Teodors Eniņš (December 6, 1934 in Liepāja
– September 24, 2008 in Liepāja) — was a
Latvia
Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...
n doctor, neurosurgeon, former mayor of
Liepāja
Liepāja () (formerly: Libau) is a Administrative divisions of Latvia, state city in western Latvia, located on the Baltic Sea. It is the largest city in the Courland region and the third-largest in the country after Riga and Daugavpils. It is an ...
and former Minister of Welfare of
Latvia
Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...
. He was awarded the
Order of the Three Stars
Order of the Three Stars () is the highest civilian order awarded for meritorious service to Latvia. It was established in 1924 in remembrance of the founding of Latvia. Its motto is ''Per aspera ad astra'', meaning "Through hardships towards the ...
(III class) in 2001.
Eniņš was born in Liepāja on 6 December 1934. His father was a building technician, the mother was a housewife, he also had a brother Andris (composer) and a sister Ruta. His grandmother Margrieta saved two Jewish men during the German occupation in World War II, for which T. Eniņš received the Righteous Among the Nations award from
Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem (; ) is Israel's official memorial institution to the victims of Holocaust, the Holocaust known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (). It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; echoing the stories of the ...
.
From 1950 to 1954 he studied at the 1st Liepāja school and simultaneously at the Liepāja Music School in the class of wind instruments. Later, from 1954 to 1960 he studied at
Riga Medical Institute, receiving the doctor's diploma. His name is written in the history of Latvian medicine as the inventor of the magnetic impulse therapy. He worked in medicine for more than 30 years. He was the Head of the Traumatology-Orthopedics department at the Liepāja Central Hospital where he worked as a surgeon and neurosurgeon.
Political career
In 1988, Eniņš was one of the organizers of the Liepāja branch of the
Popular Front of Latvia, he was the co-chief and later (1990–1991) the chief of the organization. In March 1990, he was
elected a deputy of the
Supreme Council of the Republic of Latvia. He was the deputy chief of the Social Security and Health protection commission. On 19 November 1991 he was appointed as the Minister of Welfare of the Republic of Latvia. His term ended in August 1993. Later he returned to Liepāja and worked as a doctor in Liepāja Central Hospital. In 1994 Eniņš was elected as a Mayor of
Liepāja City Council. He held this post until 1997.
[Tālava Jundža, "4.maijs. Rakstu, atmiņu un dokumentu krājums par Neatkarības deklarāciju". Fund "Latvijas Vēsture", 2000 ]
During the last years of his life he spent a lot of his time in the family country estate "Ramati" in Sieksāte,
Kuldiga district. Teodors Eniņš had a wife Aina (née Lamberts) and two children - Dace (GP, internist) and Dzintars (interior designer, died in 1986). He has 4 granddaughters.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Enins, Teodors
1934 births
2008 deaths
Politicians from Liepāja
Popular Front of Latvia politicians
Ministers of welfare of Latvia
Deputies of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Latvia
Mayors of places in Latvia
Riga Stradiņš University alumni
Latvian surgeons
20th-century Latvian physicians