- In 1959, a man named Nicholas Halasz,
began his biography of Alfred Nobel with a dramatic story.
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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 ♪
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.
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?
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.
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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