand University (
Universitas Carolo Ferdinandea). The dilapidated Carolinum was rebuilt in 1718 at the expense of the state.
The rebuilding and the bureaucratic reforms of universities in the
Habsburg monarchyThe Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The capital was mainly Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when the capital was Prague...
in 1752 and 1754 deprived the university of many of its former privileges. In 1757 a Dominican and an Augustinian were appointed to give theological instruction. However, there was a gradual introduction of enlightened reforms, and this process culminated at the end of the century when even non-Catholics were granted the right to study. On 29 July 1784 German replaced Latin as the language of instruction. For the first time Protestants were allowed, and soon after Jews. The university acknowledged the need of a Czech language and literature chair. Emperor
Leopold IILeopold II , born Peter Leopold Joseph Anton Joachim Pius Gotthard, was Holy Roman Emperor from 1790 to 1792, King of Hungary, archduke of Austria, and Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1765 to 1790. He was a son of Emperor Francis I and his wife, Empress Maria Theresa...
established it by a courtly decree on 28 October 1791. On 15 May 1792 Franz Martin Pelzel (1734–1801) was named the professor of the chair. He started his lectures on 13 March 1793.
In the revolution of 1848, German and Czech students fought for the addition of the Czech language at the Charles-Ferdinand University as a language of lectures. Due to the demographic changes of the 19th century, Prague ceased to have a German-language majority around 1860. By 1863, 22 lecture courses were held in Czech, the remainder (out of 187) in German. In 1864, Germans suggested the creation of a separate Czech university. Czech professors rejected this because they did not wish to lose the continuity of university traditions.
Split into Czech and German universities
The Czechs were not satisfied with bilingual status and proposed restitution of
nationes, but on ethnic principle: German and Czech. Germans vetoed it and proposed a split of the University. After long negotiations the Carolo-Ferdinandea was divided into a German Charles-Ferdinand University and a Czech Charles-Ferdinand University when the Viennese parliament adopted the act and the emperor sanctioned it on 28 February 1882. Each section was entirely independent of the other and enjoyed the same status. The two universities shared medical and scientific institutes, the old insignia, aula, library, and botanical garden, but common facilities were administrated by the German University. The first rector of the Czech University became Václav Vladivoj Tomek.
In 1890 Royal and Imperial Czech Charles Ferdinand University had 112 teachers and 2,191 students and the Royal and Imperial German Charles Ferdinand University had 146 teachers and 1,483 students. Both universities had three faculties and the Theological Faculty remained the common until 1891 when it was divided as well. In the winter semester of 1909-10 the German Charles-Ferdinand University (
Karl-Ferdinands Universität) had 1778 students; these were divided into: 58 theological students, for both the secular priesthood and religious orders; 755 law students; 376 medical; 589 philosophical. Among the students were about 80 women. The professors were divided as follows: theology, 7 regular professors, 1 assistant professor, 1 docent; law, 12 regular professors, 2 assistant professors, 4 docents; medicine, 15 regular professors, 19 assistant, 30 docents; philosophy, 30 regular professors, 8 assistant, 19 docents, 7 lecturers. The Czech Charles-Ferdinand University (
Universita Karlo-Ferdinandova) in the winter semester of 1909-10 included 4319 students; of these 131 were theological students belonging both to the secular and regular clergy; 1962 law students; 687 medical; 1539 philosophical; 256 students were women. The professors were divided as follows: theological faculty, 8 regular professors, 2 docents; law, 12 regular, 7 assistant professors, 12 docents; medicine, 16 regular professors, 22 assistant, 24 docents; philosophy, 29 regular, 16 assistant, 35 docents, 11 lecturers.
The highpoint of the German University was the era preceding the First World War, when it was home to world-renowned scientists such as physicist and philosopher
Ernst MachErnst Mach was an Austrian physicist and philosopher, remembered for his contributions to physics such as the Mach number and the study of shock waves...
, Moritz Winternitz,
Albert EinsteinAlbert Einstein was a theoretical physicist. His many contributions to physics include the special and general theories of relativity, the founding of relativistic cosmology, the first post-Newtonian expansion, explaining the perihelion advance of Mercury, prediction of the deflection of...
. In addition, the German-language students included prominent individuals such as future writers
Max BrodMax Brod was an Czech-Jewish author, composer, and journalist, known for his close friendship with Franz Kafka.- Biography :...
,
Franz KafkaFranz Kafka was a major fiction writer of the 20th century. He was born to a middle-class German-speaking Jewish family in Prague, Bohemia , Austria–Hungary...
, and
Johannes UrzidilJohannes Urzidil was a Czech-German writer, poet, historian, and journalist. Born in Prague, he died in Rome....
.
Even before the Austro-Hungarian Empire was abolished in late 1918, to be succeeded by
CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
, Czech politicians demanded that the insignia of 1348 were exclusively to be kept by the Czech university. The
Act No. 197/1919 Sb. z. a n. established the Protestant theological faculty, but not as a part of the Charles University which is since 10 May 1990 Charles University faculty. In 1920 the so-called
Lex Mareš (No. 135/1920 Sb. z. a n.) was issued, named for its initiator professor of physiology
František MarešFrantišek Mareš was a Czechoslovak professor of physiology and philosophy, and nationalist politician. He was rector of the Charles University in 1920-21, and member of the National Democrats.-Life:...
, determining that the Czech university was to be the successor to the original university. Dropping the Habsburg name
Ferdinand, it designated itself Charles University, while the German university was not named.
In 1921 the Germans considered moving their university to
LiberecLiberec is a city in the Czech Republic. Located on the Lusatian Neisse and surrounded by the Jizera Mountains and Ještěd-Kozákov Ridge, it is the sixth-largest city in the Czech Republic....
in northern Bohemia. In 1930, about 42,000 inhabitants of Prague were speaking German as their native language, while millions lived in northern Bohemia near the border to Germany.
In October 1932, after Naegle's death, the Czechs started again a controversy over the insignia. Ethnic tensions intensified, although some professors of the German University were members of the Czechoslovak government. Any agreement to use the insignia for both the universities was rejected. On 21 November 1934, the German University had to hand over the
insigniae to the Czechs. The German University senate sent a delegation to Minister of Education Krčmář to protest the writ. At noon on 24 November 1934 several thousand students of the Czech University protested before the German university building. The Czech rector
Karel DominKarel Domin was a Czech botanist and politician.After gymnasium school studies in Příbram, he studied botany at the Charles University in Prague, and graduated in 1906. In 1916 he was named as professor of botany. Domin specialised in phytogeography, geobotany and plant taxonomy...
gave a speech to urge the crowd to attack, while the outnumbered German students tried to resist. Under the threat of violence, on 25 November 1934 rector Otto Grosser (1873–1951) handed over the
insigniae. These troubles of 1934 harmed relationship between the two universities and ethnics.
The tides turned in 1938, when following the
Munich agreementThe Munich Agreement was an agreement permitting German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The Sudetenland were areas along borders of Czechoslovakia, mainly inhabited by Czech Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe...
, German troops entered the border areas of Czechoslovakia (the so-called
SudetenlandSudetenland is the German name used in English in the first half of the 20th century for the western regions of Czechoslovakia inhabited mostly by ethnic Germans, specifically the border areas of Bohemia, Moravia, and those parts of Silesia associated with Bohemia.The name is derived from the...
), as did Polish and Hungarian troops elsewhere. On 15 March 1939 Germans forced Czecho-Slovakia to split apart and the Czech lands were occupied by Nazis as the
Protectorate of Bohemia and MoraviaThe Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was the majority ethnic-Czech protectorate which Nazi Germany established in the central parts of Bohemia, Moravia and Czech Silesia in what is today the Czech Republic...
.
Reichsprotektor Konstantin von NeurathKonstantin Freiherr von Neurath was a German diplomat, Foreign Minister of Germany and Reichsprotektor of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia . Neurath remained titular Protector until 1943.- Early life :He was born in Vaihingen an der Enz, Kingdom of Württemberg, the son of minor Swabian...
handed the historical
insigniae to the German University which was officially named as
Deutsche Karls-Universität in Prag. Since 1 September 1939 the German University was subordinated to the Reichsministry of Education in Berlin and on 4 November 1939 it was proclaimed to be
Reichsuniversität.
On 28 October 1939 during a demonstration,
Jan OpletalJan Opletal was a student of the Medical Faculty of the Charles University in Prague, who was killed in an anti-Nazi demonstration during the German occupation....
was shot. His burial on 15 November 1939 became a demonstration as well. On 17 November 1939 the Czech University and all other Czech higher-education institutions were closed for 3 years, but remained closed until the end of the War. Nine student leaders were executed and about 1,200 Czech students were interned in
SachsenhausenSachsenhausen or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used primarily for political prisoners from 1936 to the end of the Third Reich in May, 1945. After World War II, when Oranienburg was in the Soviet Occupation Zone, the structure was used as an NKVD...
and not released until 1943. About 20 or 35 interned students died in the camp.
The World War II marks the end of the coexistence of the two universities in Prague. The remainders of the German University transferred to
MunichMunich is the capital city of Bavaria, Germany. It is located on the River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg...
and continues its existence as
Collegium CarolinumCollegium Carolinum may refer to* the historic building of the Charles University in Prague* TU Braunschweig in Germany was founded in 1745 as Collegium Carolinum* a former scientific society in Kassel, founded 1709...
.
Present-day university (since 1945)
Although the university began to recover rapidly after 1945, it did not enjoy
academic freedomAcademic freedom is the belief that the freedom of inquiry by students and faculty members is essential to the mission of the academy, and that scholars should have freedom to teach or communicate ideas or facts without being targeted for repression, job loss, or imprisonment.Still, academic freedom...
for long. After the communist coup in 1948, the new regime started to arrange purges and repress all forms of disagreement with the official ideology, and continued to do so for the next four decades, with the second wave of purges during the "
normalizationIn the history of Czechoslovakia, normalization is a name commonly given to the period 1969 to about 1987. It was characterized by initial restoration of the conditions prevailing before the reform period led by Alexander Dubček and subsequent preservation of this new status quo...
" period in the beginning of the 1970s. Only in the late 1980s did the situation start to improve; students organized various activities and several peaceful demonstrations in the wake of the
Revolutions of 1989The Revolutions of 1989, sometimes called the Autumn of Nations, were a revolutionary wave that swept across Central and Eastern Europe in late 1989, ending in the overthrow of Soviet-style communist states within the space of a few months....
abroad. This initiated the "
Velvet revolutionThe Velvet Revolution or Gentle Revolution was a non-violent revolution in Czechoslovakia that saw the overthrow of the Communist government. It is seen as one of the most important of the Revolutions of 1989.On November 17, 1989, a Friday, riot police suppressed a peaceful student demonstration...
" in 1989, in which both students and faculty of the university played a large role.
Václav HavelVáclav Havel is a Czech playwright, essayist, former dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic . He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally...
—a writer, dramatist and philosopher—was recruited from the independent academic community and appointed president of the republic in December 1989.
Organisation
Today, Charles University comprises 17 faculties:
- Faculty of Liberal arts
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned...
- Faculty of Law
Law is a system of rules, usually enforced through a set of institutions. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a primary social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus ticket to trading on derivatives markets...
- 1st Faculty of Medicine
Medicine is the art and science of healing. It encompasses a range of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
- 2nd Faculty of Medicine
- 3rd Faculty of Medicine
- Catholic
The word Catholic is derived from the Greek adjective , meaning "universal". In the context of Christian ecclesiology, it has a rich history and several usages. For some, the term "Catholic Church" refers to the church in full communion with the Bishop of Rome, made up of the Latin Rite and the 22...
Theological Faculty
- Evangelical
The Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren , was formed in 1918 in Czechoslovakia through the unification of the Protestant churches of the Lutheran and Reformed confessions...
Theological Faculty
- Hussite
The Czechoslovak Hussite Church is a Christian Church which separated from the Roman Catholic Church after World War I in former Czechoslovakia. It traces its tradition back to the Hussite reformers and acknowledges Jan Hus as its predecessor...
Theological Faculty
- Faculty of Science
Science is in its broadest sense to any systematic knowledge-base or prescriptive practice that is capable of resulting in a prediction or predictable type of outcome...
- Faculty of Mathematics
Mathematics is the science and study of quantity, structure, space, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns, formulate new conjectures, and establish truth by rigorous deduction from appropriately chosen axioms and definitions....
and PhysicsPhysics is a natural science; it is the study of matter and its motion through spacetime and all that derives from these, such as energy and force...
- Faculty of Education
Education in its broadest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character or physical ability of an individual...
- Faculty of Social Sciences
The social sciences are the fields of scientific knowledge and academic scholarship that study social groups and, more generally, human society. The social sciences initially were constituted of five fields: Jurisprudence and Amendment of the Law; Education; Health; Economy and Trade; Art...
- Faculty of Physical Education
Physical education or gymnastics is a course taken during primary and secondary education that encourages psychomotor learning in a play or movement exploration setting...
and SportSport is an activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively. Sports commonly refer to activities where the physical capabilities of the competitor are the sole or primary determinant of the outcome , but the term is also used to include activities such as...
- Faculty of Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines which study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytic, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural and social sciences....
- Faculty of Medicine in Plzeň
- Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Králové
Hradec Králové is a city of the Czech Republic, in the Hradec Králové Region of Bohemia. The city's economy is based on food-processing technology, photochemical, and electronics manufacture. Traditional industries include musical instrument manufacturing - the best known being PETROF pianos...
- Faculty of Pharmacy
Pharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences, and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of medication....
in Hradec Králové
Notable alumni
| undivided before 1882 |
Czech University
(1882-1939 and 1945-present) |
German University
(1882-1945) |
- Bernard Bolzano
Bernhard Placidus Johann Nepomuk Bolzano , Bernard Bolzano in English, was a Bohemian mathematician, theologian, philosopher, logician and antimilitarist of German mother tongue.-Family:...
(1781–1848), mathematician and philosopher
- Josef Dobrovský
Josef Dobrovský was a Bohemian philologist and historian, one of the most important figures of the Czech national revival....
(1753–1829), philologist and historian
- Jan Evangelista Purkyně
Jan Evangelista Purkyně was a Czech anatomist and physiologist.-Biography:...
(1787–1869), physiologist
- Anton Gindely
Anton Gindely was a Bohemian historian, the son of a German father and a Czech mother, born Prague.He studied at Prague and at Olmütz , and, after travelling extensively in search of historical material, became professor of history at the German Charles-Ferdinand University of Prague and archivist...
(1829-1892)a
- Jan Hus
Jan Hus aka Jan Huss, John Hus, John Huss , often referred to in English as John Huss or variations thereof, was a Czech Catholic priest, philosopher, reformer, and master at Charles University in Prague.He is famed for having been burned at the stake for what the Roman Catholic Church considered...
(1369–1415), religious thinker and reformer
- Jan Marek Marci
Jan Marek Marci, in Latin Ioannes Marcus Marci, , was a Bohemian doctor and scientist.The crater Marci on the far side of the Moon is named after him.-Biography:...
(1595–1697), physician
- Agustín Stahl
Dr. Agustín Stahl , was a medical doctor and the first renowned Puerto Rican scientist, with diverse interests in the fields of ethnology, botany, and zoology. He advocated Puerto Rico's independence from Spain....
(1842–1917), scientist
- Ferdinand Stoliczka
Ferdinand Stoliczka was a Moravian palaeontologist who worked in India on paleontology, geology and various aspects of zoology. He died of high altitude sickness during an expedition across the Himalayas.-Early life:Stoliczka was born at the lodge Zámeček near Kroměříž in Moravia...
(1838–1874), paleontologist
- Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla was an inventor and a mechanical and electrical engineer. He is frequently cited as one of the most important contributors to the birth of commercial electricity and is best known for his many revolutionary developments in the field of electromagnetism in the late 19th and early 20th...
(1856–1943), inventor, physicist
- Matthias of Trakai
Matthias of Trakai or of Vilnius was a Lithuanian Roman Catholic clergyman, the first Bishop of Samogitia from its establishment in 1417 until 1422 and the fifth Bishop of Vilnius from 4 May 1422 until 9 May 1453.-Biography:Matthias graduated the Charles University in Prague with the Master's...
(c. 1370–1453), Bishop of Vilnius |
Václav Bělohradský Václav Bělohradský is one of the most famous contemporary Czech philosophers. A graduate in philosophy and Czech from Charles University, Prague, he has lived in Italy since 1970, where he is currently Professor of Political Sociology at the University of Trieste.-Works:* Interpretazioni italiane...
(b. 1944) philosopher
Edvard BenešEdvard Beneš was a leader of the Czechoslovak independence movement, Minister of Foreign Affairs and the second President of Czechoslovakia. He was known to be a skilled diplomat.- Youth :...
(1884–1948), sociologist, second president of Czechoslovakia
Adalbert CzernyAdalbert Czerny Adalbert Czerny Adalbert Czerny (25 March 1863 – 3 October 1941 was a German pediatrician and is considered co-founder of modern pediatrics Several children's diseases were named after him.-Education and career:...
(1863–1941), pediatrician
Vincenz CzernyVincenz Czerny was an Austrian-German surgeon whose main contributions were in the fields of oncological and gynecological surgery....
Karel ČapekKarel Čapek was one of the most influential Czech writers of the 20th century. He introduced and made popular the frequently used international word robot, which first appeared in his play R.U.R. in 1921...
(1890–1938), writer
Eduard ČechEduard Čech was a Czech mathematician born in Stračov, Bohemia .His research interests included projective differential geometry and topology....
(1893–1960), mathematician
Karl DeutschKarl Wolfgang Deutsch was a Czech of German ancestry social and political scientist. His work focused on the study of war and peace, nationalism, co-operation and communication...
Stanislav GrofStanislav Grof is one of the founders of the field of transpersonal psychology and a pioneering researcher into the use of altered states of consciousness for purposes of analysing, healing, and obtaining growth and insight into the human psyche...
(b. 1931), transpersonal psychologist
Karl I of AustriaCharles I was the last ruler of the Austro-Hungarian Empire...
(1887–1922), last emperor of Austria and the last king of Bohemia
Jaroslav HeyrovskýJaroslav Heyrovský was a Czech chemist and inventor. Heyrovský was the inventor of the polarographic method, father of electroanalytical chemistry, and recipient of the Nobel Prize in 1959...
(1890–1967), chemist, Nobel laureate
Miroslav HolubMiroslav Holub was a Czech poet and immunologist.Miroslav Holub's work was heavily influenced by his experiences as an Immunologist, writing many poems utilising his scientific knowledge to poetic effect. His work is almost always unrhymed, so lends itself easily to translation...
(1923–1998), writer and immunologist
Bohumil HrabalBohumil Hrabal was a famous Czech writer.- Life and work :Born in Brno-Židenice, Moravia, he lived briefly in Polná, but was raised in the Nymburk brewery as the manager's stepson. Hrabal received a Law degree from Prague's Charles University, and lived in the city from the late 1940s on...
(1914–1997), writer
Jan JanskýProf. MUDr. Jan Janský was a Czech serologist, neurologist and psychiatrist. He is credited with the first classification of blood into the four types of the ABO blood group system.Janský studied medicine at Charles University in Prague. From 1899 he worked in a psychiatric clinic in Prague...
(1873–1921), discoverer of blood types
Luboš KohoutekLuboš Kohoutek is a Czech astronomer.Kohoutek has been interested with astronomy since high school. He studied physics and astronomy at universities in Brno and Prague...
(b. 1935), astronomer
Jindrich (Henry) Kučera (b. 1925), linguist/cognitive scientist
Milan KunderaMilan Kundera is a Czech and French writer of Czech origin who has lived in exile in France since 1975, where he became a naturalized citizen in 1981...
(b. 1929), writer
Lyubomir MiletichLyubomir Miletich was a leading Bulgarian linguist, ethnographer, dialectologist and historian, as well as the chairman of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences from 1926 to his death....
(1863–1937), Bulgarian academician
George PlaczekGeorge Placzek was a Czech physicist.Born in Brno, Moravia, Placzek studied physics in Prague and Vienna. He worked with Hans Bethe, Edward Teller, Rudolf Peierls, Werner Heisenberg, Victor Weisskopf, Enrico Fermi, Niels Bohr, Lev Landau, Edoardo Amaldi, Emilio Segrè, Leon van Hove and many other...
(1905–1955), physicist
Jan StráskýJan Stráský is a Czech politician.Stráský studied philosophy and political economy at the Charles University in Prague...
(b. 1940), politician
Ota ŠikOta Šik was a Czech economist and politician. He was the man behind the New Economic Model and was one of the key figures in the Prague Spring.-Early years:...
(1919–2004), economist
Peter TomkaPeter Tomka , is a Slovak diplomat and has served as a Judge on the International Court of Justice since 2003.-Early life and education:...
(b. 1956), International Court of Justice Judge
Ivana TrumpIvana Trump Ivana Trump Ivana Trump (born Ivana Marie Zelníčková Winklmayr is a former Olympic athlete, socialite, and fashion model noted for her marriage to mogul Donald J. Trump.-Early years:...
(b. 1949), Socialite and Entrepreneur.
Vladislav VančuraVladislav Vančura was one of the most important Bohemian writers of the 20th century...
(1891–1942), writer |
Max Brod Max Brod was an Czech-Jewish author, composer, and journalist, known for his close friendship with Franz Kafka.- Biography :...
(1884–1968), writer
Karl DeutschKarl Wolfgang Deutsch was a Czech of German ancestry social and political scientist. His work focused on the study of war and peace, nationalism, co-operation and communication...
Viktor Fischl (1912–2006), poet and diplomat
Karl Hermann FrankKarl Hermann Frank was a prominent Sudeten German Nazi official in Czechoslovakia prior to and during World War II and an SS-Obergruppenführer...
Franz HofmeisterFranz Hofmeister was an early protein scientist, and is famous for his studies of salts that influence the solubility and conformational stability of proteins...
Felix WeltschFelix Weltsch , Dr. jur et phil., was a German-speaking Jewish librarian, philosopher, author, editor, publisher and journalist. A close friend of Max Brod and Franz Kafka, he was one of the most important Zionists in Bohemia.-Life:Born in Prague, Weltsch studied Law and Philosophy at the Charles...
Max WertheimerMax Wertheimer was a Czech-born Jewish teacher who was one of the three founders of Gestalt psychology, along with Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Köhler....
(1880–1943), psychologist
Franz KafkaFranz Kafka was a major fiction writer of the 20th century. He was born to a middle-class German-speaking Jewish family in Prague, Bohemia , Austria–Hungary...
(1883–1924), writer
Egon Erwin KischEgon Erwin Kisch was a Czechoslovak writer and journalist, who wrote in German. He was noted for his development of literary reportage and his opposition to Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime.- Biography :...
(1885–1948), writer and journalist
Wilhelm KleinWilhelm Klein was a Hungarian-Austrian archeologist.He first studied Jewish theology and then philosophy at Vienna and Prague. The Austrian government subsequently sent him to Italy and Greece, where he engaged in archeological investigations, studying especially antique pottery...
Paul KornfeldPaul Kornfeld may refer to:*Paul Kornfeld , Prague-born German-language dramatist and author of The Seduction and Jew Süss...
Karel Hynek MáchaKarel Hynek Mácha was a Czech romantic poet.- Biography :Mácha grew up in Prague, the son of a foreman at a mill. He learned Latin and German in school. He went on to study law at Prague University; during that time he also became involved in theater, where he met Eleonora Somkova, with whom he...
(1810-1836), poet and writer
Johannes UrzidilJohannes Urzidil was a Czech-German writer, poet, historian, and journalist. Born in Prague, he died in Rome....
(1896-1970), writer and journalist
August Leopold von ReussAugust Leopold von Reuss was an Austrian ophthalmologist who was a native of Bilin, Bohemia. He was the son of geologist August Emanuel von Reuss , and father to pediatrician August von Reuss ....
Rainer Maria RilkeRainer Maria Rilke is considered one of the German language's greatest 20th-century poets...
Hermann Grab-Early years:Hermann was born into a wealthy aristocratic family of Jewish origin in Prague, Bohemian Kingdom . Although his parents were formally Jewish, Hermann as his brother were educated as Catholics. Hermann studied at the German Gymnasium Na Prikopech and then entered German...
Erich HellerErich Heller was a British essayist, known particularly for his critical studies in German-language philosophy and literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.- Biography :...
Friedrich HopfnerFriedrich Hopfner was an Austrian geodesist, geophysicist and planetary scientist.As an officer of the Austro-Hungarian Empire he began his scientific work at the Bureau of Meteorology...
Arthur MahlerArthur Mahler was a Czech-Austrian archeologist.After completing his studies at the gymnasium in Prague, he studied the history of art and archeology at the universities of Prague and Vienna , and in 1902 became privatdozent in archeology at the German university at Prague.Arthur Mahler was...
Karl I of AustriaCharles I was the last ruler of the Austro-Hungarian Empire...
(1887–1922), last emperor of Austria, last king of Bohemia
Ferdinand BlumentrittFerdinand Blumentritt Ferdinand Blumentritt Ferdinand Blumentritt (born September 10, 1853 in Prague, Czech Republic; died September 20, 1913 in Litoměřice (Leitmeritz), Czech Republic (in former Austro-Hungarian Empire) was a Sudeten-German teacher, secondary school principal in Litoměřice,...
Johann BöhmJohann Böhm was a German Bohemian chemist.Böhm studied at the German Polytechnic University in Prague, worked with Fritz Haber in Berlin, and at the University of Freiberg. From 1934 he was professor of physical chemistry at the Polytechnic University in Prague...
Carl Ferdinand CoriCarl Ferdinand Cori was an Austrian-American biochemist and pharmacologist born in Prague who, together with his wife Gerty Cori and Argentine physiologist Bernardo Houssay, received a Nobel Prize in 1947 for their discovery of how glycogen - a derivative of glucose - is broken down...
(1896–1984), biochemist, Nobel laureate
Gerty CoriDr. Gerty Theresa Cori, née Radnitz, was an American biochemist born in Prague who, together with her husband Carl Ferdinand Cori and Argentine physiologist Bernardo Houssay, received a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1947 for their discovery of how glycogen — a...
(1896–1957), biochemist, Nobel laureate
Carl Friedrich Heinrich CrednerCarl Friedrich Heinrich Credner was a German geologist from Waltershausen near Gotha. He was the father of Carl Hermann Credner.Credner investigated the geology of the Thuringian Forest, of which he published a map in 1846...
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Notable academics
| undivided before 1882 |
Czech University
(1882-1939 and 1945-present) |
German University
(1882-1945) |
- Jan Gebauer
Jan Gebauer was a significant Czech expert on Czech studies and one of the most renowned Czech scientists of all times. His scientific work was influenced by the methods of positivism.- Biography :...
- Anton Gindely
Anton Gindely was a Bohemian historian, the son of a German father and a Czech mother, born Prague.He studied at Prague and at Olmütz , and, after travelling extensively in search of historical material, became professor of history at the German Charles-Ferdinand University of Prague and archivist...
- Jan Hus
Jan Hus aka Jan Huss, John Hus, John Huss , often referred to in English as John Huss or variations thereof, was a Czech Catholic priest, philosopher, reformer, and master at Charles University in Prague.He is famed for having been burned at the stake for what the Roman Catholic Church considered...
– religious thinker and reformer
- František Josef Studnička
František Josef Studnička was a Czech mathematician and popular pedagogue at Charles University in Prague. He was also an active contributor to astronomy and meteorology. He was known as the author of several textbooks and popular articles....
- Johannes Vodnianus Campanus
Johannes Vodnianus Campanus was a Czech humanist, composer, pedagogue, poet, and dramatist. He was born in Vodňany , in southern Bohemia...
– author, playwright
- Stanislav Vydra
Stanislav Vydra was a Bohemian writer, mathematician and a Jesuit.-Life:With eight years Vydra occurred 1757 the Jesuitenkloster Hradec Králové and the medal. After two years in Brno , he studied philosophy and mathematics from 1762 to 1764 at the Prager university...
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Bohuslav Balcar Bohuslav Balcar is a Czech mathematician. He is a senior researcher at the Center for Theoretical Study , and a professor at Charles University in Prague. His research interests are mainly related to foundations of mathematics....
Václav BělohradskýVáclav Bělohradský is one of the most famous contemporary Czech philosophers. A graduate in philosophy and Czech from Charles University, Prague, he has lived in Italy since 1970, where he is currently Professor of Political Sociology at the University of Trieste.-Works:* Interpretazioni italiane...
Edvard BenešEdvard Beneš was a leader of the Czechoslovak independence movement, Minister of Foreign Affairs and the second President of Czechoslovakia. He was known to be a skilled diplomat.- Youth :...
Eduard ČechEduard Čech was a Czech mathematician born in Stračov, Bohemia .His research interests included projective differential geometry and topology....
Karel DominKarel Domin was a Czech botanist and politician.After gymnasium school studies in Příbram, he studied botany at the Charles University in Prague, and graduated in 1906. In 1916 he was named as professor of botany. Domin specialised in phytogeography, geobotany and plant taxonomy...
Miroslav FiedlerMiroslav Fiedler is a Czech mathematician known for his contributions tolinear algebra, graph theory and algebraic graph theory....
Jan GebauerJan Gebauer was a significant Czech expert on Czech studies and one of the most renowned Czech scientists of all times. His scientific work was influenced by the methods of positivism.- Biography :...
František GrausFrantišek Graus was a Czech historian whose work focused on the social and economic history of medieval Europe, particularly the history of social movements and of ethnic and religious minorities.- Life and Academic Career :...
Eva HajičováEva Hajičová is a Czech linguist, specializing in topic-focus articulation and corpus linguistics. In 2006, she was awarded the ACL Lifetime Achievement Award.- External links :* *...
Václav HamplVáclav Hampl is a Czech physiologist and, since 2006, rector of Charles University in Prague.Hampl was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1962 and received a Ph.D. from the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in 1990. He did postgraduate work at the University of Minnesota Medical School and, since...
Bedřich HroznýBedřich Hrozný was a Czech orientalist and linguist. He deciphered the ancient Hittite language, identified it as an Indo-European language and laid the groundwork for the development of Hittitology. Though of Czech origin, he published his work in German or French.Hrozný was born in Lysá nad...
Vojtěch JarníkVojtěch Jarník was a Czech mathematician.His main area of work was in number theory and mathematical analysis; he proved a number of results on lattice point problems. He also developed the graph theory algorithm known as Prim's algorithm.He was well-known for his energy and humor...
– mathematician
Konstantin Josef JirečekKonstantin Josef Jireček , son of Josef Jireček, was a Czech historian, diplomat and slavist.He entered the Bulgarian service in 1879, and in 1881 became minister of education at Sofia...
Erazim KohákErazim Kohák is a Czech philosopher and writer. His early education was in Prague. After communists took over Czechoslovakia in 1948, his family escaped to the United States....
Karel KosíkKarel Kosík was a Czech Neomarxist philosopher. In his most famous philosophical work Dialectics of the Concrete Kosík presents original synthesis of Martin Heidegger's version of phenomenology and ideas of Young Marx...
Jan Blahoslav Lášek
Tomáš Garrigue MasarykTomáš Garrigue Masaryk , sometimes called Thomas Masaryk in English, was an Austro-Hungarian and Czechoslovak statesman, sociologist and philosopher, who as the keenest advocate of Czechoslovak independence during World War I became the first President and founder of Czechoslovakia...
– philosopher, politician, 1st president of Czechoslovakia
Vilém MathesiusVilém Mathesius was a Czech linguist and literary historian, a scholar of English and Czech literature. His brother was Bohumil Mathesius....
Josef MatoušekJosef Matoušek was a Czech historian and associate professor.In November 1939 he participated in preparations for Jan Opletal's funeral. He was arrested by the Gestapo on 17 November 1939 and was executed the same day without trial....
Jan MukařovskýJan Mukařovský was a Czech literary and aesthetic theorist.He was professor at the Charles University of Prague. He is well known for his association with early structuralism as well as with the Prague Linguistic Circle, and for his development of the ideas of Russian formalism...
– literary theoristLiterary theory in a strict sense is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for analyzing literature. However, literary scholarship since the 19th century often includes—in addition to, or even instead of literary theory in the strict sense—considerations of...
, linguistLinguistics is the scientific study of natural language. Linguistics encompasses a number of sub-fields. An important topical division is between the study of language structure and the study of meaning...
Alois MusilAlois Musil was a Czech explorer, orientalist and writer.Musil was the oldest son born into the family of a poor farmer...
– orientalist
Milan NakonečnýMilan Nakonečný is Czech psychologist and historian. During the normalization, Nakonečný was banned from teaching and publishing.- Books :...
Jan PatočkaJan Patočka is considered one of the most important contributors to Czech philosophical phenomenology, as well as one of the most influential central European philosophers of the 20th century...
– philosopher
Josef Ladislav PíčJosef Ladislav Píč was Czech archaeologist and paleontologist, one of founders of modern Czech archaeology....
Antonín RezekAntonín Rezek was a renowned Czech political historian, specialized in political and religious history of the 16th to 18th century.-Life :...
Stanislav SegertStanislav Segert was a prominent scholar of Semitic languages and one of the foremost authorities on North-West Semitic languages.-Life:...
Petr SgallPetr Sgall is a Czech linguist. He specializes in dependency grammar, topic-focus articulation and Common Czech.- Biography :...
František Josef StudničkaFrantišek Josef Studnička was a Czech mathematician and popular pedagogue at Charles University in Prague. He was also an active contributor to astronomy and meteorology. He was known as the author of several textbooks and popular articles....
Vojtěch ŠafaříkVojtěch Šafařík was a Czech chemist, specializing in inorganic chemistry. He wrote many popular textbooks as well as making over 20,000 observations of variable stars.The crater Šafařík on the Moon is named after him.-External links:*...
František ŠmahelFrantišek Šmahel is a Czech historian of medieval political and intellectual history, known for his works about Hussitism, Universities in the Middle Ages, Humanism, and Monarch representation in the Middle Ages....
Pavel TichýPavel Tichý was a Czech logician, philosopher and mathematician....
Dušan TřeštíkDušan Třeštík was one of the greatest Czech historians. He specialized in medieval history of the Czech lands and theory of history....
Petr VopěnkaPetr Vopěnka is a Czech mathematician. In the early seventies, he established the Alternative Set Theory , which he subsequently developed in a series of articles and monographs...
Ivan WilhelmIvan Wilhelm is Czech nuclear physicist and former rector of Charles University in Prague.Wilhelm graduated at Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering of Czech Technical University in Prague in Nuclear physics. Until 1967 he also lectured there. In 1967 Wilhelm was sent to the study...
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Friedrich Adler
Alfred Amonn Alfred Amonn was an Austrian economist .He taught as a professor at the Czernowitz University , German Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague , Tokyo University , University of Berne .- Literary works :* Objekt und Grundbegriffe der theoretischen...
Gustav BeckingGustav Becking was a German musicologist who studied with Wolf and Hugo Riemann. Becking did his doctorate in 1920. He worked as a professor at Utrecht from 1929, in Prague from 1930 according to the The New Grove....
Albert EinsteinAlbert Einstein was a theoretical physicist. His many contributions to physics include the special and general theories of relativity, the founding of relativistic cosmology, the first post-Newtonian expansion, explaining the perihelion advance of Mercury, prediction of the deflection of...
– theoretical physicist
Gerhard GentzenGerhard Karl Erich Gentzen was a German mathematician and logician....
Felix Haurowitz - biochemist
Heinrich HilgenreinerHeinrich Hilgenreiner German surgeon and orthopaedist.- Biography :Born and raised in a German family in Bohemia , he served as a medical officer in the First World War...
Otto KahlerOtto Kahler was an Austrian physician. Born and trained in Prague, he is best known for describing multiple myeloma, a hematological malignancy, which is called "Kahler's disease" in his honor in several countries...
Gustav Karl LaubeGustav Karl Laube was a Bohemian German geologist and paleontologist.In 1871 Laube became professor mineralogy and geology of the technical university in Prague, in 1876 professor of geology and paleontology at the German Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague.He was active in geological research...
Ernst MachErnst Mach was an Austrian physicist and philosopher, remembered for his contributions to physics such as the Mach number and the study of shock waves...
– theoretical physicist
Günther von Mannagetta und Lërchenau BeckGünther von Mannagetta und Lërchenau Beck was a prominent German botanist....
Hans PeterssonHans Petersson was a German mathematician. He introduced the Petersson inner product and is also known for the Ramanujan–Petersson conjecture.Petersson was born in Bentschen and died in Münster....
Josef PfitznerJosef Pfitzner was a politician of Nazi Germany and a writer.- Bio :Josef Pfitzner was born in Petersdorf. He was a German historian and politician and was Professor at the German University in Prague. Early on, he was attracted to Nazism and belonged to the branch of Austrian National Socialism....
Ernst Pringsheim* Ernst Pringsheim, Sr. , German physicist* Ernst Pringsheim, Jr. or Ernst Georg Pringsheim , German scientist, botanist, bacteriologist...
Ernst Pringsheim, Jr.Ernst Pringsheim, Jr., Ernst Georg Pringsheim jun., or Ernst Georg Pringsheim was a German Natural scientist and plant physiologist .He taught as a professor for biochemistry and botany, in the University of Berlin, University of Prague, and Cambridge...
Zdenko Stary - biochemist
Samuel Friedrich SteinSamuel Friedrich Nathaniel Ritter von Stein was a German entomologist chiefly interested in Diptera.Born in Niemegk near Potsdam, Brandenburg, Stein became 1850 Professor at the Forest and Agriculture Institute in Tharandt in Sachsen , 20 km south-west of Dresden. This was one of the leading...
Moritz Winternitz
Alfred WoltmannAlfred Woltmann was a German art historian. He was born at Charlottenburg, studied at Berlin and Munich, and was appointed professor of art history successively at the Polytechnicum in Karlsruhe and at the universities of Prague and Strasbourg...
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Leadership
- Prof. RNDr. Václav Hampl
Václav Hampl is a Czech physiologist and, since 2006, rector of Charles University in Prague.Hampl was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1962 and received a Ph.D. from the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in 1990. He did postgraduate work at the University of Minnesota Medical School and, since...
, DrSc., followed Prof. Ing. Ivan WilhelmIvan Wilhelm is Czech nuclear physicist and former rector of Charles University in Prague.Wilhelm graduated at Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering of Czech Technical University in Prague in Nuclear physics. Until 1967 he also lectured there. In 1967 Wilhelm was sent to the study...
, CSc. on the position of rector of Charles University on 1 February 2006.
See also
- List of Charles University rectors
- Medieval university
Medieval university is an institution of higher learning which was established during High Middle Ages period and is a corporation.The first European medieval institutions generally considered to be universities were established in Italy, France, and England in the late 11th and the 12th centuries...
- Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Nicknames for Prague have included "the mother of cities" , "city of a hundred spires", or Stověžatá Praha in Czech and "the golden city" or Zlaté město in Czech.Situated on the River Vltava in central Bohemia, Prague has been the...
- Záviš von Zap
Further reading
- Chad Bryant: Prague in Black. Nazi Rule and Czech Nationalism. Harvard Press
- František Kavka: The Caroline University of Prague. A short history
- Peter Demetz: Prague in Black and Gold. Scenes from the Life of European City
External links