Persöhnlichkeiten aus Gotha

Bertha von Suttner was an educated writer and committed pacifist. She took up music and learned a whole range of languages during her childhood.

From 1873, she was the governess to the daughters of the industrial Baron Karl von Suttner and fell in love with his seven years younger son Arthur Gundaccar during this time. They secretly married each other in 1876 against his parents’ wishes and moved to Georgia in the Caucasus region for more than eight years. During this time, she actively devoted herself to journalistic writing addressing pacifism and became one of the most famous representatives of the peace movement with her work “Die Waffen nieder!” (Lay down your arms). She was the first woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1905 for founding the Austrian “Gesellschaft der Friedensfreunde” pacifist organisation and the “German Peace Society” and for her major involvement in several peace conferences.

As she supported the construction of the first German crematorium in Gotha, she stated in her will that her body should be transferred to Gotha and cremated there. The columbarium still houses her urn today.