Academic Legion ( Vienna ) The Academic Legion ( ) was a military organization formed by university students in Vienna during the Revolutions of 1848 . It played a key role in toppling the government of Clemens Metternich and precipitating his retirement on 13 March 1848 . The Legion dissolved in October 1848 when the Vienna Uprising was crushed . History . The Legion , formed in 1848 , was composed of about 6000 university students . Although students were well represented in the revolutionary vanguard of most cities affected by the revolution during this time , nowhere had the university students played so important and prominent a part in the revolutionary movement as in Vienna . The students exercised a preponderant influence in the “ central committee , ” the administrative body of the revolutionaries , which consisted of an equal number of students and members of the citizens ' militia . Deputations of citizens and peasants came from all parts of Austria to present their grievances and petitions to the " Aula " , the headquarters of the students , which had suddenly risen as an authority omnipotent in the opinion of the multitude . When the imperial ministry was about to promulgate a new press law , which abolished the censorship but still contained many restrictions , its chief , Franz von Pillersdorf , requested the students to express their judgment about that law . And on 15 May 1848 the students , at the head of the revolutionaries , obligated the government to revoke the constitution it had imposed , and to promise the convocation of a constituent assembly to formulate a new constitution . The students successfully fended off various attempts of the government to dissolve their organization . They compelled the ministry to agree to the removal of the soldiery from the city of Vienna and to the formation of a committee of public safety , which was to consist principally of the members of the students ' organization . So independent and so comprehensive a power was confided to it that in several important respects it was the equal of the ministry . Without its consent , for instance , no military force should be employed in the city . Thus it might have been said without much exaggeration that for a certain time the students of Vienna governed Austria . In his " Reminiscences " , Carl Schurz describes the uniforms of the Academic Legion worn by the Viennese representatives at the Eisenach Student Conference of 25 September - 4 October 1848 : News of events which would develop into the end of the Legion ' s domination of Austrian politics came during the course of this conference . In the face of the reports they received , the Viennese representatives returned home . The imperial government had dispatched troops to Hungary to quell disturbances there . In response , the Viennese revolutionaries took to the streets . They lynched the imperial minister of war , Theodor Franz , Count Baillet von Latour , and drove government troops under Count Auersperg from the city . On 23 October , Austrian Field Marshal Alfred Windischgrätz arrived with a large body of reenforcements , and by 31 October the rebellion was crushed , the Legion members having all fled or been killed or captured .