DOI article:
Murár, Tomáš: ‘I am wrong about my qualifications, or I do not have any friends’: Archival Research on the First Professorship of Max Dvořák
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.73804#0063
62
teach a four-hour lecture and a two-hour seminar and
would thus, as he stated in the letter to Wickhoff, be more
independent in his work than he would have been in
Prague or Vienna. What is more, he noted to Susta that
he was glad that he was going to have a steady job, one
that, in addition, was close to Italy and Paris. Dvorak also
highlighted that his religion presented no obstacle to his
obtaining this post, even though, as he wrote to Kramar,
Fribourg was a clerical university and religion could have
been an issue. Luckily, however, in art history it was not.
Dvorak also knew, as he wrote to Susta, that if his name
had been put forward for the position of professor of art
history in Vienna, this would have sparked national out-
rage, which, he thought, was highly unlikely in Switzer-
land. Dvorak could not have known at the time, however,
that his plans were to be disrupted by fears of nationalist
demonstrations even in Switzerland, and that this time it
would be fears connected with the outbreak of the Russo-
Japanese War in 1904.27
It was a mass held in a Russian church in Prague on
22 February 1904 that triggered the events that prevented
Dvorak from being given the professorship in Fribourg.
The mass was held to express support for Russia to be suc-
cessful in the war.28 The mass was followed by a procession
that went from the church to the German House on Na
Pfikope Street, where people stopped and chanted expres-
sions of shame and disgust, because, unlike the Czechs,
the Germans were on the side of the Japanese. A few
days later, a response from German nationalist students
was organised: members of the student association called
'Burschenschaft' at Charles-Ferdinand University started
accosting Czech citizens in the streets of Prague, and on
Sunday, 6 March 1904, they organised huge protests that
escalated into fights in the city centre and only stopped
after the police and the army arrived on the scene.29 These
nationalist tensions were widely covered in the press and
continued until the end of March.30 They were also the
reason why the rector of Fribourg University, C. Decur-
tius, wrote to Dvorak at the end of March, a letter Dvorak
quoted in his own correspondence to Susta on 5 April
1904 and to Kramar on 20 April 1904: 'As a result of recent
events, your candidacy in the election for the professor-
ship of art history was rejected'.31 Dvorak added in the let-
ter to Susta that he knew the professorship decision had
been influenced by the demonstrations in Prague, mostly
27 See, e.g., 'Valka rusko-japonska, Cech, 11 February 1904, p. 4.
28 'Demonstrace pro Rusko v Praze', Lidove noviny, 23 February 1904,
p. 8.
29 'Prazske demonstrace', Cech, 7 March 1904, pp. 1-2.
30 See e.g. 'Burśacke provokace v Praze', Narodni listy, 8 March 1904,
p. 1. 'Die deutschfeindlichen Ausscheitungen in Prag', Bohemia,
8 March 1904, p. 1.
31 aiah jp, 'Dvorak to Susta on 5 April 1904'. Ang vk, 'Dvorak to
Kramar on 20 April 1904'. Wickhoff was by that time in Vienna,
as Dvorak mentioned to Kramar, thus there are no letters between
them on this matter.
out of the fear that similar demonstrations would occur in
Fribourg. With the loss of the second opportunity to be-
come a professor, Dvorak was relieved that at least he did
not have to leave Vienna - he could not have known that
the nationalist tensions brewing in the Austro-Hungarian
Empire would impact his third attempt to get a professor-
ship at the University of Vienna as well.
As Dvorak informed Susta in a letter from 28 March
1905, Wickhoff started a campaign to give him a profes-
sorship at the University of Vienna.32 Wickhoff's motiva-
tion for doing this was not only his close personal rela-
tionship with Dvorak,33 but also the fact that Riegl's health
had quickly declined and it was obvious that he was going
to need someone soon to step in and take over his lectures.
A few months later, on 19 June 1905, Alois Riegl died, and,
as Dvorak wrote to Susta the following day, Wickhoff
started doing everything he could to secure Riegl's profes-
sorship for Dvorak.34 As Dvorak wrote to Susta on 9 July
1905, Wickhoffwas quite successful in this endeavour - by
8 July 1905 Dvorak's name had already been put forward
for the professorship 'primo loco'.35 However, as Dvorak
added, the proposal was not accepted unreservedly by
the university professorial committee, because it was only
agreed to after some 'difficult fights', during which Dvorak
was accused of not being able to speak German proper-
ly and of being connected to the dangerous Slavic move-
ment within the empire.36 Dvorak was at first convinced
that these attacks originated with Josef Neuwirth,37 a pro-
fessor of art history at the Technical School in Vienna and
from 1905 Dvorak's colleague at the Central Commission
for the Research and Preservation of Architectural Monu-
ments, with whom Dvorak had had a difficult relationship
ever since he had critically reviewed Neuwirth's study on
paintings in Karlstein in 1899.38 Nevertheless, in a letter
32 aiah jp, 'Dvorak to Susta on 28 March 1905'.
33 See T. Murar, 'Notes on Franz Wickhoff's School and Max
Dvorak's Italian Renaissance Studies Based on New Archival Ma-
terial', Journal of Art Historiography, 29, 2023.
34 aiah jp, 'Dvorak to Susta on 20 June 1905'.
35 aiah jp, 'Transcript of Dvorak's Letter to Susta from 9 July 1905'.
36 Similar accusations later appeared in newspapers. See e.g. 'Das
Deutsch des Herrn Professors Dvorak', Wiener Deutsches Tagblatt,
21 December 1905, p. 6. The earliest attacks on Dvorak due to his
professorship appointment occurred in July and August 1905. See
'Von der Wiener Universitat', Freie Stimmen, 19 July 1905, p. 6; 'Ein
Czeche als Professor der Kunstgeschichte an der Wiener Univer-
sitat', Deutsches Nordmdhrerblatt, 23 July 1905, p. 5; 'Die Lehrkan-
zel fur Kunstgeschichte an der Universitat', Neues Wiener Journal,
9 August 1905, p. 6; 'Ein tschechischer Candidat fur eine Wiener
Lehrkanzel', Mdhrisches Tagblatt, 10 August 1905, p. 3.
37 See J. Koukal, 'Josef Neuwirth', in Stoleti Ustavu pro dejiny umeni
na Filozofickefakulte Univerzity Karlovy, ed. R. Biegel, R. Prahl,
J. Bachtik, Praha 2020, pp. 280-284.
38 J. Neuwirth, Mittelalterliche Wandgemalde und Tafelbilder der
Burg Karlstein in Bohrnen, Prag 1896. M. Dvorak, 'K dejinam
teach a four-hour lecture and a two-hour seminar and
would thus, as he stated in the letter to Wickhoff, be more
independent in his work than he would have been in
Prague or Vienna. What is more, he noted to Susta that
he was glad that he was going to have a steady job, one
that, in addition, was close to Italy and Paris. Dvorak also
highlighted that his religion presented no obstacle to his
obtaining this post, even though, as he wrote to Kramar,
Fribourg was a clerical university and religion could have
been an issue. Luckily, however, in art history it was not.
Dvorak also knew, as he wrote to Susta, that if his name
had been put forward for the position of professor of art
history in Vienna, this would have sparked national out-
rage, which, he thought, was highly unlikely in Switzer-
land. Dvorak could not have known at the time, however,
that his plans were to be disrupted by fears of nationalist
demonstrations even in Switzerland, and that this time it
would be fears connected with the outbreak of the Russo-
Japanese War in 1904.27
It was a mass held in a Russian church in Prague on
22 February 1904 that triggered the events that prevented
Dvorak from being given the professorship in Fribourg.
The mass was held to express support for Russia to be suc-
cessful in the war.28 The mass was followed by a procession
that went from the church to the German House on Na
Pfikope Street, where people stopped and chanted expres-
sions of shame and disgust, because, unlike the Czechs,
the Germans were on the side of the Japanese. A few
days later, a response from German nationalist students
was organised: members of the student association called
'Burschenschaft' at Charles-Ferdinand University started
accosting Czech citizens in the streets of Prague, and on
Sunday, 6 March 1904, they organised huge protests that
escalated into fights in the city centre and only stopped
after the police and the army arrived on the scene.29 These
nationalist tensions were widely covered in the press and
continued until the end of March.30 They were also the
reason why the rector of Fribourg University, C. Decur-
tius, wrote to Dvorak at the end of March, a letter Dvorak
quoted in his own correspondence to Susta on 5 April
1904 and to Kramar on 20 April 1904: 'As a result of recent
events, your candidacy in the election for the professor-
ship of art history was rejected'.31 Dvorak added in the let-
ter to Susta that he knew the professorship decision had
been influenced by the demonstrations in Prague, mostly
27 See, e.g., 'Valka rusko-japonska, Cech, 11 February 1904, p. 4.
28 'Demonstrace pro Rusko v Praze', Lidove noviny, 23 February 1904,
p. 8.
29 'Prazske demonstrace', Cech, 7 March 1904, pp. 1-2.
30 See e.g. 'Burśacke provokace v Praze', Narodni listy, 8 March 1904,
p. 1. 'Die deutschfeindlichen Ausscheitungen in Prag', Bohemia,
8 March 1904, p. 1.
31 aiah jp, 'Dvorak to Susta on 5 April 1904'. Ang vk, 'Dvorak to
Kramar on 20 April 1904'. Wickhoff was by that time in Vienna,
as Dvorak mentioned to Kramar, thus there are no letters between
them on this matter.
out of the fear that similar demonstrations would occur in
Fribourg. With the loss of the second opportunity to be-
come a professor, Dvorak was relieved that at least he did
not have to leave Vienna - he could not have known that
the nationalist tensions brewing in the Austro-Hungarian
Empire would impact his third attempt to get a professor-
ship at the University of Vienna as well.
As Dvorak informed Susta in a letter from 28 March
1905, Wickhoff started a campaign to give him a profes-
sorship at the University of Vienna.32 Wickhoff's motiva-
tion for doing this was not only his close personal rela-
tionship with Dvorak,33 but also the fact that Riegl's health
had quickly declined and it was obvious that he was going
to need someone soon to step in and take over his lectures.
A few months later, on 19 June 1905, Alois Riegl died, and,
as Dvorak wrote to Susta the following day, Wickhoff
started doing everything he could to secure Riegl's profes-
sorship for Dvorak.34 As Dvorak wrote to Susta on 9 July
1905, Wickhoffwas quite successful in this endeavour - by
8 July 1905 Dvorak's name had already been put forward
for the professorship 'primo loco'.35 However, as Dvorak
added, the proposal was not accepted unreservedly by
the university professorial committee, because it was only
agreed to after some 'difficult fights', during which Dvorak
was accused of not being able to speak German proper-
ly and of being connected to the dangerous Slavic move-
ment within the empire.36 Dvorak was at first convinced
that these attacks originated with Josef Neuwirth,37 a pro-
fessor of art history at the Technical School in Vienna and
from 1905 Dvorak's colleague at the Central Commission
for the Research and Preservation of Architectural Monu-
ments, with whom Dvorak had had a difficult relationship
ever since he had critically reviewed Neuwirth's study on
paintings in Karlstein in 1899.38 Nevertheless, in a letter
32 aiah jp, 'Dvorak to Susta on 28 March 1905'.
33 See T. Murar, 'Notes on Franz Wickhoff's School and Max
Dvorak's Italian Renaissance Studies Based on New Archival Ma-
terial', Journal of Art Historiography, 29, 2023.
34 aiah jp, 'Dvorak to Susta on 20 June 1905'.
35 aiah jp, 'Transcript of Dvorak's Letter to Susta from 9 July 1905'.
36 Similar accusations later appeared in newspapers. See e.g. 'Das
Deutsch des Herrn Professors Dvorak', Wiener Deutsches Tagblatt,
21 December 1905, p. 6. The earliest attacks on Dvorak due to his
professorship appointment occurred in July and August 1905. See
'Von der Wiener Universitat', Freie Stimmen, 19 July 1905, p. 6; 'Ein
Czeche als Professor der Kunstgeschichte an der Wiener Univer-
sitat', Deutsches Nordmdhrerblatt, 23 July 1905, p. 5; 'Die Lehrkan-
zel fur Kunstgeschichte an der Universitat', Neues Wiener Journal,
9 August 1905, p. 6; 'Ein tschechischer Candidat fur eine Wiener
Lehrkanzel', Mdhrisches Tagblatt, 10 August 1905, p. 3.
37 See J. Koukal, 'Josef Neuwirth', in Stoleti Ustavu pro dejiny umeni
na Filozofickefakulte Univerzity Karlovy, ed. R. Biegel, R. Prahl,
J. Bachtik, Praha 2020, pp. 280-284.
38 J. Neuwirth, Mittelalterliche Wandgemalde und Tafelbilder der
Burg Karlstein in Bohrnen, Prag 1896. M. Dvorak, 'K dejinam