Bertha Baroness Von Suttner

Suttner, Bertha Baroness Von 

(née Countess Kinsky). Born June 9, 1843, in Prague; died June 21, 1914, in Vienna. Austrian writer. Daughter of an officer.

Suttner was a governess in the home of Baron Suttner. She married his son and from 1876 to 1885 lived in Georgia, where she began her literary career. Her first work, The Inventory of One Soul, was published in 1883 under the pseudonym Onlot. She returned to Vienna in 1885, founded the Society for Peace in 1891, corresponded with public figures and writers (including L. N. Tolstoy), and published the journal Die Waff en nieder! (1892–99).

Her principal works include the novel Lay Down Your Arms! (1889; Russian translation, 1891 and 1908); its sequel, Martha’s Children (1902; Russian translation, 1904, In Chains)’, Novel of a Writer (1888); Check to Torture (1899); the collection of essays War and Struggle Against It (1904); and Memoirs (1908). Baroness von Suttner received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1905 for her pacifist activities.

WORKS

Gesammelte Schriften, vols. 1–12. Dresden, 1906–07.
Rüstet ab. Introduction by H. Schwarz. Graz-Vienna [1960].

REFERENCES

Kant, H. B. von Suttner und der Anfang der österreichischen Friedensbewegung. [Vienna, 1950.]
Stollreiter, J.B. von Suttner. Kiel [1959].

N. B. VESELOVSKAIA