Die Waffen nieder!
Sun 11.10.2026
15:00
Die Waffen nieder!
Theatre
Schauspielhaus Graz - Hauptbühne
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A street, a square, and an elementary school in Graz are named after her; her likeness appeared on the 1,000-schilling bill and is currently featured on the Austrian 2-euro coin: Bertha von Suttner. In 1905, she became the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In addition to her pacifist activism, her life’s work also includes a major novel that was widely cited during the 1968 movement but is rarely read today. Rarely is a novel’s title as programmatic for its content as Suttner’s call to arms, “Lay Down Your Arms!”…
Through Suttner’s protagonist, Countess Martha Althaus, the novel traces her life and, with it, the four wars Austria fought between 1859 and 1889. Her initial patriotism as a young woman quickly gives way to a fundamental aversion to warfare. She emancipates herself from her background in a war-believing family of officers through her own efforts by reading, forming her own opinions, and appearing as a clever speaker at evening gatherings. In her conversation partner Tilling, Martha finds a soulmate and her great love.
To reach a wider audience for her message, Bertha von Suttner deliberately chooses the form of a (female) life story. She peppers it with diary entries and historical documents, and does not shy away from strong emotions.
Von Suttner writes against nationalism, astutely describes the mechanisms of propaganda, and exposes—in a way that is shockingly relevant today—how enemy stereotypes are created. As part of its program expansion, the Schauspielhaus Graz is presenting Bertha von Suttner’s work—whose arguments touch on the fundamental global political issues of our time—for the first time in Austria, in a production directed by Sandra Strunz with exquisite musical and choreographic elements.
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