[The medical faculty in Vienna during the nineteenth century]

To understand the enormous cultural dominans of Vienna during the 19-teenth century it is necessary to know some of the long history of the Habsburg empire. It was created as early as 1276. The Vienna medical faculty got its first strong position during the middle of the 18-teenth century. Vienna became the political and cultural centre as capital of the empire. From all parts of the many cultural country the intelligentsia came to the city. The development in all fields of culture: music, literature, art, and architecture was impressing. After the revolution in 1848 the medical faculty changed its policy and the so called second Vienna School was established. The pathologist Carl von Rokitansky played a decisive role both as administrator and as scientist. Many famous doctors and scientists gave the medical faculty a world-wide reputation and pupils from all over the world found Vienna to be a medical Mecca. In many medical specialities Vienna took the leading position. At the same time the faculty became a centre for bitter priority fights. One of the reasons for that was the vast collection of representatives from different nationalities and ethnic groups. The era of greatness began to diminish when it got to its end when the Austrian-Hungarian double monarchy fell into pieces in 1916 and disappeared definitely in 1938 after the German annexation.