Bertha Values | Feminist Mug

Hello, I’m Bertha.

I was born on June 9, 1843, in Prague. A few months before I was born, my father Field Marshal and Count Franz Graf Kinsky von Wchnitiz und Tettau passed away, which made my life less easy.

At the age of 30, I was placed as maid-of-company and tutor to four daughters and the son of Baron von Suttner. I fell in love with his son, Arthur von Suttner, which forced me to leave his home.

I studied music (specializing in operas and languages) and went to Paris where I was secretary to the industrialist Alfred Nobel.

But love spoke louder and I eventually returned to Vienna to secretly marry Arthur. We had to move away to Caucasus because of pressure from his family and it was there that we stayed for 9 years teaching music classes and writing books. Arthur’s family eventually granted us a pardon, we returned to Austria-Hungary where I devoted myself almost exclusively to literature, the work that received the most attention being Down with Arms!

I gradually devoted my life to Peace and in 1891 helped organize the first International Peace Congress in Vienna. Furthermore, I founded the Austrian Society of Friends of Peace and was elected vice-president of the International Peace Office during the 3rd World Peace Congress in Rome.

In 1905 I was the first woman in history to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. I died on June 21, 1914, from cancer while preparing for the 23rd World Peace Congress. I was cremated and my ashes scattered in the wind, as I had wished.