Minna Freund

Minna Freund (19**-1938) Actress, voice artist and speech teacher. Her name also written Mina in some documents.

Also found as Mina Freund

Biography

Wilhelmina Louisa Ida Freund was born in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, on 17 March 1890, when her parents, who were South African German immigrants, were on a visit to Germany. She was educated in South Africa and Scotland, and studied drama under the British speech teacher Elsie Fogerty at the Central School of Speech and Drama, London.

Mother of Christina (‘Kina’) de Villiers (néé Botha) and Betty (Botha) Hugo.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

Having finished her studies, she returned to South Africa in 1912, where she was appointed as teacher of elocution at the South African College of Music in Cape Town, while also teaching at the Good Hope Seminary, St Cyprian's School, the Wynberg Girls' High School and the Ellersley School for Girls.

Shortly after Prof. W.H. Bell became principal of South African College of Music in 1912, he appointed Freund as head of the Department of Speech Training.

Besides these teaching appointments, her theatrical involvement also included coaching actors for Prof William H. Bell's first production (Everyman) at the Stal Plein Hotel - which at the time was the home of the South African College of Music at the University of Cape Town, participation in the 1916 Shakespearian Concert (as part of the Shakespeare Tercentenary Celebration in the Cape Town) and staging Prunella, or Love in a Dutch Garden at the Cape Town City Hall in 1919.

Sources

Verwey, E.J. (ed) (1995). New Dictionary of South African Biography, v.1 , Pretoria: HSRC.)

Merrington, 2009.

https://sahistory.org.za/dated-event/actress-and-teacher-wilhelmina-freund-born

Sjoerd Alkema. 2012. "Conductors of the Cape Town Municipal Orchestra, 1914-1965: a historical perspective". University of Cape Town. Unpublished PhD thesis.

E-mail correspondence from Charl de Villiers, read 10 May, 2026..

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