诺贝尔奖项背后的故事
01 诺贝尔奖
一、前言
1959 年，一位名叫尼古拉斯·哈拉斯 (Nicholas Halasz) ，他是一名个人传记作家， 他在阿尔弗雷德·诺贝尔传记作品中开始引用了一个非常吸引眼球的故事。 故事内容非常适合很多自媒体人的口味，说的是在1888年，阿尔弗雷德·诺贝尔的弟弟去世，一家报纸错误的将其说成诺贝尔本人去世了， 还该报纸下面还有更加恶毒的说法，差一点没有把当时还在世的诺贝尔生生气死， 称诺贝尔是“一个积累了巨额财富的死亡商人，从满世界的售卖毁灭性武器的生意中积累了巨额财富。” 当阿尔弗雷德·诺贝尔看到这样的讣告时内心五味杂陈，于是将自己巨额财产的大部分捐献出来用于设立诺贝尔奖，为的是提升自己的形象。
▲ 图1.1.1 死亡商人的去世
虽然传记作家说的故事非常雷人，而且被各种媒体不厌其烦的重复，但它与事实却不相符。 下面让我们听 Kathy老师讲讲这个虚假故事为什么在过去 60 年中一直被视为合理的吧。
▲ 图1.1.2 诺贝尔奖项
二、一则讣告
故事的一小部分是真实的。 阿尔弗雷德的兄弟确实在 1888 年去世，报纸也误认为阿尔弗雷德·诺贝尔死了。 然而他们在阿尔弗雷德的讣告中错误陈述是相当的温和的。 这是报纸声明全文，“一个不能轻易被认为是人类恩人的人，昨天在戛纳去世。他是诺贝尔先生，炸药的发明者。诺贝尔先生是瑞典人。”
▲ 图1.2.1 讣告的内容
这则讣告对于可怜的阿尔弗雷德·诺贝尔来说显然是一种创伤，他赶紧告诉他的朋友和家人们，他还没有死呢。 但我们知道， 阿尔弗雷德·诺贝尔，他几十年来一直被称为炸药之王，他经常与法国媒体发生争执， 这则讣告中温和的用词对于诺贝尔来说简直就是小菜一碟。
此外，前一年阿尔弗雷德就抱怨过： 谁会闲得蛋疼去读别人的传记？谁会如此天真或愚蠢，对别人的破事感兴趣。 但他没成想居然另一家法国报纸也有同样的口味，并口口声声将他称为死亡商人。 这让诺贝尔坐立不安，心情十分不美丽了，以至于七年后他创造了诺贝尔奖。
▲ 图1.2.2 诺贝尔奖
三、武器与和平
然而，这个故事似乎极不可能，因为我们有他写给他的朋友、他的家人、他的员工， 甚至他的情妇的信，但他没有在任何地方提到这整个死亡商人的事情。 请注意，阿尔弗雷德·诺贝尔患有抑郁症，经常向他的朋友和家人表达他的恐惧和疑惑。 例如，他多次提到担心自己会在没有朋友或家人的情况下孤独的死去。 阿尔弗雷德·诺贝尔虽然忧郁，但这与他的工作无关，因为他觉得炸药和其他战争武器最终会给世界带来和平。 没错，诺贝尔认为如果他能制造出真正可怕的武器，各国的战争狂人们就会退避三舍，不再敢轻易的发生战争。
▲ 图1.3.1 抑郁和孤独的诺贝尔
1877 年，也就是他哥哥去世前 11 年， 他把这件事告诉了他的朋友伯莎·冯·苏特纳 (Bertha von Suttner)。 “ 我希望我能制造出一种物质或机器，这种物质或机器具有如此可怕的功效，可以造成大规模破坏，从而使战争变得完全不可能。” 在他的余生中，他多次表达这种看法。 对阿尔弗雷德·诺贝尔来说，武器和炸药并没有使他成为死亡商人，而是和平商人， 任何看不到这一点的人都是目光短浅的。
▲ 图1.3.2 阿尔弗雷德·诺贝尔与伯纱·冯·苏特纳
此外，在 1892 年，也就是他哥哥去世四年后， 阿尔弗雷德被他的朋友伯莎介绍去参加一场和平会议，他开始迷恋裁军运动。 诺贝尔随后请他的秘书帮他想想他自己如何支持和平。 他的秘书最后给出的建议是去创办《和平宣传杂志》， 他不屑的回答： “ 我还不如把钱扔出窗外呢。” 如果阿尔弗雷德·诺贝尔只是想改善他的公众形象，和平杂志难道不是一个很好的方式吗？
▲ 图1.3.3 和平杂志
四、故事源头
报刊杂志的独立性，可以真正改变世界。 那么贩卖死亡商人的故事到底从哪里来的呢？ 为什么它会变得家喻户晓？ Kathy 老师介绍到：Nicolas Halasz 是第一个声称诺贝尔创建了诺贝尔奖的人， 他读过早年那个错误讣告，将讣告内容简化成一个伤害性不大，但侮辱性极强用词：“死亡商人”。 “
▲ 图1.4.1 诺贝尔的传记
但是 Halasz 又是从哪里得到这个想法和那个挑衅性的短语的呢？ 好吧，他没有说，我们也不好再问， 只能猜了。 首先我们看看这个“ 死亡商人” 这个词语最早会出现在哪里。 令人吃惊的是， 死亡商人这个词是实际上是在阿尔弗雷德·诺贝尔的那则错误讣告 43 年后才被创造出来。
▲ 图1.4.2 传记中的贩卖死亡的商人用词
在 1932 年，一个人写了一篇关于真人真事的的文章，主人公名叫 Basil Zaharoff， 他以冷酷无情著称，向任何有钱的人出售武器弹药。 扎哈罗夫喜欢鼓励别人干仗，他好向双方出售武器，这种漂亮国的做法他深谙此道。 因此，这篇文章被戏称为为，“扎哈罗夫，一个贩卖死亡的商人”。 两年后，另一位作者在他的一本关于军火商的书上借用了这个词，将这些军火商称为“死亡商人”。这本书的主要内容是对国际军备工业现状进行研究，纽约时报评论了他的书。 之后，“死亡商人”一词 , 经常被用来形容50年代后期卖武器的人,。 Halasz, 一定听过Merchant of Death这个词, 指的是军火商。 但他没去查这个词本身的含义，所以这个词不应该被使用在之前那则关于诺贝尔去世的乌龙讣告中。
▲ 图1.4.3 武器销售商人：Basil Zaharoff
到此为止，这应该是哈拉兹编造他的讣告内容的非常确凿的证据。 但为啥 Halasz 会想到是这则讣告刺激了阿尔弗雷德·诺贝尔呢？ 好吧，也许他觉得炸药的发明者也会设立和平奖，这看起来很合理。 他也相信诺贝尔的关于大杀器能够结束战争的理论。尽管这个理论在 50 年代看来幼稚到可笑。
▲ 图1.4.4 诺贝尔奖的来源
1991 年，一位名叫肯恩·范特（Kenne Fant）的瑞典演员，写了一本阿尔弗雷德·诺贝尔的传记，被认为是关于诺贝尔奖创建缘由的黄金标准， ：“那则讣告将阿尔弗雷德描述为一个‘死亡商人’，他通过发明新的方式使得人类相互“残害和杀戮。” 诺贝尔对于身后世人的评价越来越关心，以至于他重写了遗嘱，将他的大部分财产遗赠给了一个事业，这个事业是任何讣告作家谁都都无法寄予厚望。 虽然这个诺贝尔奖的起源故事令人满意，但似乎也不是真的。
五、后记
那么问题来了，如果事实并非如此，为什么阿尔弗雷德·诺贝尔设立了诺贝尔奖？ 好吧，所有的奖项设立都与一段长达 20 年的友谊有关，与一位非凡、热爱和平的女性有关，前面文中提到了她的名字，伯莎·冯·苏特纳 (Bertha von Suttner)。 这个故事下次接着聊。
▲ 图1.5.1 诺贝尔奖项的来源之谜
02 英文字母
一、前言
In 1959, a man named Nicholas Halasz,began his biography of Alfred Nobel with a dramatic story. In 1888, Alfred Nobel’s brother died, and a newspaper mistakenly reported that Alfred had died more than that, the paper ripped Albert to shreds and called him, “a Merchant of Death who has amassed a huge fortune, from the sales of more and more devastating weapons.” Alfred Nobel was so devastated by this, that he will most of his vast fortune to the creation of the Nobel prizes to improve his image
Although that is a great story, and it has been repeated ad nauseum, but it didn’t actually happen that way. Ready to learn why this fake story has been taken as legitimate for the last 60 years. Let’s go. ♪ electricity, electricity, ♪ ♪ electricity, electricity ♪
二、一则讣告
So small part of the story is true. Alfred’s brother did die and cons in 1888, and the newspaper did mistakenly think that Alfred had died instead. However, their obituary of Alfred, was a far more mild misstatement. Here’s their statement in full, “A man who cannot easily pass for a benefactor of humanity, died yesterday in cons. It is Mr. Nobel, inventor of dynamite. Mr. Nobel is Swedish.”
It was obviously traumatic, for poor Alfred Nobel to tell his friends and family, that he wasn’t dead yet. However, such a mild negativity in the statement, seems unlikely to have traumatize Nobel, especially as Alfred Nobel, had been known for decades as the dynamite King, and he’d often, had a contentious relationship with the French Press.
In addition, Alfred had complained just the previous year, "who has the time to read biographies? and who can be so naive or fatuousist, to take an interest in them. Now it’s possible, then another French paper made the same mistake. And that French paper called him a Merchant of Death, and that disturbed him so much that he created the Nobel Prize, seven years later.
三、武器与和平
However, that seems extremely unlikely because we have his letters to his friends, and his family, and his employees, and even his mistress, and nowhere does he mention this whole merchant of death thing. Mind you, Alfred Nobel suffered from depression, and would often express his fears and reservations with his friends and family. For example, he mentioned multiple times his reoccurring fear that he would die alone without friends or family. Although Alfred Nobel suffered from melancholy, it was not related to his work, for he felt the dynamite and other weapons of war would lead to peace. See, Nobel thought that if he could make a truly terrible weapon, it would scare countries away from even having wars.
In 1877, 11 years before his brother died, he told his friend Bertha von Suttner. “I wish I could produce a substance or machine of such frightful efficacy for wholesale devastation that war should thereby become altogether impossible.” He continued to express that sentiment for the remainder of his life. To Alfred Nobel, weapons and dynamite did not make him a merchant of death, but a merchant of peace, and anyone who didn’t see it was short-sighted.
In addition, in 1892, four years after his brother’s death, Alfred was convinced by his friend Bertha, to attending a peace conference, and he became enamored of the disarmament movement. Nobel then asked his secretary to look into how Nobel could support peace. When his secretary suggested they start as Peace Propaganda Magazine. He replied, “I might as well just throw my money out the window.” If Alfred Nobel, was just interested in improving his public image, wouldn’t a Peace Magazine be a good way to do that?
四、故事源头
Independent of how effective the magazine was, to make real change. So where did the merchant of death story come from? And why is it taken hold of our consciousness? As far as I can tell, Nicolas Halasz was the first person, to claim that Nobel, created the Nobel Prize, because of the premature obituary, and also the first person to say, that that obituary called Alfred, “a Merchant of Death.”
But where did Halasz get that idea and that provocative phrase? Well, he didn’t include a single reference, so we have to guess at his motivations and sources. But the biggest clue maybe the term, Merchant of Death, I was shocked to find that the term, Merchant of Death, was created 43 years after Alfred Nobel’s fake obituary.
See in 1932, a man was writing an article about a real piece of work, named Basil Zaharoff, who was known for his ruthlessness, selling ammunitions to anyone who had enough money. In fact, Zaharoff was known to encourage conflict, and then sell arms to both sides. Therefore, this article was poetically titled, Zaharoff Merchant of death. Two years later, another author borrowed that term for his book, on Arms Dealers, which he titled, Merchants of Death, a study of the International Armament Industry, The New York Times reviewed his book, and after that, the term merchant of death, was often used to describe people who sell weapons by the late 50s, Halasz, must have heard the term Merchant of Death, in reference to Arms Dealers, but it not investigated, and found that it was only 25 years old and therefore could not have been in Alfred’s premature obituary.
This is to me, pretty conclusive proof that Halasz made up his version of the obituary. But why did Halasz think, then an obituary inspired Alfred Nobel? Well, he might have felt, that it was totally logical, that the inventor of dynamite, would also create a Peace Prize. And Nobel’s theory that terrible weapons would end war.
Seemed in the 1950s to be so naive as to be absurd. So when Halasz read about, Nobel reading his own obituary, it must have seemed like the key to the puzzle. When he couldn’t find the original newspaper article, in an act of journalistic malpractice. He just made it up. After Halasz’s book was published, the phrase Merchant of Death, was too delicious to not repeat. In addition, the story of a premature obituary, inspiring the world’s most important prizes, was a simple and satisfying origin story. Soon many biographers, were repeating this version of events.
In 1991, a Swedish Actor in a story, named Kenne Fant, wrote a biography of Alfred Nobel, thus considered the gold standard, and said, "the obituary characterized Alfred as a, “Merchant of Death,” who had built a fortune discovering new ways to, “mutilate and kill.” He became so obsessed with his posthumous reputation that he rewrote his last will, bequething most of his fortune to a cause upon which no future obituary writer would be able to cast aspirations. Although this origin story is satisfying, it just doesn’t seem to be true.
五、后记
So if it isn’t true, why did Alfred Nobel, create the Nobel prizes in the first place? Well, all the prizes have to do with a 20 year long friendship, with a remarkable, peace-loving woman, that I’ve mentioned already, named Bertha von Suttner. And that story is next time on the Lightning Tamers.
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