Alfred Nobel gave 94 percent of his fortune to prizes, and his relatives and the King of Sweden tried to stop it

Alfred Nobel made his fortune from dynamite and other explosives. On 27 November 1895, at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris, he signed a will that left "the whole of my remaining realisable estate", 31,225,000 kronor or about 94 percent of his assets, to fund prizes for those who "shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind." It said "no consideration shall be given to national affiliations of any kind." It gave the peace prize to a committee of Norway's parliament. Nobel died of a stroke at Sanremo on 10 December 1896. His executor, Ragnar Sohlman, was 26. The heirs of his brother Robert sued to have the will set aside. His nephew Emanuel, of brother Ludvig's line, supported it. King Oscar II first backed the relatives and called the will's ideas fanciful. Swedish conservatives called it unpatriotic. The Norwegian Storting accepted its role on 26 April 1897, and Robert's heirs reached an agreement in 1898. The Nobel Foundation was founded on 29 June 1900. The first prizes were awarded on 10 December 1901, five years to the day after his death. In 2026 the foundation's capital stands at SEK 6.6 billion, its figure at the end of 2024, and the prizes are still awarded on 10 December.