Baron Alexander von Bach
Alexander Freiherr von Bach (born 4 January 1813 in Loos village, NE, † November 12, 1893 in Unterwaltersdorf, Lower Austria) was an Austrian jurist and politician.
Life
Freiherr von Bach was a son of the lawyer Michael Bach; the conductor and composer Otto Bach and the politician Edward Bach were his brothers. He received his first lessons by a private tutor. After reaching the Matura (Abitur ) in Vienna, he studied at the University of Vienna, inter alia, law and Kameralwissenschaft. He completed his studies from a legal dissertation.
Immediately afterward, Bach got a job in the imperial Kammerprokuratur. When his father died in 1842, he took over his office and went on its transactions. In 1847 he undertook along with his brother August an extended journey through the Orient.
With effect from July 19, 1848 Emperor Ferdinand I confirmed the Cabinet under Prime Minister Anton Freiherr von Doblhoff -Dier, where Bach served as Minister of Justice. Bach's appointment of a Wiener Zeitung commented with the words:
The Pillersdorf Constitution, which had been introduced from the temporary Prime Minister Baron Franz Piller village already on 25 April of the same year, wanted to endorse Bach; but they never came into force.
This very liberal cabinet was overwhelmed and paralyzed after weeks; it resigned with effect from 8 October 1848. On 21 October of the same year, the new Foreign Minister Prince Felix zu Schwarzenberg was entrusted (successor of Baron Johann von Wessenberg ) to form a government.
Among other things, Count Franz Seraph stadium interior minister and Bach was again Minister of Justice. But when after a short time ill Stadium, Bach also led provisional whose ministry. With effect from July 28, 1849 Bach was then Interior Minister, Baron Anton von Schmerling Minister of Justice and Graf Stadion Minister without Portfolio.
Emperor Franz Joseph I called Bach 1849 curator of two years earlier by his uncle, Emperor Ferdinand I, founded Imperial Academy. As such, Bach also founded the Austrian bibliography, which is published weekly since September 1852. This office of the curator Bach had held of ten years; He was then appointed as his country's ambassador to the Vatican, and remained in that post until 1867 in Rome.
Alexander von Bach was commissioned in 1852 with the redesign of Austria in the conservative centralist sense of the young Emperor Franz Joseph I and was from 1852, not formally, but de facto the real head of the government ( " Ministry Bach" ). A convened by the Emperor Imperial Council had no meaning. The imposed March Constitution came into force and was practically never set on 31 December 1851, the New Year's patent also formally repealed. Thus, the emperor ruled again absolutely. Initially very liberal, Bach changed his policy more and more towards a clerical absolutism, which culminated in the Concordat of 1855. At the origin of this Concordat Bach was heavily involved and in this respect the most important representatives of the Austrian government in the negotiations with the Holy See.
He was raised as a carrier of the Grand Cross of the Austro- Imperial Order of Leopold, and in recognition of his services on April 28, 1854 Vienna shortly before the appointment of his brother Edward, with the same coat of arms in a baron.
1859, war broke out between Austria and Italy, which ended with the Battle of Solferino and was forced to resign in consequence of Bach. This phase from 1852 to 1859, in which Bach was next to the emperor the most powerful man in the country, is also known Austrian neo-absolutism.
Reception
Besides Felix zu Schwarzenberg and Karl Friedrich Kübeck Bach was the most influential representatives of a neoabsoluten policy, which called for the Austrian central government, without regard to non- German ethnic groups.
Nevertheless, he saw the need for reform and he freed example, against the resistance of the aristocrats, farmers from dependence on landlords. He also reformed the financial administration, education and ultimately the Austrian state structure itself, as he gave impetus to the expansion of the city of Vienna.
Above all, his smashing of local self-government in 1918 had lasted until the end of the monarchy.
Honors
- Grand Cross of the Order of Leopold
- Grand Cross of the Franz- Joseph- Orden
- Honorary citizen of Innsbruck ( 1854)
- Honorary citizen of Salzburg
- Honorary citizen of Budapest. This honorary citizenship, which he received during his lifetime, was deprived posthumously in 2011 under the national-conservative city tour.
Coat of arms
1854: The red, diagonally left with three, toothed, silvery beams crisscrossed central shield is on a rounded, silver Tatzenkreuz, which squares the main shield. 1 and 4 in a Gold einwärtsgekehrter, Red Lion, which carries with two front paws a high silver cross in front of him. 2 and 3 in Blue (1, 2) golden sheaves. In resting Freiherr crown with about four winning helmets. The first, with red -and-gold ceiling, the lion with the cross bears growing and einwärtsgewendet; the second, with black -and-gold ceiling, a einwärtssehenden, golden armored, winning, black eagle; the third, with red- silver covers, four red ostrich feathers, that are equal called the central shield; from the fourth hat, with blue -and-gold ceiling, hovering above between an open blue flight, the wings are each topped with a golden sheaf, also a golden sheaf, so that all three sheaves are taking the position as the 2nd and 3rd field. Supporters are two golden griffins, standing on a golden Arabeskenverzierung to which a red ribbon with the motto In cruce spes mea wraps in silver Lapidarbuchstaben.