Frigyes/Friedrich (known as Fritz) was the youngest of three
          children. His brother Karoly died as a child, and his sister
          Ferdinandine did not marry. On 27 April 1908 in Wien he married
          Princess Maria Hedwig zu Windisch-Graetz. They had four children,
          Laszlo (born 1910), Marianne (1911-1988), Gabrielle (1913 and Vinzenz
          (1914) who died as a baby.
              Fritz Szapary was highly cultured and a fine sportsman, and had a
          brilliant, questing mind. Following a late start to his higher
          education (he was already in his early 30's), he very quickly earned a
          Doctorate in Jurisprudence. In 1907 he entered the Foreign Office,
          where he had a meteroric rise. In December 1909 he became Head of
          Office of the Foreign Minister. As such he enjoyed close working
          relationships with Aerenthal and with Berchtold, Aerenthal's successor
          as Foreign Minister, who praised his "outstanding skill in handling
          political issues and his extraordinary judgment". In April 1912 Fritz
          was made Head of the Policy Section, where he had a significant
          influence on the conduct of foreign policy. In addition he was given
          charge of key administrative units (for matters relating to the
          Emperor's Household, for personnel matters, for the press, and
          others). On behalf of the Chief of the Austrian General Staff, Conrad
          von Hoetzendorf, he was sent in January 1913 on a special mission to
          Berlin, to seek the orientation of German foreign policy towards more
          positive co-operation for Austria-Hungary.
                His announcement in October 1913 as Ambassador to St.Petersburg
          was seen widely as a sign of a hardening of policy towards Russia.
          Before taking up his post he went on a mission to Italy. Circumstances
          denied Fritz a major impact in St.Petersburg. When his wife Hedwig
          became seriously ill, he delayed the start of his posting until
          February 1914. His stay in St.Petersburg was broken by a two-month
          return to Austria, to be with his very ill wife and his baby son,
          Vinzenz, who was dying.
                Fritz was the last Austro-Hungarian Ambassador. When Russia was
          mobilised it was his sad duty, on 6 August 1914, to deliver the
          Austro-Hungarian Declaration of War to the Russian Government (he
          personally was deeply pessimistic of the consequences of a major war
          for his country). Hedwig told her daughter Marianne that, when Fritz
          first arrived in St.Petersburg, he had the Ambassador's residence
          beautifully decorated and filled it with lovely family furniture and
          paintings, in preparation for the arrival of Hedwig and their
          children. To her great sadness after Vinzenz died, she too was too ill
          ever to make the journey. Following convention when war was declared,
          Fritz and his Russian counterpart in Wien were to embark by train
          simultaneously for their respective capitals. Fritz had arranged for
          the train to take him, his staff and their possessions, and the very
          valuable contents of the Ambassador's residence. However, there were
          so many Austrians and Hungarians in St.Petersburg wanting to be
          repatriated that he left the great bulk of his possessions behind to
          make room on the train for the evacuees, and arrived in Wien on 16
          August carrying only his jewels and personal luggage. Some years
          later, after many approaches to the Bolshevik government and the
          despatch of many inventories, that government agreed to return the
          contents of the residence. A servant was sent to collect them. When he
          returned with the van and it was eagerly opened, the contents were a
          bitter disappointment. Very few of the family possessions were among
          them, and no-one knew the origins of most of the rest. The mystery was
          never solved. The contents of the residence included a wonderful
          collection of china. In the 1920's the collection reappeared in the
          British Museum, which had bought it from the Russian writer Maxim
          Gorky. How it came to be in Gorky's possession remains a mystery.
          Despite visiting the British Museum, Fritz was unable to produce
          documentary proof of ownership sufficient to recover the china. It is
          still there.
               When Hedwig died of tuberculosis in 1918, Fritz resigned from the
          Foreign Office and, rejecting a number of overtures to re-enter public
          life, devoted the rest of his life to the upbringing of his three
          children. In the three years following the end of the war, he and the
          entire household were living at Tachau, the seat in Bohemia of his
          father-in-law, Prince Alfred zu Windisch-Graetz. In about 1922 he
          brought his family home to his property at Abony in Hungary, which had
          been devastated during the regime of Bela Kun. He showed a flair for
          business and was able, through hard work and shrewd investments, to
          rebuild his properties.
              The last words about Fritz should be by his daughter, Marianne :
          "...we were young and led a charmed life, quite unconcerned over the
          dark clouds gathering around us. But my father knew. Like his
          grandfather Ferencz he had uncanny insight, bordering on "second
          sight", a sense of premonition. He was convinced that war was
          inevitable. He felt hopeless and helpless. My father did not want to
          see another world war. He let himself die on 18 March 1935."
 

Source: Leo van de Pas