Bertha+von+Suttner

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Bertha Von Suttner : 6th Nobel Peace Prize winner=====

Bertha Von Suttner (full name Bertha Felicie Sophie von Suttner) was born “Countess Kinsky” on June 9, 1843. She was born to a field marshal in Prague, and was raised by her mother, a member of the Austrian court. She was an educated young lady, studying various languages, as well as became a social butterfly. She became a “teacher-companion” to the Suttner household, where she would later meet her future husband. She traveled to Paris to become Alfred Nobel’s secretary in 1876. Alfred Nobel, at this time, as a prominent active leader of an international community involved in dynamite factories. She greatly admired his work, ideas, and personality, and spent much time adventuring through the city with him. After he work with Nobel, she continued to correspond with him, sending him copies of her books, as well as returning for various visits. They shared a passion for the community around them, the peace of the world, and the fostering of ideas to establish a more peaceful world around them.
 * Subject Background Information**

She later became the wife of Baron Arthur Gundaccar von Suttner of Austria. Her marriage with Baron Arthur Gundaccar von Suttner faced opposition from his family, causing them to leave for the Caucasus where they became teachers of language and music, as well as became writers. Over ten years passed before she and her husband returned to the Suttner’s establishment in Austria. She wrote much in her time there in Austria, including her second book //Das Maschinenzeitalter (The Machine Age),// published in 1990. Her book was criticized, discussed, and reviewed as being one of the first to protest nationalism.

Bertha Von Suttner became passionate about writing, including novels about heroines suffering in war, which she had meticulously researched for validation. She wrote and published //Die Waffennieder (Lay Down Your Arms)// in 1889, creating a huge impact on how the world viewed the wars and military. As a result of this book, she became a passionate leader towards a movement of peace and helped form the Venetian peace group, which initiated the Austrian Peace Society. She became president of this society and helped establish a fund for the Bern Peace Bureau.

In 1892, Alfred Nobel was given the promise by Bertha von Suttner that she would inform him of her progress in the peace movement as she hoped to convince him of its value and impact on the world. It is said she felt she had succeeded when he mailed her a letter on January 1893, informing her of the peace prize he desired to fund, and later did establish in his final will upon his death.

After the death of her husband, she retired in Vienna, and wrote only for peace. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1905 for her work. After this notorious award, she continued to pursue a more peace community through the establishment of the Anglo-German Friendship Committee, formed in 1905, as well as her last effort in 1912 where she lectured in the United States. Bertha Von Suttner died in 1914, after battling cancer, and two months before World War I, the exact war she warned and pushed against, begun around the world.

My ideas for teaching this content/topic are numerous, so I'm listing a few before focusing in on one particular aspect of teaching the topic.
 * Instructional Application Ideas**
 * How did she impacted the establishment of the Nobel Peace Prize, especially pertaining to her close ties with Alfred Nobel, the funder and establisher of this notorious “prize”?
 * Introduce what really happened before the first World War. Many times I think the content focuses so much on the why, who, what, when, how {why it began, who began the war, how it all occurred, and how it ended} that it would be great to understand that there were a variety of perspectives and opinions on the war during that time, even against the idea of it. This would also allow students to tie their background knowledge of there being diversity in the opinions about today’s wars, especially the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
 * Use this information/topic for a discussion (Do you think Bertha von Suttner was correct in her opinions? Why or why not?),
 * History of Austria if we were studying this region of the world
 * Bertha von Suttner was an extraordinary leader and definitely an outstanding woman among a lot of women during this time in history. We could also look at the social status of women during this time in Europe, as well as how their status in society changed through the World Wars.
 * Focus on the idea of Peace Movements
 * For this topic of the content, I could see students learning more about peace movements as a whole. Students would be able to define what peace movements were, as well as understand the impact peace movement could have on the world around them.
 * In order to teach this information, I could see myself presenting the question of "What is a peace movement?". I would want them to brainstorm their ideas for peace movements, and then come to a conclusion of the actual definition of a peace movement together as a class. I would then ask them to brainstorm other attempts or successes in peace movements throughout the world during the time of Bertha von Suttner or after. I would introduce Bertha von Suttner, and her ideas of the peace movement to help students gain perspective of the types of peace these advocates were struggling to find in the world around them. Through research, groups would be able to compare/contrast Bertha von Suttner's peace movement with other peace movements they had found throughout the world in their research. I would then ask them to prepare an individual free-write about something they wish they could create a peace movement for, as well as how they would want to plan it (debate, silent protest, etc). This would be a way of assessing their knowledge of the previously learned content, as well as help me provide helpful feedback on their ideas. We would, as a class, share some free-writes and find one common movement students feel most passionately about.
 * We would brainstorm together how realistic this peace movement would be, and if it were a very realistic peace movement (meaning one they might could actively participate in the community with), we would brainstorm how it could be created and activated in the community around them. Again, if this idea for a peace movement were realistic and plausible, I would give them the option of actively placing their peace movement into action via blog, silent protest at lunch, public website, posters around school, etc.
 * If the idea for a peace movement was not realistic, we would discuss and brainstorm why it was unreasonable, how it could possibly become a reality in the community, as well as who it would affect. I would conclude by allowing them to write a letter to me either agreeing or disagreeing that that particular idea for a peace movement were realistic or unrealistic and how they imagine it would change the world around them.


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