- Baron Alexander von Bach
Baron Alexander von Bach (German: "Alexander Freiherr [German title|Freiherr] von Bach";
4 January 1813 ,Loosdorf , Austria -12 November 1893 ,Schöngrabern , Austria) was anAustria n politician. His most notable achievement was instituting a system of centralised control at the beginning of the reign of EmperorFranz Joseph I of Austria .He served as Minister of Justice in 1848 - 1849 and then Minister of the Interior from 1849 to 1859. As a well-known Liberal lawyer, he was first called a "minister of barricades". However, he gradually accepted Conservative views.
After the death of
Felix, Prince Schwarzenberg in 1852, he largely dictated policy in Austria andHungary . Bach centralised administrative authority for theAustrian Empire , but he also endorsedreactionary policies that reducedfreedom of the press and abandoned public trials. He represented later the Absolutist (or "Klerikalabsolutist") direction, which culminated in the concordat of August 1855 that gave theRoman Catholic Church control over education and family life.On the other hand the
economic freedom rose greatly in 1850s. The internal customs duties were abolished.Bach was created
Baron ("Freiherr") in 1854. He was also the guardian of Science Academy ("Akademie der Wissenschaften") in 1849 - 1859.Prisons were full of political prisoners; during his administration, Czech nationalist
Karel Havlíček Borovský was expatriated toBrixen (1851 - 1855).The pillars of so-called Bach system ("Bachsches System") were, in the words of
Adolf Fischhof , four "armies": "a standing army of soldiers, a sitting army of office holders, a kneeling army of priests and a fawning army of sneaks".His fall in 1859 was highly caused by the failure in Italian war against
Kingdom of Sardinia andNapoleon III . Bach served as Ambassador to theHoly See in 1859-1867. He died secluded, in 1893.Notes
External links
* [http://encyklopedie.seznam.cz/heslo/213804-bach-alexander-judr-ministr-rakousky Ottův slovník naučný] cs icon
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