Eine Liebe für den Frieden - Bertha von Suttner und Alfred Nobel (2014)

Before the 1905 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Norway, Bertha von Suttner is asked about her relationship with Alfred Nobel. She replies, “We were meant for each other.” In 1876, Bertha, born Countess Kinsky, works as a governess at Harmannsdorf Castle in the household of Baron von Suttner. When Bertha and the family’s son, Arthur von Suttner, fall in love, his parents consider it a scandal because Bertha is seven years older than Arthur. They send her away, telling her to apply for a position as Alfred Nobel’s private secretary in Paris, where she is hired. The two get along very well from the outset. Alfred tells Bertha about a ballad he has written and encourages her to write as well. Two weeks after her arrival in Paris, Nobel is summoned to Stockholm, where the king is opening a new factory. Meanwhile, Arthur seeks Bertha out in Paris. He has been disinherited and cast out by his father. The two elope. Nobel travels to Vienna, where he learns from the concierge that Arthur and Bertha have married in haste and moved to the Caucasus. There, he also meets the flower girl Sophie Hess, who accompanies him back to Paris. Alfred receives a letter from Bertha in which she tells him she hopes to find a position for her husband in St. Petersburg. In the Caucasus, Bertha and Arthur experience the Russo-Turkish War. Arthur tries his hand at being a war correspondent to earn money. Meanwhile, Bertha and Alfred exchange letters in which she expresses her horror at the atrocities of war. Arthur tells Bertha that the tsar was killed in a dynamite attack. Arthur and Bertha then return to Vienna to his parents. After Bertha feels constrained in Vienna by its conservative society and its worldview, and misses intellectual exchange, she and Arthur visit Alfred Nobel in Paris, where he introduces them to the father of the French peace movement. Arthur in particular resents the fact that Nobel’s inventions, such as dynamite and ballistite, help create the conditions for war. Nobel defends himself, saying that others had made similar inventions and that he was simply a little quicker; moreover, his inventions had made the construction of the Gotthard Tunnel possible. Back in Vienna, Bertha draws on her experiences in the Caucasus to write her novel Lay Down Your Arms! At first, however, she cannot find a publisher because so many people would be offended by its contents. Nobel suggests that she publish in Leipzig, where her manuscript is eventually accepted and released. The book is translated into numerous languages and brings her international success. She wants to use the proceeds from book sales to support the Viennese group’s participation in the World Peace Congress in Rome, but Arthur wants to use the money to restore the family-owned quarry. Nobel’s permission to conduct chemical experiments in France is revoked after he sells the patent for ballistite. In France, this is regarded as treason, even though the French government had previously declined to buy it. He moves to Sanremo, Italy, where he has bought a house by the sea. Because of financial difficulties, Bertha asks Alfred for financial help for the peace society, and Nobel agrees. After the two meet at the International Peace Congress in Bern, Nobel draws up his will, using his fortune to establish the Nobel Prize. Alfred Nobel dies, and in 1905 Bertha von Suttner becomes the first woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.