Kimberly Anderson
8 – Nobel Prize Scandal
In 1939 a Swedish legislator nominated Hitler for the Nobel Peace Prize. Although he intended it as a joke, few found it amusing. Instead, it created an uproar, and the nomination was quickly withdrawn. Not that Hitler would have wanted—or even been able to accept—the award. In 1936 German journalist Carl von Ossietzky, a vocal critic of Hitler, had been named the winner of the 1935 peace prize. The gesture was seen as a censure of Nazism and an “insult” to Germany. As a result, Hitler barred all Germans from accepting a Nobel Prize and created the German National Prize for Art and Science as an alternative. The three Germans who subsequently won Nobels during the Third Reich were forced to decline their awards, though they later received the diplomas and medals.
