Hugo II. Logothetti
Hugo Wladimir Emanuel Karl Borromäus Franz de Paula Johannes Nepomuk Count Logothetti (born October 2, 1852 in Cluj , † August 3, 1918 in Tehran ) was an Austro-Hungarian diplomat and the last envoy of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy in Tehran.
origin
Hugo von Logothetti comes from an old Byzantine family, the Logothetti , who derive their origin from Nikephoros I. Logothetis (804–811 Eastern Roman emperor) and who have been based on the Ionian island of Zakynthos (Zante) since the fall of Constantinople in 1453 . At that time the Ionian Islands were part of the Republic of Venice.
In the 18th century, Giacomo (Jakob) Count Logothetti (1741–1802), who was in the service of the Republic of Venice, came to the Principality of Moldova and, with the incorporation of Bukovina, into the Austrian state association. His descendants played an important role in the defense of this province, which was on the edge of the state, and were among the dignitaries of the capital, Chernivtsi .
Hugo's grandfather, Hugo I. Graf Logothetti (1801–1861), after marrying Pauline Freiin von Bartenstein , a granddaughter of Baron Johann Christoph Bartenstein , acquired the Bilowitz and Březolupy estates near Hungarian Hradisch in South Moravia in 1830 . He is known as the patron of the Bohemian painter Josef Mánes (1820–1871) and had him paint, among other things, “Veruna Čudová” - the most famous Mánes painting.
Hugo II was born on October 2, 1852 in Cluj- Napoca, where his father, Count Vladimir Logothetti (1822-1892) served as an officer. Because his mother came from the highest Transylvanian nobility (Nemes de Hidveg) and was resident in Cluj, he was baptized in the local cathedral. In 1858 the family returned to Bilowitz.
Career
After attending grammar school in the Moravian Hungarian Hradisch , Logothetti volunteered in the 54th Line Infantry Regiment in Olomouc , but had to resign from service in 1871 for health reasons. As he was very talented in languages, he studied from 1872 to 1877 at the Oriental Academy in Vienna founded by Maria Theresa , the forerunner of today's Diplomatic Academy . During his studies, he received several awards for excellent academic success. As he spoke fluent Arabic, Persian and Turkish, his first foreign post was inevitably the embassy in Constantinople, at that time one of the most important diplomatic missions in Austria-Hungary.
His further career is typical of a diplomat. He was: consular student in Constantinople 1877-1880, consular student in Alexandria (Egypt) 1880-1882, deputy consul in Alexandria in 1882, in the same year consul in Port Said . In 1883 representative of Austria-Hungary in the Compensation Commission in Alexandria. Since September 1883 attaché in Constantinople, where he became legation secretary in 1886 and made acquaintance with the Austro-Hungarian diplomat Julius Freiherr Zwiedinek von Südhorst (1833-1918), his future father-in-law.
On July 17, 1886, she married Frieda Barbara Freiin Zwiedinek von Südhorst (1866–1945), in the Church of St. Mariä Draperis in the diplomatic quarter of Constantinople - Pera. In 1889 Logothetti was appointed Judge of the First Instance in the then mixed International Tribunal in Alexandria. He held this position until 1897. In 1897 he was appointed Consul General of Austria-Hungary in Romania in Galati, where he was also the Austro-Hungarian delegate in the European Danube Commission . From 1899 to 1906 he was Consul General in Barcelona, 1906–1907 Consul in Milan, 1907–1911 Consul in Hamburg, 1911–1912 Consul General in Tunis.
Due to the emerging political tensions in the Balkans and the Middle East, it became necessary to fill the legation in Persia, which was neutral at the time, with an experienced diplomat who knew the country and language. Logothetti was therefore appointed on May 12, 1912 by the new kuk Foreign Minister Leopold Graf Berchtold as kuk Extraordinary Minister and Plenipotentiary Envoy in Tehran. Through his grandmother Karolina Countess Berchtold, Hugo Logothetti was related to the Foreign Minister, who was also a guest at Bilowitz several times.
England and Russia had already divided their spheres of influence in resource-rich Persia in 1906 - the Russians ruled over the north, the British over the southeast. In the west, the Ottoman Empire tried to gain influence as an ally of Austria-Hungary. In a secret agreement (1907), England and Russia attempted to give this state of affairs legitimation under international law. The Persians reacted with a constitutional revolution, which was violently ended between March and April 1912 with Russian and British help. Nevertheless, the new ruler was also careful to remain neutral. During the First World War , Persia formally declared its neutrality.
On November 4, 1912, Hugo Logothetti officially took up his position in Tehran. The task of the new envoy was to preserve the independence of Persia against all attempts by Russia and England directed against it and to continue to promote the economic interests of Austria-Hungary.
When the First World War broke out, Logothetti was on vacation. In view of the events, the family stayed at home (Moravia) and he returned alone to his post, where - contrary to all customs in diplomatic relations between states - he was arrested by the Russians and, after having taken away his property, deported to Europe via Sweden. Logothetti did not return to Tehran until April 27, 1915. After an attempted coup in August 1915, supported by the German Reich, and the German attempt to open a front against British India via Afghanistan via Persia, the situation of the ambassadors of the Central Powers had become uncertain and uncertain. From 1916 Logothetti remained effectively the only envoy of the Central Powers in Persia. He survived several assassination attempts in 1916 and 1917 almost unharmed.
In January 1918, the new Persian government tried to actually regain the country's neutrality, which had never been formally given up. After the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the withdrawal of Russian troops from Persia, the Austro-Hungarian legation made greater efforts to free prisoners of war of Austro-Hungarian origin in Russian-Turkmen camps, to lead them to Persia and from there to send them home. This project was only partially successful, also because Logothetti suddenly died on August 3, 1918 in a mysterious way. It appears that he succumbed to arsenic poisoning. He was buried in the French mission church.
family
Logothetti had 10 children with his wife Frieda († 1945), seven of whom reached adulthood. The eldest daughters Marie-Rose Countess Logothetti (1888–1976) and Karoline (Lola) Countess Logothetti (1891–1978) married diplomats - Marie-Rose married the Italian envoy Giulio Cesare Cavagliere Montagna (1874–1954), Lola the Dutch consul Willem- Bernard Engelbrecht (1881–1955). Hermine (Meta) married the Hungarian judge Géza de Ertsey and the youngest daughter Carmen married the engineer Lothar Schmid. The eldest son Felix served in the Austro-Hungarian army as an officer (Rittmeister) and married Stella Countess Barbo-Waxenstein. In 1942 he, his wife and his son Deodat were murdered in an attack by Tito partisans on the Watzenberg (Dob) castle in Slovenia, which had been in the possession of the Barbo family for centuries . Hugo III Count Logothetti (1901–1975) stayed on the Bilowitz family estate until 1945, as did Emanuel (1907–1990), the youngest son Emanuel, who was a civil servant in the Czechoslovak Republic until 1938 and after 1945 civil servant of the Free State of Bavaria (Ministerialrat for Refugees) in Munich married Mia de la Garde in 1942.
Orders and decorations
- Knight's Cross of the Franz Joseph Order in 1882
- Osmanje Order in 1883
- Imperial and Royal Chamberlain , Austria-Hungary - 1895
- Knight of the Order of the Crown of Italy in 1899
- Mecidiye Order in 1884
- Mecidiye Order I Class with Star in 1897
- Order of the Iron Crown in 1902
- Commander of the Order de Isabel la Católic in 1905
- Commander I class of the Order of Charles III. in 1906
- Grand Cross of the OK Leopold Order in 1908
- Grand Cordon de l'Ordre du Nichan-Istikhar, Tunisia - 1912/1330
- War Cross for Civil Merit 1st Class in 1918 (post mortem)
literature
- Logothetti family archive 1734-1945 , now Moravský zemský archiv, Brno, fund G 195
- Breycha – Vauthier: Logothetti Hugo Gf .. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 5, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1972, p. 298.
- Wilken Engelbrecht: Rod Logothettiů . In: Genealogické a heraldické informace 3, 1998, ISSN 0862-8963 , pp. 17-27.
- Peter Jung: An Unknown War 1914-1916. The Austro-Hungarian Legation Detachment Tehran. Stöhr publishing house, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-901208-21-6 , ( Austrian military history 5).
- Pavel Krystýn: Bílovičtí páni. Logothettiové . In. Pavel Krystýn: Bílovice 1256-2006. Obecní úřad Bílovice / Vydavatelství Petr Brázda, Bílovice / Břeclav 2006, ISBN 80-903762-7-4 , pp. 27–34.
- Vladimír Krystýn: Logothettiové z Bílovic . In: Slovácko Volume 40. Slovácké muzeum, Uherské Hradiště 1998, ISBN 80-86185-04-4 , pp. 221–234.
- Constanze Gfn. Logothetti: The neutral Persia between the Entente and Central Powers. Geostrategic location then and now. Unpublished diploma thesis Ludwig Maximilians University Munich 2008.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Logothetti, Hugo II. |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Logothetti, Hugo Wladimir Emanuel Karl Borromäus Franz de Paula Johannes Nepomuk Graf |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austro-Hungarian diplomat |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 2, 1852 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Cluj-Napoca |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 3, 1918 |
| Place of death | Tehran |