Bertha von Suttner

Born in Prague in 1843, Bertha von Suttner grew up in an aristocratic family and became one of Europe's best-known advocates for peace. She worked as a writer and journalist, and her novel Lay Down Your Arms! brought her a wide audience by showing the human cost of war in direct, emotional terms.

Her public work reached far beyond fiction. She was active in the international peace movement, spoke at congresses, and is widely remembered as an important influence on the creation and spirit of the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1905, she became the first woman awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

She died in 1914, just before the outbreak of World War I. That timing has made her life and work feel especially poignant: she spent years warning Europe about the dangers of militarism, and her writing still stands as both literature and moral witness.