CWhat do the Russian writer Lev Tolstoy, the American president Theodore Roosevelt, the inventor of the dynamite Alfred Nobel and the founder of Zionism Theodor Herzl, have in common? A great esteem for an Austrian noblewoman who dedicated life to the cause of peace and the creation of an international organization, the permanent court of arbitration of the Hague (prior to the current International Court of the Hague) to resolve disputes between states.
Bertha von Suttner, a life for peace
It was the Baroness Bertha von Suttnerborn County Kinsky von Wchinitz und Tettau, a title all too highly highly high for a substantially poor girl, forced to invent a trade to survive. Bertha was an activist and writer, successfully. His bestseller, the novel Down the weapons! Published in 1889, at the time he made great sensation and was translated into over 20 languages. By virtue of his commitment, It was the first woman who won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1905.
An unfortunate childhood
When the newborn Bertha Felicia Sophia opens her eyes to Prague, on June 9, 1843, it does not seem kissed by good luck. The father, imperial feldmaresse, had died before his birth, leaving a future orphan and a wife much younger than him, noble but without resources, and missing lyric singer. Bertha grows marked by a stigma. As a teenager, it is not admitted to court in Vienna because she is not rich, even if mother and daughter still try to attend the beautiful world. The young widow Kinsky is attracted to gambling: The casinos of the thermal locations of the time, a destination for sovereigns and nobles, are a magnet for her. In the summer of 1864, during a holiday in Bad Homburg, he makes a knowledge that will prove essential: he becomes the friend of the Georgian noblewoman Ekaterine of Mingrelia.
Baroness Bertha and her husband Arthur Gundaccar von Suttner, seven years younger, in an engraving from 1900
Important knowledge
The countless is now 21 years old. According to the costumes of the time, it is urgent that a boyfriend is. He has already rejected – as Carla Romanelli Crowther tells in the fictional biography The valceria of peace (Edizioni Croce) – An wealthy but elderly suitor. Pushed by the mother who dreams of her soprano career never hadbegins to devote himself to the study of singing in Paris. He throws himself headlong, without success: a 23 -year -old beginner has few chance, especially if he lacks talent. Involita, she returns to its homeland in view of yet another summer holiday.
This time the goal is Baden Baden, where another key encounter of his life will take place: He meets Baroness Karola von Suttnerwhich as Ekaterine takes it under her protective wing. He invites her to the work, where she will meet the emperor Guglielmo II of Germany and Prussia. Bertha is his ease in this golden worldbetween sumptuous clothes and sparkling jewels, but the illusion of belonging does not dissolve its economic problem. The mother has a pension, which often dilapidates the game, and Bertha understands that she can no longer depend on her. Urgently find a solution. You just have to focus on her skills: she is educated, she speaks well German, English, French, Italian and Russian, plays the plan. Her new friend Karola offers her a job in Vienna as an institution of his four daughters. For Bertha it is a real stroke of luck.
His employers of works also have a castle, Hartmannsdorf, and thanks to their standard of living he can return to attend parties, theaters, hunting finds, dance evenings … with many guests. It is the ideal situation not to remain unmarried to life. But Bertha finds the object of her desire a few steps from herwithin the Von Suttner family. It is Arthur Gundaccar, brother of her pupils, seven years younger than her. The attraction of County Kinsky is soon reciprocated, but Karola notices and convenes Bertha.
Countess Bertha Kinsky von Wchinitz und Tettau (Prague 1843-Vienna 1914). He became “Baroness von Suttner” after the wedding
The experience of war
“My son is too young for you. And then, you are free of income and Arthur does not have a job. Leave it in peace, don’t ruin the future. ” We can imagine that these were his words. Bertha, offense, decides to leave. An announcement in the newspaper La Porta in Paris, where he finds a use as a secretary. His employer is a cultured and distinct man: Alfred Nobel. An intellectual understanding takes place between the two who over time will become friendship, but Bertha cannot get out of the Arthur head. Ragrate a little money and returns to Vienna, where the young man waits for her. The two marry secretly on 12 June 1876. Bertha is 33 years old, Arthur has to turn 26. The Von Suttner family for Rifucca interrupts every relationship with the young couple. To tend his hand to the spouses is the friend Ekaterine, who invites them to the Caucasus.
It all starts as a honeymoon that turns into a nine -year -old stay. In Tbilisi and other places in Georgia, Bertha and Arthur will get new friends and start working. She teaches, both write books and articles, he suddenly suddenly designed. When Georgia goes to war against the Ottoman Empire together with Russia in support of Bulgarian independence, Bertha touches with your hand for the first time what the word war means: dead soldiers, widows and orphans, poverty. The path that will lead her to become an activist for peace is probably probably. These are gold years for Bertha and Arthur: they discover they are truly twin souls, they share interests, readings, discussions. After the death of their Georgian protector, the Von Suttner family launches signs of rapprochement. The prodigal son and his bride are rekindled in Vienna in 1885, where they resume their lives as writers, finally integrated into the German cultural hidden.
At the congress with Victor Hugo
On the occasion of a trip to Paris in 1886, they come into contact with the pacifist circles who support the project of an international arbitration court to resolve conflicts. To disseminate the idea that war is bad and suffering for peoples, Bertha wants to write a novel, that you speak to the hearts of people. Down the weapons!his masterpiece, he starts badly, however: at the beginning there is no publisher, nor a newspaper willing to publish it in episodes. But when he is finally printed in 1889 he achieved a resounding success. There is no shortage of critical rumors, but Bertha becomes a star. Lev Tolstoj writes them to congratulate. Thanks to an appeal written and published by a newspaper, the Austrian company for peace, of which it becomes president And that in 1891 he participated in the World Congress for Peace in Rome, with other associations similar to his, from various countries. There are also Victor Hugo and pioneers of Pacifism Frédéric Passy and Hodgson Pratt. “With new high -tech weapons, war will be even more devastating»Writes Von Suttner prophetic. “The fields will no longer be grown in wheat, but sown anti -human mines.”
Around peace
They have been years in which Bertha is sucked into a spiral of commitments: conferences, articles, conferences… everyone requires his presence. At his side, there is always Arthur who shares the struggle. It is also the faithful companion of the worldly events that accompany these international meetings. Bern, Antwerp, Hamburg, Turin, Budapest: the conferences follow one another, but while Bertha and his companions propagate peace, the world around them is Armando.
The idea of abolishing, or limiting military spending does not take hold. Only the new Tsar Nicola II, who seems to have read the novel by Von Suttner, launches an appeal to universal peace and disarmament, which will lead to the conference of the AIA of 1899. “Perpetual peace is only in the skies” commented sarcastic opponents. “We no longer offend the earth, our mother, with the blood of innocent victims!” Instead, the Russian monarch urges. There is clear awareness at the Hague that a new war would be a catastrophe: This is exactly what will happen, 15 years later. But in the meantime the idea of a permanent court for arbitration passes. Bertha’s dream becomes reality.
Sells the castle to pay the debts
The Baroness is no longer a girl. Time flows, a new century begins: Her friend Nobel is dead, she also begins to accuse some health problems. She is fattened, her doctor advises her bicycle. And Bertha obeys. In 1902 he left for the Congress of Peace which is held in the Principality of Monaco. For the first time, Arthur is not at his side. It is sick and will die in the following December. Bertha is upset, but continues to pour all his energies into the battle they shared.
The Nobel Prize
He spends three weeks around the United States, then in 1905 he held 28 conferences in Germany. He is tired, he had to sell the family castle of the Von Suttner for the accumulated debts and moved alone to a small apartment in Vienna. To revive the mood, a telegram from Norway comes: The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded (The first nobel born with a legacy of Bertha’s friend are from 1901). On April 4, 1906 von Suttner will pick him up, allocating half of the sum to Frédéric Passy.
Despite the forces are no longer those of before, the Baroness is always on the scene, trying to promote a rapprochement between France and Germany and raising strong criticism on the use of planes as war tools. A last recognition awaits her at the 1913 conference: It is consecrated “very general of peace”. A new peace conference is scheduled in Vienna for the following year, but Bertha’s health is now undermined: on June 21, 1914 he died. In time in order not to live the displeasure of assisting, on July 28, to the opening of the hostilities of a conflict that will be worldwide. That war that she had done everything to avoid.
© RESERVED REPRODUCTION
I woman © RESERVED REPRODUCTION