The University of Vienna was founded by the Habsburg ruler, Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria. This monarch was known as “Rudolf der Stifter” [Rudolf the Founder] on account of his fondness for building new cathedrals and monasteries, as well as the university. He may also have been motivated by rivalry with his Central European peers, the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles IV (who had established Charles University in Prague just a few years earlier, in 1348) and Casimir III (known as “Casimir the Great”), King of Poland (who had founded Jagiellonian University in Kraków one year earlier, in 1364).
Vienna is the oldest university, under continuous operation, in the present-day German-speaking lands (the oldest one in Germany proper being Heidelberg University, dating to 1386). Rudolf closely modeled its structure and curriculum on those of the University of Paris. Over the centuries, the school has experienced many ups and downs: at one point—during the first Siege of Vienna by Ottoman Turkish forces in 1529—its student body was reduced to a mere 30 souls.
Now, almost 500 years later, the university has certainly recovered handsomely: its present student population numbers around 94,000. Around one quarter of these are international students hailing from some 138 different countries.
As for notable alumni, during the early sixteenth century the influential Protestant reformer Ulrich Zwingli and the famous alchemist Paracelsus (Theophrastus von Hohenheim) both studied there.
The nineteenth century saw a long list of illustrious persons pass through the university’s gates, of which we may mention the following:
Poet, playwright, and novella-writer, Franz Grillparzer
Novella-writer and novelist, Adalbert Stifter
Gregor Mendel, the Augustinian monk who laid the foundations for population genetics
Marxist political thinker, Karl Kautsky
Physicist Christian Doppler, co-discoverer (with Hippolyte Fizeau) of the Doppler effect
Physicist Ludwig Boltzmann, founder of statistical mechanics
Composers Anton Bruckner & Gustav Mahler
Economist Carl Menger, co-discoverer (with W.S. Jevons and Léon Walras) of the subjective theory of value and founder of the Austrian School of Economics
Economist Eugen Böhm-Bawerk, Austrian Finance Minister and second-generation exponent of Austrian economics
Philosopher, Franz Brentano
Eminent physicist and philosopher, Ernst Mach
Founding fathers of psychoanalysis, Joseph Breuer and Sigmund Freud
During the twentieth century, some 20 University of Vienna–connected people have won the Nobel Prize, including:
Erwin Schrödinger—physics
Max Perutz & Hans Fischer—chemistry
Karl von Frisch and Konrad Lorenz—physiology or medicine
Friedrich Hayek—economics
Bulgarian-born essayist-memoirist, Elias Canetti—literature
Bosnian-born novelist, Ivo Andrić—literature
Other prominent, twentieth-century University of Vienna–connected persons include the following:
Composer, Anton Webern
Poet and dramatist, Hugo von Hofmannsthal
Influential satirist and cultural critic, Karl Kraus
Poet, Ingeborg Bachmann
Distinguished novelists, Stefan Zweig, Arthur Schnitzler, Joseph Roth, Hermann Broch, Heimito von Doderer, Gregor von Rezzori, & Elfriede Jelinek
Anti-Communist memoirist, novelist, and all-around intellectual gadfly, Arthur Koestler
Distinguished art historian, Ernst Gombrich
Film directors, Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder, & Michael Haneke
Second-generation psychoanalysts, Wilhelm Reich, Alfred Adler, Otto Rank, Erik Erikson, & Bruno Bettelheim
Existential psychiatrist, Viktor Frankl
Distinguished jurist and legal philosopher, Hans Kelsen
Philosopher, statesman, and first President of Czechoslovakia, Tomáš Masaryk
Economists, Ludwig von Mises & Joseph Schumpeter
Kurt Gödel, one of the greatest mathematicians and logicians of the twentieth century
Philosophers, Edmund Husserl, Alexius Meinong, Moritz Schlick, Rudolf Carnap, Otto Neurath, Karl Popper, & Paul Feyerabend
Physicists, Paul Ehrenfest & Lise Meitner
What is University of Vienna known for?
#3 World Rank
Psychology
#9 World Rank
Sociology
#11 World Rank
Philosophy
#11 World Rank
Religious Studies
#12 World Rank
Earth Sciences
#12 World Rank
Social Work
#13 World Rank
Mathematics
#13 World Rank
Medical
#15 World Rank
Economics
#16 World Rank
Literature
#16 World Rank
Anthropology
#18 World Rank
Biology
#19 World Rank
Physics
#24 World Rank
History
#25 World Rank
Chemistry
#29 World Rank
Law
#37 World Rank
Political Science
#49 World Rank
Criminal Justice
#58 World Rank
Computer Science
#69 World Rank
Education
#422 World Rank
Business
Influential People
Who are University of Vienna's Most influential alumni?
University of Vienna's most influential alumni faculty include professors and professionals in the fields of Psychology, Sociology, and Philosophy. University of Vienna’s most academically influential people include Sigmund Freud, Karl Popper, and Gregor Mendel.
Sigmund Freud
Austrian neurologist known as the founding father of psychoanalysis