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The Echo of the Quatercentenary ofUppsala University in 1877: Nordicuniversities as examples in Europe?Pieter Dhondt

Version of record first published: 01 Oct 2009.

To cite this article: Pieter Dhondt (2010): The Echo of the Quatercentenary of Uppsala Universityin 1877: Nordic universities as examples in Europe?, Scandinavian Journal of History, 35:1, 21-43

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03468750903132834

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Pieter Dhondt

THE ECHO OF THE QUATERCENTENARY

OF UPPSALA UNIVERSITY IN 1877

Nordic universities as examples in Europe?

Not only did renowned universities such as those of Paris, Berlin or Vienna function as models inEurope, but also the smaller Nordic universities were regularly referred to as examples beingworthy of imitation. The esteem in which Swedish universities were held especially received animportant boost when representatives from all of the European universities visited Uppsala in1877, on the occasion of the quatercentenary of this institution. How and to what extent didNordic universities function as examples in the reform of the higher education system in countriessuch as Belgium, France, Scotland or Russia? Although the sources do not permit to answer thisquestion definitely, the article still aims to modify and complete the idea of an exclusivepredominance of the German university model in Europe at the end of the 19th century.

Keywords University jubilees, University of Uppsala, educational models

Not only did renowned universities such as those of Paris, Berlin or Vienna function asmodels in Europe, but also the smaller Nordic universities were regularly referred to asexamples being worthy of imitation. The esteem in which Swedish universities were heldespecially received an important boost when representatives from all of the Europeanuniversities visited Uppsala in 1877, on the occasion of the quatercentenary of thisinstitution. Many of the foreign guests took the opportunity to visit not only Uppsalaand Stockholm, but also Copenhagen, Turku, Helsinki and other university cities inNorthern Europe. The number of foreign visitors and the list of countries which theyrepresented was striking: Finland, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Russia, Austria-Hungary,Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Great Britain.Officially, 87 professors represented 48 different universities, scientific academies andlearned societies. Many of them were accompanied by their wives, a colleague or anassistant, so the actual number of foreign guests amounted to between 250 and 300.

The great majority of the foreign delegates were extremely impressed by thefestivities in Uppsala and, upon returning home, one-fifth of them gave an account inone way or another of their stay in Uppsala: a lively report in a newspaper, a criticalreview in a scientific journal or personal notes in their diaries. Enthusiastic reports werepresented (unfortunately often only orally) at the scientific academies of Oslo, Helsinki,

Scandinavian Journal of History Vol. 35, No. 1. March 2010, pp. 21–43

ISSN 0346-8755 print/ISSN 1502-7716 online ª 2010 Taylor & Francis

http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals DOI: 10.1080/03468750903132834

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St Petersburg, Dorpat, Vienna, Berlin, Gottingen,1 Brussels,2 Amsterdam and Edinburgh.Moreover, the presence of reporters from the major Scandinavian newspapers and ofmany papers from further away, such as The Times, The Scotsman, Le Monde illustre andHamburger Nachrichten, proves that the 400th anniversary of the University of Uppsala wasregarded not only as a celebration for and of the scientific world, but also for and of thesociety as a whole.

Nonetheless, the burden of undertaking such a long and exhausting journey was farfrom evident. Luckily, the warm welcome in Sweden and the excellent organization ofthe festivities compensated for the arduous trip, as will be shown in the first section. Thefour following sections examine which characteristics of Swedish and other Nordicuniversities impressed the foreign representatives especially: the huge respect foreducation and science, the openness of university education and the way Uppsalapresented itself as a national and international institution, the modern character of thesociety in general and the university in particular and finally the highly privileged andrespectable position of the students. The universities in Sweden, Finland and Denmarkshowed, according to them, that small countries could indeed have universities of highintellectual quality. In the final section, an attempt will be made to answer the questionof how and to what extent did Nordic universities function as examples in the reform ofthe higher education system in other European countries. Although the sources do notpermit to answer this question definitely, still the article aims to modify and completethe idea of an exclusive predominance of the German university model in Europe at theend of the 19th century. Whereas traditionally university jubilees merely led to areflection on the history of the indigenous institution,3 they give in this case the initialimpetus for an uncommon comparative approach.

One of the difficulties with regard to the source material is that despite the largeecho of the festivities in Uppsala, the number of sources is still rather limited because thearticle focuses on just one event. Therefore, some of the conclusions might appear notvery convincing on the first sight. However, on the basis of a double comparison I amsure not to exaggerate or to extrapolate too much the favourable statements of Belgian,French and British representatives. In most cases their eulogies were much more thanmere politeness. Firstly, the accounts of contemporaries about similar jubilees in thesame period are much smaller in number (e.g. in the case of the tercentenary ofEdinburgh University in 18844) or of a totally different kind (e.g. in the case of theoctocentenary of Bologna University in 1888).

The university authorities in Bologna in particular had spared no trouble or expense tomake the jubilee into a grandiose spectacle and that was precisely the image which foreignrepresentatives took back home. They spoke in the highest terms about the grandeur of theevent which attracted visitors from all over the world and about the pomp and circum-stance of the whole celebration. In contrast to their colleagues who visited Uppsalahowever, they did not reflect at all on what they could learn from the University ofBologna, let alone from Italian universities in general. Their reports were purely descriptiveand limited to the jubilee celebration as such.5 And if one could derive a lesson from theItalian example, then it was rather a negative one. The Scottish professor John Kirkpatrick,for instance, complained that the university authorities in Bologna ‘cannot move hand orfoot without the consent of the Ministry of Public Instruction’ and that academic freedomin general was too restrained.6 Like the reflections about the Uppsala quatercentenary, theaccounts about the Bologna octocentenary were characterized by a high degree of

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politeness, in a sense that the merits of the university in the past were affirmed and cheered.But at the same time it becomes clear that at the end of the 19th century the prestigiousoldest university of the world no longer functioned as a model for Central Europeanvisitors, as opposed to Swedish or Nordic universities.

Even more convincing is to contrast the accounts of Northern European visitors inUppsala with these of other foreign representatives. The enthusiasm of Nordic collea-gues was much more moderate and sometimes even some criticism was uttered.Moreover, most of their reports were much shorter or brought only a very detaileddescription of the ceremony. In Northern Europe the University of Uppsala had lostmost of its charisma already during the 1860s. As opposed to this, many of the Centraland Eastern European professors really thought about how the Swedish example couldbe of use in the reform of their own universities and so they reflected about much morethan only the jubilee itself. At a few places in the article the difference in perceptionbetween these two groups will be developed in more detail.7

A difficult trip, yet an excellent reception on arrival‘The journey to this point has fatigued me so much, that I have found it necessary to giveup the thought of proceeding further, and I am rather desirous of turning homewards assoon as I shall be a little recovered’, the Oxford philologist John Earle wrote from ahotel in Copenhagen to the jubilee committee.8 He was surely not the only one who hadto cancel his trip just because of its length and weariness. At the farewell dinner in theroyal private residence in Drottningholm, King Oscar II showed in reward his personalappreciation for these gentlemen who had braved the fatigues of travel and theinclemency of climate.

The young Belgian historian Paul Fredericq had already left Antwerp on 20 August,16 days before the start of the centenary. Together with his professor, he went on asightseeing tour through Germany, Denmark and Sweden. His extensive travel accountis permeated by numerous amusing anecdotes in which he surprises himself about ‘thetypical Nordic mentality’. In Copenhagen, for instance, they attended a Bal Mabille.9

When the orchestra started to play legato melancholic dance tunes, the gentlemenclasped their dance partners to them without a word and began to dance. No singlesmile or sign of joy could be noticed. ‘Nowhere else had I seen such gloomy andphlegmatic amusement’, Fredericq noticed.10

The long hours that Fredericq and many of his fellow travellers spent on trains andboats was used to grasp a basic knowledge of Swedish (and Danish). The French classicistCharles Graux also made some efforts in this direction. During his journey from Paris toUppsala, he made intermediate stops in Heidelberg, Copenhagen, Stockholm, and at thevast library of Skokloster Castle (between Stockholm and Uppsala), to collect and studyGreek manuscripts.11 His colleague from Dorpat, Leo Meyer, combined his stay inUppsala with a visit to several Northern European cities to study large collections ofrune stones and the Livonian rhyme chronicle (in the secret archives in Copenhagen).12

They all finally arrived in Stockholm by 4 September 1877, providing the city with avery lively sight. Specifically for the foreign visitors, the jubilee committee had openedan information desk in the central railway station, something which was greatlyappreciated. This, as well as the distribution of reduced-fare train tickets, made theforeigners feel extremely welcome. A special train brought the foreign guests to

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Uppsala. It left the station in Stockholm amid the cheers and congratulations of animmense assemblage of locals. A choir and an orchestra in one of the wagons obviouslycontributed to the festive atmosphere.When the train did finally reach Uppsala, twilighthad almost set in. Count Hamilton13 made a short speech in Swedish and French to bidthem welcome and a song was executed by the students’ choir, but the foreigners werein such a hurry to find out who their landlords were and the confusion of languages wasso extreme that this reception did not go off with the same effect as the festive arrival ofthe King a couple of hours earlier.14

Despite this minor chaos upon arrival, the large majority of the foreign professorswere elated by the excellent practical organization of the celebration as a whole, and bythe attention to all kinds of details, enabling everything to pass off swimmingly; from theadvance sending of tags for the luggage, to introducing the foreign guests to their hostsupon arrival. With 6,000 to 7,000 visitors in a city of merely 14,000 inhabitants,obviously all hotels were fully booked. This meant that many professors and dignitariesacted as host to the foreign guests. Some of them really did do their best to make theirguests feel at home. Per Hedenius, professor of pathology, hosted the Austriananatomist Richard Heschl, the Norwegian psychiatrist Ludvig Vilhelm Dahl and hisfriend, the Finnish anatomist Otto Hjelt. For the occasion, Hedenius had decorated hishouse with the Norwegian, Finnish, Austrian and Swedish flags.15 When Gustav Konig,professor of private law in Bern, transformed his speech at the people’s party into aword of thanks for the hospitality and for all those who had taken care that thecelebration could pass off smoothly, he gained general applause.16

A huge respect for education and scienceThe support of the king for the whole occasion was also generally appreciated. KingOscar II was so proud to have an academic degree from Uppsala University that he senthis sons there too, according to Emile de Laveleye, one of the Belgian representatives.17

Together with the crown prince, who had just enrolled at the university, the kingattended all parts of the extensive jubilee. ‘Where the king himself with an illustrioushand brings forward to his people the shining torch of knowledge, daylight has to spreadand flowers bloom spontaneously. That it will remain like this in the future, is a heartyand sincere wish, which I would like to present to you on behalf of the four Swissuniversities’, Konig stated when offering his address to the rector of the university.18

Very concretely, the support of the royal house took shape in a generous gift of40,000 Swedish crowns, which also included a prize for young researchers that is stillawarded to this day. The king announced the donation at the end of his ‘most animatedand eloquent speech’, during the official dinner in the Botanical Garden on the first day ofthe celebration. It was ‘by far the best speech delivered on the occasion’, AlexanderBuchan (representative of the Royal Society of Edinburgh) stated, in which the king urged

the advantages of a scientific and classical education to even the poorest of hissubjects; sketched with a rapid but firm hand the condition of Sweden when theUniversity was founded, and the salient points of its subsequent history; and theimportant part played by the University, as seen in its brilliant history during these400 years; gave expression to a fervent prayer that it would continue to maintainand extend its renown.19

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The effects of this policy to support education and science were clear, according tode Laveleye:

With regard to education, Sweden, together with the other Scandinavian countries,takes the lead of modern societies – nowhere else is education better or morespread. . . . Even in the most remote and less populated provinces you can claim asuperiority to be jealous on: there are no longer any illiterate people in Sweden.20

Although this statement was somewhat exaggerated, the reporter of The Scotsman wasequally convinced that

Sweden occupies, as regards the education of its people, a high place among thecountries of Europe. . . . The students are drawn from all classes of society, fromthe members of the Royal Family down to the very poorest; and it is this broad basisof its constitution, its direct connection with the system of national education, andthe real professional and political value of its degrees, which have given to thisUniversity a character so thoroughly national.21

A few years later, in preparation for the tercentenary of Edinburgh University, anotherreporter in the same newspaper (almost certainly James Maitland Anderson, librarian ofSt Andrews University) noticed that ‘the Swedish University system is organized oneven a more popular basis than that of Scotland’,22 which claimed to be highlydemocratic itself.23 Anderson’s statements showed that he, like many of his foreigncolleagues, perceived the Swedish university system primarily from his own perspectiveand of the needs of the indigenous educational system.

In this respect, two features in particular impressed many of the foreign guests,firstly that education at all levels was entirely free of charge and secondly, the opennesstowards female students. Buchan used his free time on Saturday morning to visit one ofthe largest public schools of Uppsala, where

as elsewhere in Sweden, the expense of education is wholly borne by the State. Thepupils pay no fees. All that is expected, is that those belonging to the wealthierclasses of the community voluntarily contribute a small sum towards certainincidental expenses, the whole amounting to only a few shillings annually.24

Karl Magnus Thorden, alumnus of the University of Uppsala, explained in his ‘pictureof the present status of his alma mater’ that gratis really meant gratis. Books and scientificappliances were also free, and at the disposal of the students. Consequently, theeducational system afforded all students an equal chance of first-rate education at thelowest price, and thus had raised many a man who, from the lowliest home, hadascended to the highest places in the State or Church.25

Secondly, the University of Uppsala clearly set an example by throwing open itsdoors to female students. With the exception of divinity and law, women wereadmitted to all the examinations; and as regards the rules and customs of the university,women were exactly on the same footing as men. However, Sweden was not excep-tionally early in this regard. The United States of America definitely took the lead byoffering the first doctoral degrees to women in the middle of the 19th century.

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In Europe, Switzerland in particular made a good start, but during the 1860s and 1870swomen were also admitted at many universities in other European countries: France(1863), England (1867), Finland (1871),26 Sweden (1873), Denmark (1875), Italy(1876) and the Netherlands (1878).27 More so than elsewhere though, Sweden, Finlandand Denmark took care that this measure could also be implemented by providing asufficient number of high quality secondary schools, which was definitely not the case inBelgium for instance. The Belgian government could indeed learn a great deal from theSwedish example in this respect, de Laveleye asserted.28 Especially remarkable is thatJakob Karlowitsch Grot29 (representative of the Academy of St Petersburg), who wasotherwise extremely enthusiastic about the Swedish system, does not mention anythingabout this. The admission of women at Russian universities was still completely out ofthe question in 1877, so apparently not worth mentioning.

As a consequence of the openness of the educational system, the whole nation wasinvolved in the celebration in Uppsala.

The sympathy and enthusiasm are by no means restricted to the members of thelearned Republic, but are shared to the full extent by the citizens and the unlearnedmultitude; ‘Town’ and ‘Gown’ are animated by the same feelings, and not the leastexcited part are the ladies, for whom the coming days will bring many attractions inthe form of splendid sights and animated balls.

So wrote the reporter of The Times when observing the participation of the generalpublic.30 All the inhabitants of the small city at the Fyris River, as well as the citygovernment, contributed their might to the festive atmosphere; by decorating andilluminating their houses, or by organizing the people’s ball and by contributing towardsthe costs of the banqueting hall. Certainly in the last quarter of the 19th century, whenthe university was enlarging itself by attracting more students and by founding newinstitutes and laboratories, the university and the city were striving to improve linkswith one another. The common organization of the quatercentenary of the universityoffered a superior opportunity to improve this relationship.31

Uppsala University as a truly national and international institutionThat the whole country was involved in the festivities was especially striking during theceremony to award doctorates on the second day of the jubilee. The French historianAuguste Mathieu Geffroy voiced the opinion of many others in his description of theceremony: ‘It is not only the view of the old cathedral, the gunshots, or the music andsongs, that gave the ceremony of granting the degrees, like it is celebrated in the north’,– note the generalization of his perception to the whole Northern Europe – ‘itssolemnity and particular beauty, but mainly the fact that many of these doctors areeminent men, of whom the country is proud of, because of their contribution to scienceor for other amazing services’. Indeed, three kinds of doctors passed before thespectators eyes: first the jubilee doctors, those who had received their degree50 years or more previously; thereafter the honorary doctors, not only from Sweden,but also from Norway, Denmark and Finland; and finally those doctors who had justpassed all their examinations to obtain their scientific award. ‘In that way, all the

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generations and professions were united at the ceremony in Uppsala, where peoplewere decorated, coming from far behind the scholarly limits; the university reallyidentified itself with the country, in whose name the laurel wreaths were actuallyconferred’.32

It was not only remarkable that the whole country was represented, independent ofrank, age or gender, but also that social rank and distinction had to give way to scientificmerit, which shows again the huge respect for education and science. The best places inthe church were reserved for family and friends of those who were to be createddoctors. The king himself behaved as an ordinary doctor amongst the others. He hadchanged his admiral’s uniform with the light blue ribbon of the Order of the Seraphim33

of the day before, for a civil costume, wearing a black frock with collar of embroideredvelvet, a Doctor’s coat in fact, and in his button hole was fastened a miniature wreath oflaurels, in common with all those who had previously been created Doctor ofPhilosophy, King Oscar II having been made an honorary Doctor of Philosophy nineyears previously by the University of Lund, on the celebration of the bicentenary of itsfoundation.34

The University of Lund was established in 1668 after the model of the University ofUppsala, according to Grot. Moreover, in his perception, Uppsala had not only been themodel for all other Swedish universities too, in Dorpat (1632), in Abo/Turku (1640)and in Greifswald (1648), but also other Northern European universities, such asCopenhagen (1479) and Christiania (1811) regarded Uppsala as their respected(great-grand)mother.35 The fact of being the oldest and for a long time the onlyuniversity in Sweden, contributed largely to the acceptance of Uppsala as a nationalinstitution, in contrast with a local institution which merely paid attention to localinterests and priorities. Therefore, the fund that was established to finance the buildingof a new university house in Uppsala received contributions from the whole country.According to the original plan, the ceremonial laying of the first stone should have takenplace during the festivities, but due to several unexpected circumstances, the construc-tion only began in 1878 and it took until 1887 to complete the building.36

With the second day of the jubilee being dedicated to Uppsala as a nationaluniversity, the first day was entirely devoted to the praise of the university as aninternational institution. The divine service was held by the archbishop. In his sermonhe recalled the grace of God as shown in the history of the four centuries of theuniversity’s existence. After the first parts of a most powerful cantata, there followedthe proper business of the day. The rector made a long speech in Latin, which all theuniversities and learned societies were bound to answer, to proffer their good wishes tothe celebrated sister (see Figures 1 and 2). Most of the addresses, often accompanied byscientific studies, were exceptionally well presented. According to Heschl himself, theVienna address was the most beautiful of all, bound in purple velvet with ormolu.37 Intheir congratulations, almost all of the delegates emphasized firstly the relationshipbetween their own university or their own country and the University of Uppsala, andsecondly the eminence of the birthday institution and of Swedish science in general. Assuch the content of these speeches was not surprising, but compared with similaraddresses in Bologna in 1888 it is striking that the praises directed at the University ofUppsala were situated in the past as well as in the present, which clearly was not the casein Bologna. The Italian university(ies) lived on her (their) prestige as being the oldestEuropean university(ies).38

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The Berlin mathematician Karl Weierstrass described Uppsala as an institutionwhich resembled the German universities, both in its spirit and its formal organization.Its importance in world history assured it a respectable place in the list of Europeanuniversities. According to Grot, the best way of proving and maintaining the highopinion Russia had for Sweden and the rest of Northern Europe was the preservation ofeverything (laws, language, religion, customs, scientific institutions) that had previouslybeen so admired, as had been the case when Finland was united with Russia in1808–1809. Konig, in his part, recalled the literary relationship between Linnaeusand Albrecht von Haller from Bern.39 And finally, Donders was proud that the sameLinnaeus had obtained his doctoral degree in the Netherlands and he wondered if morewas needed to create an everlasting alliance between Dutch and Swedish scientificinstitutions.40 Continuously, references were made to Linnaeus. He functioned as theoutstanding example of the international scholar for whom borders did not exist.

Assembling such a huge international group led inevitably to lively discussions oninternational politics. The Prussian unification wars against Denmark, Austria andFrance were still fresh in everyone’s memory. Geffroy was happily surprised that hemet with a warm welcome. His hosts realized that France had not been the culprit for

FIGURE 1 Two pages of Fredericq’s notebook showing the king and the crown prince in their baldachin

and at the right, English envoys (top) and Geffroy as the leading figure of the French delegation. Ghent,

University Library: Hs 3707 IX: Fredericq, Paul. Reisdagboeken (1877).

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FIGURE 2 ‘The drawing depicts the interior of the cathedral at themoment whenGeffroy, representative

of the Institut de France, presents his congratulations to the rector on behalf of himself and his colleagues’:

‘Les Fetes d’Upsal’, 183–4.

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the recent threat towards Denmark, and thus towards the security of the whole ofNorthern Europe.41 More attention was paid, firstly to the death of the former Frenchpresident Adolphe Thiers, and secondly to the actual conflict in the Balkans. A fewmonths before the jubilee, at the end of April 1877, Russia had declared war uponTurkey. Its goal was to reverse territorial losses it had suffered during the Crimean Warand to re-establish itself in the Black Sea. Great Britain felt obliged to halt the advance ofthe Russians, as it could become a threat to their own position in the Mediterranean.The war was concluded in March 1878 when the Ottoman Empire recognized theindependence of Romania, Serbia, Montenegro and the autonomy of Bulgaria.However, in September 1877 the war was still going on and Grot was somewhatoffended that in the official programme not a word was mentioned about ‘somethingthat worried the soul of every Russian at that moment, viz. the thought of the sufferingof their religious brothers flooded with blood in the south’.42 In mutual conversations,the conflict came up regularly, but in the official part, salutary harmony and joy about aunified science prevailed, as the Finnish historian and writer Zacharias Topelius for-mulated; ‘the cultural conflict for justice and liberty in the Balkans contrasted sharplywith this picture’.43

The modern character of Sweden and UppsalaBut Sweden too had come a long way, Topelius mused further. The current peacefulposition of the country was just as much the result of age-long conflicts and wars. Andeconomically, Sweden had entered a new period only very recently. The 1870s aregenerally taken as the starting point for Sweden’s industrialization and economic trans-formation, although important changes were already underway earlier, certainly withinthe agricultural sector.44 The country made up for its arrears very quickly and the jubileecommittee wanted to show off the first results of this industrialization with an excursion tothe Dannemora iron ore mine near Uppsala on Saturday morning. Unfortunately, the tripwas cancelled due to bad weather, though most of the guests were not really disappointed.They could certainly do with some rest in anticipation of the return trip to Stockholm andthe sumptuous evening dinner at Drottningholm Palace.

Besides, like many of the other foreign representatives, the French writer ArvedeBarine did not need this excursion to realize that Sweden had totally changed during thepast 20 years, from a material as well as from a moral perspective.45 ‘The progressaccomplished by Sweden . . . in the recent period [forms] one of these surprising andinstructive contrasts’, her compatriot Geffroy continued: more and more luxurioushotels, improvement of the postal delivery service, railway connections ‘which weshould imitate’ and which contributed to the development of industry and trade. In thewake of this material development followed the moral progress, according to Geffroy:‘The former religious intolerance no longer exists, big efforts have been made, withmuch success, for improving the position of women. And also the intellectual progress isimpressive’.46

The most visible manifestation of material progress was the spacious banqueting hallwhich had been erected in the Botanical Garden, designed by the young architectMagnus Isaeus, who had gained his spurs with the Swedish pavilion at the WorldExhibition in Philadelphia the year before. The provisional festivity hall was exception-ally well constructed. By making use of much iron and steel, a lofty and well-ventilated

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building had been created (see Figure 3). By way of a gallery, the hall stood inconnection to the Linnaeus-room in the orangery. At least as spectacular was theultra-modern electric illumination of the hall and an electric sun on the facade of theorangery for the lighting of the garden, yet this last gadget did not work as well as wasplanned and it blinked on and off at regular intervals.47

The moral progress of Sweden and the advancement of science which Geffroynoticed was manifested at the University of Uppsala, for instance in the great number offamous professors who could be attracted by the generous financial support of theSwedish government and of the royal house in particular.48 These subsidies also made itpossible to start rich scientific collections and to build spacious lecture halls, nicelydecorated with portraits of important jurists, physicians, theologians, writers and philol-ogists, according to de Laveleye.49 His compatriot Fredericq explicitly contrasted thesituation in Finland and Sweden with the one in Belgium, where the lecture halls weredark, bare and gloomy, sometimes even really dirty. Those of the ‘palace’ of the Universityof Helsinki on the other hand resembled salons, equipped simply and austere, yet verycomfortable.50 Fredericq clearly departed away from the deficiencies of his own university.

Because of that, Fredericq also appreciated the, in his eyes, modern organization ofSwedish (and Finnish) education with regard to its content: the extensive educationalprogramme, a great number of professors and courses, the existence of cours pratiques inmodern and classical languages, the requirement of writing a dissertation in order to

FIGURE 3 Interior view of the modern banqueting hall, which was very nicely decorated. Along the

walls, the coats of arms of the various represented countries were shown and underneath ran a frieze

with the most famous names from the history of the University of Uppsala. ‘Ett minnesblad till Upsala

universitets jubelfest’, 309.

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graduate, and the possibility for the student to compose his own examination pro-gramme and thus to specialize.51 All of these characteristics were elements of the actualdiscussion in Belgium, to which Fredericq dedicated himself completely. Indeed, someof his aims were realized by the new law on higher education of 1876, but only withregard to natural sciences and medicine. The humanities were left out entirely in thecold.52 Also, Geffroy’s homage to Swedish university education can be placed againstthe background of a reform period of the French university system from the end of the1860s, when Victor Duruy became minister of education.53

In Scotland finally, a Royal Commission was appointed to inquire into the universitiesthere, exactly one year before the celebration in Uppsala. In its final report in 1878, thecommission suggested, among other proposals, the introduction of more specialization,more freedom, and more practical courses. Most of those involved in the process(professors, librarians, politicians) had already been interviewed by the commission beforethe start of the celebration in Uppsala. As a result, Balfour and others could not directlyutter their appreciation of the Swedish university model. However, it is likely to assumethat Anderson, Balfour and Thorden wrote their articles on the Uppsala celebration withthe intention of supporting the recommendations of the commission, though they provedquite difficult to introduce afterwards. Many of the recommendations were (at least tosome extent) based on the example of the leading German universities.54 According toThorden, the University of Uppsala

compares favourably with its twenty sister institutions in the German empire. . . . Itsearches after truth in all its forms, regardless of utilitarian application; and leavingthe technical and practical to other institutions, contents itself with the theoretical.[It] does but indirectly train useful and honourable members of society.55

All this was possible, due to the high degree of schooling all over the country, withcompulsory primary education (already from 1842) and excellent secondary schools.And that was precisely the main problem of Scottish universities, viz. the low level ofScottish (secondary) education which prevented all other kinds of reforms, according tothe Commission of 1878.

Whether the University of Uppsala could indeed be regarded as a modern institution isdebatable and certainly in this respect the views of Northern European and other foreignguests differed completely. On the one hand, the new statutes of 1876 had introduced newfeatures such as the possibility to specialize, and the establishment of seminars in humansciences, but on the other hand the jubilee was simultaneously a celebration of a universityidea which was about to disappear. Within the Nordic countries, Uppsala was consideredrather a stronghold of conservatism, firstly with regard to its attitude towards the introduc-tion of modern sciences in the wake of industrialization and the economic boom, andsecondly with regard to political developments in the direction of more democratization.The speech of Rector Sahlin on the first day of the festivities, being a eulogy on philosophy,was a nice illustration of the celebration as a kind of convulsion of the human sciences intheir conflict with the inevitably growing popularity of natural sciences.56

As far as the foreign guests were aware of this conflict, they perceived it as anexcellent mixture of old and new. De Laveleye expressed this view in his speech duringthe people’s party: ‘in many of your institutions you have preserved the ancient formsand the traditions of the past, but they were penetrated by modern life in waves, and so

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you managed to unite the spirit of reform with the spirit of conservation’.57 Certainlythe respect for traditions in connection to the doctor’s promotion was appreciated bymany of the foreign representatives: speeches in Latin, firing off a piece of ordnanceinstantly on the crowning of each doctor, and the conferment of symbols like thedoctor’s hat (referring to the ceremony of maturing into adulthood in ancient Rome),the laurel wreath and the golden ring (referring to the chaste marriage with Sophia;golden to remember the high value of the doctoral degree, and round to mark theperfection of science). Geffroy was even a bit jealous on this spirit of sage temperamentwhich, instead of renouncing old customs, combined them with the innovationsrequired by the future.58

Students, nations and musicGeneral appreciation was also uttered for the attitude of and towards the students. Theirwild but well-ordered enthusiasm formed one of the pleasantest reminiscences of thefestivities, according to Buchan.59 The students and the student associations were clearlyregarded as an integral part of university life as a whole. They were ‘the chief actors andcentral figures in the scene, instead of being introduced as mere supernumeraries’, aswas so often the case in the preparation of the tercentenary of Edinburgh University,criticized Anderson. The respect for and the discipline of the Swedish students con-trasted sharply with the difficulties in Edinburgh. However, things could be improved,according to Anderson, by involving the Edinburgh students likewise in the organizationof the jubilee and by giving them a part within the celebration.60 Many Germanuniversities contended with similar conflicts between professors and students andamong the students themselves, which came up especially during the (organization of)university jubilees. This particular circumstance explains the enthusiasm for the positionof the Swedish students expressed also by the reporter of the Hamburger Nachrichten.61

In seeking out the cause of this exceptional natural tact and instinct of discipline, theforeign representatives turned to the training the students received in managing their ownaffairs at the meetings of the student nations.62 Whereas the universities had the task toprepare the students for a profession (by offering general and vocational education), thestudent nations took care of education with regard to becoming a good citizen, with highmoral values. Thorden presented in his article one of the most extensive descriptions ofthe various duties of the nations.

Having entered the university, the students were under obligation to join one of thenations, among other reasons because these nations had jurisdiction (together withthe rector) over acts which involved the relation of the students to the university.. . . Besides furthering diligence, morality, and good order, the object of thesebodies was to afford the students means of mutual assistance, by libraries, disputa-tions, lectures, loans, musical and theatrical entertainments.63

For these activities they had at their disposal nicely decorated and well-equipped houses.Fredericq was particularly impressed by the (Old) student house in Helsinki and certainlyby the fact that it was paid for through a nationwide collection of funds, which provedagain the huge respect for education and science among the Nordic people.64

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The gatherings of a nation were of a two-fold character: either for business, or forenjoying life. In the former, every member was obliged to attend. The affairs of thesemeetings were the election of officers, the enactment of rules and regulations, anddecisions upon the budget of the body. Often the nations, and thus the studentsthemselves, had to assess their own members by giving testimonials of study andcharacter, to grant loans or stipends. These meetings distinguished themselves withhigh parliamentary manners and mature determination, and formed a practical school-ing in training the students in judicious, business-like transactions, in praise of which toomuch could hardly be said, according to Thorden.65 Many agreed with Thordens ode tothe student nations.

Teachers were also members of the nations, which encouraged a more familiar andpersonal intercourse between them and their pupils. For the foreign representatives,this pleasant relationship between students and professors was most apparent during thewelcome by the student nations on Wednesday evening. Many were impressed by thehigh guests who paid a visit to the nations, not only professors, but also dignitaries fromthe legal, religious and political world, members of both houses of parliament and eventhe ministers themselves. All of them put aside their titles, expressed in a short speechtheir respect for the students and raised their glasses together with them while theyreminisced about their own student days. The amount of punsch which accompanied thisevent was really impressive, according to the reporter of the Hamburger Nachrichten, and‘even for a German stomach difficult to endure’.66 However, it contributed to a generalatmosphere of fraternization, which characterized the whole jubilee.

In the afternoon, before the visit of the foreign representatives and Swedishdignitaries, the student nations had welcomed their fellows from Lund, Christiania,Copenhagen, Helsinki and Greifswald, all represented in Uppsala with official delega-tions. In fact, the students from Dorpat were due to be there as well but their trip hadbeen delayed. During the students’ dinner, as well as on other occasions during thefestival, e.g. at the torchlight procession, the students uttered their hope for the closeunion of their countries from a linguistic, cultural and intellectual point of view, Grotstated.67 The height of the political Scandinavian movement was principally in the 1840sand 1850s. It had lost much of its popularity since Denmark had been left in the lurch byits Northern European brother nations in its conflict with Germany.68

However, on occasions such as the Uppsala jubilee, students of the different Nordiccountries tried to bring this policy back to life by arguing for a more intensive and easierexchange of students, professors and knowledge. Most especially the students’ concerton Friday was taken as an opportunity to express these goals. Remarkably enough onlynon-Nordic visitors really took notice of the Scandinavian or Nordic character of thestudent’s concert. ‘The pieces selected for the concert were essentially Scandinavian,and were remarkable for the strong patriotism and inextinguishable love of freedomwhich breathed through them, and for a desire for union among the three Scandinaviannations’, Buchan remarked with regard to the ‘very fine’ concert he attended. ‘And itmay be added that a degree of excellence was achieved which no existing universitychoir could rival’.69

‘The membership of the choir is limited to 500, and as all in Sweden are taught musicin elementary and secondary schools, and as it is regarded an object of ambition to beadmitted as a member, there is no difficulty in maintaining the choir in a state of thehighest efficiency’, so Buchan explained as to the high quality of the concert.70 Each nation

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had its own singing school and often the students were members of a great number ofdifferent choirs. In consequence, nobody was surprised that music played such animportant part in the whole celebration, the promotion’s cantata of Victor Rydbergbeing the indisputable high point. The Ny Illustrerad Tidning correctly asserted that themusic of professor Josefsson for both cantatas (on Wednesday and Thursday) and theexcellent execution of them, contributed greatly to the success of the jubilee with the localand foreign guests. To many of them, it made clear that ‘Sweden is essentially a musicalcountry; it is as if the melancholy forests, the dreaming lakes, and murmuring rivulets hada harmony and melody of their own, and in the pure mountain air, under the influence of afrugal diet and hardy life, that most beautiful of all instruments, the human voice, attains aremarkable power and fullness’.71

The echo of the quatercentenary abroad‘Do we have to envy anything which the University of Uppsala has showed us, for ourcountry or for our higher education?’ Geffroy wondered at the end of his report. In hisanswer he voiced the opinion of many of his fellow travellers:

Yes, sure.We can not approach the intelligent reconciliation of ancient customs andfreedom with an indifferent heart and without looking back to ourselves. This greatschool in the North, where countless donations [. . .] assure firstly free education toeveryone who has the right to claim it, and secondly the independence towards thestate, if necessary; where young people learn primarily to respect and to value thememories, the laws and the customs of their country, and to rule themselves; thisinstitution devoted to active study and progress, honoured for more than a centuryand in our time especially for some of the principal discoveries in the scope ofnatural sciences; the quietness of a small university city.72

‘Does this mean that we have to dream of moving some parts of this building to us,or of adopting the main features of this model’, Geffroy wondered.

Probably not, therefore the historical circumstances and surroundings are toodifferent. One can regret it, but once the links with the past are cut through,they can not be restored. If you cut down the living tree, you sacrifice at once theadvantages acquired by a long past for a long future, and that double loss isirreversible. However, there is still light and air, which spread and circulatewider . . . What one has to hope for is that the progress achieved by us, does notprevent nor exclude our sincere homage to the progress achieved by foreign people,indeed in other forms and other conditions.73

One clear example in which French, Belgian and Dutch universities took inspiration fromthe progress achieved by foreign people, particularly in Sweden, was the admission offemale students. In this respect, and more generally in its inclusive policy concerning alllevels of education, Sweden certainly set an example to other countries. Of course,detailed case-studies of specific countries and specific universities are required to measureprecisely what influence the Swedish/Nordic universities exercised on their foreigncounterparts – through occasions like the quatercentenary of Uppsala University. But

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that the celebration in Uppsala left deep impressions on many of the foreign representa-tives is unquestionable and some changes in the national university system or at the homeuniversity had their origins at least partly in their experiences in Uppsala.

Fredericq’s pleasant, almost intimate, contact with his students was surely inspired bywhat he had seen in Uppsala.74 And indeed, the German universities were the main sourceof inspiration for the introduction of cours pratiques in philology, history and philosophy,but the Swedish and Finnish examples endorsed his plea. The extremely varied pro-gramme with very specific courses encouraged him to pursue the modernization of themonotonous and boringly general programme at the Belgian universities. Finally, educa-tion in modern languages was also well developed at the Nordic universities, according toFredericq, whereas this was completely lacking at his home university. Fredericq’s ode tothe modern character of the Nordic universities and the way he used this example as arhetorical tool for his own arguments, can doubtlessly be extrapolated to (many of) hisforeign colleagues in Uppsala.

Indeed, all of them departed with the needs and wants of their own country and theirown universities utmost in their minds. In their analysis of how the Swedish example couldbe of use, the Scottish representatives emphasized in the first place the exceptionallyprivileged position of the students and their exemplary conduct. In Edinburgh conversely,students had a tradition of boisterous rowdyism on public occasions, such as the rectorialelections. Shortly before the tercentenary of the university, a Students’ RepresentativeCouncil was formed with the idea that if the students were to be represented in universitydecision-making, this should automatically lead to more order, as was the case within theSwedish nations. Also for the organization of the celebration itself, the University ofEdinburgh took inspiration from the jubilee in Uppsala.75

Another (very practical) kind of echo which resonated from the festivities inUppsala concerned the numerous personal relationships which the professors estab-lished among each other during their stay in Sweden. All of the visitors were extremelyhappy with the many meetings they had attended and of their new acquaintances. TheGerman chemist Albert Ladenburg thought even that only becoming acquainted withfamous colleagues was worth mentioning in his memoirs.76 And Graux succeeded inattracting some colleagues to collaborate on his new journal Revue des revues et publicationsd’academies relatives a l’antiquite classique, which was the first effort on a large scale toransack all publications which were concerned with classical antiquity in any of itsaspects and to indicate their respective contents.77

All these individual examples prove to what extent the foreign professors wereimpressed by the University of Uppsala in particular, and by Nordic universities ingeneral. Because of the great number of accounts and eulogies on (the festivities at)Uppsala University, and because of the special character of these reports in comparisonto similar sources with regard to other jubilee celebrations or from other (in casuNordic) guests, it is certainly permitted to extrapolate and generalize these results tosome extent. Of course, still these accounts only express the views of a limited numberof professors who might not be representative for the opinion of the whole countryunder discussion. However, firstly the figures who pass the review are generallyinfluential characters in the national university system, secondly their enthusiasm isreally overwhelming as opposed to that of their Nordic colleagues,78 and thirdlyespecially for the Scottish and Belgian case the conclusions are backed up by otherresearch.

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Anyhow, it might be clear that a more thorough examination is to be done to reallyestimate to what extent Nordic universities functioned as examples in Europe.However, even these preliminary results contribute to a current tendency in historio-graphy to modify and complete the idea of an exclusive predominance of the Germanuniversity model in Europe at the end of the 19th century. Firstly, not all thecharacteristics of the German university system were considered being worthy ofimitation, like for instance the attitude towards female students. Germany was clearlysomewhat behind in this respect. Secondly, the features of the German (and otherforeign) model(s) were used in a pragmatic way and adapted to suit the particularities ofthe indigenous system. Thirdly, in most European countries specific characteristics ofother foreign university systems, such as the Swedish or Finnish, were adopted inanswer to specific needs of their own model.

Whether the perception of Nordic universities by foreign representatives corre-sponded to the reality, I will not comment on that, neither on what were the possibleunderlying explanations for the enthusiasm about Northern European universities.Indeed, the prestige of many German universities was in decline at precisely that timeand their political importance was fading away due to the recent national develop-ment, so in that way the Nordic universities formed an attractive alternative. For theGerman visitors this was certainly the case. Their enthusiasm was at least partlyinspired by a sense of dissatisfaction about the own system. In Belgium, theNetherlands and Great Britain however, the attractiveness of German universitieswas already rising again from the middle of the 1870s, and many of them consideredthe University of Uppsala worthy of imitation in particular because of the resemblanceto its German counterparts.

And finally, Grot mused on his experiences in Uppsala about whether the reforms atthe universities really were so fundamental. Did not all the universities stay largelyunchanged?

Returning to all what we saw in Upsala, to all those brilliant ceremonies andprocessions, . . . you ask yourself a question: why in this epoch, when all ancientinstitutions are being ruined, do universities which appeared such a long time agostill exist without any solid changes, conserving many of their first rites? It showsthat the spirit of the Middle Ages passed onto these universities a very correct ideaand a tenacious basis. All this was proved in the Uppsala celebrations.

So in his conclusion, Grot showed once again his great appreciation for the excellentmix of old and new in Uppsala.79

Acknowledgements

This article came about with the assistance of more than 30 colleagues, librarians andarchivists from all over Europe. Unfortunately, I cannot thank them all by name, butstill I would like to mention two of them in particular: Robert D. Anderson for themany useful suggestions and Julie Disson for the translation of the Russian sources.

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Notes

1 Schwarz, ‘Berichterstattung uber die vierte Sacularfeier der Universitat Upsala’, 573.2 Beneden, ‘Celebration du 400e anniversaire de l’Universite d’Upsal’, 399.3 Muller, ‘Vom Universitatsjubileum zur Universitatsgeschichte’, 32–3.4 Anderson, ‘Ceremony in Context’, 121–45.5 E.g. Loomans, ‘Le huitieme centenaire de l’Universite de Bologne’, 126–31.6 Kirkpatrick, The Octocentenary Festival of the University of Bologna, 92.7 This article, focussing on the echo of the quatercentenary of Uppsala University in Europe,

is the first in a series of two. The other article, on the reception of the celebration withinthe Nordic countries, will be published in 2010 in a separate volume, Dhondt and Kirwan,eds., 19th-Century University Jubilees as the Driving Forces of Increasing Nordic Cooperation.

8 Letter from John Earle to Robert Schultz (Copenhagen, 29 August 1877), Uppsalauniversitetsarkivet, Akademiska fester och jubileer FVa4 (1877). To reflect theatmosphere of the celebration, many citations have been used, when possible inEnglish. I took care of the translation of the other sources myself.

9 The Bal Mabille is a dance establishment founded by the brothers Mabille in 1844 inParis, located in an inner yard behind the Champs-Elysees. Especially the use of gaslighting was unique and renewing, which made it possible to open the ball only in theevening and not already in the afternoon. In a short time it became one of the mostpopular dance locations in Paris.

10 Fredericq, ‘Een reisje in ’t noorden’, 271 and 5–6.11 Graux, ‘Trois lettres sur la mission en Danemark et en Suede’, 339.12 Meyer, ‘Reise uber Kopenhagen und Stockholm nach Upsala’, 96–7.13 Henning Hamilton (politician, writer and army officer) was chancellor of Uppsala

University from 1872 to 1881.14 ‘The University of Upsala’, 11 September 1877.15 Hjelt, Otto E. A. Hjelt hans liv och garning, 225–6.16 Upsala Universitets fyrahundraars jubelfest september 1877, 122.17 Upsala Universitets fyrahundraars jubelfest september 1877, 121.18 Upsala Universitets fyrahundraars jubelfest september 1877, 45.19 Buchan, ‘Report of the Deputation to Upsala’, 522–3.20 Upsala Universitets fyrahundraars jubelfest september 1877, 50 and 121.21 [Buchan], ‘Sweden occupies. . .’, 2. Presumably by Buchan, who wrote a shortened

version of his report in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (Buchan,‘Report of the deputation to Upsala’).

22 [Anderson], ‘The University Tercentenary’, 4.23 Cf. Davie, The Democratic Intellect, and Anderson, Education and Opportunity in Victorian

Scotland.24 [Buchan], ‘Sweden occupies. . .’, 3.25 Thorden, ‘The University of Upsala’, 481. Thorden was a minister in a village in

South-Sweden. As member of the Swedish academy he has published several booksand articles on higher education in Scotland, Germany, Finland and Sweden.

26 The general restrictive Russian policy in this regard also had its repercussions inFinland, so that only in 1902 women were freely admitted to study at the university.However, in fields such as arts, sciences and medicine female students were enrolledon a rather regular basis already from the 1870s, among other reasons to meet thepersistent lack of physicians.

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27 Cf. Tikhonov, ‘Migrations des etudiants et feminisation de quelques universiteseuropeennes’, 43–54. The reality was often much more complex than theadvocates of the admission of women to the university suggested. In manycountries the most prestigious universities remained still closed to women for avery long time.

28 De Laveleye, L’instruction superieure pour les femmes, 16.29 Between 1841 and 1853, Grot had been teaching Russian and Russian literature at the

University of Helsinki. Afterwards he returned to St Petersburg where he held somehigh offices in the administration, but he maintained his interest in the Nordiccountries.

30 ‘The University of Upsala’, 8 September 1877.31 Frangsmyr, Jubelfesternas tidevarv, 22.32 Geffroy, ‘Le quatrieme centenaire de l’Universite d’Upsal’, 184–5.33 The Swedish Royal Order of the Seraphim is an order of chivalry created by King

Frederick I of Sweden in 1748. After the reorganization of the order in 1975, it isonly awarded to foreign heads of state and members of the royal family.

34 [Buchan], ‘Sweden occupies . . .’, 3. Nowadays, 1666 is considered the date offoundation of the University of Lund, but the bicentenary was celebrated in 1868,200 years after the first endowment of the university. Weibull, Lunds universitetshistoria, 1–14. Cf. Tersmeden, Fredrik. ‘1868: A Low Point in ScandinavianCooperation. The 200th Anniversary of the University of Lund in the Period ofthe German Unification Wars’, to be published in Dhondt and Kirwan, eds., 19th-Century University Jubilees.

35 Grot, Vospominanija o cetyrechsotletnem jubilee Upsal’skago universiteta, 11–13.36 Cf. Heinemann, ed. Universitetshuset i Uppsala. The same took place at the ‘national’

University of Edinburgh in 1884, where the new medical school, built on theoccasion of the tercentenary, was financed by contributions from the wholecountry. Anderson, ‘Ceremony in Context’, 125–7.

37 Heschl, ‘Das Jubelfest in Upsala’, 953.38 Cf. Paticchia, VIII centenario dell’Universita di Bologna, 1886–1888.39 Albrecht von Haller (1708–1777) was a Swiss anatomist, physiologist, naturalist and

poet.40 Upsala Universitets fyrahundraars jubelfest september 1877, 45–7, 51 and 122–3.41 Geffroy, ‘Le quatrieme centenaire de l’Universite d’Upsal’, 168–9.42 Grot, Vospominanija o cetyrechsotletnem jubilee Upsal’skago universiteta, 60–1.43 Topelius, ‘Tal vid K. Alexanders-universitetets inskrifningar, den 15 September

1877’, 146–7.44 Cf. Sodersten, ‘One Hundred Years of Swedish Development’, 15–36.45 Barine, ‘Le quatrieme centenaire de l’Universite d’Upsal’, 436. Arvede Barine was

the pseudonym of Mme. Charles Vincens, born Louise-Cecile Bouffe. She mostlywrote on the subject of women, but also about travel and the political issues of theday.

46 Geffroy, ‘Le quatrieme centenaire de l’Universite d’Upsal’, 166–7.47 ‘Das Jubelfest in Upsala’, 25 September 1877.48 Geffroy, ‘Le quatrieme centenaire de l’Universite d’Upsal’, 168.49 De Laveleye, Lettres d’Italie, 80.50 Fredericq, ‘Notes de voyage sur l’enseignement superieur en Suede et en Finlande’,

424–5.

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51 Fredericq, ‘Notes de voyage sur l’enseignement superieur en Suede et en Finlande’,424–5.

52 Dhondt, Un double compromis, 306.53 Cf. Horvath-Peterson, Victor Duruy and French Education.54 Dhondt, ‘Lehr- und Lernfreiheit en Abitur’, 92–3.55 Thorden, ‘The University of Upsala’, 480–1.56 Segerstedt, Universitetet i Uppsala, 32–5.57 Upsala Universitets fyrahundraars jubelfest september 1877, 121.58 Geffroy, ‘Le quatrieme centenaire de l’Universite d’Upsal’, 168.59 Buchan, ‘Report of the Deputation to Upsala’, 524.60 [Anderson], ‘The University Tercentenary’, 4. Cf. Anderson, ‘Edinburgh University

Celebrates’, 46–7 and Anderson, ‘Ceremony in Context’, 130.61 ‘Das Jubelfest in Upsala’, (22-09-1877). Cf. Lonnecker, ‘. . . gilt es, das Jubelfest

unserer Alma mater festlich zu begehen’, 145.62 Like at the other 17th-century Swedish universities of Dorpat, Abo/Turku and Lund,

the students in Uppsala were organized in nations, taking their names from theprovinces or regions from which they recruited their members. The nations were incharge of all kinds of social activities which were at other universities handled bystudent unions or student societies.

63 Thorden, ‘The University of Uppsala’, 486–7.64 Fredericq, ‘Notes de voyage sur l’enseignement superieur en Suede et en Finlande’,

425–6.65 Thorden, ‘The University of Uppsala’, 489–90.66 ‘Das Jubelfest in Uppsala’, (22-09-1877). Punsch is a traditional liqueur in Sweden

produced from arrack, neutral spirits, sugar, water, and various flavourings.67 Grot, Vospominanija o cetyrechsotletnem jubilee Upsal’skago universiteta, 45.68 Cf. Hilson, ‘Denmark, Norway and Sweden’, 192–209. The celebration of the

quatercentenary of Copenhagen University in 1879 was used as an opportunity torestore the relationships. Cf. Ellehøj, Grane, and Hørby, eds., Københavns Universitet1479–1979, 363–434 and Slottved, ‘Binding the Northern Universities, Scholars andPeople More Closely Together. The Quatercentenary of Copenhagen University in1879’, in Dhondt & Kirwan, eds., 19th-Century University Jubilees.

69 Buchan, ‘Report of the Deputation to Upsala’, 525. This themewill be further developedin Dhondt, ‘The Echo of the Quatercentenary of Uppsala University in 1877 within theNordic Countries’, in Dhondt & Kirwan, eds., 19th-Century University Jubilees.

70 Buchan, ‘Report of the Deputation to Upsala’, 525.71 ‘The University of Upsala’, 18 September 1877.72 Geffroy, ‘Le quatrieme centenaire de l’Universite d’Upsal’, 192.73 Geffroy, ‘Le quatrieme centenaire de l’Universite d’Upsal’, 192. Geffroy is referring

to the uprising in education as a result of the French Revolution, what led in his eyesto the need of thorough reforms in his own time.

74 Coppens, Paul Fredericq, 164–6.75 Anderson, ‘Ceremony in Context’, 123, 129–31.76 Ladenburg, Lebenserinnerungen, 109. In a short report written after the festivities in

Uppsala for the governing body of his university in Kiel, Ladenburg repeated thesame strengths of the Swedish system as most of his foreign colleagues: the respectand support of the king and the people in general for education and science, theopenness of education, the mixture of old and new worthy of imitation and the

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beautiful music during the whole celebration. Ladenburg, Bericht uber das 400jahrigeJubilaum der Universitat Uppsala; Landesarchiv Schleswig-Holstein, Archiv derChristian-Albrechts-Universitat zu Kiel: Abt. 47, Akte Nr. 868 Jubilaen fremderUniversitaten, Bd. 2; Laufzeit 1857–1881.

77 Graux, ‘Trois lettres sur la mission en Danemark et en Suede’, 340.78 One example from Paul Fredericq who devoted three series’ of articles in three different

journals to the Uppsala jubilee, together with some 100 pages in his diary: ‘These threedays of joy were so exceptionally successful and so remarkably important, that probablywe will never again in our live witness such special and deep impressions in such anatmosphere. . . . I promised you to send you my story of the quatercentenary of theUniversity of Uppsala, here it is. But it will be difficult, if not impossible to make youaware of the deep impression, which these unique festivities have left not only onme, buton all the foreign guests. Nevertheless, I will try to give you a meagre image of the wholehappening’, [Fredericq], ‘Uit Zweden’, 6 October 1877 and 15 September 1877. Suchstatements are more than mere politeness and appear in many of the non-NorthernEuropean accounts, but not in any of the Northern European reports.

79 Grot, Vospominanija o cetyrechsotletnem jubilee Upsal’skago universiteta, 67.

Manuscript References

Ghent University library: Hs 3707 IX: Fredericq, Paul. Reisdagboeken (1877).Landesarchiv Schleswig-Holstein, Archiv der Christian-Albrechts-Universitat zu Kiel: Abt.

47, Akte Nr. 868 Jubilaen fremder Universitaten, Bd. 2; Laufzeit 1857–1881.Uppsala universitetsarkivet (University archives of Uppsala): Akademiska fester och jubileer

FVa3-4 (1877).

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Pieter Dhondt (1976) is Lecturer in History of Education, at the University of Ghent

(Belgium). He studied modern history at the K.U. Leuven and specialized in university

history in Berlin and Edinburgh. In 2005 he obtained his doctoral degree at his home

university, studying the discussions on university education in 19th-century Belgium.

From 2006 to 2008 he was attached as a postdoctoral researcher to the University of

Helsinki. His current research focuses on European universities as international institu-

tions in the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. Address: Rietensplein 14, 3018

Wijgmaal, Belgium. [email: pieter.dhondt@helsinki.fi]

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