Niklaus Franz von Bachmann

Niklaus Leodegar Franz Ignaz von Bachmann-An der Letz (born March 27, 1740 in Näfels ; † February 11, 1831 there ) was a Swiss military leader and first commander-in-chief of the Swiss army.

Felix Maria Diogg : Portrait of Niklaus Franz von Bachmann in French uniform, 1817

Life

Niklaus Leodegar Franz Ignaz von Bachmann was a son of Field Marshal (in French service) and Knight Ludwig Karl Leonhard Bachmann von Näfels (1683–1749) and Maria Ignazia Elisabetha Keller (1714–1779), a daughter of the Lucerne patrician Anton Leodegar Keller . His brother was Karl Josef Anton Leodegar von Bachmann .

He spent his childhood in the Freuler Palace in Näfels, school and training at the Stella Matutina Jesuit College in Feldkirch and at the Nazarenes Institute in Rome.

In 1756 he entered the French pay service and rose to lieutenant general . After the dismissal of the Swiss troops in France in 1792 he entered the Sardinian-Piedmontese service and was appointed major general in 1794 . He fought against the French Revolution and came back to Switzerland as a prisoner of war. The Helvetic government placed him under house arrest, then he went into English service and put the Bachmann regiment together with English means to fight against the French.

Tomb in Näfels

After the death of General Friedrich von Hotze , as inspector general of the Swiss emigre army, he took over the supreme command of the Swiss troops on the side of the Allies fighting against Napoleon . In the Stecklikkrieg he commanded the conservative troops, which ended the Helvetic in Bern. This made him the first commander-in-chief of a nationwide army since 1802. 1815 it chose the Diet to General . Bachmann was the only Swiss military leader in modern history to penetrate foreign territory with the consent of the Tagsatzung. The campaign in Franche-Comté failed after 20 kilometers because of bad weather and supply problems. Bachmann resigned on July 22, 1815 because of the lack of support from the Diet and handed over the command to Hans Conrad Finsler . As a result, Switzerland received recognition from the Allies for its efforts during the previous occupation of the border against Napoleon Bonaparte , who had returned from Elba at short notice , and although it had to cede part of the Pays de Gex it had claimed to France, it was able to cede part of it due to its efforts to keep.

Niklaus Franz von Bachmann introduced the red armbands with the white Swiss cross , which had been forgotten since the late Middle Ages . His ideas found their way into the federal treaty of 1815 and, in particular, into the military regulations of 1817.

See also

• List of Swiss generals

literature

• Hans Laupper: Bachmann, Niklaus Franz von. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Hans Laupper: General Niklaus Franz von Bachmann, federal commander in chief in the campaign of 1815. (1740–1831). (A contribution to the war history of Switzerland). Juris, Zurich 1974, ISBN 3-260-03825-6 (also: Freiburg (Switzerland), university, dissertation, 1974).
• Wilhelm Meyer-Ott:  Bachmann Baron an der Letz, Nikolaus Franz . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, p. 754.
• René Zeller : The forgotten general. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung from March 16, 2015.
• Emanuel Friedrich Fischer: In memory of Freyherrn Niklaus Franz von Bachmann , Zurich 1831 digitized

Web links

• Publications by and about Niklaus Franz von Bachmann in the Helveticat catalog of the Swiss National Library
• Homepage of the General Bachmann Society; accessed on November 8, 2019

Individual evidence

1. ↑ General Bachmann's curriculum vitae
2. ↑ General-Bachmann-Gesellschaft (Ed.): Grenzbesetzung 1815 (with foreword by Samuel Schmid ); 2015
3. ^ Hervé de Weck: Burgundy campaign. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
4. ↑ see Emanuel Friedrich Fischer: To the memory of Freyherrn Niklaus Franz von Bachmann. Zurich 1831, p. 77f Google digitized version
5. ↑ The individual evidence above