Born: 17 February 1892, Latvia
Died: 1929
Country most active: Latvia
Also known as: Zelma Cesniece
The following is excerpted from “400 Outstanding Women of the World and the Costumology of Their Time” by Minna Moscherosch Schmidt, published in 1933.
Dr. Zelma Cesniece-Freudenfelde was born on February 17, 1892, at Zalenieku Farm in Courland. She finished the high school for girls at Mitau. In 1912 she began studying medicine at Moscow and finished the faculty in 1919. In the same year she came to Riga, and married the barrister J. Freudenfelde. When the Consultation Centre, “Mother and Child,” was formed in Latvia by Lady Paget, Dr. Cesniece-Freudenfelde became the head of the Medical Department. The thousands of mothers who found counsel and help there, in difficult moments, will never forget their benefactress. Dr. Cesniece-Freudenfelde was also the first president of the Latvian National Women’s League, as well as the first organizer of its work. In 1920, she was returned to the Constituent Assembly as representative of the National Centre. She worked there with energy and skill in the Commission of Social Law. Dr. Cesniece-Freudenfelde’s life finished before its time.
She died at the age of thirty-seven. She was one of the modern Latvian women in the best sense of the word. With her death, Latvian society lost one of the first gifted women politicians of free Latvia, who, by her straightforwardness and conscientiousness, and thanks to her unselfish work, had earned the esteem and the confidence of the best circles.