Vladimir Logothetti

Vladimir Emanuel Alexander Count Logothetti (4 August 1822 in Filiale Tamassy (now Tomášovce, Slovakia) – 7 December 1892 in Radautz, Bukovina (now Rădăuți, Romania)) was an Austrian-Hungarian nobleman, officer, politician and founder of the first voluntary fire brigade in Moravia.

His issue played an important role in the defence of this most eastern Austrian province and were counted among the honourables of its capital Czernowitz (nowadays: Chernivtsi, Чернівці, Ukraine).

Vladimir has been born 4 August 1822 in Filiale Tamassy (now Tomášovce, Lučenec District/Slovakia) where his father Hugo I Logothetti (1822–1892) served as Austrian army officer.

The uncertain military life with ever changing posts in then poorest part of the Austrian Empire, the so-called "Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria" will have been one of the reasons of this high loss of children.

In 1830 Hugo I Logothetti bought after selling his hereditary properties in the Bukovina the manors Bilovice and Březolupy near the South Moravian town of Uherské Hradiště.

The active participation of the Logothettis in the struggle for survival of the Empire against Hungarian, German and Italian revolts in 1848/9 was rewarded with an imperial decree of 8 July 1848 allowing Hugo I and his sons to "use the foreign title of Count".

Vladimir settled in Bílovice, his younger brother Zdenko lived with theirin 1861 widowed mother Pauline Countess Logothetti née Baroness Bartenstein (1800–1872) in Březolupy.

For the development of the village of Bílovice in particular and that of Southern Moravia in general the most important deed of Vladimir was the creation in 1869 of the first Moravian Voluntary Fire Brigade.

In 1861 and 1865 Vladimir and his brother Zdenko effectively helped to master blazes in the near village of Kněžpole that offered them then the honorary citizenship.

He organised competitions between Czech and German speaking schoolboys and was active in the Uherské Hradiště Men's Chorus that he founded with his father.

Vladimir Logothetti married 25 October 1851 in the Catholic Cathedral of the Transylvanian capital Klausenburg (now Cluj-Napoca/Romania) with Maria Karolina Rosalia Johanna Countess Nemes de Hidvég et Oltszem (1826–1906).

The married couple had four children: Hugo II (1852–1918), later a high Austro-Hungarian diplomat; Alfred (1853–1923), Austro-Hungarian army officer and after 1918 Romanian landowner; Rosalia (1856–1942), honorary lady of the Noble Ladies' Convent Maria Schul in Brünn (Brno); and Maria (1859–1929), married Paul Lamoral Baron Taxis von Bordogna und Valnigra (1852–1901).

Coat of arms of the Logothetti family as used by Vladimir
Portrait of Karolina Countess Logothetti née Countess Nemes de Hidvég c1870
Portrait of Vladimir Count Logothetti c1870
Bílovice Manor, photograph c1860
Registration of Vladimir Logothetti in Czech on the first sides of the journal of the Voluntary Fire Brigade of Bílovice
House of the Commander of the State Military Horse Breeding in Radautz (Bucovina) c1885
The Logothetti children. From left to right: Rosa Countess Logothetti (1856-1941), Hugo II Count Logothetti (1852-1918), Maria Baroness Taxis née Countess Logothetti (1859-1929), Alfred Count Logothetti (1853-1923). Bilovice, c1880