On 30 June 2016 the first seven monuments for female academics were unveiled in the arcaded courtyard in the main building of the University of Vienna: to psychologist Charlotte Bühler, social scientist Marie Jahoda, physicists Berta Karlik and Lise Meitner, archaeologist Grete Mostny, linguist Elise Richter and mathematician Olga Taussky-Todd.
Since the end of the 19th century outstanding academics of the Alma Mater Rudolphina are honored in this arcaded courtyard with monuments. But the space for women was limited so far, enhanced by the symbolic meaning of the fountain statue Castalia. Although women conquered the university gradually during the 20th century, no female academic has been honored in the courtyard so far. Since 2009, the project “Der Muse reicht’s” ("The Muse has had it") has been raising awareness of this lack of recognition – a gap that the university begins to fill in 2016 with the establishment of the first monuments to outstanding female researchers.
