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Nikolaus Graf Szécsen von Temerin

Nikolaus Szécsen von Temerin was the Austrian Ambassador to Paris during the July Crisis in 1914.  He was called to account for Austria's prosecution of war against Serbia by President Poincare, but stood fast to what he described as "unwarranted hostility"  from the French President.  To illustrate, an exerpt from the book "Paris War Days" typifies the situation an ambassador stranded in an enemy country had to face:  "Madame Waddington, who is in excellent health and spirits, told me that the feeling was so strong against the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador, Count Szecsen de Temerin, during the last few days of his stay here after hostilities had begun with Germany, that one evening, as he was about to sit down to dinner with his fellow diplomatist, M. Alexandre Lahovary, the Roumanian Minister, at the Cercle de rilnion, which is one of the most select and restricted clubs of Paris, the secretary of the club requested M. Lahovary to announce to the Austrian Ambassador that the committee of the club expressed the wish that he should no longer take his meals at the club nor appear on the premises, because his presence under prevailing political conditions rendered the Austrian Ambassador an " undesirable personage."  The Austrian Ambassador, who had just ordered an excellent bottle of Mouton Rothschild claret for his dinner, at once left the club.  Szécsen's son Nikolaus, born in Vienna on 26 November 1899, was executed by Russian soldiers at Mór, Hungary on 28 March 1945. GWS, 6/01 [rev. 6/04]