Bertha Von Suttner: First Woman to Receive the Nobel Peace Prize

Born Countess Kinsky, she enjoyed the finer things in life like traveling, studying languages and music and she was an avid reader.

At the age of 30, wishing to no longer impose upon her mother Bertha struck out on her own. she took a post as a tutor and companion to four daughters of the Suttner household.

During her employment there, Bertha became smitten with the youngest son, Baron Arthur Gundaccar von Suttner. But the Suttner family did not approve of the romance so Kinsky left Prague for Paris where she worked briefly for Alfred Nobel as secretary.

Kinsky knew her destiny and she soon returned to Prague to marry von Suttner against his family's wishes. The couple moved to the Caucasus region and lived a more simple life of giving music and language lessons.

Suttner wrote her first book while living in the Caucasus region: "Inventarium einer Seele" (Inventory of a Soul). Suttner commented on her reading material, the foremost concept being that of the progression of society through peace.

The Suttners lived in the Caucasus region for nine years before the Suttner family welcomed the couple into the fold. The two returned to Austria where they both became involved in peace organizations.

Suttner's second book, "Das Maschinenzeitalter" (The Machine Age) published in 1889 elaborated upon her vision of a unified Europe.

But it was Suttner's next book "Die Waffen nieder" (Lay Down Your Arms, English translation "Lay Down Your Arms: the Autobiography of Martha von Tilling, by Mayo Press, 2008), which proved to be the turning point in Suttner's life. She had carefully researched the ravages of war to incorporate into the fictitious novel which she wrote in an effort to be of service to the Peace League. This book established Suttner as a peace activist.

Suttner served as acting president of the Austrian Peace Society which she helped initiate, and started a fund to establish the Bern Peace Bureau.

She edited "Die Waffen Nieder" a peace journal she began with A. H. Fried. She continued contributing articles to "Friedenswarte," the replacement publication for "Die Waffen Nieder" until her death. She gave lectures, formed committees, arranged public meetings and wrote articles all in the interest of propagating peace.

Even though her work with Alfred Nobel was brief, he and Suttner corresponded often. She kept Nobel apprised of the peace movement and Nobel informed her of his intention to create a peace prize.

Alfred Nobel was the inventor of dynamite and an armaments manufacturer. An obituary in a French newspaper, printed erroneously and a number of years prior to his death, referred to Nobel as the "merchant of death." After learning of this, Nobel set aside 31,225,000 Swedish kronor (approximately 250 million U.S. dollars in 2008) to fund the Nobel prizes.

Suttner attended the Hague Peace Conference of 1899 and made it her personal responsibility to inform newspapers and write articles about the conference. The idea of the Permanent Court of Arbitration had resulted from the conference and the Suttners worked to gain support for this endeavor

When Baron von Suttner died in 1902, Bertha, though grieved, continued the work she and her husband relentlessly conducted towards peace.

She did a lecture tour throughout the U.S. after attending the international Peace Congress in Boston in 1904.

When she became the first woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize (and only the second woman to receive a Nobel Prize), Suttner did not relinquish her efforts to bring about world peace. She was part of the Anglo-German Friendship Committee and warned against the dangers of militarizing China and the use of aviation in the military. She spoke at the Peace Congress in London in 1908. At almost 70 years old, she did a second lecture tour in the U.S.

In 1913, Suttner began to show signs of illness, suspected to have been cancer. She still managed to speak in 1914 at the International Peace Congress at The Hague. She planned to attend the 21st Peace Congress in Vienna that September, but she died just two months shy of the world war which she had worked so hard to prevent.

Suttner's image has been commemorated on coins and stamps.

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Nobel Prize