Despite being born a countess, Bertha von Suttner was shunned by Austrian aristocracy, but it didn’t stop her changing the world.
Born in 1843 in Prague, Bertha’s noble family struggled financially and she worked as a tutor. She married in secret because of her in-laws disapproval and wrote news articles and novels.
She took a progressive, pro-disarmament stance, arguing that technology could reduce war, and she emerged as a leader in the peace movement.
She became famous (and a women’s liberation icon) as the editor of a pacifist journal, and she was friends with Alfred Nobel. It is said that she influenced his creation of the Nobel Peace Prize and in 1905 she was the first woman to solely win the Peace Prize.
She hoped: “That the future will always be one degree better than what is past…”
