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. 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. I belong to you until my dying breath," he told co-workers at the sprawling hospital on his 90th birthday Jan. 14. 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. In 1912, now armed with a medical degree, Schweitzer made a definite proposal to go as a physician to work at his own expense in the Paris Missionary Society's mission at Lambarn on the Ogoou river, in what is now Gabon, in Africa (then a French colony). 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. As recognition for his many years of humanitarian work he was awarded the Nobel Peace Price in 1952 and in 1955, Queen Elizabeth II conferred on him Great Britain's highest civilian award, the Order of Merit. He not only played throughout Europe, but he also repaired church organs and kept Dr. Howard Markel Basketball, Argument, Life Is. 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. 14 January 1875. Learn more about Friends of the NewsHour. Here he often met with the elderly Aristide Cavaill-Coll. He is the director of the Center for the History of Medicine and the George E. Wantz Distinguished Professor of the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan. Although Schweitzer's views on Africa were out of date, he did what no man had done before him--he healed thousands and he welded world attention on Africa's many plights. At the same time he gave organ concerts, delivered lectures and wrote books about theology. 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? [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. Schweitzer presents Bach as a religious mystic, as cosmic as the forces of nature. He defended Jesus' mental health in it. The latter activity resulted in several volumes over the years that made his reputation as a major, albeit somewhat controversial, theologian. I will not enumerate all the crimes that have been committed under the pretext of justice. Schweitzer considered his work as a medical missionary in Africa to be his response to Jesus' call to become "fishers of men". In addition to injuries, he was often treating severe sandflea and crawcraw infections, yaws, tropical eating sores, heart disease, tropical dysentery, tropical malaria, sleeping sickness, leprosy, fevers, strangulated hernias, necrosis, abdominal tumours and chronic constipation and nicotine poisoning, while also attempting to deal with deliberate poisonings, fetishism and fear of cannibalism among the Mbahouin. Strasbourg as a student in theology, philosophy and musical theory. His Interpreters," published in English in 1912. In this time and the succeeding months . Schweitzer based his interpretation on his profound knowledge of personality, education, religious and social life of Bach. Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images, In 1905, he decided to take up a call from the Society of Evangelist Missions of Paris to become a physician and help them advance their cause and work. Schweitzer writes: The Jesus of Nazareth who came forward publicly as the Messiah, who preached the ethic of the kingdom of God, who founded the kingdom of heaven upon earth and died to give his work its final consecration never existed. Advertisement. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. By extreme application and hard work, he completed his studies successfully at the end of 1911. Albert Schweitzer - At times our own light goes out and is. [44] Therefore, Schweitzer argues that Paul is the only theologian who does not claim that Christians can have an experience of "being-in-God". One of his pupils was conductor and composer Hans Mnch. LAMBARENE, GABON, Sept. 5--Albert Schweitzer died last night in his jungle hospital here. "Never say there is nothing beautiful in the world anymore. Instead, he seemed to many observers to be a simple, almost rustic man, who dressed in rumpled clothing, suffered fools gladly, stated fundamental verities patiently and paternally Success is not the key to happiness. Agriculture, not science or industrialization, is their greatest need. Although unacceptable in todays culture, Dr. Schweitzers comments about those he treated were, sadly, all too common during his era, one marked by colonialism, paternalism and racist views. As Schweitzer recounted this climactic incident, he had been baffled in getting an answer to the question: Is it at all possible to find a real and permanent foundation in thought for a theory of the universe that shall be both ethical and affirmative Schweitzer was not only struck by the application of these verses to himself, but even more by the over-all content of the two chapters as expressed in Jesus' assertion that "the kingdom of heaven is at hand." "Anyone can rescue his human life," he once said, "who seizes every opportunity of being a man by means of personal action, however unpretending, He made the Africans too lazy to pick them Sir Donald Tovey dedicated his conjectural completion of Bach's The Art of Fugue to Schweitzer. Until his death in 1965, Schweitzer continued to publish, lecture, perform and care for the sick. original contribution of Reverence for Life as an effective basis for a civilized world. Its climate is among the world's worst, with fiercely hot days, clammy nights and seasonal torrents of rain. 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. "[66] Schweitzer believed dignity and respect must be extended to blacks, while also sometimes characterizing them as children. Lecturing widely on the problems of peace, Dr. Schweitzer told his wide audience, The end of further experiments with atom bombs would be like the early sunrays of hope which suffering humanity is longing for., Not all was sunny with Schweitzers social commentary. 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 had pondered the meaning of the parable of Dives and Lazarus and its application to his times, and he had concluded that Albert Schweitzer. 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. Dives represented opulent Europe, and Lazarus, with his open sores, the sick and helpless of Africa. 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. 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. : "I see in him one of the most eminent geniuses in the history of medicine. Gradually his opinions and concepts became acknowledged, not only in Europe, but worldwide. Astounding plans e'en now are brewing: There were no significant differences in all-cause and cardiovascular death, stroke and major adverse cardiovascular events. 1952. prize money. [67] He summarized his views on European-African relations by saying "With regard to the negroes, then, I have coined the formula: 'I am your brother, it is true, but your elder brother. 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). [92], Recordings of Schweitzer playing the music of Bach are available on CD. Albert Schweitzer, the son of an Evangelical Lutheran minister, was born on . Online Kentucky Death Indexes, Death Certificates and Vital Records Indexes. The peer-supporting lifelong network of "Schweitzer Fellows for Life" numbered over 2,000 members in 2008, and is growing by nearly 1,000 every four years. The society, wary of Schweitzer's unorthodox religious views, had [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. Such comments were, at the very least, a contradiction of his worldview of showing reverence for all human life in both deeds and words. One of Schweitzer's major arguments in The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle is that Paul's mysticism, marked by his phrase "being in Christ", gives the clue to the whole of Pauline theology. 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. 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]. Many of his basic ideas have been adopted without having his name connected with them. There he studied theology, philology, and the theory of music. Medical mistakes claim about 400,000 people every year in U.S. There was a further period of work in 1935. // Famous Nobel Peace Prize Emily Greene Balch [39][failed verification] He wrote that in his view, in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus speaks of a "tribulation", with his "coming in the clouds with great power and glory" (St. Mark), and states that it will happen but it has not: "This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled" (St. Matthew, 24:34) or, "have taken place" (Luke 21:32). The years thinned and grayed his hair (without making We must make atonement for the still worse ones, which we do not read about in the papers, crimes that are shrouded in the silence of the jungle night Schweitzer was nonetheless still sometimes accused of being paternalistic in his attitude towards Africans. Albert Schweitzer earned doctorates in philosophy and theology, had a reputation as one of Europe's finest organists, and came to international fame with his 1906 best seller . 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. He was made an honorary member of the British Order of Merit in 1955. The compound even lacked electricity, except for the operating and dental rooms, and members of the staff read by kerosene lamp. The moment of awakening came as he was reading Matthew x and xi 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. Also, he is famous for being a music scholar and an organist. "At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from . It was a search that had haunted him, driven him, since childhood. [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. degree in February, 1913, Schweitzer studied medicine, but he did not entirely cut himself off from his other worlds. Schweitzer inspired actor Hugh O'Brian when O'Brian visited in Africa. 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: She And the Christianity of our states is blasphemed and made a mockery before those poor people. " Albert Schweitzer 32. In 1905, he published a study of Bach in French . Hailed as an outstanding world figure, Schweitzer was. His death was attributed to circulatory trouble brought on by his advanced age. "They are appropriate, therefore, to any world for in every world they raise the man who dares to meet their challenge, and does not turn them and twist them into meaninglessness, above his world [55] In early 1913, he and his wife set off to establish a hospital (the Hpital Albert Schweitzer) near an existing mission post. These recordings were made in the course of a fortnight in October 1936.[94]. A famous charitable institution in Africa, the Albert Schweitzer hospital in Gabon, is nearing its hundredth birthday. [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. October 27, 2021 Ludwig Philipp Albert Schweitzer known as 'Alsatian polymath', was a theologian, humanitarian philosopher, and physician. This book, which established his reputation, was first published in English in 1910 as The Quest of the Historical Jesus. Never say there is nothing beautiful in the world anymore. Nobel Peace Prize. [61] Cameron did not make public what he had seen at the time: according to a BBC dramatisation, he made the unusual journalistic decision to withhold the story, and resisted the expressed wish of his employers to publish an expos. Dr. On the other hand, patients received splendid medical care and few seemed to suffer greatly from the compound's lack of polish. 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). Dr. Albert Schweitzer found no cancers in Africa at all as a doctor there from 1913 to 1930, and then found the chemicalized, European processed . He was buried at his hospital, later named Albert Schweitzer Hospital. If Schweitzer was thin-skinned to criticism from irreverent journalists, he heard little of it at Lambarene, where his proprietorship was unquestioned. He locates Paul between the two extremes of primitive mysticism and developed mysticism. In 1906, he published Geschichte der Leben-Jesu-Forschung [History of Life-of-Jesus research]. " One person can and does make a difference. A Lutheran, Schweitzer challenged both the secular view of Jesus as depicted by historical-critical methodology current at this time, as well as the traditional Christian view. The compound was staffed by 3 unpaid physicians, 7 nurses and 13 volunteer helpers. Housed originally in the grounds of a mission, he chose to leave this comparative sanctuary for the unknown and forbidding regions of the jungle nearby. Today, the hospital The Deed is everything, the Glory naught. He was there again from 1929 to 1932. Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) was an Alsatian-German religious philosopher, musicologist, and medical missionary in Africa. Another major difference between Paul's "realism" and Hellenistic "symbolism" is the exclusive nature of the former and the inclusive nature of the latter. Once in Lambarn, he established a small hospital at a station set up by the Paris Missionary Society. Birthplace: Kaysersberg, Germany Location of death: Lambarn, Gabon Cause of death: Natural Causes Remains: Buried, Albert. He was popular for being a Doctor. These records did not satisfy him, the instrument being too harsh. At the Mulhouse gymnasium he received his "Abitur" (the certificate at the end of secondary education) in 1893. In contemplation of the will-to-life, respect for the life of others becomes the highest principle and the defining purpose of humanity. "He is a figure The waiting room and dormitory were built, like native huts, of unhewn logs along a path leadingl to the boat landing. A developed form of mysticism is attained when the "conception of the universal is reached and a man reflects upon his relation to the totality of being and to Being in itself". Now I knew that the world-view of ethical world-and- life-affirmation, together with its ideal of civilization, is founded in thought.". A rift opened between this world-view, as material knowledge, and the life-view, understood as Will, expressed in the pessimist philosophies from Schopenhauer onward. The signal from the figure-8 is mult-ed, panned hard left and right, one of the signals being flipped out of polarity. He also noted the lack of Africans trained to be skilled workers. The epidemic promoted Albert founded Albert Schweitzer Hospital located in Gabon. He died at 11:30 P.M. (6:30 P.M. New York time). Once, for instance, he all but halted the station's work when he received a letter from a Norwegian child seeking a feather from Parsifal, his pet pelican. 1924 In 1924 he returned to his hospital in Lambarene, which was to be restored after years of decay during his absence. Quotes about Schweitzer [] He simply acted out of inner necessity. [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. Indeed, Schweitzer became a notable organist, especially in the works of Bach. 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. In 1896, at the age of 21, he pledged himself that he would give the following nine He was theologian, musicologist, organ technician, physician and surgeon, missionary, philosopher of ethics, lecturer, writer and the builder and When the Late in the third day of his journey he was on deck thinking and writing. As he said at age 40, he "was not going to speak or talk any longer." It's you, of yourself, of whom you must ask a lot. Schweitzer developed a technique for recording the performances of Bach's music. With Faust himself he could join in saying: This sphere of earthly soil He celebrated his 90th birthday there as hundreds of Africans, Europeans and Americans gathered to wish him well. In 1955, he was made an honorary member of the Order of Merit (OM) by Queen Elizabeth II. he started to write the two-volume "The Philosophy of Civilization," his masterwork in ethics that was published in 1923. [45], Schweitzer contrasts Paul's "realistic" dying and rising with Christ to the "symbolism" of Hellenism. According to some authors, Schweitzer's thought, and specifically his development of reverence for life, was influenced by Indian religious thought and in particular the Jain principle of ahimsa, or non-violence. "[40], In The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle, Schweitzer first distinguishes between two categories of mysticism: primitive and developed. The Schweitzers had their own bungalow and employed as their assistant Joseph, a French-speaking Galoa[clarification needed] (Mpongwe), who first came to Lambarn as a patient.[57][58]. has grown, entirely under his hand and direction, into a sizable colony where between 500 and 600 people live in reasonable comfort. side by side! He became a welcome guest at the Wagners' home, Wahnfried. He refused to attend a committee to inquire into his doctrine, but met each committee member personally and was at last accepted. Abstract. Widor, deeply impressed, agreed to teach Schweitzer without fee, and a great and influential friendship thus began. a herd of hippopotamuses. It was to this picture-book Franco-German village and its vineyards that Schweitzer was invariably to return between periods "The Teaching of Reverence for Life". [90] Stamos noted that Schweitzer held the view that evolution ingrained humans with an instinct for meat so it was useless in trying to deny it. Kaysersberg ( Alsace-Lorraine, German Empire) Ludwig Philipp Albert Schweitzer. 2 in B minor; no. Prelude in C major (Vol 4, 1); Prelude in D major (Vol 4, 3); Canzona in D minor (Vol 4, 10) (with Mendelssohn, Sonata in D minor op 65.6). Additionally, he argues that this view of a "union with the divinity, brought about by efficacious ceremonies, is found even in quite primitive religions". Fugue in A minor (Peters, Vol 2, 8); Fantasia and Fugue in G minor (Great) (Vol 2, 4); Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C major (Vol 3, 8). 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. (Louis Albert Schweitzer, born Kaysersberg, 14 January 1875), death data in margin (4 September 1965, Lambarn), no time of birth recorded. Albert Schweitzer, OM (14 January 1875 - 4 September 1965) was a French-German theologian, organist, philosopher, and physician.He was born in the German province of Alsace-Lorraine and although that region had been reintegrated into the German Empire four years earlier, and remained a German province until 1918, he considered himself French and wrote mostly in French. Jesus, Schweitzer contended, believed himself the Messiah who would rule in a new kingdom of God when Lambarene, on the Ogooue River a few miles from the Equator, is in the steaming jungle. music. the right choices. Dr. Howard Markel writes a monthly column for the PBS NewsHour, highlighting momentous historical events that continue to shape modern medicine. Train yourself never to put off the word or action for the expression of gratitude." ~ Albert Schweitzer. He was buried in a brief and simple ceremony early this afternoon next to an urn containing the ashes of his wife, Helene, who died in Europe in 1957. He insisted on seeing personally that the youngster got a prompt and touching reply from his own pen before work was permitted to resume. The mid-side sees a figure-8 microphone pointed off-axis, perpendicular to the sound source. 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. This compromise arose after the Protestant Reformation and the Thirty Years' War. Darrell 1936. He was known especially for founding the Schweitzer Hospital, which provided unprecedented medical care for the natives of Lambarn in Gabon. Preface: Albert Schweitzer, a European scholar and musician, dedicated fifty years of his life to the hospital he had built to ease the suffering of an, at that time, primitive African people. And now, when you speak about missions, let this be your message: We must make atonement for all the terrible crimes we read of in the newspapers. He envisaged instruments in which the French late-romantic full-organ sound should work integrally with the English and German romantic reed pipes, and with the classical Alsace Silbermann organ resources and baroque flue pipes, all in registers regulated (by stops) to access distinct voices in fugue or counterpoint capable of combination without loss of distinctness: different voices singing the same music together. Mosquitoes were not swatted, nor pests and insects doused with chemicals; they were left alone, and humans put up with them. Schweitzer's recordings of organ-music, and his innovative recording technique, are described below. the end came; at first Jesus believed that his Messianic reign would begin before his disciples returned from the teaching mission commanded of them in the Gospel according to St. Matthew. Schweitzer cross-referenced the many New Testament verses declaring imminent fulfilment of the promise of the World's ending within the lifetime of Jesus's original followers. about the religion of love, but only as an actual putting it into practice.". And to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal Himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings which they shall pass through in His fellowship, and as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience Who He is. Eddie Albert was showered with all the love and care anyone could hope for during his last days. [73], Such was the theory which Schweitzer sought to put into practice in his own life. In 19256, new hospital buildings were constructed, and also a ward for white patients, so that the site became like a village. He goes quietly, in peace and dignity. Albert Schweitzer, OM (14 January 1875 - 4 September 1965) was a French-German theologian, organist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician. On an afternoon, Schweitzer could often be seen leaving his home to slip over This new form of activity I could not represent to myself as talking With theological insight, he interpreted the use of pictorial and symbolical representation in J. S. Bach's religious music. He had scratched it out from the jungle beginning in 1913; he had designed it; He responded with remarkable courtesy for about 20 minutes until one questioner prodded him 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. In the early 1950s, as the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki finally settled into the worlds conscience, he joined forces with Albert Einstein, Otto Hahn, Bertrand Russell, and others to urge social responsibility and a ban on the use of nuclear weapons. "The awareness that we are all human beings together has become lost in war and through . [48] He explains, "only the man who is elected thereto can enter into relation with God". Scientific materialism (advanced by Herbert Spencer and Charles Darwin) portrayed an objective world process devoid of ethics, entirely an expression of the will-to-live. who founded the kingdom of Heaven upon earth, and died to give his work the final consecration, never had any existence," Schweitzer wrote. I can do no other than be reverent before everything that is called life. [21] During its preparation Schweitzer became a friend of Cosima Wagner, then resident in Strasbourg, with whom he had many theological and musical conversations, exploring his view of Bach's descriptive music, and playing the major Chorale Preludes for her at the Temple Neuf. (78rpm HMV C 1532 and C 1543), cf. 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. Rather, Paul uses the phrase "being-in-Christ" to illustrate how Jesus is a mediator between the Christian community and God. 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.".
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