Pacifist and publicist, Nobel peace prize winner
Born in Vienna, Fried served in the Austian diplomatic service, but became very much disappointed and left the country for Berlin, where he became a bookdealer and publisher. At the age of 27 he became a pacifist, and his main work was publishing pacifist propoganda. He also founded and edited some pacifist journals, like Die Waffen Nieder, which was owned by an Austrian pacifist. Fried wrote more than 2,000 articles in newspapers and more than 70 books and pamphlets, all dedicated to peace. He was a central figure in the Euroean Peace Movement like: Member of the Berne Bureau and the International Institute of Peace, European secretary of the Conciliation Internationale, founder of the Austrian and German peace societies and other institutes.
During the Hague peace conferences (1899-1907), Fried had intensive discussions with Ivan Bliokh, the person who persuaded the Russian czar to participate in these conferences. All this activity led to two different and contradictive results. On the one hand Alfred Hermann Fried was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (1911), but on the other side, on the eve of the outbreak of WWI, he was accused of treason.
He left Austria for Switserland, where after the war he was again involved in pacific activities and took part intensively in the international workers meeting in Berne, which were active in preparing a formula for achieving peace. He tried with others to found an European Union of States in the same guidelines as the Pan- American System.