Fogarassy was born in Preßburg (today:
Bratislava) on 6 May 1911. The family had earned nobility in the 17th century, fighting the Ottoman invasion. He grew up in Hungary and then in Vienna, where he completed school with the
Matura in 1930. Fogarassy was married to Dollie Kastner, a granddaughter of Carl Kastner, a co-founder of the
Graz department store
Kastner & Öhler, and his wife Julie who was Jewish. In 1938, the directors of the department store decided to sell their shares to their "Aryan" sons-in-law to prevent a confiscation by the Nazi regime. Fogarassy became the manager of their
Agram operations in Croatia. When these were confiscated by communists in 1946, he moved back to Graz, where he became managing partner (
Geschäftsführender Gesellschafter) in 1948. He remained in the position until his retirement in March 1977 when he was succeeded by his son-in-law
Franz Harnoncourt. '' by Schiele Fogarassy was one of the important art collectors in Austria after World War II. His nephew reported that he acquired prints by
Egon Schiele before his Matura. According to the American art historian
Alessandra Comini, he began collecting works by Schiele before 1938. From the 1950s, he bought mostly at the Galerie Würthle. The gallery later sold parts of his legacy. He was a member of the Kuratorium (
board of trustees) of the
Joanneum, the museum of the province of
Styria, in Graz. He was a member of the
Rotary Club in Graz from 1968, and served as its president in 1979 and 1980. He died in Graz on 24 March 1989. The Requiem was held at the
Graz Cathedral on 31 March 1989. == Legacy ==