The laureates, nominators, and nominees for the three Nobel Prizes in science are all doubtless members of a scientific elite.  The process of awarding the Nobel Prize therefore offers a vantage point on the dynamics of international scientific hierarchies.  Under the statutes of the Nobel Foundation, the nominating system tasks representatives of various national scientific elites with recommending members for the international “ultra-elite” of Nobel laureates.  This chapter examines the population of German, Austrian, and Swiss nominators and nominees, paying special attention to the role of each country in the nomination process.  The results provide evidence for a clear hierarchy of countries, but with sharp differences in the structure of the scientific hierarchy across each of the three science prizes.  The international scale of merit is most well-defined in physics, while national elites in chemistry and medicine displayed more independence and, in medicine, a lack of consensus at the international level.  Taken together, the results suggest a complex relationship between national and international scientific elites.