Johann Ritter von Bézard

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Jan Bézard in Polish uniform around 1930

Johann Baptist Andreas Caesar Ritter von Bézard (born May 5, 1871 in Krakow , Galicia , † March 9, 1954 in Vienna-Landstrasse ) was a k. u. k. and later a Polish officer. He was the inventor of the famous Bézard marching compass named after him .

resume

Johann Ritter von Bézard was born on May 5th, 1871 in Krakow, then in Galicia, Austria (now southern Poland). His father was the Austro-Hungarian Colonel Jan (Johann) Bézard, who was a major in the II. Battalion of the Austro-Hungarian Galician Infantry Regiment "Heinrich Prince of Prussia" No. 20 in Neu Sandez for his services in the war of 1866 with the Order of the Iron Crown 3rd class was awarded, with which the hereditary knighthood was connected.

Johann von Bézard attended schools in Znojmo and Bielitz , as well as military training centers in Košice and Mährisch Weißkirchen . His actual military studies, he completed 1889-1892 at the Theresian Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt and 1895-1897 at the war school in Vienna .

After several years of active service in Tarnau , he was professor of topography and cartography at the Theresian Military Academy and the Higher War School in Vienna from 1905 to 1911.

During this time he developed the basic model of a field compass (patented in 1902), which he sold himself. A few years later, the compass, significantly improved by a German company and referred to as the 1910 Army Model, was produced in large series.

Military career

At the beginning of the First World War he commanded the 2nd Battalion of the 2nd Tyrolean Jäger Regiment "Kaiserjäger" . He was wounded in 1914 and taken prisoner in Russia. There he fell ill with the Spanish flu . As an invalid he was exchanged for Russian prisoners in 1918 and returned to Austria, where he continued to stay in infection hospitals.

After being promoted to colonel , he was in command of his old regiment, the 2nd Tiroler Kaiserjäger and on July 14, 1918, despite illness, he was assigned to the 10th Army on the Italian front, where he was appointed commander of the " Borcola Section". During this time there was a sudden severe relapse and from November 5, 1918 he was treated in the hospital until his military retirement on March 1, 1919.

After the collapse of the German Empire and the establishment of a Polish state, he returned to his original homeland and participated in the Polish-Soviet War (1919–1921). For this he received the medal Polska Swemu Obrońcy (Defender of Poland). Due to his military training, he was accepted into the Polish Army with the rank of Colonel General. He was a lecturer in topography and then head of department at the Military Geography Institute in Warsaw. For 1925 he is named as Deputy Scientific Director at the "Wyższa Szkoła Wojenna" - for example: "Higher War School" (Warsaw, ul. Koszykowej 79).

He retired in 1927 and stayed on his estate in Poland. In 1946 his property became state property along with the estate through the decree on the agricultural reform.

Johann Ritter von Bézard returned to Austria after the Second World War , which took him to Turkey with his wife and daughter Margarethe. His wife died on the way to Austria, he found himself in a home for asylum seekers in Vienna, where he died completely impoverished in 1954.

The Bézard compass

The Bézard compass was produced in various versions until 1996.

  • Large Army Model II 1910

  • Back side - the logo consists of a circle (= compass) with the initial letters of the manufacturer: GL for Gotthilf LUFFT , company founder of the Mech. Werkstatt G. Lufft, today G. Lufft Mess- und Regeltechnik .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bézard's baptismal entry in the baptismal register of the Imperial and Royal Galician Infantry Regiment "Heinrich Prince of Prussia" No. 20, Volume IV (1833–1872), p. 128 ( digitized version available at FamilySearch after free registration).
  2. ↑ Note: pl: Wyższa Szkoła Wojenna
personal data
SURNAME Bézard, Johann Ritter von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bézard, Johann Baptist Andreas Caesar Ritter von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION officer
DATE OF BIRTH May 5, 1871
PLACE OF BIRTH Krakow
DATE OF DEATH March 9, 1954
Place of death Vienna-Landstrasse