Medical missionary, theologian, musician, and philosopher, born in Kaysersberg, NE France (formerly Germany). He studied at Strasbourg, Paris, and Berlin, and in 1896 made his famous decision that he would live for science and art until he was 30, then devote his life to serving humanity. He became a curate at Strasbourg (1899), taught at the university (1902), and was appointed principal of the theological college (1903). His religious writing includes Von Reimarus zu Wrede (1906, trans The Quest of the Historical Jesus), and major works on St Paul. True to his vow, despite his international reputation in music and theology, he began to study medicine in 1905, and after qualifying (1913), set out with his newly-married wife to set up a hospital to fight leprosy and sleeping sickness at Lambaréné, French Equatorial Africa, where he remained for the rest of his life, apart from fund-raising visits and occasional lectures in Europe. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952.
Albert Schweitzer, M.D., OM, (January 14, 1875 – September 4, 1965) was a German Alsatian theologian, musician, philosopher, and physician.
Theology
As a young theologian he published his first major work, The Quest of the Historical Jesus (1906), by which he gained a great reputation. Schweitzer demonstrated that 19th century "liberal lives of Jesus" produced by those who sought to reimage Jesus through historical study were reflections of the authors' own historical and social contexts.
Schweitzer established his reputation further as a New Testament scholar with other theological studies including his medical degree dissertation, The Psychiatric Study of Jesus (1911), and The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle (1930).
Schweitzer's theology leans towards the kind of theology espoused in Liberal Christianity .
Music
Albert Schweitzer was a famous organist in his day and was highly interested in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Widor and Schweitzer collaborated on a new complete edition of Bach's organ works. His pamphlet "The Art of Organ Building and Organ Playing in Germany and France" (1906) effectively launched the twentieth-century Orgelbewegung, which turned away from romantic extremes and rediscovered baroque principles -- although this sweeping reform movement in organ building eventually went further than Schweitzer himself had intended. Recordings of Schweitzer playing the music of Bach are available on CD.
Philosophy
Schweitzer's worldview was based on his idea of reverence for life ("Ehrfurcht vor dem Leben"), which he believed to be his greatest single contribution to humankind.
It was his firm conviction that the respect for life is the highest principle. In a similar kind of exaltation of life to that of Friedrich Nietzsche, a recently influential philosopher of the time, Schweitzer admittedly followed the same line as that of the Russian Leo Tolstoy. In his book Philosophy of Civilisation (all quotes in this section from chapter 26), he wrote:
True philosophy must start from the most immediate and comprehensive fact of consciousness: 'I am life that wants to live, in the midst of life that wants to live'.
Life and love in his view are based on, and follow out of the same principle: respect for every manifestation of Life, and a personal, spiritual relationship towards the universe. Ethics, according to Schweitzer, consists in the compulsion to show toward the will-to-live of each and every being the same reverence as one does to one's own.
However, as Schweitzer himself pointed out, it is neither impossible nor difficult to spend a life of not following it: the history of world philosophies and religions clearly shows many instances of denial of the principle of reverence for life.
The will to live is naturally both parasitic and antagonistic towards other forms of life.
Schweitzer advocated the concept of reverence for life widely throughout his entire life. The historical Enlightenment waned and corrupted itself, Schweitzer held, because it has not been well enough grounded in thought, but compulsively followed the ethical will-to-live. Albert Schweitzer nourished hope in a humankind that is more profoundly aware of its position in the Universe.
Respect for life, resulting from contemplation on one's own conscious will to live, leads the individual to live in the service of other people and of every living creature. Schweitzer was much respected for putting his theory into practice in his own life.
Stance on racial relations
Schweitzer considered his work as a medical missionary in Africa to be his response to Jesus' call to become "fishers of men" but also as a small recompense for the historic guilt of European colonizers: "Who can describe the injustice and cruelties that in the course of centuries they [the coloured peoples] have suffered at the hands of Europeans?
Schweitzer was sometimes accused of being paternalistic or colonialist in his attitude towards Africans. Edgar Berman quotes Schweitzer speaking these lines 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."
Medicine
Albert Schweitzer spent most of his life in Lambaréné in what is now Gabon, Africa.
In 1914 World War I began and because he was a German in a French colony, Schweitzer and his wife were temporarily placed under house arrest.
In 1924 he returned to Lambaréné, where he managed to rebuild the decayed hospital, after which he resumed his medical practices.
Later life
From 1939-1948 he stayed in Lambaréné, unable to go back to a Europe in war.
From 1952 until his death he worked against nuclear tests and nuclear weapons with Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell. In 1957, Schweitzer was one of the founders of The Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy.
His life was portrayed in the 1952 movie Il est minuit, Docteur Schweitzer, starring Pierre Fresnay as Albert Schweitzer and Jeanne Moreau as his nurse Marie.
Schweitzer died on September 4, 1965 in Lambaréné, Gabon.
His cousin Anne-Marie Schweitzer Sartre was the mother of Jean-Paul Sartre.
Schweitzer inspired actor Hugh O'Brian when O'Brian visited in Africa.
Schweitzer in Popular Culture
Skippers on the Jungle Cruise ride at the Magic Kingdom of the Walt Disney World Resort point out a recreation of Schweitzer Falls on the journey. "There you can see Schweitzer Falls, named after the world famous explorer, Dr. Albert Falls," is the joke that usually follows.Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle makes reference to Schweitzer.
Moe of The Simpsons makes reference to Homer's liberal leadership of the Stonecutters stating "He's gone mad with power, like that Albert Schweitzer guy." A Critical Study Of Its Progress From Reimarus To Wrede, (1906), Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 2001 edition: ISBN 0-8006-3288-5 The Psychiatric Study of Jesus: Exposition and Criticism, (1911), Gloucester, Massachusetts: Peter Smith Publisher, 1948, ISBN 0-8446-2894-8 The Mystery of the Kingdom of God: The Secret of Jesus' Messiahship and Passion, (1914), Prometheus Books, 1985, ISBN 0-87975-294-7 The Decay and the Restoration of Civilization and Civilization and Ethics (1923) combined in one volume, Prometheus Books, 1987, ISBN 0-87975-403-6 The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle, (1930), Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998, ISBN 0-8018-6098-9 Out of My Life and Thought: An Autobiography (1933), Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998 edition with forward by Jimmy Carter: ISBN 0-8018-6097-0 Indian Thought and Its Development (1935) Peace or Atomic War 1958 The Kingdom of God and Primitive Christianity (pub.1967)
Timeline
1893 - Studied Philosophy and Theology at the Universities of Strassburg, Berlin and Paris 1900 - Pastor of the Church of St. Nicolas in Strassburg 1901 - Principal of the Theological Seminary in Strassburg 1905-1913 Studied medicine and surgery 1912 - Married Helene Bresslau 1913 - Physician in Lambaréné, Africa 1915 - Developed his ethic Reverence for life 1917 - Interned in France 1918 - Medical assistant and assistant-pastor in Strassburg 1919 - First major speech about Reverence for life at the University of Uppsala, Sweden 1919 - Birth of daughter, Rhena 1924 - Return to Lambaréné as physician; 1953 - Nobel Peace Prize for the year 1952 1957 - 1958 - Four speeches against nuclear armament and testsReferences and external links
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Albert Schweitzer Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Albert Schweitzer Albert Schweitzer: a Biography by James Brabazon - the definitive biography Albert Schweitzer - information on Albert Schweitzer's life and thought - the Schweitzer Institute Friends of Albert Schweitzer (UK) - a charity promoting Reverence for Life The Albert Schweitzer Page Albert Schweitzer Fellowship Readings on Reverence for Life Biography information on the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Page at the Nobel e-Museum Schweitzer Nobel Presentation Speech by Gunnar Jahn Schweitzerforlaget (Norwegian text only) Phelps, Lawrence. A Short History of the Organ Revival (describes Schweitzer's work to reform organ building) Paul and His Interpreters at The DCL. Laureates (2001—)| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Schweitzer, Albert |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | German theologian, musician, philosopher, and physician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 14, 1875 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kaysersberg, Elsass-Lothringen, Germany (now in Haut-Rhin, Alsace, France) |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 4, 1965 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Lambaréné, Gabon |
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