26. 1910 – Countess Gabriela von Thun und Hohenstein
She was a descendant of the distinguished old Silesian family of the Counts Larisch, born in Vienna in 1872. She inherited a residence in Kończyce Wielkie near Cieszyn on the death of her father, Count Eugen Larisch, to which she moved after her marriage in 1893 to Count Felix Thun-Hohenstein, an aide-de-camp to the Emperor, and later a field marshal in the Austrian army. She devoted herself to charitable works from the end of the 19th century, as the head of many charitable associations, some specifically women’s organisations, such as the women’s branch of the Red Cross in Cieszyn. After the Second World War her entire fortune was confiscated, and from then on she was supported by the people of Cieszyn and Kończyce Wielkie. She died in Cieszyn in 1957.
One of Countess Thun’s important fields of activity was the care of children and young mothers. In 1904 she began the project of building a children’s hospital in Cieszyn (part of the Silesian Hospital, the former Lutheran Hospital founded by T. Haase), which was opened in 1910. At the meeting of the Town Council in Cieszyn on 9 December 1910 she was awarded with the title of honorary citizen of Cieszyn. As grounds for the title her charitable work, particularly as the president of the women’s branch of the Red Cross in Cieszyn, the Women’s Association and the Society for the Elimination of Tuberculosis, and of course her contribution to the founding of the children’s hospital were all mentioned.