纪念贝尔塔·冯·苏特纳谷歌LOGO标志

纪念贝尔塔·冯·苏特纳谷歌LOGO
2019年12月10日

Today’s Doodle honors the Austrian author Baroness Bertha von Suttner, who became the first female Nobel Peace Prize winner on this day in 1905. A staunch advocate for disarmament and international cooperation, Von Suttner argued that peace is the pinnacle of human progress.

Born Countess Bertha Kinsky in Prague in 1843, she studied music and languages in her young years. At age 30, she moved to Vienna to work as a governess in the von Suttner family home, where she met her future husband, Baron Arthur Gundaccar von Suttner. As the family did not approve of the couple, she left for Paris to work as Alfred Nobel’s secretary, and though it was only a brief stay, she remained in contact with the philanthropist for many years.

Secretly getting married in 1876, the Baron and Baroness von Suttner read evolutionist literature together, prompting the Baroness to start writing novels, short stories, and essays focused on social grievances and pacifism. In her 1889 book Die Waffen nieder! (Lay Down Your Arms!), which is considered her most famous work, she depicts the harsh realities of war from a woman’s perspective.

Undaunted by the opposition that discredited pacifism as a woman’s issue, Baroness von Suttner continued to push for peace by founding the Austrian Peace Society and attending the 1891 Peace Congress. Her work put her at the forefront of the peace movement, and Nobel later credited her dedication as part of the reason he created the Nobel Peace Prize, which was first awarded in 1901.

Today, the Bertha von Suttner Peace Institute in The Hague continues the work she started so many years ago.