the injustice created by custom and tradition, which allows men to propose, while women are condemned to remain silent.
Finally we must mention the noble woman who, most intensely realizing the deep longing of mankind for peace, with her famous book "Die Warren nieder!" ("Lay down your arms!") exerted probably the greatest influence any author ever had through a single volume: the Austrian Bertha von Suttner. The powerful appeal of this great book, which was translated into more than twenty different languages, led Alfred B. Nobel, a rich Swedish scientist and the inventor of dynamite, to bequeathe the annual interest of his great fortune to whoever has contributed most to the peaceful progress of mankind during the year immediately preceding. It was not more than just that the great merit of Madame von Suttner was acknowledged by awarding to her in 1905 the Nobel Prize for peace.
Having devoted her whole life to the cause of peace, Bertha von Suttner died in June, 1914, while engaged in preparations for an International Peace Congress to be held in September of that same year in Vienna. Fate spared her the bitter disappointment to see the outbreak of the most cruel and destructive war in history. But her call "Lay down your arms!" will live. It will remain the watchword and summons of all who with this high-priestess of peace believe that war is the most unreasonable and most criminal act men can commit.
Of course, German women have also contributed to the literature about the woman's question. Perhaps the most valuable work in this line is Dr. Kaethe Schirmacher's book "Die moderne Frauenbewegung," giving a history of the woman's rights movement in all countries of the world. As there has been no English book covering this broad subject, it was translated by C. C. Eckhardt and in 1912 published at New York under the title "The Modern Woman's Rights Movement."
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Rich as German literature is in prose works of women writers, its poems and lyrics written by women are no less noteworthy. There can be no doubt that many of the beautiful folk songs of the Middle Ages were created by women. For instance the following was discovered in a collection of songs of the 13th Century, compiled by the nuns of a convent at Blaubeuren, Bavaria:
Kume, kum, geselle min,
ih enbite harte din,
ih enbite harte din,
kume, kum, geselle min!
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