Memoirs of Bertha Von Suttner: the Records of an Eventful Life (vol. 1 of 2)

Volume I

PUBLISHED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF PEACE GINN AND COMPANY, BOSTON AND LONDON 1910

COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY GINN AND COMPANY ENTERED AT STATIONERS’ HALL ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

=The Athnæum Press= GINN AND COMPANY · PROPRIETORS BOSTON · U.S.A.

PREFACE TO MY ENGLISH AND AMERICAN READERS

It is a great gratification to me that the story of my life—which I cannot suppose to be of general interest except in so far as it is linked with the story of a world-wide movement—is now put before the great community of the English-speaking nations; for it is in these very nations that the origin of that movement is to be sought, and by them its final victory is being most efficiently hastened. I have been brought to a clear recognition of this fact especially by the days I have spent in the United States and in England in recent years. There I perceived with astonishment and admiration how in these two countries (especially in America) the peace problem, still largely antagonized or ignored on the continent of Europe, has not only met with widespread comprehension but also received already a positive and practical working out. Little of this is told in the present book; yet in it I have set down the fact that the reading of English scholars and thinkers (Herbert Spencer, Henry Thomas Buckle, etc.) was what opened my mind to take in the peace cause, and furthermore that a tract of the London Peace Association presided over by Hodgson Pratt, accidentally coming to my knowledge, gave the initial occasion for all that I have endeavored to do as a helper in the peace movement.

In the year 1904 I came to America on the occasion of the Boston Congress. Of the sublime impressions that I there received I give a brief and fragmentary account in the supplementary chapter appended to this edition. In the year 1907 I attended the Interparliamentary Conference in London, and there had opportunity to hear Campbell-Bannerman speak; his proposals for the limitation of armaments, and for a League of Peace among states, bore renewed witness to the pacifist disposition of British statesmen. A year later, while the Peace Congress was being held in London, it was my privilege to meet the King and Queen of England; and in words that I heard from the mouth of Edward VII, and in those which he caused to be written to me by his private secretary, Lord Knollys, I have confirmation of the fact that the name by which he has passed into history, Edward the Peacemaker, is in full measure his due.

At the last moment, just as I am writing these lines, the question of the peace of the world has led to the taking of remarkable steps in America. The most prominent men in the Union—Taft, Roosevelt, Elihu Root, Knox, etc.—are coming forward with positive proposals for the organization of the world, and the House of Representatives has accepted a most significant law. Of this one of the greatest American workers for peace writes me as follows in a letter dated from Skibo Castle, June 30, 1910:

... The greatest news received lately is the passing of a bill by the House and Senate of the United States, establishing a commission to take measures to bring about a League of Peace among nations. Mr. Roosevelt is to be chairman. This means business. America is now in earnest. We hope she will no longer be dragd into enormous armaments. The good work goes bravely on.

Always yours Andrew Carnegie

Yes, indeed: our brothers of the English-speaking race—especially those in the young New World—“mean business” when they undertake anything. And their enterprises are not (as an old prejudice assumes) limited to the commercial and financial domain, but embrace the region of the highest human thought, and rest upon the deepest ethical foundations.

BERTHA V. SUTTNER

VIENNA, 1910

CONTENTS OF VOLUME I

Part One

PAGE

I. CHILDHOOD 3

My certificate of baptism. The revolution of 1848. Landgrave Fürstenberg. The feather ball. Castle Matzen.

II. EARLY YOUTH 20

Elvira. Playing “puff.” My mother’s singing. Clairvoyant Aunt Lotti. Roulette and trente-et-quarante. Castles in the air. My first journey. Season in Wiesbaden. Return. Grillparzer and Ebner-Eschenbach at Elvira’s. Radetzky’s death. A schoolgirl romance.

III. AN AUTOGRAPH ALBUM 57

Anastasius Grün. Friedrich Halm. Grillparzer. Wagner. Lenau’s sister. Military autographs. King Ludwig of Bavaria. Schiller’s daughter. Liebig. Schücking. Mädler. Körner. Anderssen. Meyerbeer. Rückert. Hebbel. Gregorovius. Lamartine. Victor Hugo. Manzoni. Dickens.

IV. MORE EPISODES OF YOUTH 70

The War of 1859. A prank. Elvira’s marriage.

Part Two

V. ENTERING THE WORLD 81

Engaged. The engagement ended. Baden. Marietta. Season in Rome. Carnival at Venice.

VI. A SEASON IN HOMBURG VOR DER HÖHE 95

Our way of living. My first singing lessons. The Princess of Mingrelia. Tsar Alexander II. Adelina Patti.

VII. HERACLIUS OF GEORGIA 109

A disappointed dream of love.

VIII. NOVITIATE IN ART 119

Back to Baden. Singing lessons. Great hopes. A test before Madame Viardot.

IX. THE YEAR 1866 132

Return. Elvira’s death. Fürstenberg’s death. The war. Homburg once more. Back to Baden. Baron Koller.

X. RESIDENCE IN PARIS 144

Singing lessons resumed. Maître Duprez. The school in the Rue Laval. In the house of the Princess of Mingrelia. In the imperial box at the opera. Summer at Duprez’s place in the country. Return to Paris. Princess Salomé’s engagement. Prince Achille Murat. The wedding. With the young couple. Off to Baden-Baden.

XI. SEASON IN BADEN-BADEN 158

Resumption of trente-et-quarante. Baroness Seutter. Acquaintance with King William I of Prussia. A letter from the king.

XII. PARIS AGAIN 163

Return to Paris. Renunciation of an artistic career. A dream of Australian gold. Betrothal of Heraclius of Georgia.

XIII. THE YEAR 1870–1871 172

Resumption of music study in Milan. Outbreak of the Franco-German War. My double existence in the world of books. Return of the victorious troops to Berlin.

XIV. PRINCE WITTGENSTEIN 177

Duet practice and betrothal. Art journey and—end. Letters from Castle Wittgenstein.

Part Three

XV. IN THE SUTTNER HOUSE 191

Resolve to take a position. The Suttner family. Artur Gundaccar von Suttner. Life in the Vienna palais and in Schloss Harmannsdorf. The Exposition year. Secret love. Letters from the Princess of Mingrelia. Marriage of Prince Niko. Zogelsdorf quarry. Three happy years. I tear myself away. Departure.

XVI. THE ZENITH OF HAPPINESS 207

Arrival in Paris. Alfred Nobel’s personality. Unendurable agony of separation. Two dispatches. A plan of action. Arrival at Vienna. Blissful meeting. At last and forever united.

Part Four

XVII. WEDDING JOURNEY 217

On the Black Sea. Jason mood. Arrival in Asia. The hotel in Poti. Kutais. Count Rosmorduc. Reception at Prince Zeretelli’s. National dances. Journey to Gordi. Prince Niko with escort comes to meet us. Arrival at Gordi. Ceremonious reception.

XVIII. IN KUTAIS (1877) 227

Lessons. Rumors of war and outbreak of war. Red Cross fever. The plague on the horizon. Bad times. Conclusion of peace. Mathilde. Beginning of literary career.

XIX. TIFLIS 237

Another summer in Gordi. Business projects. Removal to Tiflis. Princess Tamara of Georgia. Our manner of life. Double position. Continued authorship. Illness.

XX. ZUGDIDI 242

The capital of Mingrelia. Our little house. Labors on the Murat estate. Social life at the Murats’ and the Dedopali’s. Lonely summer at Zugdidi. New literary labors. Prototype of Es Löwos. New horizons. Study together.

XXI. OUR LAST DAYS IN THE CAUCASUS 251

The Dedopali’s death. Death of my mother. Prospect of coming home. Translation of “The Tiger’s Skin.” Sojourn in a Mingrelian village. A bit of Georgian history. Queen Tamara.

Part Five

XXII. AT HOME 263

Departure from the Caucasus. First destination, Görz. Return to Harmannsdorf. Family life and neighborly visits. Literary correspondence. Writers’ convention in Berlin.

XXIII. A WINTER IN PARIS 275

Schriftstellerroman and Das Maschinenzeitalter. Journey to Paris. Renewed acquaintance with Alfred Nobel. The Schnäbele affair. Madame Adam’s salon. Princess Tamara of Georgia in Paris. Max Nordau. A ball in the palais of the Revue des deux mondes. Victor Cherbuliez. Ludovic Halévy. Alphonse Daudet.

XXIV. THERE IS A PEACE MOVEMENT 287

Return from Paris. International Peace Association. Das Maschinenzeitalter by “Jemand.” Anonymity attains its end. Bartholomäus von Carneri. At the Carneri table. In the hotel Meissl.

XXV. DIE WAFFEN NIEDER 294

How the plan for the book originated. Study of sources. The model of my hero. Satisfaction in writing the word “End.” Unanimously rejected by the editors. The publisher’s scruples. Publication. How the book was received. Favorable and hostile criticisms. Personal contact with the peace movement resulting from the novel. The Peace Congress of 1889 in Paris. Founding of Interparliamentary Union.

XXVI. INTERCOURSE WITH FRIENDS 303

In port. Trip to Vienna. Literary circles. Balduin Groller. Theodor Herzl. Letter from Count Hoyos. Letter from Friedrich Bodenstedt.

XXVII. MENTONE AND VENICE 312

The news of the Crown Prince’s death. Sojourn in Mentone. Octave Mirbeau. A winter in Venice. Old acquaintances. Princess Tamara and Marietta Saibante. Visit of Felix Moscheles to the widow “Tillings.” Moscheles as peace propagandist. Formation of a section in Venice through Marquis Pandolfi. The Grelix. The Princess of Montenegro. Princess Hatzfeld, born Von Buch. A memory of Cosima Wagner.

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