“I think Alfred Nobel would know what I mean when I say that I accept this award in the spirit of a curator […] in whose eyes the beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace is more precious than diamonds or silver or gold.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in his acceptance speech for the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize in the auditorium of the University of Oslo (N.P.O., 2025).
Monday, January 20 marked our last day in Oslo before our travels to Bergen. Back home, it also marked the 40th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day. In remembrance and observance of a man whose legacy continues to strengthen the civil rights movement for Black Americans, we visited the Nobel Peace Center along the Aker Brygge pier. This building is a museum and refuge for Alfred Nobel, the Nobel Peace Prize, and its Laureates, including Martin Luther King Jr. Especially considering we as Minnesotan students live so near the site of George Floyd’s murder and the resurgence and strengthening of the Black Lives Matter movement, it is our civil duty to remember all of the work that Martin Luther King Jr. did to advocate for civil rights with peace, empathy, and nonviolence.
Walking through the museum doors brings you to a hallway, pictured above, with an unfolding and animated biography of Alfred Nobel and his subsequent Nobel Prizes. We learned that Nobel invented dynamite, which is ironic for a man who is now best known for being the namesake of a prize awarded to those who best epitomize peace. Our tour guide mentioned that while this dichotomy is a possible hint that Nobel felt guilty for the war carnage his invention caused, more believe that the Nobel Peace Prize is a result of an esteemed friend of Nobel, Bertha von Suttner. Suttner was a pen pal of Nobel’s and deeply involved in the growing 20th-century European peace movement. Like the later Eleanor Roosevelt, she was frequently nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize but never received it. That changed in 1905 when she became the first woman to receive the Prize, a testament to her influence in advocating for the end of certain wars. Up until 1975, only three women were awarded the Prize, and unlike Suttner, the other two women had to share the prize with a man (Rambøl, 2019). Our tour guide mentioned that as of today, 110 men have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize compared to just 19 women. This imbalance calls for a reflection on potential societal or cultural biases that we hold towards women, specifically their achievements and what we deem worthy of praise.
Riding up the escalator takes you to the upper level of the building, where you can see a real Prize medal and an exhibition of the nuclear war advocacy work of the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Nihon Hidankyo, awarded on December 10, 2024. Although Alfred Nobel is Swedish and the other prizes are handed out in Sweden, he mysteriously selected Norway as the site of the Nobel Peace Prize. Today, it is handed out in the grand foyer of Oslo’s City Hall, conveniently located across the street from the Nobel Peace Center. After our tour, we walked to visit this building, clad with frescos and murals and a vast, echoey feeling, pictured above. Once these group activities concluded, we ended the day by packing our suitcases, dinner at a food court, and some gelato. Overall, we had an educational and thought-provoking last day in Oslo, a theme I am sure will continue in our adventures in Bergen.
References
N. P. O. (2025). Martin Luther King Jr. Acceptance Speech. The Nobel Prize. Retrieved January 21, 2025, from https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1964/king/acceptance-speech/
Rambøl, I. B. (2019, November 27). The Woman Behind the Nobel Peace Prize. Nobel Peace Center. Retrieved January 21, 2025, from https://www.nobelpeacecenter.org/en/news/the-woman-behind-the-nobel-peace-prize