Down with the weapons!

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Down with the weapons!
Postage stamp: 100 years Nobel Peace Prize .
Bertha von Suttner.
Germany 2005.

The novel Lower your arms! is the best-known work by the Austrian author and peace activist Bertha von Suttner . The book was published in 1889 by Edgar Pierson Verlag in Dresden and within a short period of time achieved outstanding popularity and distribution and has been translated into more than 15 languages. Down with the weapons! was considered the most important work in anti-war literature until 1929, nothing new came out of Erich Maria Remarque in the West .

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From a first-person perspective, the book describes the life of Countess Martha Althaus from Vienna in the context of four wars. In the Sardinian War of 1859 between Austria and Sardinia and France , Martha lost her first husband, Count Arno Dotzky, at the age of 19. She then becomes a staunch pacifist. Her second husband, Baron Friedrich Tilling, shares her views, although he is himself an officer in the Austrian army. He took part in the German-Danish War of 1864 and the German War in 1866 with the Austrian Army .

Martha's sisters and her brother die of the consequences of the cholera caused by the war , and their father also dies in grief over the loss of his children. Her husband then withdraws from the army to support Martha's peace activities. When she was in Paris in 1870 at the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War , her husband was shot dead on suspicion of being a Prussian spy. Her son Rudolf from his first marriage then begins to campaign for his mother's goals.

Bertha von Suttner consciously chose the novel form instead of a non-fiction book for her concern , as she was of the opinion that she could reach a wider audience in this way. The great popularity of the book results in part from the fact that, in addition to the question of war and peace, it also addressed the self-image and role of women in society.

Sales success in German

Until 1905 alone, the novel was printed in a total of 37 editions by various German-language publishers. Down with the weapons! was considered the most important work in anti-war literature until 1929, nothing new came out of Erich Maria Remarque in the West .

Translations

Three years after it was first published in Germany, an English edition of Lay Down Your Arms followed in 1892 , an Italian edition in 1897 ( Abbasso le Armi! ), A French edition in 1899 ( Bas les armes! ) And in 1905 a Spanish edition , ¡Abajo las armas! .

The work has been translated into more than 15 languages, including Finnish , Danish ( Ned med Vaabnene! ), Norwegian ( Ned med Vaabnene! ), Swedish ( Ned med vapnen!, 1890) and Czech ( Odzbrojte!, 1896).

Other projects by the author

From 1892 to 1899 Bertha von Suttner also published a monthly magazine with the title "Die Waffen Nieder!"

The successor, published in 1903 under the title "Martha's Children", did not achieve the popularity of the first book.

Artistic reception

drama

Hans Engler wrote Down Your Arms! A drama in four acts. Based on the novel of the same name by Bertha von Suttner . It was published in Leipzig around 1916.

Film adaptations

"Die Waffen Nieder" was made into two films, the first in 1914 as a Danish film with the title Ned med vaabnene . Carl Theodor Dreyer wrote the script and Holger-Madsen directed. The premiere took place on August 14, 1924 in the USA.

In 1952 the work was filmed for the second time.

Other reception

“The abolition of slavery was preceded by the famous book by a woman, Madame Beecher-Stowe ; God grant that yours may do the same for the abolition of war. "

- Leo Tolstoy : Letter to Bertha von Suttner, from the French in: Bertha von Suttner: Memoirs. Stuttgart and Leipzig 1909, p. 210.

“This book is an act! It was an event in my life. "

- Peter Rosegger : letter of October 9, 1891.

“The tendency novel , made primitive but strikingly effective, made a huge impression on me. I will never forget many details of the plot ... "

- Klaus Mann : Child at this time , 1932.

literature

expenditure

  • First edition: Edgar Pierson Verlag, Dresden and Leipzig 1889; 2 volumes, 317 and 327 pages respectively ( volume 1 and volume 2 as e-book at Austria-Forum )
  • Newspaper edition: free supplement of the Magdeburg Volksstimme . Leipziger Buchdruckerei & Verlaganstalt of the Leipziger Volkszeitung G. Heinrich, Leipzig 1895; 300 pages. The text appeared as a supplement on newspaper and could optionally be integrated into a specially provided cover.
  • Popular edition:
    • Edgar Pierson publishing house, Dresden and Leipzig around 1900; 300 pages. The text ends on page 300. Advertising material followed in different editions to varying degrees.
    • Publishing house Berlin-Vienna, Berlin 1914, DNB .
  • Paperback: Droemer Knaur, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-426-01017-8 .
  • New edition: Verlag der Nation, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-373-00328-8 .
  • German Literature Society, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-940490-45-2 .

Secondary literature

  • Marlene Streeruwitz : About Bertha von Suttner , Mandelbaum Verlag, Vienna 2014, ISBN 978-3-85476-456-4 ( “In this text I will refer exclusively to the novel‹ Die Waffen Nieder! ›By Bertha von Suttner”, p . 23 )
  • WB : Put down your arms! A life story of Bertha von Suttner. 2 volumes. Dresden and Leipzig, E. Pierson's publishing house . In: The new time . Review of intellectual and public life . 8 (1890), No. 3, pp. 140-143. Digitized
  • Brigitte Hamann : Bertha von Suttner. A life for peace. Piper, Munich (inter alia) 1986, ISBN 3-492-03037-8 .
  • Anne C. Nagel: Fanfare of the Peace Movement. ‹Put your arms down!› By Bertha von Suttner (1889). In: Dirk van Laak (ed.): Literature that wrote history. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-525-30015-2 , pp. 72-85.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. ' Ground arms!' The Story of a Life. Translation into English by Alice Asbury Abbott. A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago 1892, LOC .
  2. ↑ Abajo las armas! Translation into Portuguese by Rigerio Z. Falguera. Ramon Sopena, Barcelona 1961, DNB .
  3. ↑ Hans Engler: Put down your arms! A drama in four acts. Based on the novel of the same name by Bertha von Suttner. Richter's multi-act, volume 5. (2nd edition). Richter, Leipzig (around 1916), DNB .
  4. ↑ Harald Steffahn: Bertha von Suttner. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1998, ISBN 3-499-50604-1 , p. 83.
  5. ↑ Harald Steffahn: Bertha von Suttner. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1998, ISBN 3-499-50604-1 , p. 147.
  6. ↑ Harald Steffahn: Bertha von Suttner. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1998, ISBN 3-499-50604-1 , p. 149.

Web links

Wikisource: Put Your Guns Down!  - Sources and full texts