Dějiny věd a techniky 2015, 4

DVT – DĚJINY VĚD A TECHNIKY XLVIII (2015), 4
the institutionalization of Slavic scientific cooperation and the creation of a Slavic
scientific centre in the Czech Lands, namely in Prague. Conventions of Czech
naturalists and physicians and analogous meetings of other Slavic scientific
communities will be regarded in this paper as main platforms of cooperation
and starting points of potential integration.
The Conventions of the Society of German
Natural Scientists and Physicians as Prototype
of National European Scientific Conventions
In the course of the 19 th century, scientific societies and their meetings played an
ever more important role in scientific communication and formation of scientific
communities. One of the most influential scientific societies in Europe became
the Gesellschaft Deutscher Naturforscher und Ärzte, whose ideas had crystallized
for several years in the circle of romantic natural scientists and natural
philosophers around Lorenz Oken. Its founding meeting, which took place in
Leipzig in 1822 , was followed by regular annual meetings called Versammlung
The paper builds to a certain extent on the article Soňa ŠTRBÁŇOVÁ. Congresses
of the Czech Naturalists and Physicians in the Years 1880–1914 and the Czech-
-Polish Scientific Collaboration. Acta historiae rerum naturalium necnon technicarum, 21,
1989, p. 79–122, which contains abundant literature related to this topic. The
translation of the article into Polish included a few new facts and corrections; see
Soňa ŠTRBÁŇOVÁ. Zjazdy czeskich przyrodników i lekarzy w latach 1880–1914
oraz czesko-polska współpraca naukowa. In Irena STASIEWICZ-JASIUKOWA
– Jan. JANKO (eds.). Z dziejów polsko-czeskich i polsko-slowackich kontaktów naukowych.
Warszawa, Wektory gospodarki, 1990, p. 62–90. Another important source to the
history of the conventions is the article Duchoslav PANÝREK. Sjezdy českých
přírodníků a lékařů [Conventions of the Czech naturalists and physicians]. In Věstník
V. sjezdu českých přírodozpytcův a lékařů v Praze od 29. května do 3. června 1914. Praha,
1914, p. 5–10, 63–68. For recent literature see, for instance, Jarosław CABAJ. Walczyć
nauką za sprawy Ojczyzny. Zjazdy ponadzaborowe polskich środowisk naukowych i zawodowych
jako czynnik integracji narodowej (1864–1917). Siedlce, Akademia Podlaska, 2007. It is
necessary to highlight that my paper does not deal with the scientific side of the
conventions focusing mainly on the aspects outlined by the topic of the paper.
Lorenz Oken (1779–1851), German physician, biologist and philosopher, one of
the protagonists of the so-called Naturphilosophie.
Information about the conventions of the German naturalists and physicians can
be found in http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gesellschaft_Deutscher_Naturforscher_
und_%C3%84rzte#Geschichte; Die Geschichte der GDNÄ on website http://
www.gdnae.de/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Website_Geschichte.pdf ;
276
Soňa Štrbáňová