Brno, University of

Brno, University of 

(full name, J. E. Purkyně University of Brno), the first university founded in Moravia after the collapse of Austria-Hungary and the formation of the independent state of Czechoslovakia. Located in the city of Brno. The faculties of law and medicine were opened in 1919, the faculty of natural sciences was opened in 1920, and the faculty of philology opened in 1921. The University of Brno was closed when Czechoslovakia was occupied by fascist German troops (1939); it reopened in 1945 after the liberation from the fascist occupying forces. The university was named after the famous Czech physiologist and pathologist J. E. Purkyně.

In the 1969-70 academic year the university had faculties of medicine, the arts, exact and natural sciences, and education; enrollment was 4,500, and there were 868 faculty members. The university library was founded in 1919 on the basis of an old library, which existed since 1770. As of 1969, the library had more than 1.5 million volumes.