Herzig was born in Reinowitz in Austria-Hungary in 1873,[1] the daughter of a factory owner and the granddaughter of Wilhelm Herzig, a member of the 1848 Frankfurt Parliament.
She received a private education in Graz and studied medicine at the University of Vienna and the University of Graz,[1] receiving a doctorate of medicine in 1905.
She continued her postgraduate studies in Graz, Baden bei Wien, Prague and Germany.
In 1908 she started working as a general practitioner in Reichenberg, specialising in women's and nervous conditions.
Following the independence of Czechoslovakia at the end of World War I, Herzig joined the German National Party.