Freundlich was born Emma Kögler, the youngest daughter of Adolf Kögler, a wealthy engineer and liberal politician who served as mayor of Aussig (now Ústí nad Labem in the Czech Republic).

[1] In 1900 she travelled to Gretna Green against the wishes of her family to marry Leo Freundlich (1875–1954), a social democratic journalist.

After Leo's defeat in the 1911 elections, the couple divorced and Emmy moved to Vienna.

[3][4] In Vienna, Freundlich became involved in the social democratic group of Karl Renner and the consumer cooperative movement.

[2] She moved to New York in 1947 to become an observer of the United Nations Economic and Social Council and died there the following year.