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Albert Schweitzer
Missionary
5 September 1965
The son of a Lutheran pastor,
Albert Schweitzer was born on 14 January 1875 in Alsace, then part of Germany and later
part of France. By the age of 29 Schweitzer had already written three books and had
made valuable contributions in the fields of music, religion, and philosophy. He was
an acclaimed organist and world authority on Bach, a
church pastor and principal of a theological seminary, and a university professor
with a doctorate in philosophy.
At the age of 30, aware of the desperate need of Africans for medical care, he decided to become a medical doctor and devote the rest of his life serving the people of Africa. In 1913, at the age of 37, Dr. Schweitzer and his wife, H?l?ne, opened a hospital in Lambar?n?, Gabon - then a province of French Equatorial Africa. He devoted his life from then on to providing health care for the people in the area.
His work there was interrupted by World War I. Since he was a German citizen, he was interned by the French as an enemy alien, and spent his prison time writing. After the war, Schweitzer returned to Lambar?n? and rebuilt his hospital, adding a leper colony. His autobiography, Out Of My Life And Thought, was published in 1933. In his Philosophy of Civilization, he urged "reverence for life," a philosophy of compassion for all living things. (A visitor to Lambar?n? saw a mosquito on his arm and was about to swat it. Schweitzer saw it and said: "Think twice. Remember that you are a guest in its country.") By stressing the interdependence and unity of all life, he was a forerunner of the environmental and animal welfare movements.
In 1953, at the age of 78, Albert Schweitzer was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In the speeches and writings during the last twelve years of his life, he emphasized the dangers of nuclear energy, nuclear testing, and the nuclear arms race between the superpowers.
Although retired as a surgeon, Albert Schweitzer continued to oversee the hospital
until his death at the age of 90. He and his wife are buried on the hospital grounds
in Lambar?n?.
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Acknowledgements:
Text adapted from James Kiefer's Christian BiographiesJames Kiefer's Christian Biographies,
International Albert
Schweitzer Foundation
Image from International Albert Schweitzer Foundation