Medicinska fakulteta Univerze v Ljubljani 1919–1945 - Univerza v ...

The Faculty of Medicine in
Ljubljana 1919-1945
Establishment
With the end of the Great War and the disintegration of the
Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, efforts to establish a Slovenian
university intensified� Post December 1918, the university
campaign was lead by the University Commission, which included
representatives of the associations of lawyers, professors, doctors
and engineers, all Slovenian assistant professors and two delegates
of the National Government in Ljubljana� In the beginning, the
Commission’s work focused primarily on finding a solution for
Slovenian students and professors, who could no longer study or
work at foreign universities� Given the current conditions, they
believed that the quickest solution would be to collaborate with
the University of Zagreb, where parallel chairs with Slovenian
as the teaching language could be opened at the faculties of art,
law and medicine, while preparations took place to establish a
university in Ljubljana� This idea was later rejected by the Zagreb
University� However, there were demands to establish a university
in Ljubljana as soon as possible without provisional arrangements
in Zagreb even earlier� In early February, the commissioner for
learning and worship at the provincial government, Dr Karel
Verstovšek, presented the Belgrade authorities with a demand for
the earliest possible establishment of the university in Ljubljana�
Inspired by the establishment of a medical faculty in Zagreb,
Dr Alojz Kraigher, director of the Ljubljana General Hospital,
published the article The Faculty of Medicine at the Zagreb
University - and Slovenians in the Medical Journal in 1917,
urging the same to be done in Ljubljana� At the time, his
initiative was not met with general approval� There were some
doubts in the medical ranks given the unpreparedness for this
step and the unsuitable and professionally inadequate conditions
in the Ljubljana hospital� However, these were overridden by
those doctors who saw the establishment of a medical faculty
as fundamental to the progress of Slovenian health care� At the
meeting of the Slovenian Medical Association on 20 February
1919, Dr Alojz Kraigher read the report On the Need to Establish
a Faculty of Medicine in Ljubljana� The report sparked a lively
debate which resulted in the adoption of Kraigher’s proposed
resolution which, under the first head, demanded that a faculty
of medicine attached to the whole university is established
with lectures starting in the autumn of 1919, the government
immediately enter into agreement with gentlemen considered for
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Tatjana Dekleva
the prospective teaching body and a committee set up immediately
to organise a library and the first scientific institutes required� All
the demands, except for the one to start lectures in the autumn
of that same year, which was accepted by a large majority, were
accepted unanimously� The demand put forward to the University
Commission by Slovenian doctors was supported with historical,
cultural, practical and political reasons� They underlined most of
all the huge lack of physicians in the existing state and the fact
that most of them were foreigners who should be replaced with
Slovenians� In other parts of the country the shortage of doctors
was even worse, so the association felt that there should be
three or four medical faculties� Based on the number of medical
students in Zagreb and Belgrade at the time, 350 to 400 students
were expected to study in Ljubljana� They argued that smaller
faculties could provide better teaching�
In the University Commission, Slovenian doctors were
represented by Dr Alojz Kraigher, Dr Ivan Oražem and Dr Alojz
Zalokar� In early March, after receiving news from Belgrade that
a university would be founded in Ljubljana to start working in
the autumn that year, the University Commission set up subcommittees
charged with making all the arrangements needed for
the operation of the future faculties� By the end of March, the
subcommittee for the medical faculty presented its plan which
comprised: the rationale for the medical faculty, its organisation,
curriculum, chairs, teaching staff and budget� A plan of launching
work in autumn 1919 with one semester and an alternative plan
of launching work with three semesters were prepared� It was
envisaged that the faculty would gradually be expanded into a
complete 10-semester study course� The faculty would initially
be located in temporary premises, but its completion would also
require building suitable new premises� To start work with the
first semester in autumn 1919, it needed institutes of anatomy,
biology, chemistry and physics� The Anatomical Institute would
at first be located in the Pathological Department of the Ljubljana
provincial hospital, and the biology, chemistry and physics lectures
would be held at the Faculty of Arts� The plan also envisaged
funds for organising a medical library and locating it in the Home
Guard Barracks� The spring semester of the first academic year was
to run to the same extent and in the same premises, but for the
second academic year, an Institute of Histology and Embryology
and an Institute of Physiology would be required for second-year
students� The fifth semester would also see an Institute of Patho-