Projev rektora ****************************************************************************************** * Projev rektora UK prof. Václava Hampla na konferenci Gemeinsame Tagung der tschechischen österreichischen und deutschen Wissenschaftsarchive in Prag ****************************************************************************************** Your Magnificence Rector Schücking, Dear colleagues, dear guests, In my office, I don’t often have the opportunity to meet with archivists and historians, k written records of our past who interpret these sources and present the results of their r colleagues and broader public. That is why I warmly welcome the opportunity to be present of a meeting of Czech, German, and Austrian archivists who look after source materials per history of Central European universities and thus maintain the memory of their institution together, form part of the shared heritage of Central Europe. Alma mater, or Alma mater studiorum, is a traditional metaphorical designation of universi educate students who eventually become their alumni. The use of metaphors, though part of of tools used by historians in their interpretative work, can be in some contexts inaccura even misleading. So, for example, the Prague alma mater has not always been a loving mothe and teachers. During the tense period of social and moral crisis and upheaval of late four fifteenth century, the Prague university, previously a truly universal European institutio into political and ideological controversies, which culminated in the king’s intervention and principles of its functioning. One of the consequences of the so-called Decree of Kutn Wenceslas IV issued in 1409, was the departure of a large number of scholars who no longer sons of this alma mater. Something similar can be said of the relation between the Prague a newly established university in Leipzig, which was at that time – and for a long time to seen as not maternal at all. The departure of a significant part of the Prague academic co creation of a new university in Leipzig led to an immediate as well as future drain of eno intellectual potential. At the time of its ‘birth’, the Leipzig ‘daughter’ was thus by its ‘mother’ quite naturally seen rather as an unwanted child. It is thanks mainly to the current generation of university archivists and historians –bot and on the German side – that the image of the past of the two sisterly Central European u is nowadays re-examined and cultivated in accordance with the most recent trends of archiv practice, university historiography, and needs of the societies in which these universitie Archives of both of our universities, the Prague and the Leipzig one, recently had numerou to prove that they are more than just one of the many parts of university administration, one where the steadily increasing stream of academic production ends. They both importantl to the celebrations of the Prague and the Leipzig alma mater. These universities commemora anniversaries in 1998 and 2009 with exhibitions, conferences, and above all, with a number which critically evaluated their history, marked by numerous periods of boom and prosperit by adversity and destruction. With a critical distance from the earlier, nationalistic or tinted, views of histories of Central European universities at the time of regional and re diversification which can be said to have begun in 1409, Czech and German historians have evaluate the impact of the Decree of Kutná Hora in the year of its 600th anniversary. Similarly interesting, complex, and ideologically tinted period in the history of Central universities is also the time of the rule of Communist regimes in Eastern Germany, former and Poland, and that, too, had lately become subject to intensive research. The university Prague and Leipzig collaborate on several research projects, prepare exhibitions and publi meeting of university archivists is part this joint effort. As I have already mentioned, I do not have many opportunities to meet with historians. Yet issues of the past of our alma mater and its older and younger relatives – to keep to the been using – eminently interesting. Even quite contemporary structures of international co European universities, be it within the Bologna Process or with the Coimbra Group (named a oldest European universities) have a historical dimension and a symbolic value. Quite rece the joint projects of the Coimbra Group was an edition of the texts of the founding charte European universities and both Czech and German archivists participated in this effort. In this context, I have some time ago started entertaining an idea of preparing and eventu something along a similar line. During doctoral graduations, academic events, visits to in which we cooperate, but also during visits of foreign guests in the Prague Karolinum, I ha increasingly aware of just how important and still relevant part of the academic culture a university insignia. It is not within my power to assign from the position of a ceremonial tasks to the archivists and historians who have gathered here, but I hope that my idea of publication or perhaps an exhibition of historical rectorial and faculty sceptres, signs o traditional symbols of academic autonomy, may become an inspiration to further collaborati and historians of not only Central European universities. Quod bonum, felix, faustum, fortunatumque eveniat!