Technikatörténeti szemle 23. (1997-98)

TANULMÁNYOK - Efmertová, Marcela: Major Anniversaries of Prague’s Czech Technical University and its Support from the Secondary School System in the Past

MARCELA EFMERTOVÁ* MAJOR ANNIVERSARIES OF PRAGUE'S CZECH TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY AND ITS SUPPORT FROM THE SECONDARY SCHOOL SYSTEM IN THE PAST Introduction During the 18th and 19th centuries, a system of technical education was established in the Czech lands that reflected the need to applying new knowledge and experiences gained during the first and second industrial revolution in the manufacturing sector. The focal point of the process was the capital Prague where Christian Joseph Willenberg (1655-1730) had founded in 1707 the Estates' Engineering Institute, which was reorganized in 1806 into a modern polytechnic by Franz Joseph Gerstner (1756-1832) on the model of the famous Paris Ecole Polytechnique. In structural terms, the Prague Polytechnic was a state school subsidized by the Czech estates, and its prime purpose was to support the newly emerging economic needs of the Czech lands. That is why today's Prague Technical University, the direct successor and heir to those two leading Central European institutes of learning, currently celebrates two major anniversaries: (290 years since its establishment and 190 years since its major reform). To mark the anniversaries it is appropriate and indeed useful to look back at the development of other types of elementary and secondary technical education, a branch that has enjoyed rich traditions in the Czech lands since the school reform of Empress Maria Theresa (1717-1780) and her son Joseph II (1741-1790). The development of education in the Czech lands was also influenced by the prevailing political situation in that country, then part of the Habsburg monarchy. After the extinction of the Habsburg dynasty on the male side, at the end of the 1840s, reign was assumed, in keeping with the so called pragmatic sanction (1713), by Empress Maria Theresa, the founder of the HabsburgLotharingian house, which then ruled in the Czech lands up to the year 1918. During the war-time years, when the Empress had to reinforce her empire's position in Central Europe, she introduced changes substantially modernizing the empire in state administration, in the military, in education and the economy. This facilitated and upsurge of crafts and stimulated flourishing manufacture, * Technical University, Technickâ 2,166 27 Prague 6 (Czech Republic)