ON 21st June this year it will be exactly100 years since the death of Bertha

von Suttner. She was an amazing womanand on the 21st June everyone shouldpause for a moment to remember her.The first woman to receive the NobelPeace Prize and only the second woman(after Marie Curie) to receive a NobelPrize, she should be an inspiration foreveryone, but unfortunately, althoughmany coins and stamps have been issuedin her honour, few people today have everheard of her. This is a pity in view of the

present interest in commemoratingWorld War I, which started for Britainand Australia on 4thAugust 1914, only sixweeks after Bertha’s death. The Germangovernment ignored the ultimatum ofthe British government that all Germantroops be withdrawn from Belgium by11 p.m. on 4th August, and so the terrible“war to end all wars” began.Bertha was born in Prague into an

aristocratic family on 9th June 1843. Herfather was much older than her motherand he died before she was born. He was

a field marshal and Bertha was a count-ess. Her mother’s father was a cavalrycaptain, and the militaristic environmentof the first thirty years of Bertha’s lifeprobably influenced her later attitude.Bertha’s mother gambled her money

away and the family was impoverished.In 1873 Bertha found employment asgoverness for the four daughters of Baronvon Suttner in Vienna. She was thirtyyears old and pictures of her as a youngwoman show her as a striking beauty.This was too much for the baron’s 23-year

Bertha von Suttner in 1906. (Wikimedia Commons)

Bertha von Suttner on a 2-euro coin issued in2002. The 2014 coin is similar except for the date.

The Peace Palace in The Hague. (Wikimedia Commons).

Bertha von Suttner on a 10-euro coin issued in 2005 to celebrate 100 years since her Nobel Peace Prize.

old son, Arthur, who fell madly in lovewith her.Arthur’s parents disapproved of him

marrying Bertha, but a solution to theirproblem presented itself when an ad-vertisement appeared in the WANTEDsection of a Viennese newspaper in 1876.It read, “A very wealthy, cultured elderlygentleman, living in Paris, desires to finda lady also of mature years, familiar withlanguages, as secretary and manager ofhis household.” Actually the gentlemanwas not elderly, being only 43 years old,but he certainly was very wealthy. Hisname was Alfred Nobel. He was a Swed-ish chemist who manufactured dynamiteand other explosives as well as the deto-nators to set them off. Originally intendedfor civil use in mining and canal construc-

tion, they were not used in munitionsuntil the 1880s. So Bertha went to Paris to work for

Alfred Nobel. He was very impressedwith this beautiful, intelligent woman;but she stayed in Paris for only about aweek because she received a telegramfrom Arthur saying, “I cannot live with-out you.” Bertha also realized that shecould not live without Arthur, and shereturned to Vienna. She and Alfred wroteletters to each other until he died in 1896.Bertha and Arthur married secretly andmoved to the Caucasus region in Russia,where for nine years he eked out a livingteaching German and giving ridinglessons. She began to write articles andnovels in which she criticized the socialconditions in Europe.

Eventually they were reconciled withhis family and they returned to Vienna.In 1887, when she was 44, she was awak-ened to the whole idea of an internationalpeace movement. Purely by chance shecame across a record of a meeting of theInternational Arbitration and PeaceAssociation, which had been founded inLondon in 1880. She later wrote thatthis chance encounter “gave the initialoccasion for all that I have endeavouredto do as a helper in the peace movement.”She was surprised that such an associ-ation existed: “What? Such a leagueexisted? – The idea of justice betweennations, the struggle to do away with warhad assumed life? The news electrifiedme.”In 1889 her novel, Die Waffen nieder!

(Lay Down Your Arms!) was published. Itwas the heart-rending story of a youngnoblewoman who experiences the tragicconsequences of war. In one episode inthe book the heroine goes searching forher husband and sees for herself thehorrible suffering of the wounded soldiersafter a battle between Austria-Hungaryand Prussia. The novel was a great suc-cess and very influential in promotingthe cause of the peace movement. It wastranslated into several languages. Itseffect was similar to that of Henry Dun-ant’s book, Un Souvenir de Solferino (AMemory of Solferino), which was pub-lished in 1862 and led to the formation ofthe Red Cross. It made European societyaware of the stark realities of war. Bertha’s talent was as a lobbyist. She

was very effective in organizing pacifistgroups and publicizing their causes.Among her many activities she foundedthe Austrian Peace Society and she ed-ited the journal of the German PeaceSociety, which had been founded by AlfredFried, who was awarded the Nobel PeacePrize in 1911. The journal was called DeWaffen nieder! after her book. The Ger-man Peace Society became the focus ofthe pacifist movement in Germany before1914. Bertha wrote numerous letters and

petitions to the rich and powerful per-suading them to support her work. Themost important of her correspondentswas, of course, her old friend, AlfredNobel. It was probably because of herinfluence that when he died he left partof his huge fortune to endow a prize forpeace. Many expected Bertha to be thefirst recipient of the Nobel Peace Prizein 1901 but that honour went to HenryDunant, the founder of the Red Cross.The prize is awarded impartially, and un-like the other Nobel Prizes it is decidedby a vote of the Norwegian Parliament.Bertha was awarded the prize in 1905. Bertha encouraged Andrew Carnegie,

an extremely rich industrialist to supportthe peace movement. In 1901 he sold

A German stamp celebrating 100 years since Bertha von Suttner’s Nobel Peace Prize. In themiddle is an image of her book, and in the top right, an image of Alfred Nobel.

Stamp of Palau issued in 2005 showing Bertha von Suttner and Henry Dunant.

his steel company to J. Pierpont Morganfor $250,000,000 and devoted himselfto philanthropy. One of his charitablefoundations was the Carnegie Endow-ment for International Peace, foundedin 1910; and in 1911 Bertha became amember of the advisory council. He alsoendowed the impressive Peace Palace inThe Hague, which was completed in 1913.The International Court of Justice,which is the primary judicial branch ofthe United Nations, is based in the PeacePalace. On 31st March this year the courtfound that Japan’s whaling program inthe Antarctic was not in accordance withthe International Convention.There is an excellent website devoted

to Bertha: BerthavonSuttner.com. It is aproduction of the Bertha von SuttnerProject. A lot of information is recordedthere about her, including copies of herarticles and speeches. There is even avirtual tour of the Peace Palace, wherea bronze bust of Bertha is displayed. Alsoon the website you can watch for free ablack-and-white film, No Greater Love,which was made in Germany in 1952. Itis a dramatized version of Bertha’s life.The dialogue has been dubbed into Eng-lish, and it lasts for about 90 minutes.It is a great movie. When Bertha died in 1914 an obituary

in the American Journal of Internat-ional Law compared Bertha’s achieve-ment to that of Harriet Beecher Stowewhose novel was instrumental in endingslavery in the United States. It stated:“The peace movement has had its Har-riet Beecher Stowe; and the BaronessBertha von Suttner’s novel, Die WaffenNieder (Lay Down your Arms), pub-lished in 1889, can properly be com-pared with Uncle Tom’s Cabin. It hasbeen translated into many languages. Ithas shown the horrors of war just as itsprototype showed the horrors of slavery.Both reached the heart and, throughthe heart, the conscience. . . This is theservice which this high-minded and giftedwoman rendered to the cause of man-

kind.” According to Margaret MacMil-lan, who wrote a book published in 2013entitled The War That Ended Peace,Bertha “was very much a product of thenineteenth century with its trust inscience, rationality and progress. Surely,she thought, Europeans could be made tosee how pointless and stupid war was.”Sadly, Bertha’s confidence was mis-

placed. Despite all her efforts, the GreatWar began and millions of soldiers andcivilians were killed or wounded. Therewas unimaginable suffering and destruc-tion, and it planted the seeds for the nextworld war. People did not listen to Bertha.The peace movement was just somethingthat governments paid lip-service to,while preparing all the time for war. Inher insightful book Margaret MacMillanwrote that the Great War was a puzzle:“How could Europe have done this toitself and to the world? There are manypossible explanations; indeed, so manythat it is difficult to choose among them.”According to Professor MacMillan, mil-

itarism “reflected contemporary fearsabout degeneracy and it also showed thestrong influence of older pre-modernideas about honor. Europeans werepreparing themselves psychologicallyfor war before 1914; some also found theprospect exciting. . . To the dismay ofanti-war liberals, war was glamorous.”In Australia there was jubilant enthus-

iasm at the outbreak of hostilities. Aust-ralian men rushed to join up, andrecruitment campaigns were unneces-sary. In fact, within six months morethan 60,000 men had joined the armedservices. On 5th August 1914 an Aust-ralian newspaper reported, “Certainlyin Melbourne nationalist sentiment isrunning high with eyewitness reports ofwild enthusiasm and patriotic song takenup by crowds in the streets.” It was thesame in Europe. Just as well Bertha didnot live to see it. It would have broken herheart. Bertha believed that inevitably there

would be evolution towards a better, morepeaceful society. She was certain that“in the course of centuries the warlikespirit will witness a progressive decline.”Let’s hope that she is right. On the 13th

June, watch the movie about her and givethanks for the life of Baroness Berthavon Suttner.

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Austrian banknote issued in 1966 showing Bertha von Suttner.(Image courtesy of Comptoir des Monnaies, Lille, France)

Andrew Carnegie(Image courtesy Library of Congress)

Figure 9 – Alfred Nobel (Wikimedia Commons)

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