City of Salzburg – With a gun salute: Peter F. Kramml, head of the archives, said goodbye in “unretirement” with dignity
Actually, on Wednesday evening, November 30, 2022, there was “only” a lecture by Peter on the development of the Salzburg University. F. Kramml announced. In fact, however, a delegation of the Salzburg Citizens’ Guard and many notables marched up to honor the recently retired head of the Salzburg City Archives.
Important research institution
Department head Deputy Mayor Bernhard Auinger said that a great era had come to an end. He wished successor Sabine Veits-Falk continued success and emphasized Kramml’s always refreshing, always “dry humor”. Municipal director Max Tischler emphasized that Kramml had “made the city archive into a research institution that was important beyond the city limits” and, as a prolific writer, already shone in his application in 1993 with a 13-page catalog raisonné. Department head Dagmar Aigner said that he was “never satisfied with the second-best result.” Other congratulators included former mayor Heinz Schaden, former rector Heinrich Schmidinger, Prof. Erich Marx, director Oskar Dohle and other representatives of archives, museums and the university.
Gun salute in front of the house
Under the command of Albert Schempp, the Salzburg City Guard fired three honorary salutes with their cannon in front of the House of City History on Glockengasse and presented Kramml with their gold medal. Speaking of awards: In 2017, the now “unretired” was awarded the university ring of honor in gold. These days he received the Order of Rupert and Virgil in gold from the archbishop.
Successor Sabine Veits-Falk paid tribute to Kramml as a co-founder and long-time chairman of the “Friends of Salzburg City History”. He literally has “a memory like an elephant” and in more than 20 years of activity he has published more than 50 books, five bound inserts and 70 anthologies, including the major project “The City of Salzburg under National Socialism”.
Lecture: “From the plan of a state university in the 15th century to the state university of Salzburg”
In his farewell speech, the city archivist Peter F. Kramml mentioned the topic of “City and University”, the two poles between which his own professional life had taken place over the last more than 40 years.
Based on the 400th anniversary of Paris Lodron University, he highlighted the first attempts to found a Salzburg university in the 15th century and then the successful founding of the Benedictine University under Archbishop Paris Lodron. In doing so, he focused primarily on the effects on the city: in the middle of the city, a new university district and numerous colleges, i.e. residential buildings for students, such as the Rupertinum, were created.
Once a university in its own right
At that time, the university was not a special area of law that was not subject to the municipal court, since the rector had criminal and civil law over all students, professors and other university members, which repeatedly led to tensions. And the large number of students – in the 18th century, as today, there was one student for every seven residents – was also a significant economic factor.
After the abolition of the university in 1810, it was again and again representatives of the city who insisted on the emperor and the government authorities for the Salzburg University to be re-established or re-established. However, in the “culture war” the opinions about the form split irreconcilably the proponents of a Catholic university and those who wanted to see a state “value-free” university realized.
International activities of the city
Among the city’s forgotten activities are attempts to move the University of Lviv in 1869 and then those from Chernivtsi to Salzburg during World War I. The city fathers offered to use Mirabell Palace as a university building free of charge. Between 1903 and 1913, the castle was also the seat of the Rectorate of the Salzburg University Holiday Courses.
In the 1930s, a Catholic Albertus Magnus University was about to be built – after the “Anschluss” it was no longer an issue. Even the medical university in the Morzger Hügel area, named after Paracelsus and announced by the Nazi rulers, never had a chance of realizing.
New or rebuilt in 1962
It was not until 1962 that the University of Salzburg – actually a four-faculty state university – was newly built or rebuilt. However, the medical faculty provided for by law was never realized. Today, Paris-Lodron University has around 18,000 students and around 22,000 students are enrolled in all the universities in the city.