Józef Bem

Hungary state institutions National liberation and anti-colonial movements 1794–1850 → Died in exile

Polish general of the November Uprising who led the defence of Vienna in 1848 and the Hungarian campaign in Transylvania

Born at Tarnów in Galicia in 1794, he joined the army of the Duchy of Warsaw and served in the invasion of Russia in 1812 and the defence of Danzig in 1813. He joined the Polish November Uprising against Russia in 1830 and became a brigadier general, then lived in exile in Paris. In October 1848 he led the defence of Vienna, and after its fall went to Hungary to offer his services to Kossuth. Entrusted with the defence of Transylvania, he won at Piski in February 1849 and in March drove out the Austrian and Russian troops, but his army was annihilated at Segesvár on 31 July and he was seriously wounded at Temesvár on 9 August. Fleeing to the Ottoman Empire, he converted to Islam and served as governor of Aleppo as Murad Pasha, dying of malaria in 1850.

Also known as: Murad Pasha · Józef Zachariasz Bem