Bertha von Suttner - Part 3: Peace activist

After nine years in the Caucasus, the couple returned to the family castle Harmannsdorf in the Waldviertel. The relatives' conservative and pious views do not fit with the progressive and modern ideas of Bertha and Arthur. Despite this, they lived there for the next 17 years until Arthur's death.

Eine Liebe für den Frieden - TRAILER

Bertha von Suttner wrote more than a hundred works: novels, short stories, newspaper articles and translations and achieved great success with "Lay Down your Arms!" a global success. She no longer had to experience the futility of her life's work. On June 21, 1914, a few weeks before the start of the First World War, she succumbed to cancer. She had planned the next World Peace Congress for the fall – this time in Vienna.

The famous Russian writer Lev Tolstoy had already described the bloody events and atrocities of the Caucasus War in 1872 in his story “The Prisoner in the Caucasus”.

He wrote to Bertha in a letter: "I appreciate your work very much and think that the publication of your novel is a happy omen. (...) God grant that the abolition of war follows your book."

Lew Tolstoi, portrait by Efimovich Repin, 1887

Out into the world to escape the boring life in Harmannsdorf. Bertha and Arthur went to Berlin and Paris immediately after returning from Georgia.

Departure of Wilhelm I. to the Army, Adolph Menzel, Berlin 1871.

Madeleine, Paris, painting by Jean Béraud, 1880s.

Bertha first got to know the peace movement in the house of the poet Alphonse Daudet. The Suttners met people who thought progressively. They became global citizens.

Julia Daudet, wife of the poet, painting by Auguste Renoir, 1875.

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Part 3 Peace activist, bestselling author and Nobel Prize winner

Founding of peace associations, participation in international congresses

Bertha founded the first Austrian Society for Friends of Peace in 1891. This was the only European organization of its kind led by a woman. She was its president until her death.

In November 1891, she was elected Vice President of the International Peace Office at the World Peace Congress in Rome and founded the German Peace Society in 1892, which quickly had over 2,000 members.

Bertha mobilized her connections to the nobility, artists and writers for her peace work. Above all, she took advantage of her contact with Alfred Nobel, who supported her with advice and, above all, with financial donations.

Prince Albert I of Monaco was also committed to the peace movement, but he did not provide the urgently needed money either.

The young Tsar Nicholas II issued a "peace manifesto" and Bertha hoped for his support for her idea of peace. But he relied on war and oppression.

In 1904 Bertha von Suttner attended the World Peace Congress in Boston, Massachusetts. She traveled from city to city and gave up to three lectures a day, totaling more than 600. In Washington DC, she invited President Theodore Roosevelt to the White House for a talk. “Peace Bertha,” as she was disparagingly called in military circles and at the Viennese imperial court, returned from the USA enthusiastically. Their seven-month journey had resembled a triumphal march.

In the novel "Lay Down you Arms!" Bertha von Suttner describes the horrors of war from the perspective of a wife. The realistic depictions of the atrocities of war disturbed people, who at the time were discussing a lot about rearmament and the military. Many people couldn't believe a woman had written that. Bertha had problems finding a publisher. The novel became her greatest literary success and one of the most successful books of the 19th century. It appeared in 40 editions and was translated into twenty languages.

Alfred Nobel in a letter to Bertha, Paris 1890: "I have just finished reading your admirable book. How long did it take you to create this marvel?"

On December 10, 1905, Bertha von Suttner became the first woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, which she had inspired an which she accepted on April 18, 1906 in Kristiania (today Oslo).

Within a short time, Bertha von Suttner wrote novels, almost all of which became bestsellers and attracted a lot of attention. The “Machine Age” is about a better society in the future. The Suttners believed in progress. Through their language skills and their many travels, the Suttners became global citizens and rejected the nationalism of their time.

Critical and negative voices on “Lay Down your Arms!”

A mocking poem by Felix Dahn about Bertha: To the female and male gun shy people. Arms up! The sword is man's own, Where men fight, women have to remain silent, But of course there are men these days, They should wear petticoats instead.

The death of her beloved husband Arthur Gundaccar

On December 10, 1902, Arthur Gundaccar von Suttner died in Harmannsdorf. The Suttner couple's estate then had to be auctioned off due to excessive indebtedness, and Bertha von Suttner moved to Vienna.

Bertha von Suttner dressed as widow 1905 

The Suttners supported the French writer Emile Zola, who stood up for Alfred Dreyfus, who was accused of treason. Dreyfus was a Jewish officer from a family in Alsace.

Unschuldig angeklagt: Die Dreyfus-Affäre | Karambolage | ARTE

Anti-Semitism refers to hostility towards Jews. It can escalate to the point of hatred. In the second half of the 19th century, some parties promoted racial anti-Semitism and large parts of the population made Jews scapegoats for many problems. The Suttner couple decidedly opposed it. In 1891 Arthur founded the “Association for the Defense of Anti-Semitism”. Bertha supported him. However, this club was not successful. He was unable to do anything against the “anti-Semitic storm surge” (A.v. Suttner).

Vassily Vereshchagin: The apotheosis of war

An artist admired by Bertha was the anti-war painter Vassily Vereshchagin (1842-1904). He was an officer and had studied at the art academy in St. Petersburg. She met him at the exhibition of his works in Vienna.

Bestseller 1889: "Lay Down Your Arms!"

She took part in several international peace congresses. For the first time in Rome in 1891, in Bern in 1892, in Antwerp in 1894 and in Hamburg in 1897. On June 3, 1897, she presented Emperor Franz Joseph I (1830–1916) with a list of signatures calling for an international arbitration tribunal.

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