Years ago, an oval stone plaque standing on a base with a Slovenian inscription was discovered in the courtyard of a house in Ljubljana’s Podutik district. Above the inscription was a carved coat of arms displaying an owl perched on a ring. The origin of the plaque as well as its subsequent fate and current location are unknown; however, there is no doubt that the coat of arms belonged to the Zhuber-Okróg family, ennobled in the mid-nineteenth century. Its founder was Johann Zhuber (Slovenianized: Ivan Čuber), born in 1790 in the Lower Carniolan village of Gabrje in the Parish of Brusnice. After completing his medical studies in Vienna, he first served as a substitute teacher at the civilian hospital in Ljubljana, and in 1819 he was appointed a teacher of theoretical and practical medicine at the Medico-Surgical Academy. Later, he became the senior physician of both the civilian hospital and Ljubljana’s psychiatric hospital. From 1851 onward, he was the director of the Ljubljana-based Provincial Benevolent Institutions. He retired in 1862 and died three years later.
Johann Zhuber was renowned as a good teacher and practitioner as well as a fervent opponent of homeopathy. He was decorated with the Austrian Golden Cross of Merit with Crown and the Civil Order of Saxony, which he earned in 1837 by treating Saxon King Frederick Augustus II, who he had fallen ill while making his journey through Ljubljana. In early 1865, Zhuber was raised to the rank of Austrian hereditary peerage with the predicate Okróg, which was probably derived from a Carniolan toponym. According to the family tradition, Johann chose this predicate in memory of his father Valentin’s fatal work-related accident that occurred in the Lower Carniolan village of Okrog. The predicate also provides the basis for the coat of arms featuring a metal ring (Sln. (o)krog) with a golden owl perched on it. The Rod of Asclepius rising from the crown alludes to Zhuber’s medical career. Issued on March 3rd, 1865, five days following Zhuber’s death, the noble diploma was conferred on his oldest son Raimund.
Although originating in a predominantly Slovenian environment, the Zhuber von Okróg family joined the German political party in Carniola in the second half of the nineteenth century. Dr. Zhuber—who consistently signed his name with the German name Johann rather than Slovenian Janez or Ivan—opposed granting Slovenian equal status with German in the Ljubljana municipal council, arguing that all councilors spoke German and were better versed in it than in Slovenian. His sons, also members of the German Constitutional Party in Ljubljana, found themselves under a barrage of attacks as Germanophiles. The oldest, Raimund, was a lawyer serving in Šmartno pri Litiji, Novo Mesto, and Ljubljana, where he also sat on the municipal council. Raimund’s younger brother Otto was an official in Kranj and Ljubljana, and the youngest of the brothers, Anton, was an officer that took part in the wars with Italy and Prussia.
Otto’s son Paul, an official in the service of the Princes Auersperg in Soteska, endeavored for the development of the princely thermal baths in Dolenjske Toplice and was, among other things, the author of the booklet Curort Töplitz in Krain (Töplitz Spa in Carniola; 1900).
Several members of the Zhuber von Okróg family were active officers in the Austro-Hungarian army. Perhaps the best known among them was Alexander, whose brigade participated in the battles for Belgrade in December 1914. According to a piece of information that has been preserved about him in his personal file, held by the Military Archives in Vienna, he was the first officer of the imperial-royal army to march into the city and take down the Serbian flag on Kalemegdan Fortress. Alexander Zhuber von Okróg is also known for having drawn (most likely for military purposes) a map of Ljubljana, currently held in Vienna.
Today, the Zhuber-Okróg family is highly ramified, with most of its members living in Austria and Germany and none in Slovenia.

Sources:
Rugále, Mariano in Preinfalk, Miha: Blagoslovljeni in prekleti. 1. del: Plemiške rodbine 19. in 20. stoletja na Slovenskem. Ljubljana: Viharnik, 2010, pp. 220–231.