Читать книгу The Stonehenge Letters - Harry Karlinsky - Страница 11

Nobel’s Last Will and Testament was dated 27 November 1895. An unexpectedly informal document, the will was handwritten in Swedish and signed by four Swedish witnesses at the Swedish–Norwegian Club in Paris in early December 1895. After specifying individual bequests to eighteen family members, servants, and acquaintances, the will read as follows:

The whole of my remaining realizable estate shall be dealt with in the following way: the capital, invested in safe securities by my executors, shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind. The said interest shall be divided into five equal parts, which shall be apportioned as follows: one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the field of physics; one part to the person who shall have made the most important chemical discovery or improvement; one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery within the domain of physiology or medicine; one part to the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction; and one part to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses. The prize for physics and chemistry shall be awarded by the Swedish Academy of Sciences; that for physiological or medical works by Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm; that for literature by the Academy in Stockholm; and that for champions of peace by a committee of five persons to be elected by the Norwegian Storting. It is my express wish that in awarding the prizes no consideration whatever shall be given to the nationality of the candidates, but that the most worthy shall receive the prize, whether he be a Scandinavian or not.

It was a remarkable philanthropic vision. As Sohlman and Lilljeqvist immediately recognised, however, the will – stubbornly constructed by Nobel without legal advice – contained significant deficiencies that might easily undermine its realisation. For assistance, the two executors turned to Carl Lindhagen, a young lawyer who would later serve a long tenure as Chief Magistrate of Stockholm. The three men quickly established that Sohlman, despite substantial reservations on his part, would take on the role of principal executor. Lilljeqvist would be available to provide advice and encouragement, but his new business interests in Bengtsfors would preclude more active involvement. Lindhagen would serve as legal counsel.^fn13

Figure 8. The first page of Alfred Nobel’s will.

As Lindhagen predicted, the successful execution of the will would require resolution of three contentious issues. The most problematic of these involved the legal clarification of Nobel’s last permanent residence, his so-called ‘true’ domicile. This determination would, in turn, establish which court in which country would grant probate. As Nobel’s intention had been to live out his years in Björkborn Manor, Lindhagen advised Sohlman and Lilljeqvist to apply for probate in a Swedish court. It was not certain, however, whether Nobel would be declared a resident of Sweden and that, a fortiori, a Swedish court would adjudicate the validity and terms of the will. The courts would consider, for example, that Nobel also owned a mansion in Paris and a country home in Italy at the time of his death. Should Paris be determined to have been Nobel’s true domicile, as the French authorities immediately requested, the financial consequences would be particularly severe. In addition to the crushing inheritance taxes imposed in France, the legality of the entire will would also be in jeopardy due to the much more stringent laws of the Code Napoléon.

A second prickly subject was the immediate opposition of disappointed relatives who bitterly viewed their inheritance as insufficient. To add to the perceived slight, an earlier will which Nobel had rescinded had contained far more generous bequests to individual heirs than the current iteration. Nobel’s family was also concerned that the interest-generating capital required to fund the annual prizes appeared to depend on immediately liquidating Nobel’s vast financial assets. Selling all investments would jeopardise the financial stability of a number of Nobel family holdings, particularly that of the large Russian oil company started by Nobel’s two older brothers.

The third potential impasse was the astonishing fact that Nobel had never discussed with any representatives of the institutions he had named in his will his intention that they administer the prizes he sought to establish. The cooperation of any, let alone all, of these institutional bodies was far from certain. To further embroil matters, the designation of the Norwegian Storting (Parliament) to award the peace prize drew a strong political backlash. Nobel had written his will in 1895, at a time when Sweden and Norway were still united as one country. By the end of 1896, the dissolution of their fragile political union was imminent. The inclusion of Norway now bordered on treason, inciting Sweden’s reigning King Oscar II to petition Nobel’s nephew and most influential heir, Emanuel Nobel, to challenge the will on patriotic grounds. One of the few family members who was a strong advocate for his uncle’s wishes, Emanuel was, by the time he received the king’s request, defiant:

Your Majesty – I will not expose my family to the risk of reproaches in future for having appropriated funds which rightfully belonged to deserving scientists.

Remarkably, all obstacles were eventually resolved. The courts sided with the executors and the will was favourably probated in Sweden. Thanks to financial concessions and the support of Emanuel Nobel, all branches of the Nobel family eventually agreed to the will’s provisions.^fn14 Each prize-awarding body also came to accept the terms of the will, and collaborated on establishing clearer instructions related to the distribution of the prizes. Nobel’s assets were liquidated and a single fund was constituted that would be managed by an entity referred to as the Nobel Foundation. This foundation would also be responsible for overseeing the Nobel Prize ceremonies.

On 29 June 1900, the Swedish government approved the statutes of the Nobel Foundation by royal ordinance. These contained the clarifications related to the wording of the will and such details as the establishment of the prize-awarding Nobel Committees. On 10 December 1901, precisely five years after the death of Alfred Nobel, the first Nobel Prizes were awarded: in physics to Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, in chemistry to Jacobus H. van ’t Hoff, in medicine to Emil von Behring, and in literature to Sully Prudhomme. The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly to Jean Henry Dunant and Frédéric Passy. Each laureate received a diploma, a gold medal and a significant sum of money; later that day, a celebratory banquet was held in their honour at Stockholm’s Grand Hôtel. As Ragnar Sohlman so elegantly stated, ‘The long struggle over Nobel’s will was now at an end’.

It was Freud who said the optimist sees the rose and not its thorns.