Nicola Heusch

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Lieutenant General Nicola Heusch

Nicola Heusch (born March 5, 1837 in Calci , † April 11, 1902 in Bari ) was an Italian officer, most recently in the rank of lieutenant general.

Live and act

Nicola Heusch was the son of Joachim Heusch (1790–1869), government inspector in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany , and Carolina Pieri. His family came from the branch of the Heusch / Hoesch family , who moved from their ancestral home at Libermé Palace in Kettenis to Antwerp in the 16th century and then to Hamburg at the beginning of the 17th century . From there, in the middle of the 18th century, Nicolas great-grandfather emigrated to Italy, where he had settled as a merchant in Livorno .

In 1855 Heusch began his military career as a volunteer with the Grand Ducal troops of Tuscany . After various intermediate stations he was the IX. Battalion and promoted to lieutenant in 1859. In the same year he took part in a first major combat mission in the Second Italian War of Independence . After a short-term employment as a government official at the Royal Military College in Florence in 1860, Heusch was first transferred to the 18th Infantry Regiment and in 1862 to the 69th Infantry Regiment with his appointment as captain, with which he was involved in the Third Italian War of Independence in 1866 .

Heusch was promoted to major in 1870 and was transferred to the 26th Infantry Regiment, and in 1877 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and in 1881 to colonel with simultaneous appointment as commander of the 71st infantry regiment. A year later he was given command of the newly formed 6th Alpine Regiment and in 1884 the 4th Alpine Regiment . In 1888 Heusch was transferred to the “ Cagliari ” infantry brigade , and he was appointed commander. A year later Heusch was promoted to major general and in 1892 appointed inspector of the Alpine Corps.

On January 16, 1894, Heusch was sent to the province of Massa-Carrara as extraordinary commissioner with full powers to suppress the unrest in the Lunigiana region, which was sometimes accompanied by massive violence . Two days earlier, a demonstration attacked the financial station barracks in Carrara , killing a demonstrator and a member of the financial station. The trigger for the unrest was the drafting of some age groups for military service among the workers in the marble quarries , in which numerous work accidents with fatalities had previously occurred due to the precarious working conditions. In addition, the mood was fueled by the agitation of the anarchists and socialists, who were strongly represented among the workers, as well as by the fasci siciliani operating at the same time . In the following days, Heusch was able to put an end to the uprising, which claimed eight more lives, and more than 600 people arrested had to face a trial before the military court . In return, he campaigned for the quarry operators to set up accident insurance and a first aid station on the factory premises.

In view of this success, Heusch was asked to run for the coming local elections in the spring of 1895; however, he refused and was instead promoted to lieutenant general in February 1895. A year later he received the order from General Antonio Baldissera, the commander of the Italian troops in Ethiopia and successor to the recalled General Oreste Baratieri , as a division commander to support the Italian troops at the Battle of Adua , in which the Italians suffered a heavy defeat . Subsequently, Heusch was still a member of the court martial in Asmara in Ethiopia , before which General Baratieri had to answer and was finally acquitted.

Following his return to Italy, Heusch was accepted into the War Ministry and appointed division commander in Livorno. As in the years before, massive unrest with deaths and injuries broke out in Tuscany in early May 1898 in various centers in the region, including in Livorno, Figline Valdarno , Sesto Fiorentino , Florence and Pisa . Army corps, partly diplomatically.

At the beginning of 1902 Heusch was given command of the XI. Army corps in Bari, which he held for only a few months, as he died unexpectedly on April 11th.

Nicola Heusch was married twice and had five children.

Honors (selection)

literature

  • Piero Crociani:  Heusch, Nicola. In: Mario Caravale (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 61:  Guglielmo Gonzaga-Jacobini. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2003.
  • Albert Heusch: History of the Heusch family . La Ruelle Accidenzdruckerei, Aachen 1909, pp. 143–144

Web links

Commons : Nicola Heusch  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Piero Crociani:  Nicola Heusch. In: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI).
personal data
SURNAME Heusch, Nicola
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian lieutenant general
DATE OF BIRTH March 5, 1837
PLACE OF BIRTH Calci
DATE OF DEATH April 11, 1902
Place of death Bari