The book ''Die Waffen nieder!'' (''Down with Weapons!'') or ''Lay Down Your Arms!'' is the best-known novel by the author and peace activist

Bertha von Suttner Bertha Sophie Felicitas Freifrau von Suttner (; ; 9 June 184321 June 1914) was an Austrian-Bohemian pacifist and novelist. In 1905, she became the second female Nobel laureate (after Marie Curie in 1903), the first woman to be awarded the Nobel ...

, who received the

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...

in 1905 for the book. The book was published in 1889 in German by the publisher Edgar Pierson in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

and became very quickly successful, both because of its look at war and peace and because it addressed the issue of women in society. Three years later, it was published in English as ''Lay Down Your Arms!'', then in Italian in 1897 as ''Abbasso le Armi!'', and in Spanish in 1905 as ''¡Abajo las armas!''. The novel was printed in a total of 37 German editions before 1905. It has been translated into a total of sixteen languages, including Finnish, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and Czech. Until the publication of ''

All Quiet on the Western Front ''All Quiet on the Western Front'' (german: Im Westen nichts Neues, lit=Nothing New in the West) is a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, a German veteran of World War I. The book describes the German soldiers' extreme physical and mental trauma du ...

'' in 1929, ''Die Waffen nieder'' was the most important German language literary work concerning war. Von Suttner chose to write a novel instead of a nonfiction book because she believed that the novel form would reach a wider audience. Von Suttner published a monthly magazine which was also called ''Die Waffen nieder!''. She also published a sequel to ''Die Waffen nieder'', ''Marthas Kinder'', in 1903, although it was never as popular as ''Die Waffen nieder''. ''Die Waffen nieder'' was adapted into film twice, in 1914 and in 1952.

Plot

The novel is from the point of view of the Austrian countess Martha Althaus over the course of four wars. During the

Second Italian War of Independence The Second Italian War of Independence, also called the Franco-Austrian War, the Austro-Sardinian War or Italian War of 1859 ( it, Seconda guerra d'indipendenza italiana; french: Campagne d'Italie), was fought by the Second French Empire and t ...

, at age 19, Althaus loses her husband, the count Arno Dotzky, and decides that she is against war. Her second husband, Baron Friedrich Tilling, shares her pacifistic convictions even though he is an officer in the Austrian army. He fought in the

Second Schleswig War The Second Schleswig War ( da, Krigen i 1864; german: Deutsch-Dänischer Krieg) also sometimes known as the Dano-Prussian War or Prusso-Danish War was the second military conflict over the Schleswig-Holstein Question of the nineteenth century. T ...

alongside

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

in 1864, and in the

Austro-Prussian War The Austro-Prussian War, also by many variant names such as Seven Weeks' War, German Civil War, Brothers War or Fraternal War, known in Germany as ("German War"), (; "German war of brothers") and by a variety of other names, was fought in 186 ...

in 1866. Althaus' sisters and brother die of

cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...

because of the war, and her father dies of grief after losing his children. Friedrich then retires from the army to support Althaus' peace activism. During the Franco-Prussian War, Friedrich is shot while staying in Paris because he is suspected of being a Prussian spy. Althaus' son from her first marriage, Rudolf, begins to follow in his mother's footsteps. 1889 German-language novels Anti-war novels 19th-century Austrian novels

External links

* {{librivox book , title=Lay Down Your Arms: The Autobiography of Martha von Tilling , author=Bertha von Suttner