Die Waffen nieder!

She has given her name to a street, a square, and a primary school in Graz; her portrait was on the 1,000-schilling note and is currently seen on the Austrian 2-euro coin: Bertha von Suttner. As the first woman, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1905. In addition to her pacifist commitment, her life's work also includes a major novel that was widely quoted during the 68ers movement but is rarely read today. Rarely is a novel title as programmatic for its content as Suttner's call “Lay Down Your Arms!”.

Von Suttner's protagonist, Countess Martha Althaus, reviews her life and the four wars that Austria fought between 1859 and 1889. Her initial patriotism as a young woman quickly gives way to a principled aversion to waging war. She emancipates herself from her origins in a war-believing officer family by reading, forming her own opinions, and appearing as a clever speaker in evening gatherings. In her conversation partner Tilling, Martha finds a soulmate and her great love.

To reach a larger readership for her message, Bertha von Suttner consciously chooses the form of a (female) life story. She spices it with diary entries and historical documents and does not shy away from strong emotions.

Von Suttner writes against nationalism, keenly describes the mechanisms of propaganda, and exposes—stirringly relevant—how enemy images are created. As part of the programmatic expansion of the canon, the Schauspielhaus Graz presents Bertha von Suttner's work, whose arguments touch on the fundamental geopolitical questions of our present, for the first time in Austria—under the finely musical and choreographed direction of Sandra Strunz.

Tickets: are available online at ticketzentrum.at as well as at the Ticketzentrum, Kaiser-Josef-Platz 10, 8010 Graz.