The principle of academic freedom was, along with civil liberties, one of the main catchphrases of the liberal demands for reform in Vienna of the revolutionary year 1848. Since Joseph II and Maria Theresia’s reforms, teaching at the university was strictly bound by state rules. A student petition initiated a long overdue reform and the transformation of the “Alma Mater Rudolphina” to a modern university for teaching and research.
The student demands for freedom of teaching and learning were already mostly met in the provisional reform laws under minister Thun-Hohenstein. What is more, freedom of teaching reached a constitutional level with the “Staatsgrundgesetz” of December 21, 1867: “Science and its teaching are free” (art. 17).
Since the 1960s these words are displayed in the staircase of the “New Institute Building” (NIG) of the University of Vienna.
