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Alfred Hermann Fried (11 November 1864 – 5 May 1921) was an Austrian Jewish pacifist, publicist, journalist, co-founder of the German peace movement, and winner (with Tobias Asser) of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1911.


Life

Born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, Fried left school at the age of 15 and started to work in a bookshop. In 1883 he moved to Berlin, where he opened a bookshop of his own in 1887. Following the publication by Bertha von Suttner of Die Waffen nieder! (Lay Down Your Arms) in 1889, he and von Suttner began in 1892 to print a magazine of the same name. In articles published within Die Waffen nieder! and its successor, Die Friedenswarte (The Peace Watch), he articulated his pacifist philosophy.

In 1892 he was a co-founder of the German Peace Society (Deutsche Friedensgesellschaft). He was one of the fathers of the idea of a modern organisation to assure worldwide peace (the principal idea was fulfilled in the League of Nations and after the Second World War in the UN).

Fried was a prominent member of the Esperanto-movement. In 1903 he published the book Lehrbuch der internationalen Hilfssprache Esperanto (Textbook of the International Language of Esperanto). In 1911 he received the Nobel Peace Prize together with Tobias Asser. During the First World War he lived in Switzerland and died in Vienna in 1921.