Albert Schweitzer
1875 - 1965
Medicine
Albert
Schweitzer spent most of his life in Lambaréné in what is now Gabon, Africa. After his medical studies in 1913, he went there
with his wife to establish a hospital near an already existing mission post. He treated and operated on literally thousands
of people. He took care of hundreds of lepers and treated many victims of the African sleeping sickness.
In 1914 World
War I began and because he was a German on French territory, Schweitzer and his wife were taken captive and temporarily confined
to their house. In 1917 they were interned in Garaison, France, and in 1918 in Saint Remy de Provence. There he studied and
wrote as much as possible in preparation for among others his famous book Culture and Ethics (published in 1923). In July
1918 he was a free man again, and while working as a medical assistant and assistant-pastor in Strasbourg, he was able to
finish the book. In the meantime he began to speak and lecture about his ideas wherever he was invited. Not only did he want
his philosophy on culture and ethics to become widely known, it also served as a means to raise money for the hospital in
Lambaréné, for which he had already emptied his own pockets.
In 1924 he returned to Lambaréné, where he managed to rebuild
the decayed hospital, after which he resumed his medical practices. Soon he was no longer the only medical doctor in the hospital,
and whenever possible he went to Europe to lecture at universities. Gradually his opinions and concepts became acknowledged,
not only in Europe, but worldwide.
Music
Albert Schweitzer was a famous organist in his day, and was highly interested in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.
He developed a simple style of performance, which he thought to be closer to what Bach had meant it to be. He based his interpretation
mainly on his reassessment of Bach's religious intentions. Through the book Johann Sebastian Bach, the final version of which
he completed in 1908, he advocated this new style, which has had great influence in the way Bach's music is being treated.
Albert Schweitzer was also a famous organ constructor. Recordings of Schweitzer playing the music of Bach are available on
CDs.
Philosophy
Schweitzer's
worldview was based on his idea of Reverence for Life, which he believed to be his greatest single contribution to humankind.
His view was that Western civilization was in decay because of gradually abandoning its ethical foundations - those of affirmation
of life.
Stance on racial relations
After spending years in Africa Albert Schweitzer doubted the equality of black and white: "I have given my life to
try to bring to them [the native Africans] the advantages which our Civilization must offer, but I have become well aware
that we must preserve our status: Whites are the Superior, and they the inferior race. For whenever a White man seeks to live
among them as their equal, they, the African natives will destroy him and all his work."
Later Life
From
1939-1948 he stayed in Lambaréné, unable to go back to a Europe in war. Three years after the end of World War II, in 1948,
he returned for the first time to Europe and kept travelling back and forth (and once to the USA) as long as he could until
his death in 1965.
From 1952 until his death he fought together with Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell against nuclear
tests and bombs. In 1957 and 1958 he held four speeches over Radio Oslo which were published in Peace or Atomic War.
Timeline
ˇ 1893 - Studied Philosophy and Theology at the Universities of Strassburg, Berlin and Paris
ˇ 1900 - Curate of the Church of St. Nicolas in Strassburg
ˇ 1901 - Principal of the Theological Seminary in Strassburg
ˇ 1905-1913 Studied medicine and surgery
ˇ 1913 - Physician in Lambaréné, Africa
ˇ 1915 - Developed his ethic
Reverence for life
ˇ 1917 - Interned in France
ˇ 1918 - Medical assistant and assistant-pastor in Strassburg
ˇ
1919 - First major speech about Reverence for life at the University of Uppsala, Sweden
ˇ 1924 - Return to Lambaréné
as physician; frequent visits to Europe for speaking engagements
ˇ 1939 -1948 Lambaréné
ˇ 1949 - Visit to the
USA
ˇ 1948 -1965 - Lambaréné and Europe.
ˇ 1953 - Nobel Peace Prize for the year 1952
ˇ 1957 - 1958 - Four speeches
against nuclear armament and tests
ˇ 1958 - Calls on Radio Oslo for abandonment of nuclear tests
and the production of atomic bombs
ˇ 1959 - Last stay in Europe
ˇ 1965 - 4. September: Albert dies in Lambarene
