Joseph Alois Bach

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Joseph Alois Bach as veteran and commander of the Order of St. Pius, portrait from the biography of Jakob Knauber, 1932
Joseph Alois Bach, 1867, as Papal Zuave
Zuavenefecht on the Monte Libretti on October 13, 1867. Here Sergeant Bach seized the initiative and independently took over the leadership of his troops, which is why he was promoted to officer on the battlefield.

Joseph Alois Bach (born May 15, 1838 in Klingenmünster , Palatinate , † January 7, 1912 in Montigny near Metz ) was papal Zuave and, as a result of personal bravery, was promoted to officer in 1867, later elevated to the rank of Roman nobility as Commander of the Order of Pius . After his military service in the Papal States as an official in Alsace-Lorraine operates imperial Rechnungsrat.

Life

Birth and family circumstances

Joseph Alois Bach was born as the son of the taker Nikolaus Bach and his wife Magdalena geb. Hauck, born in Klingenmünster . Bach's father immigrated to the Palatinate from Mombronn (now Montbronn ) in Lorraine, and his mother, an innkeeper’s daughter , came from Rodalben . When the later papal soldier was five years old, the family moved to Rülzheim , where the father held office for over 30 years and was one of the most active members of the Catholic parish. Joseph Alois Bach's brother Otto Bach was a priest in the Diocese of Speyer , most recently with the title of clergyman. When he himself served under the yellow and white flags in Rome, he worked in Landstuhl , Münchweiler, Grünstadt and Trippstadt, among others .

Service as a papal soldier

After the events of Italian unification and the occupation of large parts of the Papal States in 1860 accumulated, volunteers from all over the world moved to Rome to assist the Pope. In addition to the aristocrats and the military, there were also many ordinary people, often students, farmers and craftsmen, who moved out for the sake of the Holy Father's rights and the good cause. In Germany these volunteers - called "crusaders" - came mainly from the southern German Catholic area, from the Rhineland and from Westphalia (especially from the Münsterland ). Only a single Palatine is handed down, who at that time also hurried to Rome as a soldier ; Joseph Alois Bach from Rülzheim. The 22-year-old Bach traveled to Italy via Munich and Innsbruck in 1860. There the papal army has just been reorganized and, among other things, a Zouave regiment based on the model of the French colonial troops was set up. Joseph Alois Bach joined these Zouaves and took part in the fighting to defend the Papal States as early as autumn 1860, the most important of which was the battle of Castelfidardo on September 18, 1860.

In 1867, the national liberal Italians under Garibaldi broke into the Papal States again and stirred up revolts in Rome. The papal armed forces were engaged in battles against the external and internal enemy at the same time. In the late summer of 1867, Joseph Alois Bach stood out as a sergeant of the 4th Company when he led a 12-man reconnaissance party out of the Roman city gate of San Giovanni, where a returning rider had been ambushed by a gang of rioters. At the same time he took part in a night patrol with Lieutenant van Erp, where he was described as one of the “boldest NCOs of the Zouaves”. After that he must have been promoted to sergeant, because as such he moves with his troops to the northern border of the Papal States at the beginning of October to fight the invading Italians. On October 13th, the fortified village of Monte Libretti , located on a hill overgrown with vineyards , was to be taken. Contrary to initial assumptions, it was heavily occupied by Garibaldi's “red shirts”. Bach's company - 90 men - attacked towards evening. After a brief battle on the outposts, bitter hand-to-hand combat ensued, as the papal soldiers stormed to the fortress gate and even penetrated the village. Both leaders of the company fell. The outnumbered Zouaves fought like lions and were horribly decimated. Joseph Bach independently seized the initiative, took over command and urged his comrades restlessly to fight until he saw the impossibility of advancing further. Finally he gathered the troops in a house, close to the city wall, holed himself up there and offered bitter resistance all night, constantly threatened by the superior strength of the enemy. In the morning, in addition to many dead and wounded, he counted 16 fighting men, but was surprised to find that the enemy had withdrawn unexpectedly - apparently as a result of the fierce resistance. Only now did his battalion arrive for support. When Bach reported, the battalion chief Lieutenant Colonel Athanasius Baron de Charette was so moved by the courage of the leaderless crowd that he lowered his saber in front of them with a salute and had the entire battalion filmed past the 17 night defenders of Monte Libretti . He arranged for Joseph Alois Bach to be promoted to officer by telegram while still on the battlefield and to be awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of St. New Year . In the publication “Die Streiter for the Apostolic See in 1867” (Verlag für Kunst und Wissenschaft, Frankfurt, 1867) the author, Father Andreas Niedermayer , quotes an eyewitness as saying: “Sergeant Major Joseph Bach looked as if bathed in blood although he himself had not the slightest scratch. The next day he was able to telegraph to his parents in the Bavarian Rhine Palatinate: 'Seppel well and healthy, become an officer on the battlefield.' “In their homeland, the Palatinate Catholics then organized a collection and donated a valuable saber of honor to the famous compatriot who served in the papal service.

Civil Life, Death, and Appreciations

When the papal state was dissolved in 1870, Joseph Alois Bach also returned to his home country as papal lieutenant (at disposition). He had meanwhile married in Rome; his wife was called Emma Glanzmann and came from Baden . Because of his excellent knowledge of French, he was made official as a collector in the newly annexed realm of Alsace-Lorraine . There he worked professionally in Molsheim , Hagenau and Metz , where he retired in 1907 as the imperial accountant. His daughter Maria was a nun in Landstuhl . As Commander of the Order of Pius in 1906, Bach died on January 7, 1912 and was buried in the cemetery of his last place of residence, Montigny near Metz . Senior teacher Jakob Knauber from Eisenberg, researched for reasons of local history and published a small brochure about him in 1932. The contemporary writer Philipp Wasserburg - alias " Philipp Laicus " - from Mainz mentioned the man from Palatinate several times in 1873 in his 2-volume work "Silvio, a novel from the days of Mentana " and thus set him a literary monument during his lifetime.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Bach, Joseph Alois
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Papal Zouave
DATE OF BIRTH May 15, 1838
PLACE OF BIRTH Klingenmünster , Palatinate
DATE OF DEATH January 7, 1912
Place of death Montigny near Metz