Countess Margit Szapáry (née Countess Margarete Henckel von Donnersmarck; 21 February 1871 – 17 May 1943) was a German salonnière, philanthropist, and member of the

German Catholic Women's Association The German Catholic Women's Association (german: Katholischer Deutscher Frauenbund), abbreviated as KDFB, is a federally registered Catholic lay women's organization and political interest group. The association has roughly 180,000 members in Ge ...

. She owned

Finstergrün Castle Finstergrün Castle (german: Burg Finstergrün) is a castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''cas ...

in Austria.

Biography

Szapáry was born Countess Margarete Henckel von Donnersmarck in Dresden on 21 February 1871. A member of the House of Henckel von Donnersmarck, she was the daughter of Count Hugo ll Henckel von Donnersmarck and Countess Wanda zu Rosenberg von Gaschin. She was a granddaughter of the industrialist Count

Hugo Henckel von Donnersmarck Hugo Graf Henckel von Donnersmarck (born April 26, 1811 in Siemianowitz, Upper Silesia (now in Poland), died October 4, 1890 in Vienna) was a German-Austrian entrepreneur. Biography He was born the only child of Count Karol Henckel von Donnersma ...

. She married the Hungarian aristocrat Count Sándor Szapáry on 18 July 1900. They had two children, Béla and Jolánta. After her husband's death in 1904, she took over the renovations of their home,

. In the 1920s, Countess Szapáry hosted salons at the castle, hosting influential guests including Rudolf Rameck and

Kurt von Schuschnigg Kurt Alois Josef Johann von Schuschnigg (; 14 December 1897 – 18 November 1977) was an Austrian Fatherland Front politician who was the Chancellor of the Federal State of Austria from the 1934 assassination of his predecessor Engelbert Dollfu ...

. In the 1930s and 1940s, she rented rooms in the castle to selected paying guests. Hume Cronyn, ''A Terrible Liar: A Memoir'' (1991), p. 100: “The schloss , a beautiful medieval castle, belonged to the Gräfin (Countess) Szapary and accommodated a few selected paying guests.” She was active in the

. She died on 17 May 1943 in Ramingstein.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Szapáry, Margit 1871 births 1943 deaths Austrian countesses Countesses in Germany German Roman Catholics German salon-holders

Margit Margit is a feminine given name, a version of Margaret. People bearing the name include: * Margit of Hungary (1175–1223), Empress consort of Isaac II Angelos, Byzantine Emperor * Saint Margit of Hungary (1242–1271), Hungarian nun and princ ...

Hungarian countesses Hungarian salon-holders Nobility from Dresden