Witkowitz (noble family)

Witkowitz (earlier spelling Witkowic or Witkowicki ) is the name of a noble family from today's Poland, which then came to Austria via Bohemia.

The origins of the Witkowic (ki) family go back to the year 1100, when they probably emerged from the Vitkovice tribe . They were resident in the Reussen Voivodeship, where they remained until the 18th century.

The family becomes tangible with the award of its own coat of arms in 1697 and the Galician knighthood in the 18th century. Hiazynth Rochus Felizian von Witkowic (ki), like his father Joseph, was entered in the Galician nobility registers on October 18, 1782. On November 26, 1784, his brother Joseph was also legitimized as a knight of the Galician land table. The two remaining branches of the family go back to Hiazynth Rochus Felizian von Witkowic (ki) , whose descendants moved to Vienna in the 19th century and were mainly in the military service of the imperial family. At the time of moving to Vienna, the spelling of Witkowic's name (ki) was changed to the current form Witkowitz .

coat of arms

In a blue shield there is a silver horseshoe, which is raised by a golden, curly paw cross (also called "Mantuan Cross", Latin: Crux patens ). Below is a fallen, silver arrow. The helmet that towers above the shield is a spangenhelm with a gold visor and a gold chain. The crest is a half- flight turned to the left on a golden crown of leaves pierced by a silver arrow.

About the origin of the coat of arms, which is carried out in a similar form by the Dolega family, there is the following history: In the war of King Boleslaw Krzywousty (1102–1139) against the Prussians, a knight Dolega of the coat of arms Pobog shot so happily that he did Leader of the Prussians killed by horseback. Its soldiers were subsequently successfully beaten by the Poles. As a reward, Dolega received the arrow for his coat of arms Pobog and the new coat of arms was named after him. In contrast to the coat of arms of the Dolega, where it is black, the flight in the coat of arms of the von Witkowic (ki) family is a white one.

literature

• The nobility of Galicia, Lodomeria and Bukowina, Captain Friedrich Heyer von Rosenfeld, continued and ended by Dr. Ivan von Bojnicic / Nuremberg 1905
• Status surveys and acts of grace for the German Empire and the Austrian hereditary lands ... "Karl Friedrich von Frank