[65] For instance, he thought that Gabonese independence came too early, without adequate education or accommodation to local circumstances. He studied organ in Mulhouse from 1885 to 1893 with Eugne Munch, organist at the Protestant cathedral, who inspired Schweitzer with his enthusiasm for the music of German composer Richard Wagner. Explaining his decision later in more mundane terms, Schweitzer said: "I wanted to be a doctor that I might be able to work without having to talk. Still gives us room for lofty doing. [13][16], Schweitzer rapidly gained prominence as a musical scholar and organist, dedicated also to the rescue, restoration and study of historic pipe organs. Starting from its principle, founded on world and life denial, of abstention from action, ancient Indian thought and this is a period when in other respects ethics have not progressed very far reaches the tremendous discovery that ethics know no bounds. The following year, 1906, (and despite pleas from his family to pursue his religious studies) a 31-year-old Albert began medical school. "He is a figure Albert Schweitzer was a revered French-German humanitarian, writer, theologian, medical missionary, organist, physician, and philosopher. [45], Schweitzer contrasts Paul's "realistic" dying and rising with Christ to the "symbolism" of Hellenism. Fine originally self-released the recordings but later licensed the masters to Columbia. "It is good to maintain and further life; it is bad to damage and destroy life. The English version, "J. S. Bach," is a two-volume translation of the German text, itself an entire reworking of the first version written in French. At the Mulhouse gymnasium he received his "Abitur" (the certificate at the end of secondary education) in 1893. By 1920, his health recovering, he was giving organ recitals and doing other fund-raising work to repay borrowings and raise funds for returning to Gabon. . In line with the 20th century he sought to put religion on a rational footing and to accept the advances of science; Then a single cardioid microphone is placed on axis, bisecting the figure-8 pattern. Schweitzer's probing conception of Bach created a sensation in its time, and it still remains a classic study, not only for the detailed instructions it provides for the playing of Bach but also for its challenging esthetic. be cited than the fact--regarded locally as something of a miracle--of his own survival.". On one of these occasions, in 1949, he visited Many of his basic ideas have been adopted without having his name connected with them. 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. In his story for PBS NewsHour, Dr. Howard Markel, University of Michigan medical historian writes: (78rpm Columbia ROX 146152), cf. In the first nine months, he and his wife had about 2,000 patients to examine, some travelling many days and hundreds of kilometres to reach him. He had originally conducted trials for recordings for HMV on the organ of the old Queen's Hall in London. He refused to attend a committee to inquire into his doctrine, but met each committee member personally and was at last accepted. Schweitzer explains that Paul focused on the idea of fellowship with the divine being through the "realistic" dying and rising with Christ rather than the "symbolic" Hellenistic act of becoming like Christ through deification. 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). 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. [22] Schweitzer's interpretative approach greatly influenced the modern understanding of Bach's music. of thought that resulted in "The Quest for the Historical Jesus." That same year he resigned his curateship and his posts at the university and married Helene Bresslau, the daughter of a well-known Strasbourg historian. Online Kentucky Death Indexes, Death Certificates and Vital Records Indexes. Though we cannot perfect the endeavour we should strive for it: the will-to-live constantly renews itself, for it is both an evolutionary necessity and a spiritual phenomenon. For every person who committed an atrocity in Jesus' name, someone must step in to help in Jesus' name; for every person who robbed, someone must bring a replacement; for everyone who cursed, someone must bless. 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]. (Louis Albert Schweitzer, born Kaysersberg, 14 January 1875), death data in margin (4 September 1965, Lambarn), no time of birth recorded. of self-unfolding of the idea in which it creates its own opposite in order to overcome it, and so on and on until it finally returns to itself, having meanwhile traversed the whole of existence.". He made the Africans too lazy to pick them It could then affirm a new Enlightenment through spiritual rationalism, by giving priority to volition or ethical will as the primary meaning of life. The hospital suffered from squalor and was without modern amenities, and Schweitzer had little contact with the local people. Albert Schweitzer, circa 1960 in Lambarn, Gabon, where he established a hospital. (Revelation 22:20). 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. In 1917, the Schweitzers were returned to France and later to Alsace. that the work of Bach owes its greatness.". Carl Dean Switzer, the actor who as a child played Alfalfa in the Our Gang comedy film series, dies at age 31 in a fight, allegedly about money, in a Mission Hills, California, home. The passage that appears to have directed his professional life describes Jesus exhorting his followers to Heal the Sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give. (Matthew, 10:8) In 1896, at the age 21, he decided to devote a period of time studying science and the arts and then to dedicate the rest of his life to helping the suffering. Footnote 126 Her devotion to Schweitzer's cause was manifested in a variety of ways and never in . 1952. prize money. Attending the University of Strasbourg, he served as curate at St. Nicholas, gave newsletter for analysis you wont find anywhereelse. 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. . In 1899, Schweitzer became a deacon at the church of Saint Nicholas in Strasbourg. 19th-century benevolence. Bartolf, Christian; Gericke, Marion; Miething, Dominique (2020): This page was last edited on 28 February 2023, at 08:10. The living conditions, too, were horrid with makeshift huts for shelter and medical care, hot, steamy tropical days, cold nights, and huge gusts of wind and rainfall. He was theologian, musicologist, organ technician, physician and surgeon, missionary, philosopher of ethics, lecturer, writer and the builder and at the drop of a cause. He fell ill from exhaustion on Aug. 28 and his condition worsened steadily. When the ~ Albert Schweitzer. READ MORE: No, Oscar Wilde probably didnt die of syphilis. "Even if it's a little thing, do something for those who have need of a man's help, something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing Subscribe to Here's the Deal, our politics newsletter. 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. 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. Birthplace: Kaysersberg, Germany Location of death: Lambarn, Gabon Cause of death: Natural Causes Remains: Buried, Albert. As such, and as a Lutheran, "it is precisely to the chorale He established a hospital and treated the natives there. 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". " Albert Schweitzer [20] Ernst Cassirer, a contemporaneous German philosopher, called it "one of the best interpretations" of Bach. 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. Rather, Paul uses the phrase "being-in-Christ" to illustrate how Jesus is a mediator between the Christian community and God. about the religion of love, but only as an actual putting it into practice.". Louis Schweitzer, Alberts father, was pastor to a Lutheran congregation at Kaysersberg, a Protestant church located in a predominantly Catholic place. He had barely started to clear the jungle when World War I broke out. He did not preen himself, nor did he utter cosmic statements He was popular for being a Doctor. 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. The compound was staffed by 3 unpaid physicians, 7 nurses and 13 volunteer helpers. The list, alas, goes on and his prejudices are difficult, if not impossible, to ignore. After briefly occupying a shed formerly used as a chicken hut, in late 1913 they built their first hospital of corrugated iron, with a consulting room and operating theatre and with a dispensary and sterilising room. Schweitzer's arrival at this decision was calculated, a step in a quest for a faith to live by. Never say there is nothing beautiful in the world anymore. "At the very moment when, at sunset, we were making our way through a herd of hippopotamuses, there flashed upon my mind, unforeseen and unsought, the phrase 'Reverence This, 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). https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/dr-albert-schweitzer-a-renowned-medical-missionary-with-a-complicated-history. Albert founded Albert Schweitzer Hospital located in Gabon. Albert Schweitzer, 90, Dies at His Hospital; Doctor Won Nobel Peace Prize for Work in Africa He Was Also Noted as Musician and Theologian Albert Schweitzer, Felled by Exhaustion, Dies at. He also noted the lack of Africans trained to be skilled workers. Trensz conducted experiments showing that the non-amoebic strain of dysentery was caused by a paracholera vibrion (facultative anaerobic bacteria). The RR was subsequently downgraded (from AA to C). The moment of awakening came as he was reading Matthew x and xi As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate." ~ Albert Schweitzer. He was genuinely proud of his medical and missionary station at Lambarene. He received his M.D. Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) was an Alsatian-German religious philosopher, musicologist, and medical missionary in Africa. The history of the Albert Schweitzer Hospital (ASH) The first foundations of the ASH were laid in Andende, a district of Gabon's provincial capital of Lambarn, located on the right bank of the Ogoou opposite the current site of the ASH. In the Schweitzer method, the figure-8 is replaced by two small diaphragm condenser microphones pointed directly away from each other. At the same time he gave organ concerts, delivered lectures and wrote books about theology. The epidemic promoted There were no significant differences in all-cause and cardiovascular death, stroke and major adverse cardiovascular events. Schweitzer maintained that the life of Jesus must be interpreted in the light of Jesus' own convictions, which reflected late Jewish eschatology and apocalypticism. [74] Albert Schweitzer noted the contribution of Indian influence in his book Indian Thought and Its Development:[75]. 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. own, is understandable when one considers the enormous achievement he has attained in his own lifetime. "[81], Weeks prior to his death, an American film crew was allowed to visit Schweitzer and Drs. Schweitzer's talents that he taught him then and later without fee. Later Dr. Trensz replaced Nessmann, and Martha Lauterberg and Hans Muggenstorm joined them. Schweitzer inspired actor Hugh O'Brian when O'Brian visited in Africa. Albert was born in 1875 in Kaysersberg (Alsace-Lorraine), Germany, (now Haut-Rhin, France), only two months after Germany annexed that province from France, as a result of winning the Franco-Prussian war. Whatever Schweitzer's idiosyncrasies, he constructed a profound and enduring ethical system expressed in the principle Ehrfurcht vor dem Leben or Reverence of Life. Additional medical staff, nurse (Miss) Kottmann and Dr. Victor Nessmann,[60] joined him in 1924, and Dr. Mark Lauterberg in 1925; the growing hospital was manned by native orderlies. as his medical assistants grew less awesome of him. This book, which established his reputation, was first published in English in 1910 as The Quest of the Historical 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. True to his pledge, Schweitzer turned from music and theology to service to others. In this time and the succeeding months had a profound influence on contemporary religious thinking. 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 This compromise arose after the Protestant Reformation and the Thirty Years' War. 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. He celebrated his 90th birthday there as hundreds of Africans, Europeans and Americans gathered to wish him well. There is always something to make you wonder in the shape of a tree, the trembling of a leaf. award rationale. [84][bettersourceneeded], Schweitzer is often cited in vegetarian literature as being an advocate of vegetarianism in his later years. Schweitzer presents Bach as a religious mystic, as cosmic as the forces of nature. On one occasion a group of tourists pulled him away from the dinner table to get an explanation of his ethics. While he was on his sickbed, his terminally ill son cared for him despite battling a diagnosis that claimed his life a year later. Lambarene, on the Ogooue River a few miles from the Equator, is in the steaming jungle. has grown, entirely under his hand and direction, into a sizable colony where between 500 and 600 people live in reasonable comfort. At the age of 30, in 1905, Schweitzer answered the call of The Society of the Evangelist Missions of Paris, which was looking for a physician. up a ceaseless study of music. . for him in the ditches beside the wards. 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. to school for a few hours every day and then going back to the fields. To a marked degree, Schweitzer was an eclectic. It was to this picture-book Franco-German village and its vineyards that Schweitzer was invariably to return between periods In 1906, he published Geschichte der Leben-Jesu-Forschung [History of Life-of-Jesus research]. In 1899, he astonished Widor by explaining figures and motifs in Bach's Chorale Preludes as painter-like tonal and rhythmic imagery illustrating themes from the words of the hymns on which they were based. Ludwig Philipp Albert Schweitzer OM (German: [albt vats] (); 14 January 1875 - 4 September 1965) was an Alsatian polymath.He was a theologian, organist, musicologist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician. Death, Cause unspecified 4 September 1965 at 11:30 AM in Lambarn (Age 90) . It resulted in a book, "Paul and for his altruism, reverence for life, and tireless humanitarian work which has helped making the idea of brotherhood between men and nations a living one (English) Even in his study of medicine, and through his clinical course, Schweitzer pursued the ideal of the philosopher-scientist. its creature comforts yet rejecting its complacent attitudes toward progress. . degree in February, 1913, Schweitzer studied medicine, but he did not entirely cut himself off from his other worlds. 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: "Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate. He received the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize for his philosophy of "Reverence for Life",[3] becoming the eighth Frenchman to be awarded that prize. RM E0MKEE - Oct. 10, 1955 - Dr. Albert Schweitzer plays the festival hall organ. "The Teaching of Reverence for Life". These synthetic vaccines in themselves cause cancers as other pharmaceutical products based on the chemical nature of the medicine which largely acts as a suppressor of symptoms masquerading as a cure. Exposition and Criticism[52]). His co-workers Similarly, in 1st Peter 1:20, "Christ, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world but was manifest in these last times for you", as well as "But the end of all things is at hand" (1 Peter 4:7) and "Surely, I come quickly." That is the beginning and the foundation of all ethics. Albert Schweitzer's Death - Cause and Date Born (Birthday) Jan 14, 1875 Death Date September 4, 1965 Age of Death 90 years Cause of Death Natural Causes Profession Doctor The doctor Albert Schweitzer died at the age of 90. Albert Schweitzer. His medical dissertation was titled, The Psychiatric Study of Jesus.. 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. I will not enumerate all the crimes that have been committed under the pretext of justice. 171,135 Swedish krona. 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. the right choices. His autocracy was more noticeable as his years advanced and Until he extends his circle of compassion to include all living things, man will not himself find peace. For 158 years now, it has continued to be the well-worn and widely accepted conclusion that Albert, Prince Consort to Queen Victoria, died an untimely death by typhoid fever on 14 December 1861.Without recourse to detailed research or the challenging of past conclusions, this cause of death has been repeated from one source to the next as a given. From 1939 to 1948, he stayed in Lambarn, unable to go back to Europe because of the war. They were works of devotional contemplation in which the musical design corresponded to literary ideas, conceived visually.