Suttner, Baroness Bertha von, << ZOOT nuhr, BEHR tah fawn >> (1843-1914), was an Austrian novelist who is said to have influenced Alfred Nobel in his creation of the Nobel Prize for peace. Suttner was awarded the prize in 1905 for promoting pacifism and founding an Austrian peace society.
Suttner was born Countess Bertha Felicie Sophie Kinsky in Prague, then part of Austria-Hungary, into an aristocratic Austrian family. In 1873, she became governess to the wealthy Suttner family and, in 1876, moved to Paris to become Alfred Nobel’s secretary. After only a week, she returned to marry Arthur von Suttner, an engineer and the youngest son of the family. She then took the name Baroness Bertha, Freifrau von Suttner. She only saw Nobel again twice, but they wrote many letters to each other. In 1891, she founded a pacifist organization called the Austrian Peace Society. Her dedication to peace was instrumental in causing Nobel to institute a prize for peace among the other awards.
Suttner’s written works include Inventarium einer Seele (Inventory of a Soul, 1883); Das Maschinenzeitalter (The Machine Age, 1889); and Die Waffen nieder! (Lay Down Your Arms!, 1889). Die Waffen nieder! was popular and influential, and Suttner gave the title Die Waffen nieder! to the peace journal that she founded in 1892.
