See Also: Schweitzer, Albert(dictionary)
Schweitzer, Albert(encyclopedia)
Albert Schweitzer Hospital(health)
Albert I(encyclopedia)
albert(dictionary)
Lebrun, Albert(encyclopedia)
Albert Square(dictionary)
Albert (as used in expressions)(encyclopedia)
Camus, Albert(dictionary)
Albert, Lake(encyclopedia)

Schweitzer, Albert (sh)




born Jan. 14, 1875, Kaysersberg, Upper Alsace, Ger.
died Sept. 4, 1965, Lambarene, 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 Lambarene in French Equatorial Africa (now Gabon) and with locals built a hospital on the banks of the Ogooue 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."


Albert Schweitzer, photograph by Yousuf Karsh.

? Karsh from Rapho/Photo Researchers