Albert Schweitzer

Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer was born on 14 January 1875 in Kaysersberg in Alsace. He was the
son of Louis Théophile and Adèle Schillinger. He received the 1952 Nobel Peace
Prize for his philosophy of "Reverence for Life", becoming the eighth Frenchman to
be awarded that prize. He accepted the prize with the speech, "The Problem of
Peace". With the $33,000 prize money, he started the leprosarium at Lambaréné. His
philosophy was expressed in many ways, but most famously in founding and
sustaining the Hôpital Albert Schweitzer in Lambaréné, French Equatorial
Africa (now Gabon). He also won the Goethe Prize in 1928, and the James Cook
Medal in 1959. As a music scholar and organist, he studied the music of German
composer Johann Sebastian Bach and influenced the Organ Reform
Movement (Orgelbewegung). (Nobel Price.org–Albert Schweitzer)
Albert Schweitzer rapidly gained prominence as a musical scholar and organist,

dedicated also to the rescue, restoration and study of historic pipe organs. With
theological insight, he interpreted the use of pictorial and symbolical representation
in J. S. Bach's religious music. From 1893, Schweitzer studied Protestant theology at
the Kaiser Wilhelm University in Strasbourg. There he also received instruction in
piano and counterpoint from professor Gustav Jacobsthal and associated closely with
Ernest Munch, the brother of his former teacher, organist of St William church, who
was also a passionate admirer of J. S. Bach's music. Albert Schweitzer served his one-
year compulsory military service in 1894. Albert Schweitzer received an opportunity
to see many operas of Richard Wagner in Strasbourg (under Otto Lohse) and in 1896,
he managed to afford to visit the Bayreuth Festival to see Wagner's Der Ring des
Nibelungen and Parsifal, both of which impressed him. In 1898, he returned to Paris
to write a PhD dissertation on The Religious Philosophy of Kant at the Sorbonne.
Here he often met with the elderly Aristide Cavaillé-Coll. He also studied piano at the
time with Marie Jaëll. In 1899, Schweitzer spent the summer semester at
the University of Berlin and obtained his theology degree at the University of
Strasbourg. He published his PhD thesis at the University of Tübingen in 1899 and he
became a deacon at the church of Saint Nicholas in Strasbourg too. In 1900, with the
completion of his licentiate in theology, he was ordained as a curate, and that year
he witnessed the Oberammergau Passion Play. In the following year, he became
provisional Principal of the Theological College of Saint Thomas, from which he had
just graduated, and in 1903 his appointment was made permanent. He planned to
spread the Gospel by the example of his Christian labour of healing, rather than
through the verbal process of preaching and believed that this service should be
acceptable within any branch of Christian teaching. (Britannica.com-Albert
Schweitzer)
In 1906, he published Geschichte der Leben-Jesu-Forschung [History of Life-of-Jesus

research]. This book, which established his reputation, was first published in English
in 1910 as The Quest of the Historical Jesus. Under this title, the book became
famous in the English-speaking world. A second German edition was published in
1913, containing theologically significant revisions and expansions: this revised
edition did not appear in English until 2001. In 1931, he published Mystik des
Apostels Paulus (The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle); a second edition was published
in 1953.
In 1905, Albert Schweitzer began his study of medicine at the University of

Strasbourg, culminating in the degree of M.D. in 1913. At the age of 30, in 1905,
Albert Schweitzer answered the call of The Society of the Evangelist Missions of Paris,
which was looking for a physician. The committee of this missionary society was not
ready to accept his offer, considering his Lutheran theology to be "incorrect". He
could easily have obtained a place in a German evangelical mission, but wished to
follow the original call despite the doctrinal difficulties. Amid a hail of protests from
his friends, family and colleagues, he resigned from his post and re-entered the
university as a student in a three-year course towards the degree of Doctorate in
Medicine, a subject in which he had little knowledge or previous aptitude.
In 1919, the only child of Albert Schweitzer and Helene Schweitzer (Rhena Schweitzer
Miller) was born. In 1923, Albert's wife, Helene Schweitzer was no longer able to live
in Lambaréné due to her health so he and his family moved to Königsfeld im
Schwarzwald, Baden-Württemberg, where he was building a house for the family. This
house is now maintained as a Schweitzer museum. From 1939 to 1948, he stayed in
Lambaréné, unable to go back to Europe because of the 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 US) as long as he was able. During his
return visits to his home village of Gunsbach, he continued to make use of the family
house, which after his death became an archive and museum of his life and work.
From 1952 until his death he worked against nuclear tests and nuclear
weapons with Albert Einstein, Otto Hahn and Bertrand Russell. In 1957 and 1958, he
broadcast four speeches over Radio Oslo which were published in his book Peace or
Atomic War. In 1957, Schweitzer was one of the founders of The Committee for a
Sane Nuclear Policy. On 23 April 1957, Schweitzer made his "Declaration of
Conscience" speech; it was broadcast to the world over Radio Oslo, pleading for the
abolition of nuclear weapons. (Wikipedia-Albert Schweitzer)
Albert Schweitzer was a theologian, organist, musicologist, writer, humanitarian,

philosopher, and physician. He received the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize for his
philosophy of "Reverence for Life”. Albert Schweitzer died on 4 September 1965 at
the age of 90 at his beloved hospital in Lambaréné, now in independent Gabon. His
grave, on the banks of the Ogooué River, is marked by a cross he made himself.
Bibliography:
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1952/schweitzer/facts/
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Albert-Schweitzer
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Schweitzer

Albert Schweitzer - Research Report

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Albert Schweitzer - Research Report

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Albert Schweitzer - Research Report

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Albert Schweitzer rapidly gained prominence as a musical scholar and organist,

In 1906, he published Geschichte der Leben-Jesu-Forschung [History of Life-of-Jesus

In 1905, Albert Schweitzer began his study of medicine at the University of

Albert Schweitzer was a theologian, organist, musicologist, writer, humanitarian,

You might also like