Carl von Ossietzky

German journalist, author, pacifist and recipient of the 1935 Nobel Peace Prize (1889–1938)

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Lived 1889–1938, aged 49Germany

Germany JournalistsJournalist

Wikipedia
63 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1889–1938
Aged 49
Awards
1
recognised work

Summary

Updated 2026-06-09

A German journalist who exposed his own country's secret rearmament in the 1920s, then won the Nobel Peace Prize from inside a Nazi concentration camp — where the regime made sure he could never leave to claim it.

Biography

About

Carl von Ossietzky was born on 3 October 1889 and became editor-in-chief of Die Weltbühne, where in the late 1920s he published exposés detailing Germany's violation of the Treaty of Versailles by secretly rebuilding an air force and training pilots in the Soviet Union. In 1931 he was convicted of treason and espionage, sentenced to eighteen months, then granted amnesty in December 1932. After the Nazis took power he remained a vocal critic of militarism; following the 1933 Reichstag fire he was arrested and sent to Esterwegen concentration camp, where his brutal torture was documented by the…

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