Legal practice on the horizon. Motivations for becoming a lawyer in the long 19th century

In every era, it was necessary to study law in order to practise as a lawyer. A law degree is therefore a prerequisite for a lawyer's degree. However, there is little information on the motivation for enrolling in law school in the documents collected. Peter Busbach recalled that the nobility preferred to educate their children, and that when it came to it, they 'entered the legal profession exclusively'. This, however, was far from implying that they chose to study law or to qualify as lawyers for the sake of the legal profession itself. In his opinion, it was rather 'for ambition' among the nobility, 'as some young magnates still do today in obtaining a doctorate in philosophy or law, or a Bavarian royal prince a medical degree'. Ferenc Harrer, looking back half a century later, expressed a similar view of the general interest in legal studies: "Once upon a time in Hungary, every college student who had no other particular inclination went into law. It was on this basis that I became a lawyer in September 1891, although I cannot say that I did not have an interest in legal studies."