Abstract
IN taking possession of the high functions to which the vote of my colleagues has raised me, my first duty is to renew here, publicly, the expression of my thanks towards those who have given me this proof of their confidence. Its value is all the greater in my eyes because it has been given to me notwithstanding the few years I have passed among you and notwithstanding my function of professor in the natural sciences which form, in the curriculum of university education, a foreign element, the introduction of which has caused the modification of several points in the ancient organisation of the faculties, and will yet induce others in the future. The department of physics to which I have devoted myself is exactly that which contains the theoretical foundations of all the other branches of the natural sciences, and which presents in the most striking form the characteristic features of their methods. Thus I have several times already been compelled to propose to the University modifications in the rules previously followed, and I have had the pleasure of being always backed by the hearty support of my colleagues and the University Senate. Since you have chosen me to direct the University during the course of the next year, it is a proof, in my eyes, that you do not regard me as a rash innovator.
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ACADEMIC LIBERTY IN GERMAN UNIVERSITIES 1 . Nature 18, 50–53 (1878). https://doi.org/10.1038/018050a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/018050a0