Bertha von Suttner | Wikipedia audio article
Bertha Felicitas Sophie Freifrau von Suttner
(Baroness Bertha von Suttner, pronounced [ˈbɛɐ̯ta fɔn ˈzʊtnɐ], née Countess Kinsky, Gräfin
Kinsky von Wchinitz und Tettau; 9 June 1843 – 21 June 1914) was an Austrian-Bohemian
pacifist and novelist. In 1905 she became the second female Nobel
laureate (after Marie Curie in 1903), the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace
Prize, and the first Austrian laureate. == Early life == Suttner was born on 9 June 1843 at Kinský
Palace in the Obecní dvůr district of Prague. Her parents were the Austrian Lieutenant general
(German: Feldmarschall-Leutnant) Franz de Paula Josef Graf Kinsky von Wchinitz und Tettau,
recently deceased at the age of 75, and his wife Sophie Wilhelmine von Körner, who was
fifty years his junior. Her father was a member of the Czech House
of Kinsky via descent from Vilém Kinský. Suttner’s mother came from a family that belonged
to untitled nobility of significantly lower status, being the daughter of Joseph von Körner,
a cavalry officer, and a distant relative of the poet Theodor Körner.
For the rest of her life, Suttner faced exclusion
from the Austrian high aristocracy due to her mixed descent; for instance, only those
with unblemished aristocratic pedigree back to their great-great-grandparents were eligible
to be presented in court. She was additionally disadvantaged because
her father, as a third son, had no great estates or other financial resources to be inherited. Suttner was baptized at the Church of Our
Lady of the Snows is not a traditional choice for the aristocracy. Soon after her birth,
Suttner’s mother moved to live in Brno with her guardian Landgrave Friedrich Michael Zu
Fürstenberg (1793–1866).
Her older brother Arthur was sent to a military
school, at the age of six, and subsequently had little contact with the family. In 1855 Suttner’s aunt Loffe and cousin, Elvira
joined the household. Elvira, whose father was a private tutor,
was of a similar age to Suttner and interested in intellectual pursuits, introducing Suttner
to literature and philosophy. Beyond her reading, Suttner gained proficiency
in French, Italian, and English as an adolescent, under the supervision of a succession of private
tutors; she also became an accomplished amateur pianist and singer. Suttner’s mother and aunt
considered themselves to be clairvoyant and thus went to gamble at Wiesbaden in the summer
of 1856, hoping to return with a fortune. Their losses were so heavy that they were
forced to move to Vienna. During this trip, Suttner received a proposal
from Prince Philipp zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg which was declined due to her young age.
The family returned to Wiesbaden in 1859;
the second trip was similarly unsuccessful, and they had to relocate to a small property
in Klosterneuburg. Shortly after this, Suttner wrote her first
published work, the novella Endertraüme im Monde, which appeared in Die Deutsche Frau. Continuing poor financial circumstances led
Suttner to a brief engagement to the wealthy Gustav Heine von Geldern, thirty-one years
her senior, whom she came to find unattractive and rejected; her memoirs record her disgusted
response to the older man’s attempt to kiss her. In 1864, the family spent the summer at
Bad Homburg which was also a fashionable gambling destination among the aristocracy of the era. Suttner befriended the Georgian aristocrat
Ekaterine Dadiani, Princess of Mingrelia, met Tsar Alexander II. Seeking a career as an opera singer as an
alternative to marrying into money, Suttner undertook an intensive course of lessons,
working on her voice for over four hours a day. Despite tuition from the eminent Gilbert Duprez
in Paris in 1867, and from Pauline Viardot in Baden-Baden in 1868, she never secured
a professional engagement. She suffered from stage fright and was unable
to project well in performance. In the summer of 1872, she was engaged to Prince
Adolf zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein, died at sea while traveling to America to
escape his debts in October.
== Tutor in the Suttner household, life in
Georgia == Both Elvira and her guardian Friederich had
died in 1866, and Suttner, now above the typical age of marriage, felt increasingly constrained
by her mother’s eccentricity and the family’s poor financial circumstances. In 1873, she found employment as a tutor and
companion to the four daughters of Karl von Suttner, aged between fifteen and twenty. The Suttner family lived in the Innere Stadt
of Vienna three seasons of the year and spent the summer at Schloss Harmannsdorf in Lower
Austria.
Suttner had an affectionate relationship with
her four young students, who nicknamed her “Boulotte” due to her size, a name she would
later adopt as a literary pseudonym in the form “B. Oulot”. She soon fell in love with the girl’s elder
brother, Arthur Gundaccar, who was seven years her junior. They were engaged but unable to marry due
to the Suttners’ disapproval. In 1876, with the encouragement of her employers,
Suttner answered a newspaper advertisement which led to her briefly becoming secretary
and housekeeper to Alfred Nobel in Paris.
In the few weeks of her employment, Suttner
and Nobel developed a friendship, and Nobel may have made romantic overtures. However, Suttner remained committed to Arthur
and returned shortly to Vienna to marry him in secrecy, in the church of St. Aegyd in
Gumpendorf.The newlywed couple eloped to Mingrelia, where Suttner hoped to make use of her connection
to the former ruling House of Dadiani. On their arrival, they were entertained by
Prince Niko.
The couple settled in Kutaisi, where they
found work teaching languages and music to the children of the local aristocracy. However, they experienced considerable hardship
despite their social connections, living in a simple three-roomed wooden house. Their situation worsened in 1877 on the outbreak
of the Russo-Turkish War, although Arthur worked as a reporter on the conflict for the
Neue Freie Presse. Suttner also wrote frequently for the Austrian
press in this period and worked on her early novels, including Es Löwos a romanticized
account of her life with Arthur. In the aftermath of the war, Arthur attempted
to set up a timber business, but it was unsuccessful.
== Arthur and Bertha von Suttner ==
Arthur and Suttner were largely socially isolated in Georgia; their poverty restricted their
engagement with high society, and neither ever became fluent speakers of Mingrelian
or Georgian. To support themselves, both began writing
as a career. While Arthur’s writing during this period
is dominated by local themes, Suttner’s was not similarly influenced by Georgian culture. In
August 1882 Ekaterine Dadiani died. Soon afterward, the couple decided to move
to Tbilisi. Here Arthur took whatever work he could, in
accounting, construction, and wallpaper design, while Suttner largely concentrated on her
writing.
She became a correspondent for Michael Georg
Conrad eventually contributed an article to the 1885 edition of his publication Die
Gesellschaft. The piece, entitled “Truth and Lies”, is a
polemic in favor of the naturalism of Émile Zola. Her first significant political work, Inventarium
einer Seele (“Inventory of the Soul”) was published in Leipzig in 1883. In this work, Suttner takes a pro-disarmament,
progressive stance, arguing for the inevitability of world peace due to technological advancement;
a possibility also considered by her friend Nobel due to the increasingly deterrent effect
of more powerful weapons. In 1884 Suttner’s mother died, leaving the
couple with further debts. Arthur had befriended a Georgian journalist
in Tbilisi, M, and the couple agreed to collaborate with him on a translation of the Georgian
epic The Knight in the Panther Skin.
Suttner was to improve M.’s literal translation
of the Georgian to French, and Arthur to translate French to German. This method proved arduous, and they worked
for a few hours each day due to the distraction of the Mingrelian countryside around M.’s
home. Arthur published several articles on the work
in the Georgian Press, and Mihály Zichy prepared some illustrations for the publication, but
M. failed to make the expected payment, and after the Bulgarian Crisis began in 1885 the
couple felt increasingly unsafe in Georgian society, which was becoming more hostile to
Austrians due to Russian influence. They finally reconciled with Arthur’s family
and in May 1885 could return to Austria, where the couple lived at Harmannsdorf Castle in
Lower Austria. Bertha found refuge in her marriage with Arthur, of which she remarked that “the
third field of my feelings and moods lay within our married happiness. In this was my peculiarly inalienable home,
my refuge for all possible conditions of life, ….and so the leaves of my diary are full
not only of political domestic records of all kinds but also of memoranda of our gay
little jokes, our confidential enjoyable walks, our uplifting reading, our hours of music
together, and our evening games of chess.
To us personally, nothing could happen. We had each other, – that was everything.” == Peace activism ==
After their return to Austria, Suttner continued her journalism and concentrated on peace and
war issues, corresponding with the French philosopher Ernest Renan and influenced by
the International Arbitration and Peace Association founded by Hodgson Pratt in 1880. In 1889 Suttner became a leading figure in
the peace movement with the publication of her pacifist novel, Die Waffen nieder! (Down with Weapons!), which made her one of
the leading figures of the Austrian peace movement. The book was published in 37 editions and
translated into 12 languages (titled Lay Down Your Arms! in English).
She witnessed the foundation of the Inter-Parliamentary
Union and called for the establishment of the Austrian Gesellschaft der Friedensfreunde
pacifist organization in an 1891 Neue Freie Presse editorial. Suttner became chairwoman and also founded
the German Peace Society the next year. She became known internationally as the editor
of the international pacifist journal Die Waffen nieder! named after her book, from
1892 to 1899. In 1897 she presented Emperor Franz Joseph
I of Austria with a list of signatures urging the establishment of an International Court
of Justice and took part in the First Hague Convention in 1899 with the help of Theodor
Herzl, who paid for her trip. Upon her husband’s death in 1902, Suttner had to sell Harmannsdorf
Castle and moved back to Vienna. In 1904 she addressed the International Congress
of Women in Berlin and for seven months traveled around the United States, attending a universal
peace congress in Boston and meeting President Theodore Roosevelt. Though her contact with Alfred Nobel
had been brief, she corresponded with him until he died in 1896, and it is believed
that she was a major influence on his decision to include a peace prize among those prizes
provided in his will, which she was awarded in the fifth term on 10 December 1905.
The presentation took place on 18 April 1906
in Kristiania. In 1907 Suttner attended the Second Hague
Peace Conference, which however mainly pertained to the law of war. In the run-up to World War I, she continued
to campaign against international armament. In 1911 she became a member of the advisory
council of the Carnegie Peace Foundation. In the last months of her life, while suffering
from cancer, she helped organize the next Peace Conference, intended to take place in
September 1914. However, the conference never took place,
as she died of cancer on 21 June 1914, and a few weeks later Franz Ferdinand was killed,
triggering World War I. Suttner’s pacifism was influenced by the writings
of Immanuel Kant, Henry Thomas Buckle, Herbert Spencer, Charles Darwin, and Leo Tolstoy (Tolstoy
praised Die Waffen nieder!) conceiving peace as a natural state impaired
by the human aberrances of war and militarism. As a result, she argued that a right to peace
could be demanded under international law and was necessary for the context of an evolutionary
The Darwinist conception of history. Suttner was a respected journalist, with one
historian describing her as “a most perceptive and adept political commentator”.
== Writing ==
As a career writer, von Suttner often had to write novels and novellas that she did
not believe in or wanted to write, to support herself. However, even in those novels, there are traces
of her political ideals; often, the romantic heroes would fall in love upon realizing they
were both fighting for the same ideals, usually peace and tolerance. To promote her writing career and ideals,
she used her connections in aristocracy and friendships with wealthy individuals, such
as Alfred Nobel, to gain access to international heads of state, and also to gain popularity
for her writing.
To increase the financial success of her writing,
she used a male pseudonym early in her career. In addition, Suttner often worked as a journalist
to publicize her message or promote her books, events, and causes. As Tolstoy noted
and others have since agreed, there is a strong similarity between Suttner and Harriet Beecher
Stowe. Both Beecher Stowe and von Suttner “were neither
simply writers of popular entertainment nor authors of tendentious propaganda… [They] used entertainment for idealistic purposes.” For Suttner, peace and acceptance of all individuals
and all peoples was the greatest ideal and theme. Bertha von Suttner also wrote about other
issues and ideals.
Two common issues in her work, apart from
pacifism, are religion and gender. === Religion ===
There are two main issues with religion that Bertha von Suttner often wrote about. She had a disdain for the spectacle and pomp
of some religious practices. In a scene in Lay Down Your Arms she highlighted
the odd theatricality of some religious practices. In the scene, the emperor and empress are
washing the feet of normal citizens to show they are as humble as Jesus, but they invite
everyone to witness their show of humility and dramatically enter the hall. The protagonist Martha remarks that it was
“indeed a sham washing.”Another issue prominent in much of her writing is the idea that war
is righteously for God, and leaders often use religion as a pretext for war. Von Suttner criticized this reasoning because it placed the state as the important entity to God rather than the individual,
thereby making dying in battle more glorious than other forms of death or surviving a war.
Much of Lay Down Your Arms discusses this
topic. This type of religious thinking also leads
to segregation and fighting based on religious differences, which Bertha and Arthur von Suttner
refused to accept. As a devout Christian, Arthur founded the
League Against Anti-Semitism in response to the pogroms in Eastern Europe and the growing
antisemitism across Europe. The Suttner family called for acceptance of
all people and all faiths, with Von Suttner writing in her memoirs that “religion was
neighborly love, not neighborly hatred. Any kind of hatred, against other nations
or other creeds, detracted from the humaneness of humanity.” === Gender ===
Bertha von Suttner is often considered a leader in the women’s liberation movement. In Lay Down Your Arms, the protagonist Martha
often clashes with her father on this issue. Martha does not want her son to play with
toy soldiers and be indoctrinated into the masculine ideas of war.
Martha’s father attempts to put Martha back
in the female-gendered box by suggesting that the son will not need to ask for approval
from a woman and also states that Martha should marry again because women her age should
not be alone. This was not simply because she insisted that women are equal to men, but
that she was able to tease out how sexism affects both men and women. Like Martha being placed in a female-structured
gender box, the character of Tilling is also placed in the male-stereotyped box and affected
by that.
The character even discusses it, saying, “We
men have to repress the instinct of self-preservation. Soldiers have also to repress compassion,
the sympathy for the gigantic trouble which invades both friend and foe; for next to cowardice,
what is most disgraceful to us is all sentimentality, all that is emotional.” == Legacy ==
Although Bertha von Suttner was not financially successful during her lifetime, her work has
remained influential for those involved in the peace movement. She has also been commemorated
on several coins and stamps: She was selected as a main motif for a high-value collectors’ coin: the 2008 Europe Taler, which featured important people in the history
of Europe.
Also depicted in the coin is Martin Luther,
Antonio Vivaldi, and James Watt. She is depicted on Germany’s 2005 10-euro
coin. She is depicted on the Austrian 2 euro coin
and was pictured on the old Austrian 1000 schilling banknote. She was commemorated on a 1965 Austrian postage
stamp and a 2005 German postage stamp. == On film ==
Die Waffen nieder, by Holger Madsen and Carl Theodor Dreyer. Released by Nordisk Films Kompagni in 1914. No Greater Love (German: Herz der Welt), a
1952 film has Bertha as the main character. === TV ===
Eine Liebe für den Frieden – Bertha von Suttner und Alfred Nobel (A Love for Peace
– Bertha von Suttner and Alfred Nobel), TV biopic, ORF/Degeto/BR 2014, after the play
Mr. & Mrs. Nobel by Esther Vilar. == Works in English translation ==
Memoirs of Bertha von Suttner; The Records of an Eventful Life, Pub.
For the International School of Peace, Ginn, and Company, 1910. When Thoughts Will Soar; A Romance of the
Immediate Future, by Baroness Bertha von Suttner … tr. by Nathan Haskell Dole. Boston, New York, Houghton Mifflin Company,
1914. Lay Down Your Arms; The Autobiography of Martha
von Tilling, by Bertha von Suttner. Authorized translation by T. Holmes, rev. by the author. 2d ed. New York, Longmans, Green and Co., 1906. == See also == Pacifism
List of peace activists List of Austrians
List of Austrian writers List of female Nobel laureates == Notes and references == === Notes === === References === === Bibliography ===
Chisholm, Hugh, ed.
(1911). “Suttner, Bertha, Baroness von”. Encyclopædia Britannica. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 171. Playne, Caroline Elizabeth (1936). Bertha von Suttner and the World War. George Allen Unwin. Irwin Abrams: Bertha von Suttner and the Nobel
Peace Prize. In: Journal of Central European Affairs. Bd. 22, 1962, S. 286–307 (see also PDF). Kemf, Beatrix (1972). Suffragette for Peace: Life of Bertha Von
Suttner. Oswald Wolff. ISBN 978-0854962556. Lengyel, Emil (1975). And All Her Paths Were Peace: The Life of
Bertha von Suttner. Thomas Nelson, Inc. ISBN 978-0840764508. Hamann, Brigitte (1996). Bertha von Suttner – a life for peace. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0815603764. Brigitte Hamann: Bertha von Suttner – Ein
Leben für den Frieden. Piper, München 2002, ISBN 3-492-23784-3
Laurie R. Cohen (Hrsg.): „Gerade weil Sie eine Frau sind…“. Erkundungen über Bertha von Suttner, die
unbekannte Friedensnobelpreisträgerin. Braumüller, Wien 2005, ISBN 3-7003-1522-8. Maria Enichlmair: Abenteurerin Bertha von
Suttner: Die unbekannten Georgien-Jahre 1876 bis 1885. Ed. Roesner, Maria Enzersdorf 2005, ISBN 3-902300-18-3. Beatrix Müller-Kampel (Hrsg.): „Krieg ist
der Mord auf Kommando“. Bürgerliche und anarchistische Friedenskonzepte.
Bertha von Suttner und Pierre Ramus. Graswurzelrevolution, Nettersheim 2005, ISBN
3-9806353-7-6. Beatrix Kempf: Bertha von Suttner und die
„bürgerliche“ Friedensbewegung. In: Friede – Fortschritt – Frauen. Friedensnobelpreisträgerin Bertha von Suttner
auf Schloss Harmannsdorf. LIT-Verlag, Wien 2007, S. 45 ff. Valentin Belentschikow: Bertha von Suttner
und Russland (= Vergleichende Studien zu den slavischen Sprachen und Literaturen.). Lang, Frankfurt am Main u.a. 2012, ISBN 978-3-631-63598-8. Simone Peter: Bertha von Suttner (1843–1914). In: Bardo Fassbender, Anne Peters (Hrsg.):
The Oxford Handbook of the History of International Law.
Oxford University Press, Oxford 2012, S. 1142–1145
(Vorschau). Stefan Frankenberger (Hrsg.): Der unbekannte
Soldat – Zum Andenken an Bertha von Suttner. Mono, Wien 2014, ISBN 978-3-902727-52-7 == External links ==
A website devoted to Bertha von Suttner on the occasion of her memorialization at the Peace Palace
Centenary Nobel Entry
More Info from Nobel Winners Another biography on Bertha von Suttner
Bertha von Suttner, “Visit Alfred Nobel,” in Memoirs of Bertha von Suttner: The Records
of an Eventful Life. Vol. 1. 2 vols. Boston: Ginn & Co., 1910. 2005 — the Bertha von Suttner Year
Works by Bertha von Suttner at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Bertha von Suttner at Internet
Archive Works by Bertha von Suttner at LibriVox (public
domain audiobooks) Works by Bertha von Suttner at Open Library
Bertha von Suttner (1910). Memoirs of Bertha Von Suttner. Ginn & Co. Online text of “Lay down Your Arms”, archive.org
“Baroness Bertha von Suttner; Author of “Lay Down Your Arms” and Winner of the Nobel Peace
Prize”.
New York Times Review of Books. February 5, 1911. pp. BR61. (PDF of a full review of Memoirs)
Claus Bernet (2005). “Bertha von Suttner”. In Bautz, Traugott. Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon
(BBKL) (in German). 24. Nordhausen: Bautz. cols. 1435–1471. ISBN 3-88309-247-9. Memoirs at archive.org (1910 translation).
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