Baron Alexander von Bach (4 January 1813-12 November 1893) was Interior Minister of the Austrian Empire from 28 July 1849 to 22 August 1859, succeeding Franz Stadion von Warthausen and preceding Agenor Romuald Goluchowski.
Biography[]
Alexander von Bach was born in Loosdorf, Lower Austria, Austrian Empire on 4 January 1813 to a family of legal background. He was a well-known liberal lawyer, and he was nicknamed "Minister of the Backgrounds" before he served as Justice Minister from 1848 to 1849 and Interior Minister from 1849 to 1859. However, he was unprincipled and changed his position often, and popular opposition led to Bach being driven into the conservative ranks. He endorsed the centralization of the empire, and he supported restrictions on the freedom of the press, abandoned public trials, and gave the Catholic Church control over education and family life. Austria's military failures during the Italian Wars of Unification led to Bach's downfall in 1859, and he died in 1893.