František Alexandr Zach

František Alexandr Zach, 1867

František Alexandr Zach (born May 1, 1807 , Brno , Moravia ; † January 14, 1892 ibid) was a Czech military theorist and general in the army of the Principality of Serbia . He founded the military academy in Serbia.

He was born in Brno in Moravia in an inn family. In 1824 he graduated from the German grammar school in Brno and studied law in Vienna . He then worked as a civil servant in various places in Moravia. During this time Zach became an ardent Pan-Slavist and took part in the Polish November uprising in 1830 . After the fall of the uprising, he emigrated to Paris and devoted himself to military studies. In Paris he had very good contacts with Prince Adam Czartoryski , some even saw him as an agent of Czartoryski. For a short time, Zach also lived in Belgrade . He experienced the revolutionary year of 1848 in Prague and took part in the Slavs Congress there. In 1849 he returned to Belgrade, where he founded the Military Academy. He himself taught artillery.

Under Prince Michael he became his advisor and general in the Serbian army. Zach took part in the Serbian-Ottoman War where he was wounded and lost a leg. Although František Zach was held jointly responsible for the defeat in the first Serbian-Ottoman war by Serbian politicians in 1876, as part of the officer corps was trained in the military academy he directed ("obviously the military craft was alien to him," said then Prime Minister Jovan Ristić ) , he enjoys a great reputation in Serbia today. In 1882 he finished his military service in Serbia and returned to Brno, where he died in 1892.

literature

• Constantin von Wurzbach : Zach, Franz . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 59th part. Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1890, pp. 70–73 ( digitized version ).