A In 1938 and 1939, the government of
Germany did not allow three German Nobel nominees to accept their
Nobel Prizes. The three were
Richard Kuhn, Nobel laureate in Chemistry in 1938;
Adolf Butenandt, Nobel laureate in Chemistry in 1939; and
Gerhard Domagk, Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine in
1939. They were later awarded the Nobel Prize diploma and medal, but
not the money.[8]
B In 1948, the Nobel Prize in Peace was
not awarded. The Nobel Foundation's website suggests that it would
have been awarded to
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, however, due to his assassination
earlier that year, it was left unassigned in his honor.[10]
C In 1958, Russian-born
Boris Pasternak, under pressure from the government of the
Soviet Union, was forced to decline the Nobel Prize in
Literature.[8]
D In 1964,
Jean-Paul Sartre refused to accept the Nobel Prize in
Literature, as he had consistently refused all official honors in
the past.[8]
E In 1973,
Lê Ðức Thọ declined the Nobel Peace Prize. His reason was that
he felt he did not deserve it because although he helped negotiate
the
Paris Peace Accords (a cease-fire in the
Vietnam War), there had been no actual peace agreement.[8][7]
F In 2010,
Liu Xiaobo was unable to receive the Nobel Peace Prize as he was
sentenced to 11 years of imprisonment by the Chinese authorities.[11]
Tønnesson, Øyvind (December 1, 1999).
"Mahatma Gandhi, the Missing Laureates". Nobel Foundation.
Retrieved January 3, 2010. "Later, there have been
speculations that the committee members could have had another
deceased peace worker than Gandhi in mind when they declared
that there was "no suitable living candidate", namely the
Swedish UN envoy to Palestine, Count Bernadotte, who was
murdered in September 1948. Today, this can be ruled out;
Bernadotte had not been nominated in 1948. Thus it seems
reasonable to assume that Gandhi would have been invited to Oslo
to receive the Nobel Peace Prize had he been alive one more
year."
