Document Group: CDG-B Austria

Provenance: Received primarily from Ella Arnhold Lewenz (1949), Anne Osterkamp (1988), and Beatrice Kempf (1993)

Size: 15 linear inches

Restrictions: None

Microfilm: None

Finding Aid: Checklist prepared by Anne Yoder, March 1998

This checklist is the property of the Swarthmore College Peace Collection.

Historical Introduction

Bertha von Suttner was born Bertha Sophia Felicita Countess Kinsky von Chinic und Tettau in 1843 in Prague. Her father was Count Franz Joseph Kinsky, a field marshall and chamberlain to Austria's Emperor Franz Joseph I, who died shortly before Bertha was born. Though the family was impoverished, she was well-read, educated at home by governesses, proficient in languages, was taught the social graces, an exceptional pianist, and studied voice in Paris, Baden-Baden and Milan. However, by the time she was in her early 30s, Bertha decided to find a job to support herself and she was hired in 1873 by Baron Karl von Suttner as governess to his four daughters. It was there that she met the Baron's son, Arthur Gundaccar. They fell in love and wished to marry, but both families opposed it, and Bertha was forced to find other work. She answered an advertisement from Alfred Nobel in Paris, who, in the autumn of 1875, was looking for a secretary and manager of his household. Nobel was a multi-millionaire from his discovery and manufacture of dynamite, but he was also a humanitarian who promoted many good causes.

Suttner's position with Nobel lasted less than two weeks as she decided that she could not live without Arthur. They were married secretly on June 12, 1876 and moved to the Caucasus. Over the next years they eked out a living at various jobs, at the same time enriching their intellectual life by reading widely in science, philosophy and history. During this time the Suttners wrote and had published six novels, as well as a number of articles. In 1885, Arthur and Bertha were reconciled with his family and were offered a permanent suite in the von Suttner castle in Vienna.

It was during a visit to Paris in 1887, that Bertha learned for the first time of the International Peace and Arbitration Association, based in London, whose goal was the establishment of an international court of arbitration. She promptly joined the Association and became its leading spokesperson. In the hopes of reaching a wider audience, she researched the war, talking to army surgeons, field officers and others who graphically described the grim realities of war. She used this material in her 1891 novel Lay Down Your Arms. It's definite anti-war flavor shocked her contemporaries, but it also received wide popular acclaim in many countries. Bertha published a manifesto in 1891 which attracted the attention of many peace sympathizers, and led to the formation of the Austrian Peace Society. She also helped establish the German Peace Association, the International Peace Bureau in Geneva in 1893, and the Hungarian Peace Society in 1896. She is credited with being the first woman political journalist in the German language. Also, in 1899 she held a salon in conjunction with the First Hague Peace Conference (Netherlands), in which she and other peace advocates convinced delegates to make establishing a structure for resolving international conflict their primary concern. This was the first known international lobby effort for peace that was effective.

Through the years, Bertha corresponded with and visited Alfred Nobel. She urged him to prove his support for her goals by establishing a prize for peace. This led to his endowment in his will for prizes to be given each year for achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine and physiology, literature, and for work toward peace. Bertha was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1905.

Bertha von Suttner died on June 21,1914, one week before the first world war broke out.

Scope and Contents of Collection

The Bertha von Suttner Papers consist of biographical information, writings by and about Suttner, correspondence and diaries. The bulk of the collection consists of photocopies of material for which the originals are in European archives; unfortunately, the photocopies are often difficult to decipher.

Photographs have been removed to the Photograph Collection, stamps with a Suttner image to the Stamp Collection, and several items to the Special Manuscripts Collection.

For more Suttner material, see the records of the American Peace Society (DG 003) and the World Peace Foundation (DG 055), as well as the papers of Alfred H. Fried (CDGB Austria), Edmondo Marcucci (CDGB Italy), and Mildred Scott Olmsted (DG 082). See the records of the United Nations Library in Geneva (CDGB Switzerland) for an account of the Suttner material there. See also the Book Collection for books by and about Suttner.

Box 1

Biographical information

Articles about von Suttner in the European press, 1892-1914 [photocopied; originals in European archives]

Photographs of Suttner [photocopied; originals in Bundesarchiv, West Germany]

Bibliography of writings by Suttner

Pamphlets/booklets/articles by Suttner

Articles by Suttner in European books/press [photocopied; originals in European archives]

Articles by Suttner re: America, 1904-1913 [photocopied; originals in European archives]

Chapter "Wie ich dazu kam 'Die Waffen Nieder!' zu Schreiben" [photocopied; original in European archives]

MS "Beginn und Geschichte der burerlichen friedensbewegung, 1815-1914"

MS by Beatrix Kemp re: Suttner and Nobel [includes transcriptions of their 1888-1896 correspondence]

Material re: exhibition "Bertha von Suttner and Other Women in Pursuit of Peace," 1993-1995

Biographical information on Theodore Herzl

Booklet "Theodore Herzl: Cinquante ans apres sa mort" [photocopied; originals in European archives]

Esperanto-related interests of Suttner [photocopied; originals in Bundesarchiv, West Germany]

Box 2

Correspondence from Suttner, ca. 1905-1911 [photocopied]

Correspondence of Suttner, 1905-1917 [photocopied; originals in Bundesarchiv, West Germany]

Correspondence from Suttner to Frederik Bajer, 1891-1910 [photocopied; originals in European archives]; and, "Esquisse de Rapport" between Bajer and the Commission du Bureau International de la Paix, 1900

Correspondence between Suttner and B. Bjornson, 1892-1905 [photocopied; originals in European archives]

Correspondence between Suttner and Georg Brandes, 1886-1891 [photocopied; originals in European archives]

Correspondence from Suttner to Edward Ginn [photocopied]

Correspondence between Suttner and Theodore Herzl, 1896-1903 [photocopied; originals in European archives]

Correspondence between Suttner and Alfred Nobel, 1881-1896 [photocopied; originals in European archives]

Box 3

Diary, 01/01/1897 - 01/26/1899 [photocopied; originals in United Nations Library, Geneva]

Diary, 01/01/1900 - 06/10/1901 [photocopied; originals in United Nations Library, Geneva]

Diary, 06/11/1901 - 12/31/1902 [photocopied; originals in United Nations Library, Geneva]

Diary, 01/01/1903 - 12/31/1903 [photocopied; originals in United Nations Library, Geneva]

Diary, 01/01/1904 - 12/30/1904 [photocopied; originals in United Nations Library, Geneva]

Diary, 01/01/1905 - 12/30/1905 [photocopied; originals in United Nations Library, Geneva]

Diary, 01/01/1906 - 06/09/1907 [photocopied; originals in United Nations Library, Geneva]

Diary, 06/10/1907 - 06/30/1909 [photocopied; originals in United Nations Library, Geneva]

Diary, 07/01/1909 - 12/31/1911 [photocopied; originals in United Nations Library, Geneva]

Diary, 01/01/1912 - 12/13/1912 [photocopied; originals in United Nations Library, Geneva]

Diary, 01/01/1913 - 12/31/1913 [photocopied; originals in United Nations Library, Geneva]

Diary, 01/01/1914 - 06/02/1914 [photocopied; originals in United Nations Library, Geneva]

Swarthmore College Peace Collection

For more information, contact Wendy Chmielewski, Curator, at wchmiel1@ swarthmore.edu or call 610-328-8557.

For other resources, see the college's online library catalog (Tripod).
 

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