DOI Artikel:
Kolbiarz Chmelinová, Katarína: University art history in Slovakia after WWII and its sovietization in the 1950s
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52521#0168
162
Katarina Kolbiarz Chmelinovâ
in Slovakia in the form of a case study Opening up a new subject also rep-
resents a contribution to the growing discussion on the postwar sovietization
of Czechoslovak cultural policy in its Slovak variant.2
After WWII, art history as a university held of study was available in Slo-
vakia only at the Slovak University in Bratislava, which was its provisional
name during the time of the First Slovak Republic. The university reverted
to its original name, Comenius University in 1954.3 Frantisek Zâkavec es-
tablished the Seminar of Art History4 at the university in 1923 and was his
head until his death in 1937.5 In contrast to the Czech Republic, where on
November 17, 1939 all Czech universities were closed and only four German
universities remained active, university education in Slovakia was not inter-
rupted.6 Nevertheless, the Slovak University in Bratislava was forced to follow
the political-ideological dictates of German culture policy on education, as
well as the nationalist tendencies in society at the time.7 (ill. 1 )
On the eve of WWII, the Seminar of Art History struggled with the same
staffing issues which had existed from the very beginning. Solutions were
nothing more than provisional throughout the war, and the administrative
management of the Seminar was repeatedly replaced. First, it was Jan Eisner,
2 An extensive publication concerning art and Stalinist cultural practice in Slovakia
was published recently: A. Kusâ, Preruśena piesen. Vÿtvarné umenie v ćasoch stalinskej
kultûrnejpraxe 1948-1956, Bratislava 2019. Ad transformations in university study in the
Stalinist era see S. Gabzdilovâ, Ako sme studovali v totalité. Vysokoskolské vzdeldvanie na
Slovensku pod ideologickym diktâtom Komunistickej strany Ceskoslovenska 1948-1953,
Presov 2018.
3 95+ Dejiny umenda na Univerzite Komenského v Bratislave, eds. K. Kolbiarz Chme-
linovâ, K. Benovâ, Bratislava 2018, p. 63, 66.
4 Seminar dejin umenia /Seminar of Art History was a coeval title for the individual
part of the Faculty structure teaching art history held of study before conversion to a de-
partment.
5 95+ Dejiny umenia..., p. 63. On F. Zâkavec's life and art history work see: I. Ciu-
lisovâ, Dejepis umenia na Slovensku. Vybrané kapitoly, Bratislava 2011, pp. 17-19.
6 A. Hudek, "Sovietizâcia pracovisk historickej vedy na Univerzite Komenského v 50.
rokoch," in: 95 rokov Filozofickej fakulty UK, Pohl’ad do dejin institûcie a jej akademickej
obce, eds. M. Slobodnik, M. Glossova, Bratislava 2017, p. 324; J. Connelly, Captive Univer-
sity. The Sovietization of East German, Czech, and Polish Higher Education, 1945-1956,
The University of North Carolina Press 2000, pp. 16-17, 118.
7 B. Koklesovâ, "Seminar dejin umenia v rokoch 1939-1945," in: 95 rokov Filozo-
fickej fakulty..., pp. 306-322. The authoress has endeavored to delineate the means by
which the German ideology was implemented in universities and to characterize the
transformation that the education of humanities and social sciences underwent in the
official political order.
Katarina Kolbiarz Chmelinovâ
in Slovakia in the form of a case study Opening up a new subject also rep-
resents a contribution to the growing discussion on the postwar sovietization
of Czechoslovak cultural policy in its Slovak variant.2
After WWII, art history as a university held of study was available in Slo-
vakia only at the Slovak University in Bratislava, which was its provisional
name during the time of the First Slovak Republic. The university reverted
to its original name, Comenius University in 1954.3 Frantisek Zâkavec es-
tablished the Seminar of Art History4 at the university in 1923 and was his
head until his death in 1937.5 In contrast to the Czech Republic, where on
November 17, 1939 all Czech universities were closed and only four German
universities remained active, university education in Slovakia was not inter-
rupted.6 Nevertheless, the Slovak University in Bratislava was forced to follow
the political-ideological dictates of German culture policy on education, as
well as the nationalist tendencies in society at the time.7 (ill. 1 )
On the eve of WWII, the Seminar of Art History struggled with the same
staffing issues which had existed from the very beginning. Solutions were
nothing more than provisional throughout the war, and the administrative
management of the Seminar was repeatedly replaced. First, it was Jan Eisner,
2 An extensive publication concerning art and Stalinist cultural practice in Slovakia
was published recently: A. Kusâ, Preruśena piesen. Vÿtvarné umenie v ćasoch stalinskej
kultûrnejpraxe 1948-1956, Bratislava 2019. Ad transformations in university study in the
Stalinist era see S. Gabzdilovâ, Ako sme studovali v totalité. Vysokoskolské vzdeldvanie na
Slovensku pod ideologickym diktâtom Komunistickej strany Ceskoslovenska 1948-1953,
Presov 2018.
3 95+ Dejiny umenda na Univerzite Komenského v Bratislave, eds. K. Kolbiarz Chme-
linovâ, K. Benovâ, Bratislava 2018, p. 63, 66.
4 Seminar dejin umenia /Seminar of Art History was a coeval title for the individual
part of the Faculty structure teaching art history held of study before conversion to a de-
partment.
5 95+ Dejiny umenia..., p. 63. On F. Zâkavec's life and art history work see: I. Ciu-
lisovâ, Dejepis umenia na Slovensku. Vybrané kapitoly, Bratislava 2011, pp. 17-19.
6 A. Hudek, "Sovietizâcia pracovisk historickej vedy na Univerzite Komenského v 50.
rokoch," in: 95 rokov Filozofickej fakulty UK, Pohl’ad do dejin institûcie a jej akademickej
obce, eds. M. Slobodnik, M. Glossova, Bratislava 2017, p. 324; J. Connelly, Captive Univer-
sity. The Sovietization of East German, Czech, and Polish Higher Education, 1945-1956,
The University of North Carolina Press 2000, pp. 16-17, 118.
7 B. Koklesovâ, "Seminar dejin umenia v rokoch 1939-1945," in: 95 rokov Filozo-
fickej fakulty..., pp. 306-322. The authoress has endeavored to delineate the means by
which the German ideology was implemented in universities and to characterize the
transformation that the education of humanities and social sciences underwent in the
official political order.