Curious: Austrian receives his 15th academic title – Panorama

Günter Pichler, 81, is Prof. Mag. theol., Mag. rer. soc. oec., Lic. phil., Mag. DDr. phil., Mag. phil. professional theol., Mag. iur, Bakk. theol., Bacc. theol., Bakk. phil., Bac. phil. and recently also Lex legum Master. How did that happen?

Günter Pichler, 81, has just received his 15th academic degree: a “Lex Legum Master”. The Austrian announced it could possibly have been his last.

SZ: Mr. DDDDr. Pichler, which of your 15 titles is the most important for you?

Günter Pichler: All philosophical titles are important to me. Philosophy has challenged me the most intellectually over the years. In one of my doctoral theses, for example, I compared Hegel’s philosophical approach with that of the Austrian legal scholar Hans Kelsen.

Oh.

Do you know the architect of the Austrian Federal Constitution?

Kelsen…

Sure, Kelsen is a legal positivist. But what he says has meaning.

Mr. Pichler, you are now Prof. Mag. theol., Mag. rer. soc. oec., Lic. phil., Mag. DDr. phil., Mag. phil. professional theol., Mag. iur, Bakk. theol., Bacc. theol., Bakk. phil., Bac. phil. and more recently Lex Legum Master. We Germans always like to accuse the Austrians of a certain obsession with titles. Are you the best example of this?

Well, others grow flowers or hoard stamps, I just collect academic titles. And guess what? For me it is a great satisfaction. Expanding my knowledge has always been important to me.

How did you get this passion?

I got my first doctorate in law at a young age, after which I worked as a human resources manager in a company. At the age of 40 I became a teacher, but had to retire after a hip operation. Since I have always been interested in the creation reports in the Bible, but also in the Big Bang and evolution theory, I enrolled in the humanities at the University of Innsbruck.

The former Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg, Erwin Teufel, and Erwin Huber, a member of the CSU, only began to study philosophy when they were old.

Yes? At first my family thought I was out of my mind – mainly because of theology. My sons are lawyers, my daughter a teacher. But when my wife sat next to me in the lecture hall for the first time, she said: I want to do that too! And so she had to catch up on her Abitur first. Today she is 75 years old and also has two master’s degrees: in philosophy and in catholic theology.

Was it really boisterous in your Innsbruck student digs?

In the beginning we still took the train to the city every day, after all we live in Dornbirn. But later we actually looked for accommodation there. Yes, that was nice.

Young students usually give their older fellow students a wide berth, don’t they?

No no. The boys benefited from our experience and we from their spontaneity. We’ve even been invited to parties, but to be honest, parties have never been my thing.

Were you actually sitting in the lecture hall with the tablet?

Oh no! That’s when the train left for me. But as far as the basics go, I was able to keep up with the younger guys. If it got too technical for me, my sons would help me.

Dear Mr. DDDDr. Pichler, after so many titles and such an intensive study: What is the meaning of life now?

Even today, we know above all that we not know what Plato says. But I would say that the theologian Karl Rahner summed it up best: “Faith means enduring the incomprehensibility of God for a lifetime.” For me, that is the central sentence, even after 15 academic titles. I have already reserved this sentence for my obituary.

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