Science

The poorest Nobel winner 

In 1901 for the first time the Nobel Prize of the world was awarded to Anri Dunant in a beggarly shelter of the Swiss small town Hayden where he has got because of illness and lack of money. The Nobel winner was born in a quite prosperous Geneva family in 1828. When Dunant was 25, he has decided to test in a role of a businessman and rented a piece of land in an Algerian possession of France. In some years the small firm has turned to a joint-stock company with an enormous capital of one million francs. But once, in 1859, the young owner became the casual witness of known battle at Solferino (in northern Italy) which has turned all his life. Such a bloody fight Europe hasn't seen since days of Borodino and Waterloo. Thousand wounded men have occupied rural houses on many kilometres around, and nobody wish to potter with them. There were neither doctors, nor medicines, even enough people able to wash out a wound or to apply a bandage. After this events Dunant decided to write the book «Memoirs about Solferino» which was published in 1862. In the book he discussed various variants of assisting the wounded men and in the end suggested to create an international organization for  help of the  victims of war which later has  received the name  Red Cross.

Because of his  humanitarian activity, Dunant, of course, did not give sufficient attention to the Algerian business and has soon gone bankrupt. The court even has accused him of some financial frauds, and all respectable bourgeois society has turned away from him. In 1887, after 10 years of beggarly wanderings, Dunant has left for Hayden. In 1892 he was already ill, and was accepted by a local almshouse. After three years one journalist has written an article about forgotten Dunant which was reprinted by many newspapers of the world. The society was stirred up. Simple people sent him clothes and meal. Societies of the Red Cross of many countries have appropriated him a rank of the honorary member. And in 1901 the Nobel Prize has appeared in time also. But the winner has decided not to leave his shelter. He had  bequeathed to bury  silently, without any ceremony.