Little is known of Friederike Massarik’s childhood, save that she was born on March 21, 1882 to Jewish parents in the Vienna barracks quarter of the Grand Masters and that her father was a businessman. Her parents, and especially her mother, encouraged her talent via singing lessons, with the result that their daughter, now renamed Fritzi Massary, received her first engagement in a small part at the Landestheater in Linz in 1899/1900.