At the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris, Alfred Nobel signed a one-page document that stunned his relatives: nearly his entire estate, built on dynamite and armaments patents, would fund annual prizes for those who conferred the greatest benefit on humankind. The will was contested for years but ultimately created the world's most prestigious intellectual honor.
Alfred Nobel had grown wealthy and infamous as the inventor of dynamite, a substance that made him rich while linking his name to destruction and war profiteering. Newspapers had even mistakenly published his obituary years earlier, describing him as a 'merchant of death,' and the shock reportedly haunted him.
On November 27, 1895, at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris, Nobel signed his third and final will, dispensing with most bequests to family in favor of a radical idea: a fund whose interest would be distributed yearly as prizes to those who had done the greatest good for humanity, in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace. Economics was added later, in 1968.
The will was only two pages long and legally shaky by the standards of the day, naming institutions like the Karolinska Institute and the Norwegian Storting to select winners without their prior consent. Relatives sued, Swedish authorities balked, and it took five years to execute. The first Nobel Prizes were finally awarded in 1901, five years after his death, and the ceremony remains held each December 10, the anniversary of his death.
Key people: Alfred Nobel