Albert Schweitzer

German physician and music scholar

• Born: January 14, 1875
• Birthplace: Kaysersberg, Upper Alsace, Germany (now in France)
• Died: September 4, 1965
• Place of death: Lambaréné, Gabon

Schweitzer was a renowned organist, a student of the music of Bach, and an unorthodox biblical scholar who also dedicated himself as a medical missionary to the indigenous peoples of Africa. This decision led to a fifty-year career that captured the admiration of many people and led to his receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. He also actively urged the public, politicians, and statesmen to be actively concerned about the threat of nuclear war and to work for peace.

Early Life

Albert Schweitzer (SHWIT-zur) was born in Kaysersberg, Upper Alsace, Germany (now a part of France). During that year his father, Louis Schweitzer, a liberal protestant, became pastor of the village church in Gunsbach, Alsace. There in what today is the Rhineland of France, Schweitzer grew up. Alsace has in its history been alternately governed by France and Germany. Because of this background Schweitzer spoke both French and German fluently. He studied and wrote in both languages.

Schweitzer’s father began teaching him to play the piano and organ when he was five and eight years old, respectively. At nine he occasionally substituted for the regular organist in his father’s church. When he was ten, he was sent to school in Mulhouse, where he lived with a great uncle and began taking music lessons from Eugene Munch. It was during the eight years he spent in Mulhouse that his creative, intellectual, and musical abilities blossomed.

To follow in the footsteps of his father, he was enrolled in the University of Strasbourg as a student of theology and philosophy at the Theological College of St. Thomas. He did not, however, give up his new love, music. It was music, particularly the editing of the organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach, and his organ playing, building, and restoring abilities that supported Schweitzer through much of his life and brought him international acclaim. His college career was interrupted when he was drafted into the infantry. However, he did not leave his mind at home. He took what he had learned at St. Thomas and a copy of the Greek New Testament with him. He spent many hours thumbing through it, reading and meditating on the words of Jesus in the light of the modern historical criticism he had been taught.

Immediately after graduation, Schweitzer entered a postgraduate program in philosophy that took him to the Sorbonne in Paris, the University of Berlin, and finally back to the University of Strasbourg, which awarded him the doctor of philosophy degree for his treatise on the religious philosophy of Immanuel Kant. He believed that he was ready to begin working toward a doctor of theology degree, which he completed one year later. In September, 1900, he was ordained at St. Nicholas Church in Strasbourg and the following spring received an appointment to the faculty of the Theological College of St. Thomas at the University of Strasbourg, a post he held for six years. During this time he continued his study of the organ and gained quite a reputation as a performer.

Life’s Work

Schweitzer, on his thirtieth birthday, informed his friends that he had decided to devote the rest of his life to the indigenous peoples of Africa as a doctor of medicine. This created quite a stir among family and friends, most of whom thought he had lost his mind. He was not to be dissuaded. While continuing his duties as a faculty member and completing a biography of Bach, Schweitzer began taking the science courses needed to enter medical school. He made contact with the Paris Missionary Society, whose newsletter containing an article on the need for medical missionaries in Africa had inspired him, volunteering his services as a medical missionary. To his surprise, he was not readily accepted because of his unorthodox biblical views. He finally convinced the Paris Missionary Society to grant him permission to set up a medical facility for them when he promised not to preach but only to serve as a medical doctor.

From 1906 to 1912, Schweitzer studied medicine at the University of Strasbourg, all the time teaching religion at the university, preaching at St. Nicholas, giving organ concerts, working with Charles Widor on an edition of Bach’s organ works, writing several books and treatises, and making plans for his work in Africa. In 1912, he resigned his positions at the University of Strasbourg and St. Nicholas Church and on June 18, 1912, married Helene Bresslau, the daughter of a Jewish colleague and professor of history. In February, 1913, he completed his internship in tropical medicine, finished his thesis on the psychiatric study of Jesus, and received his M.D. degree. On March 26, 1913, he and Helene, who had become a nurse to work with him, set sail from Bordeaux, France, to set up a hospital on the land of the Paris Missionary Society in Lambaréné, French Equatorial Africa. This trip was the first of his many trips between Europe and Africa and marks the end of Schweitzer’s life of preparation for service and the beginning of his life of service to Africans.

Schweitzer’s life in Africa can be divided into four periods, each of which was marked by three events over which he had no control: World War I, World War II, and the death of his wife. Schweitzer had barely established his hospital when he was put under house arrest in Lambaréné by the French. He was considered an enemy alien because he was German and came from German Alsace. In 1917, he and his wife were transferred to France, where they were interned in two different prison camps for civilian aliens. It was to be ten years before he was able to return to Lambaréné. When he did so, this time without Helene, he found his hospital in ruins.

During the years from 1927 to 1947, Schweitzer built a new hospital at a new location not far from the first site. He traveled to Europe four times. One additional trip was cut short so short, in fact, that the same boat that took him to Europe took him back to Africa. He was afraid that Hitler would attack France and somehow, perhaps because he was now considered a French citizen or perhaps because he had a Jewish wife, prevent him from returning to French Equatorial Africa. There were four reasons for these frequent trips: to visit Helene; to give concerts to raise the money he needed to operate his hospital and support himself; to deliver lectures to gather charitable support; and to recruit doctors and nurses to serve with him in Africa.

Schweitzer’s longest sojourn in Africa took place during World War II. He was hard pressed to keep his hospital afloat. His concert tours in Europe could not be held, medical supplies were consumed by the war, and his supporters in Alsace were surrounded by the war. Fortunately, a speaking tour that Helene made in the United States brought his cause to the attention of some Americans who raised money and sent medical supplies to him when the people of Europe could not do so.

Between 1947 and 1957, Schweitzer spent most of his time in Europe. During these years he was in great demand as a lecturer and organist. Both of these activities brought him and his work into the public eye, and support for his work was no longer in question. During this time he was idolized by Europeans and Americans alike. He was courted by people seeking support for their own causes. In 1952, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Perhaps it was his experiences with war, perhaps it was his Christianity, perhaps it was both and more in any case he gave wholehearted support to the antinuclear protests of the late 1950’s. He made only four short stays in Africa. Unfortunately, it was during the last sojourn that his wife died. Shortly after Helene’s death, he made one more trip to Europe when, besides the usual public appearances, he put his European house in order. Schweitzer brought his wife’s ashes with him to Africa and buried them on his hospital grounds in Lambaréné. This time he returned to stay. He no longer felt the need to visit Europe. Support for his work was assured, and he wanted to see his hospital, especially his leprosarium, developed in his way. Now, more than ever before, people came to see him and his hospital at Lambaréné. The hospital they saw was not necessarily what they expected, but Schweitzer, himself, disappointed only those who had come with their own agenda. He had fought his own battles; he was now an old man too occupied with his work to take up causes other than his own.

In July, 1964, Schweitzer designated Walter Munz as chief of staff of his hospital. On August 28, 1965, Schweitzer appointed his daughter, Rhena Schweitzer-Eckert, as administrator of the hospital. On September 4, his house in order, Schweitzer died. African drums, similar to those that told the Africans that he had arrived in Lambaréné more than half a century earlier, now told of his death. Modern forms of communication spread the news throughout the region to the rest of the world.

Significance

It is really incorrect to say, as many do, that Schweitzer’s life’s work began with his first trip to Africa. Everything he did leading up to that time and everything he did from then until his death revolved around his work in Africa. The proceeds of his books on the life of Bach financed his personal expenses for the first years in Lambaréné. He supported himself while in Africa by writing about his work there, by writing on theology, philosophy, and music for book publishers and magazines. He kept up his skills as an organist by practicing in Africa on a piano outfitted with organ pedals so that he could give organ concerts while visiting Europe. All this made it possible for him to care for the sick, operate on the ill and injured, comfort the dying, plan and supervise the construction of his hospital, and recruit people with medical skills to his hospital.

It was Schweitzer’s theology that led him to his interpretation of Jesus’ command, “Follow me.” He traced his ethical philosophy back to Jesus’ teaching to love your neighbor. Schweitzer was of heroic proportions, yet he was human and had human failings. This plus the human failings of others caused him to be subjected to a fair amount of unkind and unjustified criticism. This criticism never seriously affected him or his reputation. His place in history seems secure.

Bibliography

Anderson, Erica. The Schweitzer Album: A Portrait in Words and Pictures. New York: Harper & Row, 1965. This work strives to explicate Schweitzer’s thought through quotations from his conversations, speeches, and letters. Also contains many photographs of Schweitzer.

Brabazon, James. Albert Schweitzer: A Biography. 2d ed. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 2000. A long, balanced, and well-written biography published ten years after Schweitzer’s death. Its strength is in its discussion of the last part of Schweitzer’s life. It has an epilogue about life in Lambaréné after Schweitzer. The book contains photographs, a bibliography, scholarly notes, and an index.

Cousins, Norman. Dr. Schweitzer of Lambaréné. New York: Harper, 1960. An account of Cousins’s visit to Schweitzer’s hospital in Lambaréné during January, 1957. The appendix contains Schweitzer’s radio broadcast, “Peace or Atomic War.” The book contains photographs of the persons and sights to be seen at the Schweitzer Hospital, and it gives insight into Schweitzer’s work and accomplishments during the last years of his life.

Marshall, George, and David Poling. Schweitzer: A Biography. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1971. If only one book about Schweitzer can be read, this one should be considered. It tells the story of his life and evaluates him as a person and as a world citizen. This book contains a chronological biography, an index, a bibliography of English translations of Schweitzer’s books, collections based on his works, selected biographies of Schweitzer, and recordings by and films about him. The bibliography is annotated and includes references to two books containing negative criticism.

Miller, Rhena Schweitzer, and Gustav Woytt, eds. The Albert Schweitzer-Helene Bresslau Letters, 1902-1912. Translated and edited by Artje Bultmann Lemke. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 2003. Schweitzer and Bresslau corresponded for ten years before their marriage, and in these letters Schweitzer expressed many of his ideas.

Payne, Robert. The Three Worlds of Albert Schweitzer. Translated by Edward Fitzgerald. New York: Harper & Row, 1964. This book is less on the life and more on the thought of Schweitzer. It is an examination of Schweitzer’s writings on Kant, Jesus, Paul, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It discusses his music, ethics, and theological views on the notion of the Kingdom of God.

Schweitzer, Albert. The African Sermons. Edited and translated by Steven E. G. Melamed, Sr. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 2003. Contains the seventy sermons Schweitzer delivered during Sunday services in Lambaréné from 1913 through 1935.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Music in the Life of Albert Schweitzer with Selections from His Writings. Edited by Charles R. Joy. Boston: Beacon Press, 1951. Schweitzer was renowned as a performer of music. This book, however, concentrates on his thoughts on music, organs and organ building, and his writings about Bach. While it does this, it is not just a book for musicians. Like most books about him from the 1950’s, it was written to satisfy the curiosity of people who wanted to know more of the person about whom everyone was talking.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. The Wit and Wisdom of Albert Schweitzer. Edited by Charles R. Joy. Boston: Beacon Press, 1949. A topically arranged collection of quotations that show the wide range of Schweitzer’s interests. The book contains a bibliography of Schweitzer’s writings and a good chronology of Schweitzer’s life up until October, 1949.

Seaver, George. Albert Schweitzer: The Man and His Mind. New York: Harper Brothers, 1947. This work devotes equal time to Schweitzer’s biography and to a discussion of his writings. Appendixes 1 and 3 feature Schweitzer’s thoughts on colonization, race relations, and religion (ethics) in modern civilization, areas of thought where Schweitzer is most controversial.