Happy Birthday Dr. Albert Schweitzer!

Posted by
Tel Asiado
Jan 14, 2009

This day, January 14 (1875), is the birthday of Albert Schweitzer, French medical missionary, theologican, physician, philosopher and musician. He was multi-awarded including the 1953 Nobel Peace Prize for medical and other works in Africa.

Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) was born in Kaysersberg, Alsace, but brought up in Guensbach in the Muenster Valley, where he attended the local school. He studied theology and philosophy at Strasbourg and learned the organ in Paris. In 1896 he decided to live for science and art until he was 30 years old, then he devoted his life to serving humanity.

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." He was also a lecturer in Oxford, London and Edinburgh.

He is most famous for founding the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Lambaréné, now in Gabon, West Central Africa (then French Equatorial Africa). As a music scholar and organist, he studied the music of JS Bach and influenced the organ reform movement. Albert Schweitzer wrote several books including On the Edge of the Primeval Forest, Out of my Life and Thought, and From my African Notebook.