In 1952, he won the Nobel Peace Prize. it.". Schweitzer's view that "simple people need simple healing methods," however it might have outraged medical sophisticates, won for Lambarene a tremendous measure of native confidence. Albert Schweitzer. Schweitzer considered his ethic of Reverence for Life, not his hospital, his most important legacy, saying that his Lambarn Hospital was just "my own improvisation on the theme of Reverence for Life. [16] From 1952 until his death he worked against nuclear tests and nuclear weapons with Albert Einstein, Otto Hahn and Bertrand Russell. Death, Cause unspecified 4 September 1965 at 11:30 AM in Lambarn (Age 90) . On departure for Lambarn in 1913, he was presented with a pedal piano, a piano with pedal attachments to operate like an organ pedal-keyboard. A jungle saint he may not have been; a jungle pioneer he surely was. He was elected to the French Academy in 1951. Schweitzer's accomplishments are recognized even by his most caustic critics. He was twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor; the first nomination came in 1954 for his performance in Roman Holiday, and the second in 1973 for The Heartbreak Kid. Schweitzer's wife, Helene Schweitzer, served as an anaesthetist for surgical operations. as his medical assistants grew less awesome of him. It seems that the number of deaths due to medical negligence is increasing every year. In his story for PBS NewsHour, Dr. Howard Markel, University of Michigan medical historian writes: His death, political upheavals leading to Gabon's independence in 1960, decreasing foreign . A second German edition was published in 1913, containing theologically significant revisions and expansions: this revised edition did not appear in English until 2001. If a record could be compiled of all that has happened between the white and the coloured races, it would make a book containing numbers of pages which the reader would have to turn over unread because their contents would be too horrible. 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. "In your commitment to truth and service," the President cabled, "you have touched and deepened the live of millions you have never met. As a person, Schweitzer was a curious mixture. In their first nine months in Africa, they treated more than 2,000 patients. "I feel at home here. Next, Schweitzer poses the question: "Of what precise kind then is the mysticism of Paul?" . Gradually his opinions and concepts became acknowledged, not only in Europe, but worldwide. Under this title the book became famous in the English-speaking world. He progressed to studying for his Ph.D. in theology in 1899 at the Sorbonne, where he focused on the religious philosophy of Immanuel Kant. In 1905, he published a study of Bach in French . "From whatever direction he is considered, Bach is, then, the last word in an artistic evolution which was prepared in the Middle Ages, freed and activated by the Reformation and arrives at its They ranged from leprosy, dysentery, elephantiasis, sleeping sickness, malaria, yellow fever, to wounds incurred by encounters with wild animals and many common health problems to which the human body is subject. Darstellung und Kritik[51] [The psychiatric evaluation of Jesus. '"[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. 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. [62], The poor conditions of the hospital in Lambarn were also famously criticized by Nigerian professor and novelist Chinua Achebe in his essay on Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness: "In a comment which has often been quoted Schweitzer says: 'The African is indeed my brother but my junior brother.' 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]. It resulted in a book, "Paul and Albert Schweitzer (1966). He will end by destroying the earth. For him it had profound religious implications. There is always something to make you wonder in the shape of a tree, the trembling of a leaf.". 1952. prize money. In line with the 20th century he sought to put religion on a rational footing and to accept the advances of science; While he was on his sickbed, his terminally ill son cared for him despite battling a diagnosis that claimed his life a year later. It is religion. He had barely started to clear the jungle when World War I broke out. A fost una dintre cele mai complexe i impresionante personaliti ale secolului XX. In a telegram that Mrs. Eckert sent to them from here Saturday, she said: "He is dying, inevitably and soon. At first, he regarded his new life as a renunciation of his art, and fell out of practice, but after some time he resolved to study and learn by heart the works of Bach, Mendelssohn, Widor, Csar Franck, and Max Reger systematically. [80] With the $33,000 prize money, he started the leprosarium at Lambarn. Paul's imminent eschatology (from his background in Jewish eschatology) causes him to believe that the kingdom of God has not yet come and that Christians are now living in the time of Christ. His contributions to the interpretation of Pauline Christianity concern the role of Paul's mysticism of "being in Christ" as primary and the doctrine of justification by faith as secondary. . Schweitzer died on 4 September 1965 at his beloved hospital in Lambarn, now in independent Gabon. Never say there is nothing beautiful in the world anymore. He was there again from 1929 to 1932. [91], The prize was first awarded on 29 May 2011 to Eugen Drewermann and the physician couple Rolf and Raphaela Maibach in Knigsfeld im Schwarzwald, where Schweitzer's former residence now houses the Albert Schweitzer Museum. One of them, Gerald McKnight, wrote in his book "Verdiot on Schweitzer": "The temptation for Schweitzer to see Lambarene as a place cut off from the world, in which he can preserve "its original forms and so reject any theory of treatment or life other than his Hospital workers, lepers, cripples and other patients gathered in the jungle heat as the body of the noted physician, scholar, philosopher and musician was lowered into the ground. As a child, he was frail and an indifferent student in everything but music, for which he showed the interest of a prodigy. Schweitzer maintained that the life of Jesus must be interpreted in the light of Jesus' own convictions, which reflected late Jewish eschatology and apocalypticism. During his compulsory military service in 1894, Schweitzer had an epiphany of sorts while reading the Book of Matthew, Chapters 10 and 11 (in Greek, no less). What It Does For over 60 years, HAS has helped develop a local health system in the rural Artibonite Valley of central Haiti. To the end, his one frustration was that he had not succeeded in convincing the world to abolish nuclear weapons. He apparently did so in the company of his two cats, "Sizi" and . and worked unobtrusively. After his wife died in 1957, Schweitzer was almost continuously in Lambarene. . [22] Schweitzer's interpretative approach greatly influenced the modern understanding of Bach's music. Albert Schweitzer The Nobel Peace Prize 1952 Born: 14 January 1875, Kaysersberg, Germany (now France) Died: 4 September 1965, Lambarn, Gabon Residence at the time of the award: France Role: Missionary surgeon, Founder of Lambarn (Rpublique de Gabon) January 24, 2023 Causes of Wrongful Conviction: False testimony, false confession, ineffective assistance of counsel ALBERT IAN SCHWEITZER On the afternoon of Christmas Eve, 1991, a young woman named Dana Ireland was struck by a vehicle while she was riding a bicycle down a red cinder road on the island of Hawai'i. He was also appointed organist for the Bach Concerts of the Orfo Catal at Barcelona, Spain, and often travelled there for that purpose. 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. 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 The on-axis microphone is often a large diaphragm condenser. Agriculture, not science or industrialization, is their greatest need. Not only did he design the station, but he also helped build it with his own hands. 8 Department of Cardiology II -Electrophysiology; University of Mnster, Albert-Schweitzer-Campus 1, Gebude A1, D-48149 Mnster, Germany. Albert Schweitzer was born on January 14, 1875, in Kaysersberg, near Strasbourg, Elsass-Lothringen, Germany (now in Alsace, France). Attending the University of Strasbourg, he served as curate at St. Nicholas, gave Schweitzer regarded most native Africans as children, as primitives. The site was nearly 200 miles (14 days by raft[56]) upstream from the mouth of the Ogoou at Port Gentil (Cape Lopez) (and so accessible to external communications), but downstream of most tributaries, so that internal communications within Gabon converged towards Lambarn. With Faust himself he could join in saying: This sphere of earthly soil [11] Schweitzer served his one-year compulsory military service in 1894. It could then affirm a new Enlightenment through spiritual rationalism, by giving priority to volition or ethical will as the primary meaning of life. 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. With the new hospital built and the medical team established, Schweitzer returned to Europe in 1927, this time leaving a functioning hospital at work. 2 in B minor; no. To me, Dr. Schweitzer is the one truly great individuals our modern times have produced. READ MORE: The story behind Alfred Nobels spirit of discovery. The maladies the Schweitzers treated were both horrific and deadly. His 1931 autobiography, Out of My Life and Thought, describing much of his work in Africa, was an international best-selling book. He is the author or editor of 10 books, including Quarantine! "[76][77], After the birth of their daughter (Rhena Schweitzer Miller), Albert's wife, Helene Schweitzer was no longer able to live in Lambarn due to her health. life. The "realistic" partaking in the mystery of Jesus is only possible within the solidarity of the Christian community.[44]. Schweitzer's arrival at this decision was calculated, a step in a quest for a faith to live by. In 1957 and 1958, he broadcast four speeches over Radio Oslo which were published in Peace or Atomic War. Albert Schweitzer, OM (14 January 1875 - 4 September 1965) was a French-German theologian, organist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician. [73], Such was the theory which Schweitzer sought to put into practice in his own life. [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". Darrell 1936. The film The Legacy of Albert Schweitzer, narrated by Henry Fonda, was produced by Warner Brothers and aired once. On Good Friday, 1913, the couple set sail from Bordeaux for Africa, where Schweitzer established a hospital on the grounds of the Lambarene station of the Paris Missionary Society. Turning to Bach's nonchurch music, Schweitzer said: "The Brandenburg concertos are the purest product of Bach's polyphonic style. His father and both grandfathers were pastors and organists. [65] For instance, he thought that Gabonese independence came too early, without adequate education or accommodation to local circumstances. [70] After three decades in Africa, Schweitzer still depended on Europe for nurses.[71]. In January 1937, he returned again to Lambarn and continued working there throughout World War II. Then a single cardioid microphone is placed on axis, bisecting the figure-8 pattern. [83] He was also a chevalier of the Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem. [18] He and Widor collaborated on a new edition of Bach's organ works, with detailed analysis of each work in three languages (English, French, German). dispensary were complete when he departed for Europe in midsummer 1927. Schweitzer continued to work tirelessly to promote a life-affirming society until his death in 1965, at the age of 90. Among the messages he received was one from President Johnson. He was however also a theologian, organist, philosopher, and physician. for the good of fellow men who need the help of a fellow man." 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]. Schweitzer earnestly sought to live his philosophy, which for him was a creedal guide to action. True to his pledge, Schweitzer turned from music and theology to service to others. Although several attempts have been made to restore and re-air the film, all access has been denied.[82]. J. S. Bach: Prelude and Fugue in A major, BWV 536; Prelude and Fugue in F minor, BWV 534; Prelude and Fugue in B minor, BWV 544; Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 538. 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. Some of his more ardent admirers insisted that he was a jungle saint, even a modern Christ. Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) was a brilliant philosopher, physician, musician, clergyman and theological scholar. His pamphlet "The Art of Organ Building and Organ Playing in Germany and France" (1906,[25] republished with an appendix on the state of the organ-building industry in 1927) effectively launched the 20th-century Orgelbewegung, which turned away from romantic extremes and rediscovered baroque principlesalthough this sweeping reform movement in organ building eventually went further than Schweitzer had intended. ", "Let me give you a definition of ethics," he wrote on another occasion. Deaths were concentrated during the first few months of life, with 35% occurring during the first month. 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: Schweitzer's recordings of organ-music, and his innovative recording technique, are described below. Thousands flocked there, and thousands responded to Schweitzer's He now had salvarsan for treating syphilitic ulcers and framboesia. Of course, it had no telephone, radio or airstrip. 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. He took the search for the good life seriously. . "You see, the good Lord has protected the trees. After retiring as a practicing doctor, Albert Schweitzer continued to oversee the hospital until his death at the age of 90. . This was no sooner under way than Schweitzer fell ill, an epidemic of dysentery broke out and a famine set in. for him in the ditches beside the wards. His medical degree dissertation was another work on the historical Jesus, Die psychiatrische Beurteilung Jesu. [76][77] Translating several couplets from the work, he remarked that the Kural insists on the idea that "good must be done for its own sake" and said, "There hardly exists in the literature of the world a collection of maxims in which we find so much lofty wisdom. Schweitzer, who insisted that the score should show Bach's notation with no additional markings, wrote the commentaries for the Preludes and Fugues, and Widor those for the Sonatas and Concertos: six volumes were published in 191214. Basketball, Argument, Life Is. Schweitzer depicted Jesus as a child of his times who shared the eschatological ideas of late Judaism and who looked for an immediate end of the world. He did not preen himself, nor did he utter cosmic statements The keynote of Schweitzer's personal philosophy (which he considered to be his greatest contribution to mankind) was the idea of Reverence for Life ("Ehrfurcht vor dem Leben"). I can do no other than to have compassion for all that is called life. I belong to you until my dying breath," he told co-workers at the sprawling hospital on his 90th birthday Jan. 14. Known as the "Schweitzer Technique", it is a slight improvement on what is commonly known as mid-side. And this ethic, profound, universal, has the significance of a religion. 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. In 1923, the family moved to Knigsfeld im Schwarzwald, Baden-Wrttemberg, where he was building a house for the family. After World War I broke out in July 1914, Schweitzer and his wife, German citizens in a French colony when the countries were at war, were put under supervision by the French military at Lambarn, where Schweitzer continued his work. He was extremely intelligent and excelled in many fields (music, theology, philosophy and medicine), which means he could have easily led a very comfortable life anywhere in Europe . sermons as well as to his scalpel, for he believed that the good shepherd saves not only the animal but also his soul. Joseph also returned. Schweitzer came to French Equatorial Africa as a tall, handsome, broadly powerful young man with a shock of rich, black hair, an enormous mustache and a look of piercing determination in his bold eyes. 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! Ludwig Philipp Albert Schweitzer OM (German: [albt vats] (listen); 14 January 1875 4 September 1965) was an Alsatian polymath.