Viennes Slavic Philology and Its Contribution to Slovene Culture

Abstract

With establishment of the chair of Slavic philology in 1848, the study of Slav languages was institutionalised at Vienna University for the first time. The first full professor holding this chair was Fran Miklošič, who developed it to a Viennese Slavistic school, distinguishing itself for socio-political importance and scientific positivism. Not least, Slovenes benefited by this, because their grammar school teachers and Slavic philologists studied mostly in Vienna up to the 1st World War. However, a new big chance to institutionalise the study of Slovene (as language of one of Austrian minorities it was provided by the legislator, in 1973, to be an independent study along with other Slavic languages) hasn't been taken advantage of by any head of the Institute for Slavic Philology yet.