„What approaches with bold strides?“

The university and the 1848 revolution

A large part of students as well as some professors and doctors of the University of Vienna were important protagonists in the revolution of 1848. Their goals were civil participation in political power and the realization of political reforms in line with the principles of freedom, democracy, religious tolerance and national unity. In March 1848, the poet and physician Ludwig August Frankl celebrated the revolutionaries’ first successes with his poem “The University” – printed as “first censorship-free paper”, written with the pathos typical for that time: “What approaches with bold strides? (…) The university.”