Bertha von Suttner

Bertha von Suttner (1843 to 1914) was an Austrian noblewoman, pacifist and novelist who wrote in German, born Countess Kinsky in Prague. Her pacifist novel Die Waffen nieder! (Lay Down Your Arms!), published in 1889, made her a leading voice of the Austrian peace movement; it ran to 37 editions and was translated into 15 languages. Earlier she had published a first novella, Erdenträume im Monde, and a work titled Inventarium einer Seele in 1883, and she wrote regularly for the press. She corresponded with Alfred Nobel until his death, and in 1905 she became the first woman awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Her fiction is remembered chiefly as a vehicle for the cause of arbitration and disarmament.