The history of the Department

Having initially offered a curriculum based on salvation history, in 1756 the state education authorities ordered that secular methodologies also be taught. This approach nevertheless came under pressure with the abolition of the Jesuits in 1773, followed not long after by the demotion of the university to the status of lyeum in 1782. Whilst the subject continued to be studied in Graz under the rubrics of church history and legal history, it was not until 1805 that a chair in World History and Austrian History was established, filled in 1806 by Julius Franz Borgias Schneller. Financial resources were so scarce at this time that there was initially no space in which to teach, and the appointment of new professors was stringently monitored. Following the revolutionary year of 1848 and the Thun-Hohenstein university reforms, the new chair was expanded to include a research role for the first time. 

Growth and expansion

After the university reform of 1848, which practically coincided with the death of the incumbent professor, Leopold Hassler, the chair of General History was filled by Johann Baptist Weiß in 1852. Weiß taught in Graz until his death in 1890. His tenure saw the emergence of several different approaches to history: in 1865, firstly, Austrian History was pared off from the existing General History curriculum, reflecting a wider popular agenda that sought to develop Austrian education in explicitly nationalistic terms. Franz Krones was duly appointed as the new Professor of Austrian History. This was followed in 1867 by the establishment of Modern History with the appointment of Adam Wolf. In 1884, Adolf Bauer was appointed (associate) professor of Ancient History for the first time. The remaining "rump" of General History was filled by the medievalist Arnold Busson in 1891. Since Johann Loserth's appointment in 1893, and with a brief interruption in the years 1940-1945, this professorship has also been associated with the auxiliary disciplines (Hilfswissenschaften), and still carries the title of  "General History of the Middle Ages and Ancillary Historical Sciences" (Allgemeine Geschichte des Mittelalters und Historische Hilfswissenschaften).

The Nazi era

The politics of the 1930s had a significant impact on the university. In 1935, the Ministry appointed the Benedictine priest Hugo Hantsch as Associate Professor of Austrian History, thereby rejecting the candidates proposed by the Faculty of Philosophy for the full professorship, who were evidently deemed to be insufficiently close to Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg. Following the Anschluss of 1938, Hantsch was suspended as an opponent of National Socialism, imprisoned and later interned in Buchenwald concentration camp. The German nationalist Hans Pirchegger initially supported him, and succeeded him in 1939 - though only after he had become a member of the NSDAP - as Associate Professor of "Regional History", as the Institute was called during the Nazi era. The end of the war saw major personnel changes. Hantsch returned to his post, only to accept an appointment at the University of Vienna in 1946. Professors who had adhered to Nazi ideology and who had in some cases been appointed in these years such as Ferdinand Bilger (Modern History), Walter Kienast (Medieval History), Fritz Schachermeyer (Ancient History) or Burkhard Seuffert (Ancillary Historical Sciences) mostly found themselves dismissed after 1945, though dismissal was often converted into retirement.

The medievalist Mathilde Uhlirz is an interesting case in point. She initially failed to pass through the Habilitation process on several occasions in the 1920s and 1930s due to gender-based discrimination; according to a decision by the faculty representatives, female candidates for Habilitation within the Faculty of Humanities had to perform to a higher standard than their male counterparts. In 1945 she was banned from the profession after her appointment as an adjunct professor in 1939 was found to have been at least partly due to her membership of the NSDAP. Like the aforementioned professors, however, she continued to receive support after the war. Whilst Kienast and Schachermeyer later took up professorships at other universities and received numerous honors, in the case of Uhlirz, as late as the 1950s professors in Graz continued to campaign for her reinstatement - though without success.

The second half of the 20th century

The second half of the 20th century saw further expansions to the Institute. In line with the gradual reorientation of historical scholarship in the German-speaking world, spurred on by the emergence of the French Annales school from around 1900, a chair for General Economic and Social History of the Middle Ages and modern times was created in 1969, filled by Othmar Pickl. In the same year, the Karl-Franzens-University appointed Ferdinand Hauptmann as the first professor of Southeast European History. This was followed in 1984 by the establishment of a professorship for General Contemporary History with a special focus on non-European countries and cultures, which was filled by Helmut Konrad. A recent addition to the expanding curriculum on offer in Graz is the professorship for History Didactics, which was filled by Alois Ecker in 2017.

As of January 2024, the internal structure of the Institut für Geschichte reads as follows: Medieval History (Tanja Skambraks), Early Modern History (Gabriele Haug-Moritz), Economic and Social History (Walter Iber), Southeast European History and Anthropology (Heike Karge), History Didactics (Christian Heuer), Global Contemporary History (Christiane Berth), European Contemporary History (N.N.), Cultural and Gender History (Heidrun Zettelbauer) and History of Austria and Central Europe in the 19th century (currently vacant).

The Institute does not include Ancient History, which - as is customary in Austria - exists as a separate department. The professorship is held by Wolfgang Spickermann (see the homepage of the Institute of Antiquity). The two departments enjoy close cooperation, providing for an interdisciplinary approach that has links with neighbouring fields such as archaeology and art history.