The ancient historian, medievalist, politician and popular education pioneer Ludo Moritz Hartmann died in Vienna on November 14, 1924.
Hartmann qualified as a professor of ancient and medieval history at the University of Vienna in 1889. It was not until 1918 that he was appointed associate professor, and in 1924, amid protests from numerous students against his Jewish background and his socialist views, he was finally appointed full professor. As an excellently networked intellectual and active educational reformer, Hartmann was involved in the founding of numerous progressive and innovative educational institutions in Vienna and ultimately became a leading pioneer of the Austrian adult education movement. The petition he co-authored for the establishment of popular university lectures at the University of Vienna laid the foundation for science-oriented popular education in Austria. In 1901, together with Emil Reich, Hartmann founded the Volksheim Ottakring association, the first evening adult education center in Europe.
