I can do no other than to have compassion for all that is called life. Pain is a more terrible lord of mankind than even death itself. This decision, protested vigorously by his friends, was, like so many others in his life, the product of religious meditation. Helene took up nursing to help her husband in his pursuits; later, she became skilled at delivering anesthesia to the patients on whom Albert would operate. Widor, deeply impressed, agreed to teach Schweitzer without fee, and a great and influential friendship thus began. Albert Schweitzer. After peaking in the mid-1960s, the number of heart disease deaths began a marked decline that has persisted to the present. He was also appointed organist for the Bach Concerts of the Orfo Catal at Barcelona, Spain, and often travelled there for that purpose. Albert Schweitzer's Death - Cause and Date Born (Birthday) Jan 14, 1875 Death Date September 4, 1965 Age of Death 90 years Cause of Death Natural Causes Profession Doctor The doctor Albert Schweitzer died at the age of 90. As a child, he was frail and an indifferent student in everything but music, for which he showed the interest of a prodigy. [16] From 1952 until his death he worked against nuclear tests and nuclear weapons with Albert Einstein, Otto Hahn and Bertrand Russell. Once in Lambarn, he established a small hospital at a station set up by the Paris Missionary Society. He maintained, instead, that man must rationally formulate an ethical creed and then strive to put it into practice. Schweitzer maintained that the life of Jesus must be interpreted in the light of Jesus' own convictions, which reflected late Jewish eschatology and apocalypticism. It resides in their vault today in deteriorating condition. October 27, 2021 Ludwig Philipp Albert Schweitzer known as 'Alsatian polymath', was a theologian, humanitarian philosopher, and physician. Hailed as an outstanding world figure, Schweitzer was. This house is now maintained as a Schweitzer museum.[78]. Meantime, as these beliefs were maturing in Schweitzer's mind, he continued his student life at Strasbourg and fixed with great precision the course of his future. Gerson died in 1959, eulogized by long-time friend, Albert Schweitzer M.D. Among the neonatal deaths, 27% occurred on the first day of life, and 80% occurred during the first 10 days of life. Dramatisations of Schweitzer's life include: Paul's "realism" versus Hellenistic "symbolism", Schweitzer's Bach recordings are usually identified with reference to the Peters Edition of the Organ-works in 9 volumes, edited by. in Greek, chapters that contain Jesus' injunctions to His apostles, among them the one that commands, "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have In the Preface to Civilization and Ethics (1923) he argued that Western philosophy from Descartes to Kant had set out to explain the objective world expecting that humanity would be found to have a special meaning within it. Albert Schweitzer's engagement with Judaism, and with the Jewish community more generally, has never been the subject of substantive discussion. Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) was a brilliant philosopher, physician, musician, clergyman and theological scholar. Name in native language. ", "At this stage," Schweitzer said in 1963, "Africans have little need for advanced training. The information that each capsule collects is unique, unlike the identical out-of-polarity information generated from the figure-8 in a regular mid-side. At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. [1] Everything was heavily decayed, and building and doctoring progressed together for months. Through concerts and other fund-raising, he was ready to equip a small hospital. degree in February, 1913, Schweitzer studied medicine, but he did not entirely cut himself off from his other worlds. [48] He explains, "only the man who is elected thereto can enter into relation with God". If all this oppression and all this sin and shame are perpetrated under the eye of the German God, or the American God, or the British God, and if our states do not feel obliged first to lay aside their claim to be 'Christian'then the name of Jesus is blasphemed and made a mockery. Schweitzer was one of colonialism's harshest critics. Seek always to do some good, somewhere. The moment of awakening came as he was reading Matthew x and xi full expression in the 18th century.". Lambarene was suffused with Reverence for Life to what some critics thought was an exaggerated degree. had a profound influence on contemporary religious thinking. It approaches Bach as a musician-poet and concentrates on his chorales; cantatas and Passion He made the Africans too lazy to pick them For years I had been giving myself out in words. It was about 200 miles away from the mouth of the Ogoou River at Port Gentil (now Cape Lopez). People robbed native inhabitants of their land, made slaves of them, let loose the scum of mankind upon them. Everyone can have their own Lambarn". He speaks to us the same word: 'Follow thou me' and sets us to the task which He has to fulfill for our time. These recordings were made in the course of a fortnight in October 1936.[94]. He now had salvarsan for treating syphilitic ulcers and framboesia. [41], On the other hand, a more developed form of mysticism can be found in the Greek mystery-cults that were popular in first-century A.D. society. out, including Schweitzer's pet parrot (which was not taught to talk because that would lower its dignity) and a hippopotamus that once invaded the vegetable garden. He commands. Of course, it had no telephone, radio or airstrip. : "I see in him one of the most eminent geniuses in the history of medicine. Today, the hospital ", His attitude was sharply expressed in a story he liked to tell of his orange trees. The Bach titles were mainly distributed as follows: Later recordings were made at Parish church, Gnsbach: These recordings were made by C. Robert Fine during the time Dr. Schweitzer was being filmed in Gnsbach for the documentary "Albert Schweitzer". From the first, when Schweitzer's hospital was a broken-down hen coop, natives flocked by foot, by improvised stretcher, by dugout canoe to Lambarene for medical attention. Other selections are on Philips GBL 5509. The Remarkable Life of Albert Schweitzer Albert Schweitzer was a complex, astonishing, and multifaceted man. "The chorale not only puts in his possession the treasury of Protestant music," Schweitzer wrote, "but also opens to him the riches of the Middle Ages and of the sacred Latin music from that the work of Bach owes its greatness.". In 1899, Schweitzer became a deacon at the church of Saint Nicholas in Strasbourg. No greater tribute to his abilities as a conqueror of jungle need The committee of this missionary society was not ready to accept his offer, considering his Lutheran theology to be "incorrect". The onset of famine and a dysentery epidemic created fresh problems. In a sermon that he preached on 6 January 1905, before he had told anyone of his plans to dedicate the rest of his life to work as a physician in Africa, he said:[64]. [12] In 1899, Schweitzer spent the summer semester at the University of Berlin and eventually obtained his theology degree at the University of Strasbourg. [30] According to a visitor, Dr. Gaine Cannon, of Balsam Grove, N.C., the old, dilapidated piano-organ was still being played by Dr. Schweitzer in 1962, and stories told that "his fingers were still lively" on the old instrument at 88 years of age. He was elected to the French Academy in 1951. 4 September 1965. This image has not been destroyed from outside; it has fallen to pieces[37], Instead of these liberal and romantic views, Schweitzer wrote that Jesus and his followers expected the imminent end of the world.[38]. in 1913 with specialization qualifications in tropical medicine and surgery. His cousin Anne-Marie Schweitzer Sartre was the mother of Jean-Paul Sartre. 1 in E major; no. [26] This provided the basis for the International Regulations for Organ Building. received, "freely give"; and the verse that urges men, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls.". Schweitzer saw many operas of Richard Wagner in Strasbourg (under Otto Lohse) and in 1896 he managed to afford a visit to the Bayreuth Festival to see Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen and Parsifal, both of which impressed him. brought to a halt lest nests of ants be killed or disturbed. In 1922, he delivered the Dale Memorial Lectures in the University of Oxford, and from these in the following year appeared Volumes I and II of his great work, The Decay and Restoration of Civilization and Civilization and Ethics. In 1898, he returned to Paris to write a PhD dissertation on The Religious Philosophy of Kant at the Sorbonne, and to study in earnest with Widor. [88] Biographer James Bentley has written that Schweitzer became a vegetarian after his wife's death in 1957 and he was "living almost entirely on lentil soup". OPP!". In The Quest, Schweitzer criticised the liberal view put forward by liberal and romantic scholars during the first quest for the historical Jesus. In 1952, he won the Nobel Peace Prize. You Love Will Happiness. He not only played throughout Europe, but he also repaired church organs and kept Train yourself never to put off the word or action for the expression of gratitude." ~ Albert Schweitzer. He was genuinely proud of his medical and missionary station at Lambarene. 9 Department of Cardiology and . in 1913. 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 US) as long as he was able. Albert Schweitzer was born in Alsace-Lorraine in 1875. and worked unobtrusively. But how are we of the post-colonial age to understand a man who was born in 1875 and saw the world very differently from the way we do? Darstellung und Kritik[51] [The psychiatric evaluation of Jesus. In the first nine months, he and his wife had about 2,000 patients to examine, some travelling many days and hundreds of kilometres to reach him. up a ceaseless study of music. [80] With the $33,000 prize money, he started the leprosarium at Lambarn. Rhena Schweitzer Miller, the only child of Nobel Prize-winning humanitarian Dr. Albert Schweitzer, who carried on his medical missionary work in Africa after his death in 1965, died Sunday. He was made an honorary member of the British Order of Merit in 1955. His autocracy was more noticeable as his years advanced and Though he took theology at university, studying at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Universitt in Strasbourg and at the Sorbonne in Paris before publishing his PhD thesis - on The Religious Philosophy of Kant - at the University of Tbingen in 1899, he first found acclaim as a scholar of music. Every man has to seek in his own way to realize his true worth. He had originally conducted trials for recordings for HMV on the organ of the old Queen's Hall in London. ~ Albert Einstein. Schweitzer claims that this form of mysticism is more intellectual and can be found "among the Brahmans and in the Buddha, in Platonism, in Stoicism, in Spinoza, Schopenhauer, and Hegel".[42]. Albert Schweitzer. His medical degree dissertation was another work on the historical Jesus, Die psychiatrische Beurteilung Jesu. Learn more about Friends of the NewsHour. [11] Schweitzer served his one-year compulsory military service in 1894. On one of these occasions, in 1949, he visited Drug advances for sleeping sickness included Germanin and tryparsamide[de; fi; it]. If Schweitzer was thin-skinned to criticism from irreverent journalists, he heard little of it at Lambarene, where his proprietorship was unquestioned. Albert Schweitzer. Man's ultimate redemption through beneficent activity--the theme of Part II of Goethe's "Faust," a metaphysical poem much admired by Albert Schweitzer--threads through this extraordinary man's long, complex and sometimes curious Jesus, Schweitzer contended, believed himself the Messiah who would rule in a new kingdom of God when '"[67] Chinua Achebe has criticized him for this characterization, though Achebe acknowledges that Schweitzer's use of the word "brother" at all was, for a European of the early 20th century, an unusual expression of human solidarity between Europeans and Africans. years to science and art and then devote himself to the service of suffering humanity. In 1906, he published Geschichte der Leben-Jesu-Forschung [History of Life-of-Jesus research]. for Life. Today ASF helps large numbers of young Americans in health-related professional fields find or create "their own Lambarn" in the US or internationally. Now, without context, it seems that Albert Schweitzer rejects the whole project of historical Jesus research. ~ Albert Schweitzer. In 1917, the Schweitzers were returned to France and later to Alsace. Advertisement. Edgar Berman quotes Schweitzer as having said in 1960, "No society can go from the primeval directly to an industrial state without losing the leavening that time and an agricultural period allow. Medical mistakes claim about 400,000 people every year in U.S. With Faust himself he could join in saying: This sphere of earthly soil Dr. Schweitzer became especially famous for giving benefit concerts and lectures in Europe as a means of fundraising for his hospital back in Africa. The years thinned and grayed his hair (without making Additional medical staff, nurse (Miss) Kottmann and Dr. Victor Nessmann,[60] joined him in 1924, and Dr. Mark Lauterberg in 1925; the growing hospital was manned by native orderlies. You must give some time to your fellow man. Schweitzer died on 4 September 1965 at his beloved hospital in Lambarn, now in independent Gabon. [41] Primitive mysticism "has not yet risen to a conception of the universal, and is still confined to naive views of earthly and super-earthly, temporal and eternal". Deaths were concentrated during the first few months of life, with 35% occurring during the first month. For seven years, from 1906 until he received his M.D. Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace. Allez-vous, OPP-opp. Schweitzer, the pastor's son, grew up in this exceptional environment of religious tolerance, and developed the belief that true Christianity should always work towards a unity of faith and purpose. Life and love are rooted in this same principle, in a personal spiritual relationship to the universe. "The Teaching of Reverence for Life". Indeed, Schweitzer became a notable organist, especially in the works of Bach. Oh, this 'noble' culture of ours! From 1939 to 1948, he stayed in Lambarn, unable to go back to Europe because of the war. While he was on his sickbed, his terminally ill son cared for him despite battling a diagnosis that claimed his life a year later. for his altruism, reverence for life, and tireless humanitarian work which has helped making the idea of brotherhood between men and nations a living one (English) Albert Schweitzer. Such comments were, at the very least, a contradiction of his worldview of showing reverence for all human life in both deeds and words. As he said at age 40, he "was not going to speak or talk any longer." On December 10, 1953 . Schweitzer to move his hospital to a larger site two miles up the Ogooue, where expansion was possible and where gardens and orchards could be planted. " Albert Schweitzer 31. But after a century spent healing the sick, the hospital has spent the past . '", "The iron door has yielded," he went on, "the path in the thicket had become visible. He defended Jesus' mental health in it. "Even if it's a little thing, do something for those who have need of a man's help, something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing Happiness is the key to success. Albert Schweitzer, the son of an Evangelical Lutheran minister, was born on . He was the son of Louis Schweitzer and Adle Schillinger. East European Jewish Immigrants and the New York City Epidemics of 1892, When Germs Travel: Six Major Epidemics That Have Invaded America Since 1900 and the Fears They Have Unleashed and An Anatomy of Addiction: Sigmund Freud, William Halsted, and the Miracle Drug Cocaine., Left: " One person can and does make a difference. Exposition and Criticism[52]). . [90], The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship was founded in 1940 by Schweitzer to unite US supporters in filling the gap in support for his Hospital when his European supply lines were cut off by war, and continues to support the Lambarn Hospital today. Will Peace Living. For all his self-abnegation, Schweitzer had a bristly character, at least in his later years, a formidable sense of his own importance to Lambarene and a do-good paternalism toward Africans that smacked more of the 19th than the 20th century. In recent years, many have taken him to task for decidedly paternalistic and racist descriptions of his African patients that would offend many a 21st century observer. were quite familiar with the businesslike and sometimes grumpy and brusque Schweitzer in a solar hat who hurried along the construction of a building by gingering up the native craftsmen with a sharp: "Allez-vous OPP! [44] Therefore, Schweitzer argues that Paul is the only theologian who does not claim that Christians can have an experience of "being-in-God". In 19256, new hospital buildings were constructed, and also a ward for white patients, so that the site became like a village. [45], Schweitzer contrasts Paul's "realistic" dying and rising with Christ to the "symbolism" of Hellenism. Also Known As: Ludwig Philipp Albert Schweitzer Died At Age: 90 Family: Spouse/Ex-: Helene Bresslau father: Louis Thophile siblings: Emma Schweitzer, Louisa Schweitzer, Lulie Adele Schweitzer, Marguerit Schweitzer, Paul Schweitzer children: Rhena Schweitzer Miller Born Country: France Quotes By Albert Schweitzer Nobel Peace Prize At this time Schweitzer, born a German citizen, had his parents' former (pre-1871) French citizenship reinstated and became a French citizen. RM E0MKEE - Oct. 10, 1955 - Dr. Albert Schweitzer plays the festival hall organ. 17 Copy quote. The living conditions, too, were horrid with makeshift huts for shelter and medical care, hot, steamy tropical days, cold nights, and huge gusts of wind and rainfall. Please check your inbox to confirm. "You see, the good Lord has protected the trees. 171,135 Swedish krona. He and his wife (they were German citizens) were interned as prisoners of war for four months, then released to continue the work of the hospital. [93] Then at his suggestion the sessions were transferred to the church of Ste Aurlie in Strasbourg, on a mid-18th-century organ by Johann Andreas Silbermann (brother of Gottfried), an organ-builder greatly revered by Bach, which had been restored by the Lorraine organ-builder Frdric Hrpfer shortly before the First World War. He summarized it once by saying: "A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him, that of plants and animals as that of his fellow men, and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help. To me, Dr. Schweitzer is the one truly great individuals our modern times have produced. The history of the Albert Schweitzer Hospital (ASH) The first foundations of the ASH were laid in Andende, a district of Gabon's provincial capital of Lambarn, located on the right bank of the Ogoou opposite the current site of the ASH. 1996 - 2023 NewsHour Productions LLC. His father and both grandfathers were pastors and organists. Then, working as medical assistant and assistant-pastor in Strasbourg, he advanced his project on the philosophy of civilization, which had occupied his mind since 1900. A Lutheran minister, Schweitzer challenged both the secular view of Jesus as depicted by the historical-critical method current at this time, as well as the traditional Christian view. Having circulated a questionnaire among players and organ-builders in several European countries, he produced a very considered report. to school for a few hours every day and then going back to the fields. Published in 1910, it at once established Schweitzer as an eminent, if controversial, theologian whose explosive ideas Yet, he has achieved more than seemed possible under adverse conditions. Abstract. The soul is the sense of something higher than ourselves, something that stirs in us thoughts, hopes, and aspirations which go out to the world of goodness, truth and beauty. A second German edition was published in 1913, containing theologically significant revisions and expansions: this revised edition did not appear in English until 2001. On the other hand, patients received splendid medical care and few seemed to suffer greatly from the compound's lack of polish. [73], Such was the theory which Schweitzer sought to put into practice in his own life. The waiting room and dormitory were built, like native huts, of unhewn logs along a path leadingl to the boat landing. [13][16], Schweitzer rapidly gained prominence as a musical scholar and organist, dedicated also to the rescue, restoration and study of historic pipe organs. This compromise arose after the Protestant Reformation and the Thirty Years' War. LAMBARENE, GABON, Sept. 5--Albert Schweitzer died last night in his jungle hospital here. Until his death in 1965, Schweitzer continued to publish, lecture, perform and care for the sick. . You must not expect anything from others. These synthetic vaccines in themselves cause cancers as other pharmaceutical products based on the chemical nature of the medicine which largely acts as a suppressor of symptoms masquerading as a cure. Franco-German yet cosmopolitan in culture, he drew deeply from the music and philosophy of the 18th century, especially Bach, Goethe and Kant. With the new hospital built and the medical team established, Schweitzer returned to Europe in 1927, this time leaving a functioning hospital at work. He returned to Lambarene in 1929 and remained for two years, establishing a pattern of work in Africa and sojourns in Europe during which he lectured, wrote and concertized to raise funds for his hospital. He died at 11:30 P.M. (6:30 P.M. New York time). Now I knew that the world-view of ethical world-and- life-affirmation, together with its ideal of civilization, is founded in thought.". In contemplation of the will-to-life, respect for the life of others becomes the highest principle and the defining purpose of humanity. [85][86][87] Schweitzer was not a vegetarian in his earlier life. I can do no other than be reverent before everything that is called life. and time, making him inwardly free, so that he is fitted to be, in his own world and in his own time, a simple channel of the power of Jesus.". Among children 1-59 months of age, ALRI was present in 51% of the deaths, and enteric diseases in 30%. [59] In 1917, exhausted by over four years' work and by tropical anaemia, they were taken to Bordeaux and interned first in Garaison and then from March 1918 in Saint-Rmy-de-Provence. [49] Although every human being is invited to become a Christian, only those who have undergone the initiation into the Christian community through baptism can share in the "realistic" dying and rising with Christ. The increase in heart disease deaths from the early 20th century . [92], Recordings of Schweitzer playing the music of Bach are available on CD. for his ethical creed was as firm at 90 as it was on his 30th birthday, the day he decided to devote the rest of his life to the natives of Africa as a physician. world's end did not occur, according to Schweitzer's view, Jesus decided that He must undergo an atoning sacrifice, and that the great transformation would take place on the cross. He and his wife are buried on the Hospital grounds in Lambarn. Explaining his decision later in more mundane terms, Schweitzer said: "I wanted to be a doctor that I might be able to work without having to talk. for the life of a physician in French Equatorial Africa. Visitors who equated cleanliness, tidiness and medicine were horrified by the station, for every patient was encouraged to bring one or two members of his family to cook Muntz and Friedman, both Holocaust survivors, to record his work and daily life at the hospital. There was great demand for a German edition, but, instead of translating it, he decided to rewrite it. That same year he resigned his curateship and his posts at the university and married Helene Bresslau, the daughter of a well-known Strasbourg historian. He made the Africans too lazy to pick them bare.. Respect for life, overcoming coarser impulses and hollow doctrines, leads the individual to live in the service of other people and of every living creature. Schweitzer's university life was interrupted by a year of compulsory military service in 1894, a period that proved crucial to his religious thinking and to his life's vocation. sermons as well as to his scalpel, for he believed that the good shepherd saves not only the animal but also his soul. [4][5] He spent his childhood in Gunsbach, also in Alsace, where his father, the local Lutheran-Evangelical pastor of the EPCAAL, taught him how to play music. And the Christianity of our states is blasphemed and made a mockery before those poor people. too, failed, Schweitzer argued, hence the despairing cry, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Turning to Bach's nonchurch music, Schweitzer said: "The Brandenburg concertos are the purest product of Bach's polyphonic style. ASF selects and supports nearly 250 new US and Africa Schweitzer Fellows each year from over 100 of the leading US schools of medicine, nursing, public health, and every other field with some relation to health (including music, law, and divinity). Darrell. In his story for PBS NewsHour, Dr. Howard Markel, University of Michigan medical historian writes: His 1931 autobiography, Out of My Life and Thought, describing much of his work in Africa, was an international best-selling book.