Hedvig Raa-Winterhjelm

Who was Hedvig Raa-Winterhjelm?

Hedvig Charlotta Raa-Winterhjelm, née Forssman, was a Swedish actor active in Sweden, Norway and Finland. She played a role of great importance in Finnish culture and theatre history as both a reformer of the Finnish theatre and also a pioneer in introducing Finnish as a stage language, becoming the first actor in Finland to speak her lines in the Finnish tongue. Though her importance in her own home country was small, she was to become one of the most important actors in Finnish history.