Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts

History

The institution was founded in Zagreb on 29 April 1861 by the decision of the Croatian Parliament (Sabor) as the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts. The bishop and benefactor Josip Juraj Strossmayer, a prominent advocate of higher education during the 19th century Croatian national romanticism, set up a trust fund for this purpose and in 1860 submitted a large donation to the then viceroy (ban) of Croatia Josip Šokčević for the cause of being able to

bring together the best minds [...] and find a way in which books in the national languages could be produced in the Slavic South; the Academy should also take under its aegis all the areas of human science

After some years of deliberations by the Croatian Parliament and the emperor Franz Joseph, it was finally sanctioned by law in 1866. The official sponsor was Josip Juraj Strossmayer, while the first chairman of the academy was the distinguished Croatian historian Franjo Rački. Serbian linguist Đuro Daničić was elected secretary general of the academy, where he played a key role in preparing the academy's dictionary, the Croatian or Serbian Dictionary of JAZU.

The academy's creation was the logical extension of the University of Zagreb, the institution initially created in 1669 and also renewed by bishop Strossmayer in 1874. Bishop Strossmayer also initiated the building of the Academy Palace in the Zrinjevac park of Zagreb, and the Palace was completed in 1880. In 1884, the palace also became a host of the Strossmayer Gallery of Old Masters that contained 256 works of art (mostly paintings). The same is today one of the most prominent art galleries in Zagreb.

The academy started publishing the academic journal Rad in 1867. In 1882, each of the individual scientific classes of the academy started printing their own journals. In 1887, the academy published the first Ljetopis as a year book, as well as several other publications in history and ethnology.

Vatroslav Jagić, Baltazar Bogišić, Nikola Tesla, Mihailo Petrović, Dragutin Gorjanović-Kramberger, Andrija Mohorovičić, Ivan Meštrović, Lavoslav Ružička, Vladimir Prelog, Ivo Andrić, Miroslav Krleža, Ivan Supek and Franjo Tuđman were JAZU/HAZU members.

Name changes

The academy briefly changed name from "Yugoslav" to "Croatian" between 1941 and 1945 during the Independent State of Croatia.

It has again been renamed "Croatian" in 1991 after Croatia gained independence from Yugoslavia.

Criticism

In the 2000s, the academy has been criticized to the effect that membership and activities are based on academic cronyism and political favor rather than on scientific and artistic merit. In 2006 matters came to a head with the academy's refusal to induct Dr. Miroslav Radman, an accomplished biologist, a member of the French Academy of Sciences, and an advocate of a higher degree of meritocracy and accountability in Croatian academia. His supporters within the academy and the media decried the decision as reinforcing a politically motivated, unproductive status quo.

Dr. Ivo Banac, a Yale University professor and then a deputy in the Croatian parliament, addressed the chamber in a speech decrying a "dictatorship of mediocrity" in the academy, while Globus columnist Boris Dežulović satirized the institution as an "academy of stupidity and obedience". Dr. Vladimir Paar and others defended the academy's decision, averring that it did take pains to include accomplished scientists but that, since Dr. Radman's work has mostly taken place outside Croatia, it was appropriate that he remain a corresponding rather than a full member of the academy.

Nenad Ban, a distinguished molecular biologist from ETH Zurich and a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina is only a corresponding member of HAZU. Ivan Đikić, a molecular biologist working at the Goethe University Frankfurt, and also a member of Leopoldina since 2010, has not been able to join HAZU even as a corresponding member, despite being the most cited Croatian scientist, with more citations than the academy's 18-member Department of Medical Sciences combined.

From 2005 to 2007, the Department of Philological Sciences at the academy released several declarations on the linguistic situation in Croatia, which were criticised by Snježana Kordić for being nationalistically motivated rather than linguistically based. Despite pressure from members of the Department of Philological Sciences, one journal refused to stop publishing criticism.

In May 2022, the academy published a document outlining conditions for Bosnia and Herzegovina's entry into the European Union, calling for a third Croat entity to be implemented in the country due to the rising challenges faced by Croats from "Serbian secessionist and Bosniak unitarist" policies. It also proposed conditions to be fulfilled by Serbia and Montenegro before they joined the EU. It has been criticized by analysts for its ethno-nationalist and political nature and has drawn comparisons to the controversial SANU memorandum.