Nobel Prize Winners (Peace)

Henry Dunant (born Jean-Henri Dunant; 8 May 1828 - 30 October 1910), also known as Henri Dunant, was a Swiss humanitarian, businessman, and social activist. He was the visionary, promoter, and co-founder of the Red Cross. In 1901, he received the first Nobel Peace Prize together with Frédéric Passy. Dunant was the first Swiss Nobel laureate.

During a business trip in 1859, Dunant was witness to the aftermath of the Battle of Solferino in modern-day Italy. He recorded his memories and experiences in the book A Memory of Solferino which inspired the creation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 1863. The 1864 Geneva Convention was based on Dunant's idea for an independent organization to care for wounded soldiers.

Bertha von Suttner was born on 9 June 1843 in Prague, Bohemia, Austrian Empire [now Czech Republic]. She was a writer, known for Die Waffen nieder! (2014) and Down with Weapons (1914). She was married to Arthur Gundaccar von Suttner. She died on 21 June 1914 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now Austria].

Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 - January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or his initials T. R., was an American politician, statesman, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26th president of the United States from 1901 to 1909. He previously served as the 25th vice president under William McKinley from March to September 1901, and as the 33rd governor of New York from 1899 to 1900. Having assumed the presidency after McKinley's assassination, Roosevelt emerged as a leader of the Republican Party and became a driving force for anti-trust and Progressive policies.

Louis Renault became interested in technology early on. In 1888, when he was just eleven years old, he installed an electric light in his room. At the age of 14, his father gave him an old engine, which he spent hours tinkering with. His technical interest outweighed that of school, which he left without taking his final exams. In 1896, the nineteen-year-old constructed a steam boiler for which he applied for a patent. Renault began his military service after school. There his enthusiasm for machines continued unabated. In 1898, Renault built its first car in a wooden shed in Boulogne-Billancourt near Paris. With the money he saved, he bought a used Dion-Bouton four-wheeler. He made fundamental changes to the vehicle.

In the end, Renault's first prototype, the Renault Type A, was released. Renault presented the Type A car on its 21st birthday in 1898. It was the world's first car with a 3-speed gearbox and direct drive by cardan shaft instead of chain drive. In the same year, together with his brothers Fernand and Marcel Renault, he founded the company that bears the family name and laid the foundation for what would later become the modern Renault car factory. The first Renault was equipped with a 270 cc engine and produced 1.75 hp. It could carry two people at a maximum speed of 50 kilometers per hour. Renault enlisted the financial help of his brothers, who supported him in founding and developing his car company. He designed a direct gear shift system, which he patented.

This technical innovation was soon used by other European and US car manufacturers. Thanks to his penchant for technical inventions, Renault obtained further patents, such as for the turbo compressor. The Renault engines were then used in racing cars driven by the brothers Louis and Marcel Renault. The vehicles proved to be fast and successful racing cars. In 1902, a Renault won the race from Paris to Vienna ahead of 138 competitors. The average speed was 60 kilometers per hour. The following year, 1903, Marcel Renault had a fatal accident. In 1905, Renault received the exclusive contract to build the Paris taxis. Production of trucks, buses and commercial vehicles began in 1906; Aircraft engines also followed in 1908.

In 1906, Renault founded its first foreign factory in New York; 1907 in Berlin. Fernand Renault died in 1909 at the age of 44. Renault now ran its company, which had expanded into an industrial company, according to Taylorism, i.e. a scientific management system named after its inventor Frederick Winslow Taylor. By 1910, Renault had become the largest European automobile manufacturer. The company manufactured weapons during the First World War. In 1918, Renault married his wife Christine, the daughter of a Paris notary. This union resulted in the only son named Jean-Louis. From 1919, Renault was France's largest private industrial company. For cost reasons and to remain competitive, Renault manufactured all of the car's parts itself.

In 1925, the 40 CV luxury sedan appeared. This was the first to have the trademark of the rhombus on the car radiator. The poor working conditions led to frequent strikes. In 1931, Renault founded the S.A.F.E steelworks. Under pressure from the Popular Front government, he introduced the 40-hour week in 1936. When German troops occupied Paris in 1940, Louis Renault was obliged to cooperate with Nazi Germany. The so-called "strength through joy car" caused great fascination at Renault. Renault therefore decided to work with Germany. This "tank affair" and a handshake with Adolf Hitler in Berlin in 1939 gave rise to accusations of collaboration. After the liberation of France, Renault was arrested and sentenced to death in 1944.

Due to the poor physical condition, the execution of the sentence was suspended.

Louis Renault died on October 24, 1944 in Paris. The exact circumstances of his death remained unclear and led to numerous speculations.

The family's immense private assets and the entire Renault company were expropriated and nationalized in 1945 under the name Régie Nationale des Usines Renault. In 1990, the group was converted into a stock corporation, with the French state remaining its sole shareholder.

Paul d'Estournelles de Constant was born on 8 June 1897 in France. He was a writer and actor, known for Si l'empereur savait ça (1930), Le masque d'Hollywood (1930) and Les frères Karamazoff (1931). He was married to Elizabeth. He died on 19 December 1955 in Claremont, California, USA.

Elihu Root was born on 15 February 1845 in Clinton, New York, USA. He was married to Clara Frances Wales. He died on 7 February 1937 in New York City, New York, USA.

Thomas Woodrow Wilson was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of Princeton University and as the governor of New Jersey before winning the 1912 presidential election. As president, Wilson changed the nation's economic policies and led the United States into World War I in 1917. He was the leading architect of the League of Nations, and his progressive stance on foreign policy came to be known as Wilsonianism.

Hjalmar Branting was born on 23 November 1860 in Klara, Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden. He died on 24 February 1925 in Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden.

Fridtjof Nansen was born on 10 October 1861 in Store-Frøen, Norway. He was married to Sigrun Munthe and Eva Sars. He died on 13 May 1930 in Lysaker, Norway.

Charles Dawes was born on 27 August 1865 in Marietta, Ohio, USA. He was married to Caro D. Blymver. He died on 23 April 1951 in Evanston, Illinois, USA.

Aristide Briand was born on 28 March 1862 in Nantes, France. He died on 7 March 1932 in Paris, France.

Gustav Stresemann was born on 10 May 1878 in Berlin, Germany. He was married to Käte Kleefeld. He died on 3 October 1929 in Berlin, Germany.

Frank B. Kellogg was born on 22 December 1856 in Potsdam, New York, USA. He died on 21 December 1937 in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA.

Swedish theologian, professor at the universities of Uppsala and Leipzig, and archbishop of Sweden from 1914 until his death. A pioneer of the ecumenical movement he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1930 "for promoting Christian unity and helping create that new attitude of mind which is necessary if peace between nations is to become reality". Söderblom also both wrote lyrics to and composed hymns.

Jane Addams was born on 6 September 1860 in Cedarville, Illinois, USA. She was a writer, known for Shoes (1916), Votes for Women (1912) and Mutual Weekly, No. 16 (1915). She died on 21 May 1935 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Nicholas Murray Butler was born on 2 April 1862 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, USA. He was married to Kate La Montagne and Susanna Edwards Schuyler. He died on 7 December 1947 in New York City, New York, USA.

Carl von Ossietzky attended middle school in Hamburg. In 1904 he stopped his school education before reaching secondary school. From 1907 to 1914 he worked as an assistant clerk at the Hamburg district court. In 1908 he became a member of the Democratic Association and the German Peace Society. From 1911 he worked as a freelancer for the magazine "The Free People". Two years later he married the Englishwoman Maud Lichfield-Wood. A daughter was born from this union. As early as 1914, Carl von Ossietzky had to pay for his journalistic love of truth. A contribution from that year brought him a lawsuit for insulting military justice, which was accompanied by a fine of 200 Reichsmarks.

Ossietzky did his military service between 1916 and 1918. He was an infantryman on the Western Front. His experiences at the Battle of Verdun were so powerful that he subsequently wrote against the romanticized arrogance and progression of the First World War. During the November Revolution in 1918 he worked for the Hamburg Workers' and Soldiers' Council. In the same year, Carl von Ossietzky left Hamburg and moved to Berlin. There he became general secretary of the German Peace Society. During this time his work entitled "The Approach of the New Reformation" was also published. It represents Ossietzky's only independent work. In it he advocated for a civil and democratic state consciousness in order to strengthen the Weimar Republic.

From 1920 onwards, Carl von Ossietzky worked for the social democratic "Volks-Zeitung". In the same year he founded the peace movement "No More War!" He also met the writer Kurt Tucholsky. From 1922 to 1924, Ossietzky was the editor in charge of the "Volks-Zeitung". After he founded the Republican Party with others, he became an editorial staff member of the left-liberal newspaper "Das Diary" and "Montag-Morgen". In 1927, von Ossietzky became editor-in-chief of the magazine "Die Weltbühne" and thus a colleague of Kurt Tucholsky. Through this medium he became one of the most important journalists in the Weimar Republic. His articles against rearmament resulted in several accusations.

His contributions were critical of party political events and the weakening of the constitution. In 1931, an article in the "Weltbühne" in which he reported on the secret rearmament of the Reichswehr earned him a spectacular court sentence of 18 months in prison for high treason. He owed his early release in December 1932 to a Christmas amnesty. When the National Socialists took power in Germany in 1933, Ossietzky decided to stay. He was arrested by the Gestapo at the Reichstag fire on February 28th of the same year. In March 1933 the "Weltbühne" was banned. Ossietzky went to the Sonnenburg concentration camp near Küstrin in April 1933. The following year he was transferred to the Papenburg concentration camp in Emsland.

In 1935 Carl von Ossietzky was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize. Hitler forbade him to accept the Nobel Prize; This was associated with a ban on leaving the country. The award was presented to him in absentia. The award, however, brought the Nazi regime under pressure in the world public. The following year he became seriously ill with tuberculosis. The publicist was transferred to the police state hospital in Berlin.

Carl von Ossietzky died on May 4, 1938 in the Nordend Hospital in Berlin as a result of tuberculosis and torture by the Gestapo.

Cordell Hull was born on 2 October 1871 in Olympus, Tennessee, USA. He was married to Rose Frances Whitney. He died on 23 July 1955 in Bethesda, Maryland, USA.

Ralph Bunche was born on 7 April 1904 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. He was married to Ruth Harris. He died on 9 December 1971 in New York City, New York, USA.

León Jouhaux was born on 1 July 1879 in Paris, France. He died on 29 April 1954 in Paris, France.

Albert Schweitzer was born on January 14, 1875, in Kaysersberg, near Strasbourg, Elsass-Lothringen, Germany (now in Alsace, France). His father and both grandfathers were pastors and organists. His family had been devoted to education, religion and music for generations.

Schweitzer took music lessons from his grandfather, a church organist. He spoke German and French in his bilingual Alsace family, and later added English to his studies. From 1893-1899 he studied philosophy and theology at the University of Strasbourg, University of Berlin and the Sorbonne. In 1899 he completed a doctorate dissertation on the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. From 1905-1912 he studied medicine in Strasbourg and Paris, and received his MD degree in tropical medicine and surgery in 1912.

From the age of 9 Schweitzer started regular performances of organ music in his father's church and continued his organ recitals until the age of 89. In 1905 he wrote a biography of Johann Sebastian Bach, in French, then he rewrote and updated the Bach book--in German--in 1908, the version considered definitive. Schweitzer also published a book on organ building and playing in 1906. He was involved in the restoration of many valuable historic organs worldwide, including construction of the organ at his hospital in Lambarene, where he played music for his patients. He was described as the doctor who returns health to ill people and music to old organs. Albert Schweitzer made notable organ recordings of Bach's music in the 1940s and 1950s. Schweitzer based his interpretation on his profound knowledge of personality, education, religious and social life of Bach.

In 1905 he began his medical studies at the University of Strasbourg, because he decided to go to Africa as a medical doctor rather than a pastor. His medical knowledge was in urgent need during an epidemic of sleeping sickness there. In 1913 he obtained his MD degree, but was turned down by the Paris Missionary Society because his very liberal views of Christ's teachings did not conform to the Society's orthodox beliefs. Schweitzer and his wife went to Lambarene, French Equatorial Africa (now Gabon), and started a hospital in a tent, gradually adding rooms for special cases of sleeping sickness, leprosy, paediatrics and surgery. After his release from French internment Schweitzer practiced medicine in Strasbourg from 1918-1923. In 1924 he returned to his hospital in Lambarene, which was to be restored after years of decay during his absence. There his medical practice included paediatrics, infectious diseases and epidemiology, as well as surgery and traumatology. His versatility in medicine helped to save many thousands of lives. Schweitzer donated his royalties from public performances and book publications to the hospital, which expanded to 500 beds by the 1950s. "Everyone must have his 'Lambarene'", said Schweitzer.

Schweitzer gained great reputation for writing "The Quest of the Historical Jesus" (1906). He was acclaimed for his two concise books on in 1905-1908. In 1917 Schweitzer and his wife were arrested by the French administration in Africa for being Germans, and sent to a French internment camp at the St. Remy mental institution. There Schweitzer was kept at the same room where Vincent Van Gogh lived before his suicide. The Schweitzers were prisoners of war until the end of the First World War in 1918. After his release Schweitzer gave a major speech about his "Reverence for Life" (1920). He spent six years in Europe and published "The Decay and the Restoration of Civilization" (1923) and "Civilization and Ethics" (1923), which he drafted during his captivity in St. Remy.

Schweitzer saved lives by his medical work, by writing and teaching and by advocating for peace and nuclear control. He admittedly followed the similar line as that of the Russian humanitarian and writer Lev Tolstoy. As the founder of a free public hospital, a writer and humanitarian, Schweitzer became the leading proponent of accessible medicine for all. He was also involved in the foundation of the Goethe Institute. From 1952 until his death Schweitzer worked against nuclear weapons together with Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell. On December 10, 1953, Schweitzer was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He donated his prize money to build a leprosy clinic in Lambarene. In 1957 Schweitzer co-founded The Committee for a sane Nuclear Policy.

As it was told, many girls adored Schweitzer, but Helene Bresslau offered him thoughtful partnership and practicality instead of flattery. Schweitzer and Helen began their relationship in 1898, as students. In many hundreds of their letters they only once used the word "love". Schweitzer called his medical work "the religion of love, actually put into practice." The disapproval, conservatism and shallowness of many Christian friends and even his own father did not stop him from his career change to medicine in 1905. Only Helene Bresslau understood him. In 1912 Schweitzer married her before they went to Equatorial Africa. It was a passionate, profound joining of souls. She trained as a nurse and became his assistant in medical work, in writing and in international public service. Their daughter, Rhena, was born in 1919, she later became the lab analyst at her father's hospital in Africa. His cousin Anne-Marie Schweitzer was the mother of Jean-Paul Sartre, who called Schweitzer 'Uncle Al'.

Schweitzer was a multifaceted person, a true Renessance man. He was a doctor, a pastor, a teacher, a writer, a musician, a father and husband, an international lecturer and the leading proponent of peace, all at the same time. He admired all people as brothers and sisters. His openness and helpfulness to strangers was disarming and ennobling. He was learning from simple people through his entire life, being himself patient, modest and humble. "Why are you traveling in the 4th class?" some official asked him - "Because there is no 5th class", answered Schweitzer.

His humor was legendary. His look resembled that of his friend Albert Einstein. Once on a train he was asked by two schoolgirls, "Dr. Einstein, will you give us your autograph?" He did not want to disappoint them, so he signed their autograph book: "Albert Einstein, by his friend Albert Schweitzer."

He died on September 4, 1965, in the hospital, which he founded in 1913, and was laid to rest in the ground of his hospital in Lambarene, Gabon.

George Catlett Marshall Jr. GCB (December 31, 1880 - October 16, 1959) was an American army officer and statesman. He rose through the United States Army to become Chief of Staff of the US Army under Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman, then served as Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense under Truman. Winston Churchill lauded Marshall as the "organizer of victory" for his leadership of the Allied victory in World War II. After the war, he spent a frustrating year trying and failing to avoid the impending Chinese Civil War. As Secretary of State, Marshall advocated a U.S. economic and political commitment to post-war European recovery, including the Marshall Plan that bore his name. In recognition of this work, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953.

Born in Newtonbrook, Ontario, Lester Bowles Pearson was the son of Annie Sarah Bowles and Edwin Arthur Pearson. Throughout World War I, Pearson volunteered for service and entered in it. He survived an aeroplane crash and Pearson went by the code name, "Mike".

After World War I, Pearson returned back to school and received his Bachelor of Arts in Toronto in 1919. In 1925, Pearson married Maryon Moody, who was from Winnipeg. Together, they had two children, Geoffrey and Patricia. In 1929, with the Stock Market Crash and Mackenzie King's defeat, Pearson entered his diplomatic career. During World War II, he served in the United Kingdom. After the war, Pearson served as the second Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations.

In 1957, Pearson won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the Suez Canal Crisis. The following year, he became leader of the Liberal Party, after Louis St. Laurent retired. In 1963, Pearson defeated John Diefenbaker in the 1963 election. Pearson remained Prime Minister until April 20, 1968, when Pierre Trudeau defeated him.

Pearson remained active until he died from cancer on December 27, 1972. He was 75 years old.