Joseph Barbaczy

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Joseph Barbaczy (* around 1750; † June 17, 1825 in Preßburg ) was an Austrian major general and involved in the Rastatt envoy murder.

Life

Career

Joseph Barbaczy probably joined the Imperial Army in 1768 and participated as a lieutenant colonel in the First Coalition War in the Battle of Tagliamento , in which the French defeated the Austrians (see also preliminary peace of Leoben ).

When the Second Coalition War against France broke out in 1799, he was colonel in command of the 11th Szekler Hussar Regiment , which he had already taken over in 1797. He served until the end of the war and was retired on May 27, 1801 and at the same time promoted to major general.

Work during the Rastatt envoy murder

The von Barbaczy regiment performed outpost services with the main army operating in south-western Germany and its headquarters were in Gernsbach an der Murg in mid-April 1799 . At this time, the Rastatt Congress had been meeting nearby since 1797 , which was supposed to ensure the implementation of the resolutions of the Peace of Campo Formio , namely the cession of the left bank of the Rhine to France.

After the outbreak of the Second Coalition War, Barbaczy received secret orders to stay and leave the French envoys who were at the congress. One of the tasks of the regiment was to interrupt the correspondence of the French ambassadors with their homeland; For this purpose, a troop of hussars destroyed the ferry near Plittersdorf that made the connection with Seltz (see also: Rheinfähre Plittersdorf – Seltz ) on the left bank of the Rhine.

For this reason, and because of personal harassment that German ambassadors had experienced through patrols near the city , the ambassador Franz Joseph von Albini turned a complaint to Barbaczy on April 20 . At the same time, he asked that the congress participants remain safely in Rastatt or that they could start their journey home. In response to the complaint, Barbaczy verbally denied that his soldiers had been commissioned to do this, but on April 22nd he sent a letter in which he did not recognize the city's neutrality , but the ambassadors were of course safe.

After a courier from the French ambassadors, who was supposed to bring dispatches to Strasbourg , was robbed of the papers and taken prisoner on April 25th, representatives of German states again complained. Barbaczy said he had reported the incident to his superiors and would have to wait for their decision. On the same day the army headquarters ordered that Barbaczy should occupy Rastatt and that the French envoys should leave within 24 hours. Because the French ambassadors had already decided before the arrest of the courier to leave the city by April 28 at the latest, they and their relatives were ready to leave in the morning. However, because the German ambassadors advised them to wait for the Colonel's answer, they stayed in Rastatt for the time being; At the same time another messenger was sent with the request whether the French ambassadors could leave without hindrance, but there was no answer.

On the other hand, Barbaczy had a detachment of 400 soldiers under the orders of Rittmeister Ludwig Burkard (* around 1748, † 1820), who was later retired in 1801 when he was promoted to major, break up from Gernsbach. He followed them, but stayed overnight on the way to Rastatt in the village of Rothenfels with the local Catholic pastor Diez.

Rittmeister Burkard and his soldiers arrived in Rastatt on April 28th in the evening, immediately occupied all city gates, with the order not to let anyone in or out. He ordered the French ambassador to leave within 24 hours and verbally informed the ambassador in Mainz that the ambassadors would remain safe on the trip. The French, who wanted to leave immediately, were prevented by the guards at the exit of the city. When they returned to the city, they were told when asked that there had been a misunderstanding; however, the demand for a military escort was refused by Rittmeister Burkard.

After the carriages started again around nine in the evening, they were stopped by hussars as soon as they had left the suburbs. These inquired about the three French ambassadors and specifically cut them down, two ambassadors were killed and one seriously wounded.

After the remaining ambassadors had sent a messenger to Barbaczy, he returned to Gernsbach after the incident. In a letter dated the morning of April 29th, he told the ambassadors that he had only been informed of the crime by their messenger, but that he regretted it very much.

He had on May 1, the headquarters of Villingen , where he was in custody taken.

In mid-October 1799 it was then published that the investigation carried out by Lieutenant Field Marshal Johann Rudolf Spork (1755–1806) had been completed and the files had been sent to Vienna , but the results of the investigation were never published, so that the authors and those responsible for the act remained unknown.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Streffleur's military journal . LW Seidel, 1837 ( google.de [accessed April 4, 2020]).
  2. ↑ Communications from the kuk war archive - supplement. History of K. and K. Wehrmacht 3/1. (1901) | Library | Hungaricana. Retrieved April 4, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Deutsche Rundschau . German Rundschau, 1876 ( google.de [accessed April 4, 2020]).
  4. ^ Diplomatic negotiations from the time of the French Revolution: ¬The Rastatter Congress and the second coalition; Part 2 . Marcus, 1879 ( google.de [accessed April 4, 2020]).
  5. ↑ The Rastatt Envoy Murder, according to the sources. and illuminated . Winter, 1869 ( google.de [accessed April 4, 2020]).
  6. ^ Friedrich Christoph Förster: Prussia's heroes in war and peace . Hempel, 1851 ( google.de [accessed April 4, 2020]).
personal data
SURNAME Barbaczy, Joseph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Barbaczy, Joseph von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian major general
DATE OF BIRTH around 1750
DATE OF DEATH June 17, 1825
Place of death Pressburg