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25 APPONYI, Countess, Mrs Count Albert Apponyi, born Countess Clotilde, Klotild DietrichsteinMensdorff -Pouilly (1867– 1942) Long-standing President (from 1910) of the Magyarországi Nőegyesületek Szövetsége (MNSz, Alliance of Women’s Associations in Hungary); Hungarian representative to the International Council of Women (ICW); holder of various positions in the League of Nations throughout the interwar period. Countess Dietrichstein-Mensdorff-Pouilly was born on 23 December 1867 in Vienna, the daughter of Catholic parents: Count Alexander Mensdorff-Pouilly, later also Prince of Dietrichstein zu Nikolsburg , high-ranking member of the Austrian military and statesman (1813–1871), and Countess Alexandrine (Den Priskau) Dietrichstein zu Nikolsburg. Countess Clotilde had two older brothers: Hugo (1858–1920) and Albert (1861–?). As a young woman, she was awarded the title of Dame of the Star-Cross Order to the imperial court in Vienna. In 1897, she married the politician Count Albert Apponyi (1846– 1933), who was more than twenty years her senior and then (later even more so) a leading figure among those nationalist–liberal elements of the Hungarian political elite who sought greater autonomy from Austria. “Hardly … more divergent milieus” and political backgrounds “could be imagined” than those of the newly married couple . Yet Countess Klotild—knowing that the “woman” of Count Albert Apponyi “could be nothing else but Hungarian with heart and soul [—] took the big step and did so completely” (Apponyi sine anno, 238). The newly married Countess moved to Budapest , learned Hungarian perfectly and entered ‘high society’ in the Hungarian capital, soon coming to identify entirely with the Hungarian nation. Her first child was a son, Count György Apponyi (Eberhard, 1898–1970), followed by two girls; one of them named Mária. Soon after moving to Budapest, Countess Apponyi became involved in a broad spectrum of welfare and women’s associations. From at least 1908, she was (and is very likely to have remained for decades) the President of the Női Munkát Értékesítő Mrs Apponyi with her famous husband and three children in the 1920s or early 1930s 26 Klotild Nőegyesület (Klotild Women’s Association for the Sale of Work by Women); in 1913, she became a member of the Executive Board of the Országos Katholikus NővédőEgyes ület (National Catholic Association for the Protection of Women) and in 1930, she became the President of the highly respected association of female teachers, the Mária Dorothea Egyesület (Mária Dorothea Association). Among her long-standing interests was the protection of children—e.g. from harm inflicted through unrestricted access to cinema—and she was stoutly devoted to the ideals of temperance and other, related movements. In 1910, Countess Apponyi became the President of the Magyarországi Nőegyes ületek Szövetsége (MNSz, Alliance of Women’s Associations in Hungary), an umbrella organization for women’s associations of all kinds (excluding socialist ones) and a huge number of welfare organizations, mostly focusing on women and children. The MNSz had been founded in 1904 upon the initiative of the Országos Nőképző Egyesület (National Association for Women’s Education) and of Auguszta Rosenberg (longstanding Acting President who in 1946, at the age of 88, held the title of Permanent Acting President). Immediately upon its foundation, the MNSz became a member of the International Council of Women (ICW); the impetus to found the MNSz was bound up with the organizational aspirations of the ICW in Central-Eastern Europe and (in tension) with the emerging organizational endeavors of progressive and leftist women. Countess Apponyi was President of the MNSz for about three decades. In 1912, in her capacity as President of the MNSz and against the background of ongoing suffrage reform, she addressed the House of Representatives of the Hungarian Parliament with a request for the enfranchisement of a small group of women of distinguished intellectual , economic or social status. From this time on, Countess Apponyi publicly advocated women’s suffrage. In 1917, utilizing her social position and connections, she negotiated at the highest political level for the inclusion of women’s suffrage into planned new suffrage legislation—without immediate success. In 1918, she publicly supported the campaign for women’s suffrage, organized mainly by the progressive Feministák Egyesülete (FE, Feminist Association). In the interwar period, the MNSz acquired a somewhat marginalized position on the political landscape. Many of the moderate and conservative associations, particularly those related to various Christian denominations, were now united under...

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