István Csáky

Count István Csáky de Körösszeg et Adorján (14 July 1894 – 27 January 1941) was a Hungarian aristocrat and politician, who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs between 1938 and 1941 for the Kingdom of Hungary.

Early life István was born into the Hungarian Csáky family as the only son of Count Zsigmond György Csáky de Körösszegh et Adorján (1866–1945) and his wife, Ilona Apáthy de Nagytóth (1874–1934). He had one sister, Irma (1897–1967), who remained unmarried throughout her life.

Political career A descendant of King Stephen Báthory of Poland, Csáky was born in Segesvár (today Sighișoara, Romania), then part of the Kingdom of Hungary. He studied law in Budapest and attended the Imperial Consular Academy in Vienna. Following the end of World War I, he participated as a diplomat in the peace negotiations that led to the Treaty of Trianon, which redefined Hungary’s borders and significantly reduced its territory. In the years that followed, Csáky held various diplomatic posts, representing Hungary at embassies in the Holy See, Bucharest, Madrid, and Lisbon, and serving in multiple roles within the Hungarian Foreign Ministry in Budapest.

In 1938, as an official observer, Csáky was part of the Hungarian delegation involved in the negotiations surrounding the Munich Agreement, and later contributed to the talks that led to the First Vienna Award, through which parts of southern Slovakia were returned to Hungary. On 10 December 1938, he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs under Prime Minister Béla Imrédy, succeeding Kálmán Kánya.

As Foreign Minister, Csáky played a central role in shaping Hungary’s foreign policy, aiming to recover territories lost to Romania under the Treaty of Trianon a few years prior. He was involved in the negotiations that lead to the Second Vienna Award in August 1940, which reassigned Northern Transylvania from the Kingdom of Romania to the Kingdom of Hungary. Even Hungary's accession to the Tripartite Pact was during the office of Csáky. On 17 December 1940, under pressure from Germany, he signed a friendship agreement between Hungary and Yugoslavia. Due to serious illness, he died shortly after on 27 January 1941. From 21 December 1940, Hungarian Prime Minister Count Pál Teleki had been acting for Csáky as Minister of Foreign Affairs until his own death, reported as suicide on 3 April 1941 at the Sándor-Pallavicini palace, after German troops had crossed Hungarian territory for the Invasion of Yugoslavia.

Personal life Csáky married Countess Maria Anna Irma Helene Camilla Chorinsky von Ledske (b. 1912), daughter of Count Karl Chorinsky von Ledske (1873-1948) and Ilona Maria Jozefa Szögyény-Marich de Magyarszőgyén et Szolgaegyház (1879-1950). The couple had no issue.