Christiane Reimann was a nobilized nurse. She was born in Denmark on June 18, 1887, and went on to school at Copenhagen’s Bispebjerg Hospital, from which she graduated in 1925 with her Registered Nursing degree. Nursing was very dear to her heart and her life revolved around it. She has become to be known as one of the "Top 25 Nurses" in the World. ^[1] She became Executive Secretary of the International Council of Nurses (ICN) in 1925. She made such an impression in the nursing area, she has an award given to modern-day successful nurses named after her: The Christiane Reimann Prize. While devoting her life to ICN and the nursing field itself, Reimann kept a family and farm in Syracude, Italy. She retired in 1934 to focus more heavily on her family and died in 1979 at the age of 92. ^[2]

Reimann's career began in 1916 when she earned her nursing degree from Copenhagen's Bispebjerg Hospital. The hospital is located in Copenhagen, Denmark and has been open since 1913. Now, Copenhagen is only a hospital instead a school and hospital, as it was when Reimann attended. ^[3] Reimann believed very heavily that nursing should spread throughout the world and that everyone across the world should get the nurturing care and take nursing as seriously as the United States did. Only nine years after she earned her nursing degree and worked in the field, Reimann became the first full time paid secretary of the International Council of Nurses in 1925. Bringing nursing to other countries was the motive behind her abundant travelling. She wanted to spread the education she had gained over the years. ^[1]While travelling, she established many educational oppertunities for aspiring nurses in other countries. ^[4] During her reign as secretary, she also made many contributions with her own funds to make the dreams and goals of the ICN become reality. Her ambition to spread nursing and make it a more established career motivated other countries such as China, who did not even have a National Nurses Association, to build their own. After she died, the International Council of Nurses decided to dedicate a prize to modern day nurses for their determination and contributions to the nursing field. It is named the Christiane Reimann Prize. ^[5]

As said before, the ICN wanted to thank Reimann for all that she had accomplished through the years that she was Secretary, so they named the prize after her. This prize has been said to signify that this one nurse has done similar works of that Reimann did herself. It is awarded to a Registered Nurse around the world every 4 years, and the winner recieves a substantially large cash award as well as a hand-painted porcelain statue of a nurse. The prize is known as nurse's most prestigious prize around the world, and is not limited to one country on who can win it. The council hoped that this prize would motivate nurses to keep the cycle going that Reimann began. The money won with the prize is funded by Reimann's funds in her will. The first winner of the prize was in 1985 was a United States' nurse, Virginia Henderson. There are alsways candidates, and it is always a tough dicision on who will recieve the prize. ^[6]