Based on an analysis of a series of rectorial inauguration speeches or analogical programmatic texts, the author’s aim is to follow the changing views regarding the function and mission of the Prague universities: a Czech and a German one in 1882–1939 and just one, the Czech one, after 1945. The program-setting texts oscillated between defining the mission of universities in terms of elite institutions of science that keep up with international trends on the one hand and focus on their social and political role on the other hand. The former tone tended to dominate in the speeches of rectors who studied medicine or the natural sciences, while the latter was accentuated in the inaugural addresses of rectors who represented the humanities or social, economic, or legal sciences. This general difference was especially pronounced during the key events of Central European history. The function and content of rectorial addresses have been studied both in the context of the study of inaugural rectorial addresses at German universities and the study of academic celebrations against the background of political and social changes from the late 19th century until the present.
Petr Svobodný (Wed,) studied this question.