It was meant to replace the former Elisabeth University, which had been located in Bratislava since 1912, as the latter had been forcefully disbanded in 1919 by Samuel Zoch, plenipotentiary župan of Slovakia, after Hungarian professors refused to take an oath of allegiance[9] at that time in the First Czechoslovak Republic.

This persecution of former (predominantly Hungarian) pillars of education in Bratislava necessitated the recruitment of Czech academicians.

Kristian Hynek, were Czechs, since Slovakia at that time did not have enough educated Slovak speakers who could serve as faculty members.

In spite of personnel, financial, and space difficulties, the university developed research and teaching programs.

The Faculty of Philosophy, besides offering programs in the humanities and social sciences, also educated much-needed teachers for Slovakia's high schools.

Academic freedom returned after the end of the war in 1945 but was again cancelled in 1948 as the communists took power in Czechoslovakia, enforcing the ideology of Marxism-Leninism at Czechoslovak universities.