Читать книгу Nobel - Michael Worek - Страница 4

When he reached the age of 60, Alfred Nobel began to make arrangements for his vast fortune after his death. He wrote his will himself, without any legal assistance, and signed it on November 27, 1895, in a room of the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris, witnessed by four friends.

Nobel gave part of his inheritance to his nieces, nephews and closest collaborators, and he left lifelong pensions to his most dedicated employees, but the amounts he bequeathed to these individuals were smaller than expected (considering the size of his fortune) and criticized by many.

The excerpt from the will below deals exclusively with establishing the annual prizes.

The whole of my remaining realizable estate shall be dealt with in the following way: The capital shall be invested by my executors in safe securities and 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 on 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 of an idealistic tendency; and one part to the person who shall have done the most or best work for the fraternity among nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses. The prizes for physics and chemistry shall be awarded by the Swedish Academy of Sciences; that for physiology or medical work by the Karolinska Institute 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, so that the most worthy shall receive the prize, whether he be a Scandinavian or not.

Nobel finished his will with a list of his assets, including his properties in Paris and San Remo, an endless list of activities in banks and other credit institutions, and the income from his patents, whose registers he stated were guarded in his safe. The immense fortune was calculated at the time to be worth about 31 million Swedish Krona, and interest with careful management by the Foundation has been swelling the coffers for more than a century.