Suttner, Bertha , Freifrau von

Suttner, Bertha (Gräfin Kinsky), Freifrau von

(bĕr`tä, grāf`ĭn kĭns`kē, frī`frou fən zo͝ot`nər), 1843–1914, Austrian novelist, known chiefly as an ardent pacifist. Her pacifist novel Die Waffen nieder (1889, tr. Lay Down Your Arms, 1892) had great social impact. Through her subsequent friendship with Alfred NobelNobel, Alfred Bernhard
, 1833–96, Swedish chemist and inventor. Educated in St. Petersburg, Russia, he traveled as a youth and returned to St. Petersburg in 1852 to assist his father in the development of torpedoes and mines.
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, she influenced him to establish the Nobel PrizesNobel Prize,
award given for outstanding achievement in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, peace, or literature. The awards were established by the will of Alfred Nobel, who left a fund to provide annual prizes in the five areas listed above.
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. She was the first woman awarded (1905) the Nobel Peace Prize.

Bibliography

See her Memoirs (1909, tr. 1910); biography by B. Kempf (tr. 1973).