[83] He was also a chevalier of the Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem. Albert Schweitzer was born in a small town in France in 1875 and he passed away in Gabon, Africa in 1965 after a rich and illustrious career. The maladies the Schweitzers treated were both horrific and deadly. Albert Schweitzer, the son of an Evangelical Lutheran minister, was born on . This decision, protested vigorously by his friends, was, like so many others in his life, the product of religious meditation. And the Christianity of our states is blasphemed and made a mockery before those poor people. 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. ", "At this stage," Schweitzer said in 1963, "Africans have little need for advanced training. The above were released in the United States as Columbia Masterworks boxed set SL-175. Strasbourg as a student in theology, philosophy and musical theory. Albert Schweitzer. 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." 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. Today marks the 141st birthday of Dr. Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965). He made the Africans too lazy to pick them bare.. LAMBARENE, GABON, Sept. 5--Albert Schweitzer died last night in his jungle hospital here. Schweitzer's wife, Helene Schweitzer, served as an anaesthetist for surgical operations. Medical mistakes claim about 400,000 people every year in U.S. Helene took up nursing to help her husband in his pursuits; later, she became skilled at delivering anesthesia to the patients on whom Albert would operate. 2 in B minor; no. Schweitzer's death was kept secret through the night because of a request he had. 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. to the church to play Bach. Under this title the book became famous in the English-speaking world. Schweitzer and his wife did the best they could. Although several attempts have been made to restore and re-air the film, all access has been denied.[82]. it.". Schweitzer's book (and other writings as well) disputed the theory that human progress toward civilization was inevitable. In this respect, he was undoubtedly made more of by cultists than he was willing to make of himself, although he was by no means a man with a weak ego. The latter activity resulted in several volumes over the years that made his reputation as a major, albeit somewhat controversial, theologian. He was popular for being a Doctor. His philosophy was expressed in many ways, but most famously in founding and sustaining the Hpital Albert Schweitzer in Lambarn, French Equatorial Africa (now Gabon). Kentucky Vital Records Indexes at Ancestry (these require payment) Kentucky Death Certificates and Records, 1852-1965 (coverage before 1911 varies by county) includes digitized Kentucky death certificates from 1911-1965, plus earlier records for some counties ; Kentucky Death Index, 1911-2000 The epidemic promoted Christ-mysticism holds the field until God-mysticism becomes possible, which is in the near future. Schweitzer was born 14 January 1875 in Kaysersberg in Alsace, in what had less than four years previously become the Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine in the German Empire after being French for more than two centuries; he later became a citizen of France after World War I, when Alsace became French territory again. Schweitzer was one of colonialism's harshest critics. These records did not satisfy him, the instrument being too harsh. Hailed as an outstanding world figure, Schweitzer was. 1924 In 1924 he returned to his hospital in Lambarene, which was to be restored after years of decay during his absence. Schweitzer's recordings of organ-music, and his innovative recording technique, are described below. Nobel Peace Prize. music. The on-axis microphone is often a large diaphragm condenser. He was theologian, musicologist, organ technician, physician and surgeon, missionary, philosopher of ethics, lecturer, writer and the builder and I will not enumerate all the crimes that have been committed under the pretext of justice. of thought that resulted in "The Quest for the Historical Jesus." 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. Director of the Lambarene hospital has been handed over to Schweitzer's assistant, Dr. Walter Munz. "The awareness that we are all human beings together has become lost in war and through . He progressed to studying for his Ph.D. in theology in 1899 at the Sorbonne, where he focused on the religious philosophy of Immanuel Kant. In June of 1912, he married Helene Bresslau (the daughter of a professor of history at Strasbourg). Albert Schweitzer studied the music of Johann Bach who was a German Composer. The soul is a burning desire to breathe in this world of light and never to lose it--to remain children of light.". https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/dr-albert-schweitzer-a-renowned-medical-missionary-with-a-complicated-history. Schweitzer's arrival at this decision was calculated, a step in a quest for a faith to live by. He also studied piano at that time with Marie Jall. The grave, on the banks of the Ogooue River, is marked by a cross he made himself. Turning to Bach's nonchurch music, Schweitzer said: "The Brandenburg concertos are the purest product of Bach's polyphonic style. bare.". "It is good to maintain and further life; it is bad to damage and destroy life. 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. 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". [17], In 1905, Schweitzer began his study of medicine at the University of Strasbourg, culminating in the degree of M.D. Life, Grief, Bad Ass. Among his many charitable works, Dr. Schweitzer founded a hospital in Lambarn, which was situated in what was then known as French Equatorial Africa, and is today the capital of the province of Moyen-Ogoou in the nation of Gabon. [1] He insisted on seeing personally that the youngster got a prompt and touching reply from his own pen before work was permitted to resume. Schweitzer died on 4 September 1965 at his beloved hospital in Lambarn, now in independent Gabon. Among the messages he received was one from President Johnson. Happiness is the key to success. He was also appointed organist for the Bach Concerts of the Orfo Catal at Barcelona, Spain, and often travelled there for that purpose. This house is now maintained as a Schweitzer museum.[78]. [43] He summarizes Pauline mysticism as "being in Christ" rather than "being in God". [12] In 1899, Schweitzer spent the summer semester at the University of Berlin and eventually obtained his theology degree at the University of Strasbourg. Schweitzer concluded his treatment of Jesus with what has been called the most famous words of twentieth-century theology: "He comes to us as One unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lake-side, He came to those men who knew him not. " Albert Schweitzer Death, Cause unspecified 4 September 1965 at 11:30 AM in Lambarn (Age 90) . Schweitzer's accomplishments are recognized even by his most caustic critics. Sir Donald Tovey dedicated his conjectural completion of Bach's The Art of Fugue to Schweitzer. The comparison of NOAC-based DAT vs. vitamin . For Schweitzer, mankind had to accept that objective reality is ethically neutral. 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. 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.". [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. Oh, this 'noble' culture of ours! The Albert Schweitzer Page; Association Internationale Albert Schweitzer; Albert Schweitzer mzeum s archvum Gnsbach; Albert Schweitzer Fellowship; Readings on Reverence for Life; Bruderhof Peacemakers Guide profile on Albert Schweitzer; Page at the Nobel e-Museum Archivlva 2004. augusztus 15-i dtummal a Wayback Machine-ben Schweitzer's view that "simple people need simple healing methods," however it might have outraged medical sophisticates, won for Lambarene a tremendous measure of native confidence. He had barely started to clear the jungle when World War I broke out. [63] Schweitzer eventually emended and complicated this notion with his later statement that "The time for speaking of older and younger brothers has passed". Albert Schweitzer. Jesus, Schweitzer contended, believed himself the Messiah who would rule in a new kingdom of God when It could then affirm a new Enlightenment through spiritual rationalism, by giving priority to volition or ethical will as the primary meaning of life. Also like Goethe, on whose life and works he was expert, Schweitzer came near to being a comprehensive man. And so he proceeded to build a hospital appropriate to the needs of junior brothers with standards of hygiene reminiscent of medical practice in the days before the germ theory of disease came into being."[63]. At the time of Dr. Schweitzers death, at age 90 in 1965, the compound comprised 70 buildings, 350 beds and a leper colony for 200. At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Abstract. The waiting room and dormitory were built, like native huts, of unhewn logs along a path leadingl to the boat landing. Rhena Schweitzer Miller, the only child of Nobel Prize-winning humanitarian Dr. Albert Schweitzer, who carried on his medical missionary work in Africa after his death in 1965, died Sunday. 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. [74] Albert Schweitzer noted the contribution of Indian influence in his book Indian Thought and Its Development:[75]. Another major difference between Paul's "realism" and Hellenistic "symbolism" is the exclusive nature of the former and the inclusive nature of the latter. He fell ill from exhaustion on Aug. 28 and his condition worsened steadily. world's end did not occur, according to Schweitzer's view, Jesus decided that He must undergo an atoning sacrifice, and that the great transformation would take place on the cross. Description and criticism] (published in English in 1948 as The Psychiatric Study of Jesus. Schweitzer developed a technique for recording the performances of Bach's music. You must give some time to your fellow man. Photo by Rolls Press/Popperfoto/Getty Images. There is always something to make you wonder in the shape of a tree, the trembling of a leaf. for a specific application of Reverence for Life. While he was on his sickbed, his terminally ill son cared for him despite battling a diagnosis that claimed his life a year later. Schweitzer considered his ethic of Reverence for Life, not his hospital, his most important legacy, saying that his Lambarn Hospital was just "my own improvisation on the theme of Reverence for Life. 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. "He is a figure Last edited on 28 February 2023, at 08:10, Jesus as depicted by the historical-critical method, Strasbourg Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Association Internationale Albert Schweitzer, Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Religion & the Treatment of God's Creatures", "Review of "The Mystery of the Kingdom of God", "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness", "Albert Schweitzer and Henry Fonda's Lost Special", "List of Members of the Order of Merit, past and present", "History of Vegetarianism Dr Albert Schweitzer (18751965)", "Knigsfeld feiert ?Schweitzer-Erben? Not only did he design the station, but he also helped build it with his own hands. . Some of his more ardent admirers insisted that he was a jungle saint, even a modern Christ. That is the beginning and the foundation of all ethics. It approaches Bach as a musician-poet and concentrates on his chorales; cantatas and Passion He was extremely intelligent and excelled in many fields (music, theology, philosophy and medicine), which means he could have easily led a very comfortable life anywhere in Europe . Thank you. In their first nine months in Africa, they treated more than 2,000 patients. He had originally conducted trials for recordings for HMV on the organ of the old Queen's Hall in London. Albert Schweitzer. Agriculture, not science or industrialization, is their greatest need. Until he extends his circle of compassion to include all living things, man will not himself find peace. During that year, his father, a Lutheran pastor, moved his wife and eldest son to Also, he is famous for being a music scholar and an organist. 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 . His contributions to the interpretation of Pauline Christianity concern the role of Paul's mysticism of "being in Christ" as primary and the doctrine of justification by faith as secondary. 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. [13][14][15][16] He published his PhD thesis at the University of Tbingen in 1899. Such comments were, at the very least, a contradiction of his worldview of showing reverence for all human life in both deeds and words. Advertisement. 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 had any existence. for Life. Albert Schweitzer suffered a stroke on 28 August 1965 and died from it on 4 September 1965 in Lambarn., at the age of 90. Gradually his opinions and concepts became acknowledged, not only in Europe, but worldwide. Albert Schweitzer, born 1875 in Kaysersb erg in the province of Alsace-Lorraine in the German Empire, is perhaps mostly remembered for his work in Africa as a missionary. Date of death. "[40], In The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle, Schweitzer first distinguishes between two categories of mysticism: primitive and developed. The Deed is everything, the Glory naught. ", His attitude was sharply expressed in a story he liked to tell of his orange trees. In 1900, with the completion of his licentiate in theology, he was ordained as curate, and that year he witnessed the Oberammergau Passion Play. Actually, Schweitzer preferred (and planned) it in this fashion on the ground that the natives would shun an elaborate, shiny and impersonal institution. On the other hand, the Hellenist "lives on the store of experience which he acquired in the initiation" and is not continually affected by a shared communal experience.[47]. Schweitzer came to French Equatorial Africa as a tall, handsome, broadly powerful young man with a shock of rich, black hair, an enormous mustache and a look of piercing determination in his bold eyes. Heart disease was an uncommon cause of death in the US at the beginning of the 20th century. But this time he had also studied the organ briefly in Paris under the legendary Charles Marie Widor, who was so impressed with His speech ended, "The end of further experiments with atom bombs would be like the early sunrays of hope which suffering humanity is longing for. No greater tribute to his abilities as a conqueror of jungle need which the chorale itself came. His brother, Dr. Paul Schweitzer, 83, was not able to be with him. 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. 1. Albert Schweitzer born The theologian, musician, philosopher and Nobel Prize-winning physician Albert Schweitzer is born on January 14, 1875 in Upper-Alsace, Germany (now Haut-Rhin, France).. With the new hospital built and the medical team established, Schweitzer returned to Europe in 1927, this time leaving a functioning hospital at work. He came to the Ogooue in 1913 when horses drew the buses of London and leprosy was considered In contemplation of the will-to-life, respect for the life of others becomes the highest principle and the defining purpose of humanity. Now I knew that the world-view of ethical world-and- life-affirmation, together with its ideal of civilization, is founded in thought.". Inspired by medical missionary and Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Albert Schweitzer, an American couple, Dr. Larry and Mrs. Gwen Grant Mellon, founded HAS in 1956. [19] The result was two volumes (J. S. Bach), which were published in 1908 and translated into English by Ernest Newman in 1911. " Albert Schweitzer 31. . Lambarene, on the Ogooue River a few miles from the Equator, is in the steaming jungle. He was buried at his hospital, later named Albert Schweitzer Hospital. He is suffering from a heart ailment. the right choices. At the Mulhouse gymnasium he received his "Abitur" (the certificate at the end of secondary education) in 1893. A scholar herself, she became a trained nurse in order to share her husband's life in Africa. Every man has to seek in his own way to realize his true worth. In his story for PBS NewsHour, Dr. Howard Markel, University of Michigan medical historian writes: Indeed, Schweitzer became a notable organist, especially in the works of Bach. Lambarene resembled not so much a hospital as a native village where physicians cared for the sick. 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. brought to a halt lest nests of ants be killed or disturbed. in Greek, chapters that contain Jesus' injunctions to His apostles, among them the one that commands, "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have Schweitzer also studied piano under Isidor Philipp, head of the piano department at the Paris Conservatory. It was a search that had haunted him, driven him, since childhood. He maintained, instead, that man must rationally formulate an ethical creed and then strive to put it into practice. Many of his basic ideas have been adopted without having his name connected with them. [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. Albert Schweitzer. This new form of activity I could not represent to myself as talking 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. [70] After three decades in Africa, Schweitzer still depended on Europe for nurses.[71]. Albert Schweitzer, OM (14 January 1875 - 4 September 1965) was a French-German theologian, organist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician. In 1898, he returned to Paris to write a PhD dissertation on The Religious Philosophy of Kant at the Sorbonne, and to study in earnest with Widor. 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. [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. [29] It became his custom to play during the lunch hour and on Sunday afternoons. 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. Indeed, building was often Franco-German yet cosmopolitan in culture, he drew deeply from the music and philosophy of the 18th century, especially Bach, Goethe and Kant. [18], The exposition of these ideas, encouraged by Widor and Munch, became Schweitzer's last task, and appeared in the masterly study J. S. Bach: Le Musicien-Pote, written in French and published in 1905. [7] The medieval parish church of Gunsbach was shared by the Protestant and Catholic congregations, which held their prayers in different areas at different times on Sundays. There were no significant differences in all-cause and cardiovascular death, stroke and major adverse cardiovascular events. Next, Schweitzer poses the question: "Of what precise kind then is the mysticism of Paul?" Hundreds flocked to hear him and to importune him. [4][5] He spent his childhood in Gunsbach, also in Alsace, where his father, the local Lutheran-Evangelical pastor of the EPCAAL, taught him how to play music. [68], American journalist John Gunther visited Lambarn in the 1950s and reported Schweitzer's patronizing attitude towards Africans. OPP!". in 1913 with specialization qualifications in tropical medicine and surgery. Basketball, Argument, Life Is. Dr. Howard Markel writes a monthly column for the PBS NewsHour, highlighting the anniversary of a momentous event that continues to shape modern medicine. An ethical human strives to escape from this contradiction so far as possible. There is always something to make you wonder in the shape of a tree, the trembling of a leaf.". 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 . The film The Legacy of Albert Schweitzer, narrated by Henry Fonda, was produced by Warner Brothers and aired once. He is a figure designed by rationalism, endowed with life by liberalism, and clothed by modern theology in a historical garb. The technique has since been used to record many modern instruments. 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). Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) was a brilliant philosopher, physician, musician, clergyman and theological scholar. Schweitzer was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize of 1952,[79] accepting the prize with the speech, "The Problem of Peace". Everything was heavily decayed, and building and doctoring progressed together for months. Subscribe to Heres the Deal, our politics In recent years, many have taken him to task for decidedly paternalistic and racist descriptions of his African patients that would offend many a 21st century observer. READ MORE: No, Oscar Wilde probably didnt die of syphilis. [80] With the $33,000 prize money, he started the leprosarium at Lambarn. His philosophy, he often stated, was built upon the principle of a reverence for life and the religious and ethical imperatives of helping others. Amid a hail of protests from his friends, family and colleagues, he resigned his post and re-entered the university as a student in a three-year course towards the degree of Doctorate in Medicine, a subject in which he had little knowledge or previous aptitude. LAMBARENE, GABON, Sept. 5--Albert Schweitzer died last night in his jungle hospital here. Other selections are on Philips GBL 5509. All Rights Reserved. Schweitzer presents Bach as a religious mystic, as cosmic as the forces of nature. 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.