Results for Albert Schweitzer
On this page:
 
Artist:

Albert Schweitzer

  • Born January 14, 1875 in Kayersberg, Upper Alsace
  • Died September 04, 1965 in Lambaréné, Gabon

Biography

Albert Schweitzer's towering reputation as a humanitarian and theologian has tended to overshadow his importance as organist and musicologist, especially in the study and performance of works by Johann Sebastian Bach. Schweitzer trained first as a musician and throughout his life contributed significantly to the body of critical works on Bach performance and the art of organ building. Even as he gave himself increasingly to humanitarian work in Africa, he continued to return to Europe to perform in concert.

Schweitzer's musical training began with piano lessons from his father and, later, private instruction from Eugen Münch, who introduced him to the works of Bach. During his six years at Strasbourg University, where his studies began in 1893, he pursued courses in philosophy and medicine while continuing to receive private instruction in music. In 1896, he traveled to Bayreuth where he became friends with Cosima Wagner and her then 17-year-old son, Siegfried. In 1900, Schweitzer became a Protestant curate at Saint Nikolai in Strasbourg where his responsibilities included delivering sermons and instructing confirmation classes. In 1902, he joined the University of Strasbourg as a lecturer on theology.

During this same period, Schweitzer traveled to Paris to study piano with Marie and Alfred Jaëll and to refine his organ technique in private lessons with Charles Marie Widor. He became the organist at the Société J.S. Bach in Paris, an organization he helped found. Finding contemporary organs unsuited to the performances of Bach's counterpoint, he also undertook a detailed study of organs and the art of organ building. All the while, he continued his work in medicine preparatory to his establishing a hospital in Africa.

Even while visiting equatorial Africa, and heavily engaged in the first stages of his new work as a medical missionary, Schweitzer's musical interests scarcely waned. There, he wrote his J.S. Bach, le musicien-poète, published first in Paris (1905) and later in Leipzig in an expanded German edition. British critic and writer Ernest Newman translated the latter into English, thereby introducing musicians in Britain and the United States to Schweitzer's important work as a musicologist. In 1909, Schweitzer assisted in drafting the Internationales Regulativ für den Orgelbau for a conference of the IMS. This document led to the publication of the Orgelbewegung, a text reflecting much of what Schweitzer had come to believe about organ construction and performance. An English language critical edition of Bach's organ works was Schweitzer's final important contribution to musicology.

Schweitzer had determined some years earlier that from the age of 30, he would dedicate himself to the service of humanity on a direct scale. To this end, he gave up his post as a cleric, finished his medical degree and, after some additional work in Paris in the specialty of tropical medicine, gathered funds to establish a modest hospital in Lambarené. Throughout the rest of his life, Schweitzer served that facility, save for periods of closure due to such exigencies as World War I, which put operations on hold for several years.

Despite unceasing commitment to his work in Africa, Schweitzer continued to spend time in Europe, presenting organ recitals and accepting engagements as a lecturer. Walter Legge, EMI producer, recorded three volumes of Bach organ works with Schweitzer, the second and third using the Silbermann instrument at Sainte Aurelie in Strasbourg, an organ whose restoration the organist himself had supervised.

For his humanitarian efforts, Schweitzer was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1952. ~ Erik Eriksson, All Music Guide

Discography

Albert Schweitzer plays Bach, Vol.2

Buy this CD

Albert Schweitzer plays Bach, Vol.1

Buy this CD

Albert Schweitzer Plays Johan Sebastian Bach

Buy this CD

Albert Schweitzer Plays Johann Sebastian Bach

Buy this CD

Albert Schweitzer Plays Bach

Buy this CD

Bach: Hommage A Albert Schweitzer

Buy this CD

Bach: Organ Music, Vol. 1

Buy this CD

Bach Organ Music, Vol. 2

Buy this CD

Franck: Organ Chorales No. 1-3; Mendelssohn: Organ Sonata No. 6

Buy this CD
 
 
 
Music Encyclopedia: Albert Schweitzer

(b Kayserberg, 14 Jan 1875; d Lambaréné, Gabon, 4 Sept 1965). Alsatian philosopher, organist, scholar, physician and humanist. He studied music as a child and after taking theology and philosophy at Strasbourg University, he studied the organ under Widor in Paris, also studying the psychology of sound in Berlin. His most important musical publications appeared in 1905-13 when he was a practising minister, a theology lecturer at Strasbourg and studying medicine in preparation for his first journey to Africa. His epoch-making study of Bach appeared when he was 30, in French; in 1908 he brought out the German version of it, almost twice the original length (all translations are based on this). Schweitzer was also much concerned with the organ reform movement.



 
Biography: Albert Schweitzer

Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) was an Alsatian-German religious philosopher, musicologist, and medical missionary in Africa. He was known especially for founding the Schweitzer Hospital, which provided unprecedented medical care for the natives of Lambaréné in Gabon.

Albert Schweitzer, the son of an Evangelical Lutheran minister, was born on Jan. 14, 1875, in Kaysersberg, Alsace, which was then under German rule. Albert's early life was both comfortable and happy. One Sunday morning, when he was about 8, he had an experience that helped to shape his life. At the strong urging of another lad, he reluctantly aimed his slingshot at several birds which, as he later wrote, "sang sweetly into the morning sunshine." Moved, he "made a silent vow to miss. At that moment, the sound of church bells began to mingle with the sunshine and the singing of the birds…. For me, it was a voice from heaven. I threw aside my slingshot, shooed the birds away to protect them from my friend's slingshot, and fled home."

When Albert was 10 years old, he went to live with his granduncle and grandaunt in Mulhouse so that he could attend the excellent local school. He graduated from secondary school at the age of 18. During these 8 years he learned directly from his elderly relatives the demanding ethical code and rigorous scholarly outlook of their early-1800s generation.

In 1893 Schweitzer enrolled at the University of Strasbourg, where, until 1913, he enjoyed a brilliant career as student, teacher, and administrator. His main field was theology and philosophy, and in 1899 he won a doctorate in philosophy with a thesis on Immanuel Kant.

Schweitzer also made a profound study of Nietzsche and Tolstoy, recoiling from Nietzsche's adulation of the all-conquering "superman" and being greatly attracted to Tolstoy's doctrine of love and compassion. The definitive influence, however, on Schweitzer was the life of Jesus, to whose message and messiahship he devoted years of research and reflection. His classic work The Quest of the Historical Jesus (1906) deals with major scholarly writings on Jesus from the 17th century onward; the volume was well received and quickly became a standard source book.

Renunciation and Dedication

Meanwhile, Schweitzer's biography of J. S. Bach, written in 1905, had also proved an immediate success. At 30 years of age Schweitzer was tall, broad-shouldered, darkly handsome, and a witty, charismatic writer, preacher, and lecturer: clearly, a bright future lay before him. However, one spring morning in 1905, he experienced a stunning religious revelation: it came to him that at some point in the years just ahead he must renounce facile success and devote himself unsparingly to the betterment of mankind's condition.

Accordingly, several years later, Schweitzer threw over his several careers as author, lecturer, and organ recitalist and plunged into the study of medicine - his aim being to go to Africa as a medical missionary. He won his medical degree in 1912. The year before, he had married Helene Bresslau, a professor's daughter who had studied nursing in order to work at his side in Africa; in 1919 the couple had a daughter, Rhena.

Establishment in Africa

In 1913 the Schweitzers journeyed to what was then French Equatorial Africa. There, after various setbacks, they founded the Albert Schweitzer Hospital at Lambaréné, on the Ogooué River, "at the edge of the primeval forest." This area now lies within the independent West African republic of Gabon. Funds were scarce and equipment primitive, but native Africans thronged to the site, and in the decades that followed, many thousands were treated.

Reverence for Life

One hot afternoon in 1915, as he sat on the deck of an ancient steamboat chugging its way up the Ogooué, Schweitzer noticed on a sandbank nearby four hippopotamuses with their young. Instantly, "the phrase Reverence for Life struck me like a flash." He had anticipated this phrase more than 3 decades earlier in his refusal to shoot his slingshot at the sweetly singing birds; now, it became the coping stone of his philosophical system and of his everyday life at the hospital.

Somewhat to Schweitzer's chagrin, the news of his lonely, heroic witness at Lambaréné spread abroad, and he became a world-famous exemplary figure. An American named Larimer Mellon, a member of the wealthy Mellon family, was one of the many whose lives were affected by Schweitzer. Inspired by Schweitzer's example, Mellon, then in his late 30s, returned to college, obtained his medical degree, and with his wife, Gwen, set up the Albert Schweitzer Hospital deep in a primitive rural area of Haiti. Many hundreds of lives were similarly changed by Schweitzer's charismatic witness.

Despite his demanding schedule at Lambaréné, Schweitzer found time to lecture in the United States in 1949, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952, and published in 1957 and 1958 notable appeals to the superpowers in the name of humanity, urging them to renounce nuclear-weapons testing. He died at Lambaréné on Sept. 4, 1965; at the time, he was still working vigorously on the third volume of his monumental Philosophy of Civilization. On his death his medical associates and his daughter, Mrs. Rhena Eckert-Schweitzer, took over direction of the hospital with the aim of carrying out Schweitzer's wish that its facilities be drastically modernized.

Further Reading

The best introduction to Schweitzer's thought and personality is through his own engagingly written autobiographical works: At the Edge of the Primeval Forest (1922), Memoirs of Childhood and Youth (1925), and Out of My Life and Thought (1933). One of the best studies of Schweitzer is George Seaver, Albert Schweitzer: The Man and His Mind (1947). Also valuable are Norman Cousins, Dr. Schweitzer of Lambaréné (1960), and Henry Clark, The Philosophy of Albert Schweitzer (1964).

Lively personal and pictorial introductions to Schweitzer are Erica Anderson, Albert Schweitzer's Gift of Friendship (1964) and The Schweitzer Album: A Portrait in Words and Pictures (1965). Two general, readable studies of Schweitzer are Dr. Joseph F. Montague, The Why of Albert Schweitzer (1965), which includes a bibliography of Schweitzer's writings, and Magnus Ratter, Schweitzer - Ninety Years Wise (1964). Also consult Hermann Hagedorn, The Prophet in the Wilderness (1947; rev. ed. 1962); Erica Anderson, The World of Albert Schweitzer (1955); Robert Payne, The Three Worlds of Albert Schweitzer (1957); and Werner Picht, The Life and Thought of Albert Schweitzer (trans. 1964).

 

Albert Schweitzer, photograph by Yousuf Karsh.
(click to enlarge)
Albert Schweitzer, photograph by Yousuf Karsh. (credit: © Karsh from Rapho/Photo Researchers)
(born Jan. 14, 1875, Kaysersberg, Upper Alsace, Ger. — died Sept. 4, 1965, Lambaréné, Gabon) Alsatian-born German theologian, philosopher, organist, and mission doctor. In his early years he obtained a degree in philosophy (1899) and became an accomplished organist. In his biography of Johann Sebastian Bach (2 vol., 1905), he viewed Bach as a religious mystic. He also wrote on organ construction and produced an edition of Bach's organ works. His books on religion include several on St. Paul; his Quest of the Historical Jesus (1910) became widely influential. In 1905 he announced he would become a mission doctor and devote himself to philanthropic work. He and his wife moved in 1913 to Lambaréné in French Equatorial Africa (now Gabon) and with locals built a hospital on the banks of the Ogooué River, to which they later added a leper colony. In 1952 he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts on behalf of "the Brotherhood of Nations." Two years before his death, his hospital and leper colony were serving 500 patients. His philosophical books discuss his famous principle of "reverence for life."

For more information on Albert Schweitzer, visit Britannica.com.

 
German Literature Companion: Albert Schweitzer

Schweitzer, Albert (Kaysersberg, Alsace, 1875-1965, Lambaréné, Gabon, Central Africa), began as a pastor (from 1899) and a New Testament scholar in Strasburg before qualifying as a physician and becoming an organist and interpreter of J. S. Bach, on whom he wrote a monograph (in French 1905, in German 1908) and whose organ works he edited (Bachs Orgelwerke, jointly with C. M. Widor, 1912-14); he also became an authority on organ building (Deutsche und französische Orgelbaukunst, 1906, reissued 1962).

In 1913 Schweitzer founded a tropical hospital in Lambaréné, devoting his life to its development except for the years between 1917, when he was interned in France, and 1924. It was to a large extent financed by his organ concerts during his frequent visits to Europe. In 1927 the primitive old construction was replaced by a new and larger hospital. Schweitzer's perseverance and sense of mission were exceptional, and he expressed his strong convictions in lecture tours and in writings. He opened his contributions to the theological dispute on the life of Jesus with Das Messianitäts- und Leidensgeheimnis (1901) and Von Reimarus zu Wrede (1906); Die Mystik des Apostels Paulus appeared in 1930. His principal writings on ethics were published in 1966 (ed. H.-W. Bähr) as Die Lehre von der Ehrfurcht vor dem Leben. His respect for life was amply demonstrated by his work with African patients, but it extended to all living creatures. He remained rooted in Christianity (Reich Gottes und Christentum, ed. U. Neuenschwander, 1967), but was also influenced by Schopenhauer and published a work on Indian philosophy (Die Weltanschauung der indischen Denker, 1935). In 1939 appeared four lectures on Goethe (Goethe). His autobiographical works are Aus meiner Kindheit und Jugendzeit (1924) and Aus meinem Leben und Denken (1932, reissued 1960). In 1955 Schweitzer published Das Problem des Friedens in der heutigen Welt following the award of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952 and the Friedensklasse des Ordens Pour le mérite in 1954.

 
Spotlight: Albert Schweitzer

From our Archives: Today's Highlights, January 14, 2005

Humanitarian Albert Schweitzer was born 130 years ago today. The medical missionary, theologian, and musicologist won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952 for his work in establishing a missionary hospital in Gabon, Africa.
 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Schweitzer, Albert
(äl'bĕrt shvī'tsər) , 1875–1965, Alsatian theologian, musician, and medical missionary. Determined to become a medical missionary, he obtained a doctorate in medicine at the Univ. of Strasbourg and in 1913 established a hospital at Lambaréné, Gabon (then in French Equatorial Africa). Except for frequent trips to Europe to raise money and a visit to the United States in 1949 to address the Goethe Festival in Colorado, he remained in Gabon, establishing extensive medical facilities that received financial support throughout the world. Schweitzer was honored in many countries for his work as a scientist and humanitarian, his artistry as an organist, and his contributions as a theologian; he was awarded the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize. His biography of Bach (1905), considered one of the best studies of the master, along with his edition (with C. M. Widor, 1912–14) of Bach's organ music, made him an outstanding authority on Bach. On the Edge of the Primeval Forest (1920, tr. 1922) is an account of his early years at Lambaréné, supplemented later by More from the Primeval Forest (1925, tr.1931) and From My African Notebook (1936, tr. 1938). Schweitzer's philosophy is developed in Philosophy of Civilization (The Decay and the Restoration of Civilization, 1923, tr. 1923; Civilization and Ethics, 1923, tr. 1923; and Reverence for Life, tr. 1969). “Reverence for life” is the term Schweitzer used for a universal concept of ethics. He believed that such an ethics would reconcile the drives of altruism and egoism by requiring a respect for the lives of all other beings and by demanding the highest development of the individual's resources. A profound Christian, Schweitzer was unorthodox in that he rejected the historical infallibility of Jesus while following him spiritually. His theological works include The Quest of the Historical Jesus (1906, tr. 1910) and The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle (1930, tr. 1930).

Bibliography

See his autobiography, Out of My Life and Thoughts (1932, tr. 1933) and Albert Schweitzer: An Anthology (ed. by C. R. Joy, 1947); biographies by J. Berrill (1965), I. L. Ice (1971), G. N. Marshall and D. Poling (1971), and N. Cousins (1960, repr. 1973); study by H. Clark (1962).

 
History Dictionary: Schweitzer, Albert
(shweyet-suhr, shveyet-suhr)

A French theologian, student of music, and physician of the twentieth century. Schweitzer received many awards for his humanitarian missionary work in Africa, including the Nobel Prize for peace.

 
Quotes By: Albert Schweitzer

Quotes:

"One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity."

"Anyone who proposes to do good must not expect people to roll stones out of his way, but must accept his lot calmly, even if they roll a few stones upon it."

"Man can hardly even recognize the devils of his own creation."

"Example is leadership."

"Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing."

"The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve."

See more famous quotes by Albert Schweitzer

 
Wikipedia: Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer Image:Nobel Prize.png‎
Albert_Schweitzer,_Etching_by_Arthur_William_Heintzelman.jpg
Born January 14 1875(1875--)
Kaisersberg, Alsace-Lorraine
Died September 4 1965 (aged 90)
Lambaréné, Gabon
Nationality 1875-1918 German
1918-1965 French
Field Medicine, music, philosophy, theology
Notable prizes Goethe Prize (1928)
Nobel Peace Prize (1952)

Albert Schweitzer, M.D., OM, (January 14, 1875September 4, 1965), was an Alsatian theologian, musician, philosopher, and physician. He was born in Kaisersberg in Alsace-Lorraine, a Germanophone region which the German Empire ceded to France after World War I, with local Elsässer like Schweitzer having to assume French nationality, or leave. Schweitzer challenged both the secular view of historical Jesus current at his time and the traditional Christian view, depicting a Jesus who expected the imminent end of the world. He received the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize in 1953 for his philosophy of "reverence for life"[1], expressed in many ways, but most famously in founding and sustaining the Lambaréné Hospital in Gabon, west central Africa.

Education

Schweitzer spent his childhood in the village of Günsbach, where his father[2], the local pastor, taught him how to play music. The small place, now spelled Gunsbach, is home to the International Albert Schweitzer Association AISL [3]

He was a high school student in Mühlhausen until 1893, the year he passed on his "Baccalaureat". After this, he went to Paris to learn philosophy and music, before returning to his birthplace Alsace where he studied theology at the Kaiser Wilhelm Universität of Strasbourg.

In 1899, at University of Tübingen, he published his memoir entitled The religious Phylosophia of Kant, which earned him his Ph.D. Later, he became pastor at the church Saint-Nicolas of Strasbourg, where he officiated at the wedding of Theodor Heuss on April 11 1908.

At the age of 30, in 1905, he answered the call of "The Society Of The Evangelist Missions Of Paris" who were looking for a Medical Doctor. He began his medical studies and eventually left Alsace for the Gabon (which was French at that time).

Theology

As a young theologian he published The Quest of the Historical Jesus (1906), by which he gained a great reputation. In this book, he interpreted the life of Jesus in the light of Jesus' own eschatological convictions. 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. This work effectively ended for decades the Quest for the Historical Jesus as a subdiscipline of New Testament studies, until the development of the so-called "Second Quest," among whose notable exponents was Rudolf Bultmann's student Ernst Käsemann. The original edition was translated into English by William Montgomery and published in 1910. A second German edition was published in 1913, containing theologically significant revisions and expansions. This revised edition did not appear in English until 2003.

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). In his study of Paul he examined the eschatological beliefs of Paul and through this the message of the New Testament.

During his tenure as a Lutheran minister for St. Nicholas church in Strassburg, he blessed the wedding of Theodor Heuss, who was to become the first President of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Schweitzer's theology leans towards the kind of theology espoused in Liberal Christianity [4]. He wrote that Jesus and his followers expected the imminent end of the world.[4]

Music

Schweitzer was a famous organist in his day and was highly interested in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. He developed a simple style of performance, which he thought to be closer to what Bach had meant it to be. He based his interpretation mainly on his reassessment of Bach's religious intentions. While studying with Charles-Marie Widor in Paris, he astonished his teacher by explaining the imagery in Bach's chorale preludes through the hymn texts that would be sung to their melodies, an approach that had apparently never occurred to the older man. Through the book Johann Sebastian Bach, the final version of which he completed in 1908, he advocated this new style, which has had great influence in the way Bach's music is now treated. 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. He also made musical performances to raise money for medical supplies in Gabon. Sir Donald Tovey dedicated his completion of the 18th Contrapunctus of Bach's Die Kunst der Fuge (Art of the Fugue) to Schweitzer.

On his departure for Lambarene in 1913 he was presented with a piano with pedal attachments (to operate like an organ pedal-keyboard) by the Paris Bach Society, and in the years which followed his principal means of recreation was to play Bach's music on it during the lunch hour and on Sunday afternoons. The piano was built specially for the tropics and was conveyed to his Lambarene bungalow packed in a zinc-lined case and delivered by river in a huge dug-out canoe. At first he regarded his new life in the Lambaréné mission as a renunciation of his life as an artist, and fell out of practise, but after some time he resolved on a systematic plan to study the works of Bach, Mendelssohn, Widor, César Franck, and Max Reger, and to learn them by heart. Schweitzer's piano-organ was still in use at Lambaréné in 1946. During a visit to Strasbourg in 1928 he gave a private improvisation for his colleague Mrs Russell at St Nicholas Church. She recalled, 'It was all full of the magic of the African forest, the moonlight in the jungle and on the river, the merry gambols of the little monkeys in the trees when the sun is shining...'[5] Schweitzer's own writings about music are selected and translated into English by C.R. Joy.[6]

Recordings
Recordings of Schweitzer playing the music of Bach are available on CD. During 1934 and 1935 he was for some time in Britain, delivering the Gifford Lectures at Edinburgh, and those on Religion in Modern Civilization at Oxford and London. He had originally conducted trials for recordings for HMV on the organ of the old Queen's Hall in London. These records did not satisfy him, the instrument being too harsh. In mid-December 1935 he began to record for Columbia Records on the organ of All-Hallows-by-the-Tower, Barking (London). Then at his suggestion the sessions were transferred to the church of Ste Aurélie 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 Frédéric Härpfer shortly before the First World War. These recordings were made in the course of a fortnight in October 1936.[7]

His early Columbia discs included altogether 25 records of Bach and 8 of César Franck. The Bach titles were mainly distributed as follows:
Queen's Hall: Organ Prelude and Fugue in E minor (Peters Vol 3, 10); Herzlich thut mich verlangen/Wenn wir in höchsten Nöten sein (Vol 7, 58).[8]
All Hallows: Prelude and Fugue in C major; Fantasia and Fugue in G minor (the Great); Prelude and Fugue in G major; Prelude and Fugue in F minor; Little Fugue in G minor; Toccata and Fugue in D minor. [9]
Ste Aurélie: Prelude and Fugue in C minor; Prelude and Fugue in E minor; Toccata and Fugue in D minor; Schmücke dich, O liebe Seele (Vol 7, 49); O Mensch, bewein' dein Sünde groß (Vol 5, 45); O Lamm' Gottes, unschuldig (Vol 7, 48); Christus der uns selig macht (Vol 5, 8); Da Jesus an dem Kreuze stand (Vol 5, 9); An Waßerflüßen Babylon (Vol 6, 12b); Christum wir wollen loben schon (Vol 5, 6); Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier (Vol 5, app 5); Mit Fried' und Freud' ich fahr' dahin (Vol 5, 4); Sei gegrusset, Jesu gutig (Var 11, Vol 5, app. 3); Jesus Christus, unser Heiland (Vol 6, 31); Christ lag in Todesbanden (Vol 5, 5); Erschienen ist der herrlich' Tag? (Vol 5, 15).[10]
Later recordings were made at:
Parish church, Günsbach: 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).[11].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)[12].Chorale-Preludes: O Mensch, bewein' dein' Sünde gross (1st and 2nd vsns, Peters Vol 5, 45); Wenn wir in höchsten Nöten sein (vol 17, 58); Ich ruf' zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ (Vol 5, 30); Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ (Vol 5, 17); Herzlich tut mich verlangen (Vol 5, 27); Nun komm', der Heiden Heiland (vol 7, 45)[13]
There are also issues on Philips records:
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.[14] Passacaglia in C minor, BWV 582; Prelude and Fugue in E minor, BWV 533; Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV 543; Prelude and Fugue in G major, BWV 541; Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565.[15]

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. His view was that Western civilization was in decay because of gradually abandoning its ethical foundations - those of affirmation of life.

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. Some people in his days compared his philosophy with that of Francis of Assisi, a comparison he did not contest. 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. Circumstances where we apparently fail to satisfy this compulsion should not lead us to defeatism, since the will-to-live renews itself again and again, as an outcome of an evolutionary necessity and a phenomenon with a spiritual dimension.

However, as Schweitzer himself pointed out, it is neither impossible nor difficult to spend one's life and not follow it: the history of world philosophies and religions shows many instances of denial of the principle of reverence for life. He points to the prevailing philosophy in the European Middle Ages, and the Indian Brahminic philosophy as examples. Nevertheless, he contends that this kind of attitude lacks genuineness.

The will to live is naturally both parasitic and antagonistic towards other forms of life. Only in the thinking being has the will to live become conscious of other wills to live, and desirous of solidarity with it. This solidarity, however, cannot be brought about, because human life does not escape the puzzling and horrible circumstance that it must live at the cost of other life. But as an ethical being one strives to escape whenever possible from this necessity, and to put a stop to this disunion of the Will to live, so far as it is within one's power.

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. Hence, he looked forward to a renewed and more profound Renaissance and Enlightenment of humanity (a view he expressed in the epilogue of his autobiography, Out of My Life and Thought). Albert Schweitzer nourished hope in a humankind that is more profoundly aware of its position in the Universe. His optimism was based in "belief in truth". "The spirit generated by [conceiving of] truth is greater than the force of circumstances." He persistently emphasized the necessity to think, rather than merely acting on basis of passing impulses or by following the most widespread opinions.

Never for a moment do we lay aside our mistrust of the ideals established by society, and of the convictions which are kept by it in circulation. We always know that society is full of folly and will deceive us in the matter of humanity. [...] humanity meaning consideration for the existence and the happiness of individual human beings.

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. He was, for instance, a well-known cat lover, who, although left-handed, would write with his right hand rather than disturb the cat who would sleep on his left arm.

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? . . . 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." (On the Edge of the Primeval Forest, p. 115). Rather than being a supporter of colonialism, Schweitzer was one of its harshest critics. In a sermon that he preached on January 6, 1905, before he had told anyone of his plans to dedicate the rest of his life to work as a doctor in Africa, he said:

''Our culture divides people into two classes: civilized men, a title bestowed on the persons who do the classifying; and others, who have only the human form, who may perish or go to the dogs for all the "civilized men" care.

Oh, this "noble" culture of ours! It speaks so piously of human dignity and human rights and then disregards this dignity and these rights of countless millions and treads them underfoot, only because they live overseas or because their skins are of different color or because they cannot help themselves. This culture does not know how hollow and miserable and full of glib talk it is, how common it looks to those who follow it across the seas and see what it has done there, and this culture has no right to speak of personal dignity and human rights...

I will not enumerate all the crimes that have been committed under the pretext of justice. People robbed native inhabitants of their land, made slaves of them, let loose the scum of mankind upon them. Think of the atrocities that were perpetrated upon people made subservient to us, how systematically we have ruined them with our alcoholic "gifts," and everything else we have done…We decimate them, and then, by the stroke of a pen, we take their land so they have nothing left at all…

If all this oppression and all this sin and shame are perpetrated under the eye of the German God, or the American God, or the British God, and if our states do not feel obliged first to lay aside their claim to be "Christian" - then the name of Jesus is blasphemed and made a mockery. And the Christianity of our states is blasphemed and made a mockery before those poor people. The name of Jesus has become a curse, and our Christianity - yours and mine - has become a falsehood and a disgrace, if the crimes are not atoned for in the very place where they were instigated. 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.

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. 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…'' [Source: Albert Schweitzer: Essential Writings. (James Brabazon, ed., Orbis Books, 2005. pp. 76-80.]

Schweitzer was nonetheless still sometimes accused of being paternalistic or colonialist in his attitude towards Africans, and in some ways his views did differ from many liberals of the 1960s. For instance, he thought Gabonese independence came too early, without adequate education or accommodation to local circumstances. 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." (In Africa With Schweitzer, p. 139). Chinua Achebe has quoted Schweitzer as saying "The African is indeed my brother but my junior brother." [5], which Achebe criticized him for, though Achebe seems to acknowledge 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 whites and blacks. Later in his life, Schweitzer was quoted as saying "The time for speaking of older and younger brothers has passed."

Medicine

Albert Schweitzer spent most of his life in Lambaréné in what is now Gabon, Africa. After his medical studies in 1913, he went there with his wife to establish a hospital near an already existing mission post.

When World War I broke out in summer of 1914, Schweitzer and his wife, Germans in a French colony, were put under supervision by the French military.[16] In 1917 they were brought to Bordeaux, to be interned first in Garaison, and then from March 1918 in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. In July 1918, after having been transferred via Switzerland to his home in the Alsace, he was a free man again. In the mean time, he had studied and written as much as possible in preparation for, among other, his famous book Culture and Ethics. While working as a medical assistant and assistant-pastor in Strassburg, he was able to finish the book, to be published in 1923. He began to speak and lecture about his ideas wherever he was invited, not only because he wanted his philosophy on culture and ethics to become widely known, but also as a means to raise money for the hospital in Lambaréné, for which he had already emptied his own pockets.

In 1924 he returned to Lambaréné, where he managed to rebuild the decayed hospital, after which he resumed his medical practices. Soon he was no longer the only medical doctor in the hospital, and whenever possible he went to Europe to lecture at universities. Gradually his opinions and concepts became acknowledged, not only in Europe, but worldwide.

Later life

From 1939-1948 he stayed in Lambaréné, unable to go back to Europe in war. Three years after the end of World War II, in 1948, he returned for the first time to Europe and kept traveling back and forth (and once to the USA) as long as he could until his death in 1965.

The Nobel Peace Prize of 1952 was awarded to Dr Albert Schweizer. The Problem of Peace lecture by Albert Schweitzer is considered one of the best speeches ever given.

From 1952 until his death he worked against nuclear tests and nuclear weapons with Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell. In 1957 and 1958 he broadcast four speeches over Radio Oslo which were published in Peace or Atomic War. 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.

He was chevalier of the Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem.

Schweitzer died on September 4, 1965 at his beloved hospital in Lambaréné, Gabon. His grave, on the banks of the Ogooue River, is marked by a cross he made himself.

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. O'Brian returned to the United States and founded the Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership Foundation (HOBY).

Schweitzer in popular culture

  • Fred Rogers, of "MisterRogers' Neighborhood" has cited Schweitzer as one of his heroes.
  • Skippers on the Jungle Cruise ride at the Magic Kingdom of the Walt Disney World Resort and in Disneyland, Anaheim 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.
  • In the Young Indiana Jones television series, Indy is healed by and stays with Dr. Schweitzer for a short while. Indy's experience with the doctor is said to completely change his outlook on life.
  • On Star Trek: Voyager, the holographic character known for most of the series simply as "Doctor" chooses the name "Albert Schweitzer" for himself while engaging on his first away mission. (Season 1, Episode 11 - "Heroes & Demons")[6]
  • The Peanuts series makes various references to Schweitzer.
  • Various references to Schweitzer are made in M*A*S*H.
  • 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."
  • In The Dark Tower V - Wolves of the Calla, Stephen King references Albert Schweitzer "getting out of a bathtub and not quite stepping on the cake of soap lying beside the pulled plug." When Eddie is imagining important historical "great things and near misses."
  • The Animal Welfare Institute recently published The Boy Who Loved All Living Things: The Imaginary Childhood Journal of Albert Schweitzer, written and illustrated by Sheila Hamanaka. Inspired by Dr. Albert Schweitzer’s youth and message of compassion, the book teaches young children that animals are friends who should be treated with the utmost respect.
  • In the 1995 film The Net, Sandra Bullock's character describes her ideal man as a cross between Captain America and Albert Schweitzer.
  • In Eddie Izzard's 1998 stand-up show Dress to Kill, Eddie - known and appreciated for his cerebral humor - passingly mentions Schweitzer with the joking comment, "...and in the words of Albert Schweitzer: I fancy you."
  • In Waking Life, characters discuss having a dream about having an interesting conversation with Schweitzer
  • In the 1960 musical Bye Bye Birdie, Rose Alvarez tells Kim Macafee that all men are awful except for Albert Schweitzer, "but I'm not his type."

Selected bibliography

  • The Quest Of The Historical Jesus; 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 ("Aus Meinem Leben und Denken", Felix Meiner Verlag, Leipzig, 1931), (English Translation 1933, George Allen & Unwin, Woking) 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; frequent visits to Europe for speaking engagements
  • 1931 - Autobiography published "Aus Meinem Leben und Denken" ("Out Of My Life and Thought")
  • 1939-1948 Lambaréné
  • 1949 - Visit to the United States
  • 1948-1965 - Lambaréné and Europe.
  • 1953 - Nobel Peace Prize for the year 1952
  • 1957 - 1958 - Four speeches against nuclear armament and tests

April 23, 1957 -- Dr. Schweitzer's Declaration of Conscience, was broadcast to the world over Radio Oslo, pleading for the abolition of nuclear weapons. He ended his speech, saying, "The end of further experiments with atom bombs would be like the early sunrays of hope which suffering humanity is longing for."

You can read the speech at http://tennesseeplayers.org/declaration.html

References and external links

  1. ^ Nobel Peace Prize 1952 - Presentation Speech
  2. ^ Family tree [1]
  3. ^ Association Internationale Albert Schweitzer [2]
  4. ^ Review of "The Mystery of the Kingdom of God"
  5. ^ G. Seaver, Albert Schweitzer, The Man and his Mind, 4th edn, London 1951, 63-64, 112-113, 139-152).
  6. ^ Music in the Life of Albert Schweitzer, edited by Charles R Joy (London, A & C Black 1953).
  7. ^ Seaver 1951, passim.
  8. ^ (78 rpm HMV C 1532 and C 1543), cf R.D. Darrell, The Gramophone Shop Encyclopedia of Recorded Music (New York 1936).
  9. ^ (78 rpm Columbia ROX 146-152), cf Darrell, op.cit.
  10. ^ See C R Joy, 1953, 226-230. The 78s were issued in albums, with a specially designed record label. (Columbia ROX 8020-8023, 8032-8035, etc). Ste Aurélie recordings appeared also on LP as Columbia 33CX1249).See E.M.I., A Complete List of EMI, Columbia, Parlophone and MGM Long Playing Records issued up to and including June 1955 (London 1955) for this and discographical details following.
  11. ^ (Columbia LP 33CX1074)
  12. ^ (Columbia LP 33CX1084)
  13. ^ (Columbia LP 33CX1081).
  14. ^ See E.M.G., The Art of Record Buying (London 1960), pp 12-13. Philips ABL 3092, issued March 1956.
  15. ^ E.M.G., op. cit., Philips ABL 3134, issued September 1956. Other selections are on Philips GBL 5509.
  16. ^ Timeline [3]
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Commons-logo.svg
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:


Persondata
NAME Schweitzer, Albert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION German theologian, musician, philosopher, and physician
DATE OF BIRTH January 14 1875(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

 
 

Join the WikiAnswers Q&A community. Post a question or answer questions about "Albert Schweitzer" at WikiAnswers.

 

Copyrights:

Artist. Copyright © 2008 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ® , a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Music Encyclopedia. The Concise Grove Dictionary of Music. Copyright © 1994 by Oxford University Press, Inc.. All rights reserved.  Read more
Biography. © 2006 through a partnership of Answers Corporation. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
German Literature Companion. The Oxford Companion to German Literature. Copyright © 1976, 1986, 1997, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Answers Corporation Spotlight. © 1999-2008 by Answers Corporation. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia Univer