View source for Albert Schweitzer

{{Short description|German polymath (1875–1965)}}
{{For-multi|the film|Albert Schweitzer (film){{!}}''Albert Schweitzer'' (film)|the American artist|Albert Schweitzer (artist)|other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2022}}
{{use British English|date=March 2020}}
{{Infobox scientist
| honorific_prefix  = [[The Reverend]]
| name              = Albert Schweitzer
| honorific_suffix  = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|OM|size=100%}}
| image             = Bundesarchiv Bild 183-D0116-0041-019, Albert Schweitzer.jpg
| caption           = Schweitzer in 1955
| birth_date        = {{birth date|df=yes|1875|01|14}}
| birth_place       = [[Kaysersberg]], [[Alsace–Lorraine]], German&nbsp;Empire
| death_date        = {{death date and age|df=yes|1965|9|4|1875|1|14}}
| death_place       = [[Lambaréné]], Gabon
| citizenship       = {{unbulleted list | Germany (until 1919) | France (from 1919)}}
| doctoral_advisor  = {{unbulleted list | [[Theobald Ziegler]] | [[Heinrich Julius Holtzmann]] | {{Interlanguage link|Robert Wollenberg|de|3=Robert Wollenberg|lt=Robert Wollenberg|v=ib}}}}
| doctoral_students =
| known_for         = {{unbulleted list | [[Quest for the historical Jesus]] | [[Reverence for Life]] | [[Consistent eschatology|Consistent "thorough-going" eschatology]] (posthumously)}}
| spouse            = {{marriage|[[Helene Bresslau Schweitzer|Helene Bresslau]]|June 1912|1957|end=d}}
| field             = {{hlist | Medicine | [[musicology]] | philosophy | theology}}
| work_institutions = 
| alma_mater        = [[University of Strasbourg]]
| prizes            = {{Plainlist|
* [[Goethe Prize]] (1928)
* [[Nobel Peace Prize]] (1952)
* [[James Cook Medal]] (1959)
}} 
}}
'''Ludwig Philipp Albert Schweitzer''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|OM}} ({{IPA|de|ˈalbɛʁt ˈʃvaɪtsɐ|lang|De-Albert Schweitzer.ogg}}; 14 January 1875&nbsp;– 4 September 1965) was a German [[polymath]] from [[Alsace]]. He was a theologian, organist, musicologist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician. As a [[Lutheran minister]], Schweitzer challenged both the secular view of the [[historical Jesus]] as depicted by the [[historical-critical method]] current at this time, as well as the traditional [[Christology|Christian view]]. His contributions to the interpretation of [[Pauline Christianity]] concern the role of [[Paul the Apostle|Paul]]'s [[mysticism]] of "being in Christ" as primary and the doctrine of [[justification by faith]] as secondary.

He received the 1952 [[Nobel Peace Prize]] for his philosophy of "[[Reverence for Life]]",<ref>{{Citation | contribution-url = http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1952/press.html | contribution = Award Ceremony Speech | title = The Nobel Peace Prize 1952 | first = Albert | last = Schweitzer | publisher = The Nobel prize | date = 10 December 1953 }}.</ref> becoming the eighth Frenchman to be awarded that prize. His philosophy was expressed in many ways, but most famously in founding and sustaining the [[Hôpital Albert Schweitzer]] in [[Lambaréné]], [[French Equatorial Africa]] (now [[Gabon]]). As a music scholar and organist, he studied the music of German composer [[Johann Sebastian Bach]] and influenced the [[Organ reform movement|Organ Reform Movement]] (''Orgelbewegung'').

==Early years==
[[File:KaysersbergAS.jpg|thumb|upright|Albert Schweitzer's birthplace in [[Kaysersberg]], now in [[Alsace]] in France]]
[[File:Émile Schneider, Portrait d'Albert Schweitzer.jpg|thumb|upright|Schweitzer in 1912. Oil on canvas painting by [[Émile Schneider (painter)|Émile Schneider]], [[Strasbourg Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art]]]]
Schweitzer was born on 14 January 1875 in [[Kaysersberg]] in Alsace, in what had less than four years previously become the [[Alsace-Lorraine|Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine]] in the [[German Empire]]. He later became a citizen of France after World War I, when Alsace became French territory again. He was the son of Adèle (née Schillinger) and Louis Théophile Schweitzer.{{sfn|Oermann|2016|p=43}}{{sfn|Free|1988|p=74}} He spent his childhood in [[Gunsbach]], also in Alsace, where his father, the local [[Lutheran|Lutheran-Evangelical]] pastor of the [[EPCAAL]], taught him how to play music.<ref>{{Citation | archive-date = 26 April 2006 | url = http://schweitzer.org/dutch/asstamm.htm | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060426004850/http://schweitzer.org/dutch/asstamm.htm | title = Stammbaum – Genealogic tree Arbre généalogique de la famille Schweitze | publisher = Schweitzer}}.</ref> The tiny village would become home to the [[Association Internationale Albert Schweitzer]] (AIAS).<ref>{{Citation | url = http://www.schweitzer.org/ | title = Association Internationale Albert Schweitzer | access-date = 1 August 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101209001311/http://www.schweitzer.org/ | archive-date = 9 December 2010 | url-status = dead }}.</ref>

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. This compromise arose after the [[Protestant Reformation]] and the [[Thirty Years' War]]. Schweitzer, the pastor's son, grew up in this exceptional environment of religious tolerance, and developed the belief that true Christianity should always work towards a unity of faith and purpose.{{sfn|Seaver|1951|p=3–9}}

Schweitzer's first language was the [[Alsatian dialect]] of German. At the [[Mulhouse]] [[Gymnasium (school)|gymnasium]] he received his "[[Abitur]]" (the certificate at the end of secondary education) in 1893. He studied organ in Mulhouse from 1885 to 1893 with Eugène Munch, organist at the Protestant cathedral, who inspired Schweitzer with his enthusiasm for the music of German composer [[Richard Wagner]].<ref>A. Schweitzer, ''Eugene Munch'' (J. Brinkmann, Mulhouse 1898).</ref> In 1893, he played for the French organist [[Charles-Marie Widor]] (at [[Saint-Sulpice, Paris]]), for whom [[Johann Sebastian Bach]]'s organ music contained a mystic sense of the eternal. Widor, deeply impressed, agreed to teach Schweitzer without fee, and a great and influential friendship thus began.{{sfn|Joy|1953|p=23–24}}

From 1893 Schweitzer studied [[Protestant theology]] at the [[University of Strasbourg|Kaiser Wilhelm University]] in [[Strasbourg]]. There he also received instruction in piano and [[counterpoint]] from professor Gustav Jacobsthal, and associated closely with Ernest Munch, the brother of his former teacher, organist of St William church, who was also a passionate admirer of J. S. Bach's music.{{sfn|Joy|1953|p=24}} Schweitzer served his one-year compulsory military service in 1894. Schweitzer saw many operas of Richard Wagner in Strasbourg under [[Otto Lohse]], and in 1896 he managed to afford a visit to the [[Bayreuth Festival]] to see Wagner's {{lang|de|[[Der Ring des Nibelungen]]}} and ''[[Parsifal]]'', both of which impressed him.<ref name="Schweitzer">George N. Marshall, David Poling, [https://books.google.com/books?id=UC5sXn1CwT4C&pg=PA24 ''Schweitzer''], JHU Press, 2000, {{ISBN|0-8018-6455-0}}</ref>

In 1898, he returned to Paris to write a PhD dissertation on ''The Religious Philosophy of [[Immanuel Kant|Kant]]'' at the [[University of Paris|Sorbonne]], and to study in earnest with Widor. Here he often met with the elderly [[Aristide Cavaillé-Coll]]. He also studied piano at that time with [[Marie Jaëll]].<ref name="Schweitzer"/> In 1899, Schweitzer spent the summer semester at the [[Humboldt University of Berlin|University of Berlin]] and eventually obtained his theology degree at the [[University of Strasbourg]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w9nDF2hsN1oC&q=Albert+Schweitzer+university+of+berlin&pg=PA243|title=Albert Schweitzer's Ethical Vision A Sourcebook|last=Cicovacki|first=Predrag|date=2 February 2009|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=9780199703326|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fLRADgok_a0C&q=Albert+Schweitzer+berlin&pg=PR20|title=Albert Schweitzer-helene Bresslau: the Years Prior to Lambarene|last1=Schweitzer|first1=Albert|last2=Bresslau|first2=Helene|last3=Stewart|first3=Nancy|date=2003|publisher=Syracuse University Press|isbn=9780815629948|language=en}}</ref>{{sfn|Brabazon|2000|p=84}}<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1952/schweitzer-bio.html|title=Albert Schweitzer – Biographical|website=nobelprize.org|access-date=10 March 2018}}</ref> He published his PhD thesis at the [[University of Tübingen]] in 1899.{{sfn|Joy|1953|p=24–25}}

In 1905, Schweitzer began his study of medicine at the University of Strasbourg, culminating in the degree of M.D. in 1913.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />

==Music==
Schweitzer rapidly gained prominence as a musical scholar and organist, dedicated also to the rescue, restoration and study of historic [[pipe organ]]s. With theological insight, he interpreted the use of pictorial and symbolical representation in [[Johann Sebastian Bach|J. S. Bach's]] religious music. 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. They were works of devotional contemplation in which the musical design corresponded to literary ideas, conceived visually. Widor had not grown up with knowledge of the old [[Lutheran]] hymns.{{sfn|Seaver|1951|p=20}}

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-Poète'', written in French and published in 1905. There was great demand for a German edition, but, instead of translating it, he decided to rewrite it.<ref>Schweitzer, ''My Life and Thought'', pp. 80–81; cf. {{harvnb|Seaver|1951|pp=231–232}}</ref> The result was two volumes (''J. S. Bach''), which were published in 1908 and translated into English by [[Ernest Newman]] in 1911.{{sfn|Joy|1953|p=58–62}} [[Ernst Cassirer]], a contemporaneous German philosopher, called it "one of the best interpretations" of Bach.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Cassirer|first1=Ernst|editor1-last=Verene|editor1-first=Donald Phillip|title=Symbol, Myth, and Culture: Essays and Lectures of Ernst Cassirer 1935–1945|url=https://archive.org/details/symbolmythcultur0000cass|url-access=registration|date=1979|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven, Conn.|isbn=978-0-300-02666-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/symbolmythcultur0000cass/page/230 230]}}</ref>

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, Strasbourg|Temple Neuf]].<ref>Schweitzer, in {{harvnb|Joy|1953|pp=53–57}}</ref> Schweitzer's interpretative approach greatly influenced the modern understanding of Bach's music. He became a welcome guest at the Wagners' home, [[Wahnfried]].<ref>{{harvnb|Joy|1953|pp=53–57}}, quoting from and translating A. Schweitzer, 'Mes Souvenirs sur Cosima Wagner', in ''L'Alsace Française'', XXXV no. 7 (12 February 1933), p. 124ff.</ref> He also corresponded with composer [[Clara Mathilda Faisst|Clara Faisst]], who became a good friend.<ref>{{citation |title=Autobiographien von Frauen: ein Lexikon|author=Wedel, Gudrun|date=2010}}</ref>

[[File:Eglise St Thomas - Orgue de Choeur.JPG|thumb|The Choir Organ at [[St Thomas' Church, Strasbourg]], designed in 1905 on principles defined by Schweitzer]]
His 1906 pamphlet "The Art of Organ Building and Organ Playing in Germany and France",<ref>Reproduced in {{harvnb|Joy|1953|pp=127–129, 129–165}}: cf. also {{harvnb|Seaver|1951|pp=29–36}}</ref> 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 principles—although this sweeping reform movement in organ building eventually went further than Schweitzer had intended. In 1909, he addressed the ''Third Congress of the International Society of Music'' at [[Vienna]] on the subject. Having circulated a questionnaire among players and organ-builders in several European countries, he produced a very considered report.<ref>{{harvnb|Joy|1953|pp=165–166}}: Text of 1909 Questionnaire and Report, pp. 235–269.</ref>

This provided the basis for the ''International Regulations for Organ Building''. He envisaged instruments in which the French late-romantic full-organ sound should work integrally with the English and German romantic [[reed pipe]]s, and with the classical Alsace [[Gottfried Silbermann|Silbermann]] organ resources and baroque [[flue pipe]]s, all in registers regulated (by [[Organ stop|stops]]) to access distinct voices in [[fugue]] or [[counterpoint]] capable of combination without loss of distinctness: different voices singing the same music together.

Schweitzer also studied piano under [[Isidor Philipp]], head of the piano department at the [[Paris Conservatory]].

In 1905, Widor and Schweitzer were among the six musicians who founded the [[Paris Bach Society]], a choir dedicated to performing [[J. S. Bach]]'s music, for whose concerts Schweitzer took the organ part regularly until 1913. He was also appointed organist for the Bach Concerts of the Orféo Català at [[Barcelona]], Spain, and often travelled there for that purpose.{{sfn|Seaver|1951|p=20}} He and Widor collaborated on a new edition of [[List of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach#Works for organ|Bach's organ works]], with detailed analysis of each work in English, French, and German. 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 1912–14. Three more, to contain the Chorale Preludes with Schweitzer's analyses, were to be worked on in [[Africa]], but these were never completed, perhaps because for him they were inseparable from his evolving theological thought.{{sfn|Seaver|1951|p=44}}

On departure for Lambaréné in 1913, he was presented with a [[pedal piano]], a piano with pedal attachments to operate like an organ pedal-keyboard.<ref>Given by the Paris Bach Society, {{harvnb|Seaver|1951|p=63}}; but {{harvnb|Joy|1953|p=177}}, says it was given by the Paris Missionary Society.</ref> Built especially for the tropics, it was delivered by river in a huge dug-out canoe to Lambaréné, packed in a zinc-lined case. At first, he regarded his new life as a renunciation of his art, and fell out of practice, but after some time he resolved to study and learn by heart the works of Bach, [[Felix Mendelssohn|Mendelssohn]], Widor, [[César Franck]], and [[Max Reger]] systematically.{{sfn|Seaver|1951|p=63–64}} It became his custom to play during the lunch hour and on Sunday afternoons. Schweitzer's pedal piano was still in use at Lambaréné in 1946.<ref>{{harvnb|Joy|1953}} plate facing p. 177.</ref> According to a visitor, Dr. Gaine Cannon, of Balsam Grove, N.C., the old, dilapidated piano-organ was still being played by Dr. Schweitzer in 1962, and stories told that "his fingers were still lively" on the old instrument at 88 years of age.

Sir [[Donald Tovey]] dedicated his conjectural completion of Bach's ''[[The Art of Fugue]]'' to Schweitzer.{{citation needed|date=August 2024}}

Schweitzer's recordings of organ music, and his innovative recording technique, are described [[#Sound recordings|below]].

One of his pupils was conductor and composer [[Hans Münch (conductor)|Hans Münch]].{{citation needed|date=August 2024}}

==Theology==
[[File:Strasbourg Tram.JPG|thumb|[[Saint Nicholas Church, Strasbourg|Saint-Nicolas]], Strasbourg]]
In 1899, Schweitzer became a deacon at the [[Saint Nicholas Church, Strasbourg|church of Saint Nicholas]] in Strasbourg. In 1900, with the completion of his licentiate in theology, he was ordained as [[priest]], and that year he witnessed the [[Oberammergau Passion Play]]. In the following year, he became provisional Principal of the Theological College of [[Saint Thomas Church (Strasbourg)|Saint Thomas]], from which he had just graduated, and in 1903 his appointment was made permanent.{{NoteTag | He officiated at the wedding of [[Theodor Heuss]] (later the first President of West Germany) in 1908.{{sfn|Oermann|2016|p=101-102}}{{sfn|Brabazon|2000|p=422}}{{sfn|Pierhal|1956|p=63}}{{sfn|Pierhal|1957|p=63f}}<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Bulletin |journal=Bulletin des Presse- und Informationsamtes der Bundesregierung &#91;...&#93; &#91;Englische Ausgabe&#93; = the Bulletin |location=Bonn, West Germany |publisher=Press and Information Office | issn=0032-7794 |volume=9–10 |year=1962|page =[https://books.google.com/books?id=o03jAAAAMAAJ&q=schweitzer+wedding 36]}}</ref>}}

In 1906, he published ''Geschichte der Leben-Jesu-Forschung'' (History of Life-of-Jesus research). This book, which established his reputation, was first published in English in 1910 as ''[[The Quest of the Historical Jesus]]''. Under this title the book became famous in the English-speaking world. A second German edition was published in 1913, containing theologically significant revisions and expansions: this revised edition did not appear in English until 2001. In 1931, he published ''Mystik des Apostels Paulus'' (''The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle'').<ref>{{cite journal|author=Avey, Albert E.|author-link=Albert Edwin Avey|title=Review of ''The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle''|journal=The Philosophical Review|volume=43|issue=1|year=1934|pages=84–86|doi=10.2307/2179960 |jstor=2179960 |url=https://www.pdcnet.org/phr/content/phr_1934_0043_0001_0084_0086|url-access=subscription}}</ref> A second edition was published in 1953.

===''The Quest of the Historical Jesus'' (1906)===
{{Main|The Quest of the Historical Jesus}}
In ''The Quest'', Schweitzer criticised the liberal view put forward by liberal and romantic scholars during the first [[quest for the historical Jesus]]. Schweitzer maintained that the life of Jesus must be interpreted in the light of Jesus' own convictions, which reflected late Jewish [[eschatology]] and [[apocalypticism]].  Schweitzer writes:
{{blockquote|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 existed. He is a figure designed by rationalism, endowed with life by liberalism, and clothed by modern theology in a historical garb. This image has not been destroyed from outside; it has fallen to pieces...<ref>{{cite book | last = Schweitzer | first = Albert | author-link =Albert Schweitzer |title=The Quest of the Historical Jesus |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=uzRXxvPsylkC&pg=PA478 |year=2001 |publisher= Fortress Press |page = 478 |isbn = 9781451403541 }}</ref>}}

Instead of these liberal and romantic views, Schweitzer wrote that Jesus and his followers expected the imminent end of the world.<ref>{{cite book|last=Ehrman|first=Bart D.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hf5Rj8EtsPkC&pg=PT11|title=Did Jesus Exist?: The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth|date=20 March 2012|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=978-0-06-208994-6|pages=11–|quote=I agree with Schweitzer's overarching view, that Jesus is best understood as a Jewish prophet who anticipated a cataclysmic break in history in the very near future, when God would destroy the forces of evil to bring in his own kingdom here on earth.|authorlink=Bart D. Ehrman}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{cite web | publisher = Pcisys | url = http://home.pcisys.net/~jnf/schauth/rq2.html | title = Review of "The Mystery of the Kingdom of God" }}</ref> {{Failed verification|date=October 2019}}

He wrote that in his view, in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus speaks of a "tribulation", with his "coming in the clouds with great power and glory." In Mark 13:30 
Jesus says "This generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place." In Matthew 16:28 Jesus says “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” Obviously, Jesus and his followers truly believed that he would return within the disciples lifetime and specifically states the timeframe that it will happen, but it has not! "This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled" (Matthew, 24:34) or, "have taken place" (Luke 21:32). 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." (Revelation 22:20). Either Jesus, his disciples and/or the noted chapter authors were and remain seriously mistaken; the promised second return timeframe has long ago passed.

Schweitzer concluded his treatment of Jesus with what has been called the most famous words of twentieth-century theology:

{{blockquote|"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.  He speaks to us the same word:  'Follow thou me' and sets us to the task which He has to fulfill for our time.  He commands.  And to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal Himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings which they shall pass through in His fellowship, and as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience Who He is."<ref>''The Quest of the Historical Jesus''. Macmillan. 1910. p. 403.</ref>}}

===''The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle'' (1931)===
In ''The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle'', Schweitzer first distinguishes between two categories of [[mysticism]]: primitive and developed.{{Sfn | Schweitzer | 1931 | p = 1}} Primitive mysticism "has not yet risen to a conception of the universal, and is still confined to naive views of earthly and super-earthly, temporal and eternal". Additionally, he argues that this view of a "union with the divinity, brought about by efficacious ceremonies, is found even in quite primitive religions".{{Sfn | Schweitzer | 1931 | p = 1}}

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. These included the cults of [[Attis]], [[Osiris]], and [[Mithras]]. 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". Schweitzer claims that this form of mysticism is more intellectual and can be found "among the [[Brahman]]s and in the [[Buddha]], in [[Platonism]], in [[Stoicism]], in [[Spinoza]], [[Schopenhauer]], and [[Hegel]]".{{Sfn | Schweitzer | 1931 | p = 2}}

Next, Schweitzer poses the question: "Of what precise kind then is the mysticism of Paul?" He locates Paul between the two extremes of primitive mysticism and developed mysticism. Paul stands high above primitive mysticism, due to his intellectual writings, but never speaks of being one with God or being in God. Instead, he conceives of [[Adoption (theology)|sonship]] to God as "mediated and effected by means of the mystical union with Christ".{{Sfn | Schweitzer | 1931 | p = 3 }} He summarizes Pauline mysticism as "being in Christ" rather than "being in God".

Paul's imminent [[eschatology]], from his background in [[Jewish eschatology]], causes him to believe that the kingdom of God has not yet come and that Christians are now living in the time of Christ. Christ-mysticism holds the field until God-mysticism becomes possible, which is in the near future.{{Sfn | Schweitzer | 1931 | p = 13}} Therefore, Schweitzer argues that Paul is the only theologian who does not claim that Christians can have an experience of "being-in-God". Rather, Paul uses the phrase "being-in-Christ" to illustrate how Jesus is a mediator between the Christian community and God. Additionally, Schweitzer explains how the experience of "being-in-Christ" is not a "static partaking in the spiritual being of Christ, but as the real co-experiencing of His dying and rising again". The "realistic" partaking in the mystery of Jesus is only possible within the solidarity of the Christian community.{{Sfn | Schweitzer | 1931 | p = 13 }}

One of Schweitzer's major arguments in ''The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle'' is that Paul's mysticism, marked by his phrase "being in Christ", gives the clue to the whole of Pauline theology. Rather than reading [[justification by faith]] as the main topic of Pauline thought, which has been the most popular argument set forward by [[Martin Luther]], Schweitzer argues that Paul's emphasis was on the mystical union with God by "being in Christ". [[Jaroslav Pelikan]], in his foreword to ''The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle'', points out that:

{{blockquote|the relation between the two doctrines was quite the other way around: 'The doctrine of the redemption, which is mentally appropriated through faith, is only a fragment from the more comprehensive mystical redemption-doctrine, which Paul has broken off and polished to give him the particular refraction which he requires.{{Sfn | Schweitzer | 1931 | p = xvi}}}}

====Paul's "realism" versus Hellenistic "symbolism"====
Schweitzer contrasts Paul's "realistic" dying and rising with Christ to the "symbolism" of [[Hellenism (Greek culture)|Hellenism]]. Although Paul is widely influenced by Hellenistic thought, he is not controlled by it. 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]].{{Sfn | Schweitzer | 1931 | p = 16}} After baptism, Christians are continually renewed throughout their lifetimes due to participation in the dying and rising with Christ (most notably through the [[Sacraments of the Catholic Church|Sacraments]]). 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.{{Sfn | Schweitzer | 1931 | p = 17}}

Another major difference between Paul's "realism" and Hellenistic "symbolism" is the exclusive nature of the former and the inclusive nature of the latter. Schweitzer unabashedly emphasizes the fact that "Paul's thought follows [[Predestination|predestinarian]] lines".{{Sfn | Schweitzer | 1931 | p = 103 }} He explains, "only the man who is [[Election (Christianity)|elected]] thereto can enter into relation with God".{{Sfn | Schweitzer | 1931 | p = 9 }} Although every human being is invited to become a Christian, only those who have undergone the initiation into the Christian community through [[baptism]] can share in the "realistic" dying and rising with Christ.

==Medicine==
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. The committee of this missionary society was not ready to accept his offer, considering his Lutheran theology to be "incorrect".<!-- Wouldn't the fact that Schweitzer wasn't a physician be an equally likely reason? -->{{sfn|Seaver|1951|p=40}} He could easily have obtained a place in a German evangelical mission, but wished to follow the original call despite the doctrinal difficulties. Amid a hail of protests from his friends, family and colleagues, he resigned from 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. He planned to spread the Gospel by the example of his Christian labour of healing, rather than through the verbal process of preaching, and believed that this service should be acceptable within any branch of Christian teaching.

Even in his study of medicine, and through his clinical course, Schweitzer pursued the ideal of the philosopher-scientist. By extreme application and hard work, he completed his studies successfully at the end of 1911. His medical degree dissertation was another work on the historical Jesus, ''Die psychiatrische Beurteilung Jesu. Darstellung und Kritik''<ref>{{cite book |last=Schweitzer |first=Albert |title=Die psychiatrische Beurteilung Jesu: Darstellung und Kritik |publisher=J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck) |location=Tübingen |year=1913 |language=de |lccn=13021072 |oclc=5903262 |ol=OL20952265W |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/diepsychiatrisch0000schw }}</ref> (The psychiatric evaluation of Jesus. Description and criticism), published in English in 1948 as ''The Psychiatric Study of Jesus. Exposition and Criticism''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Schweitzer |first=Albert |translator-last=Joy |translator-first=Charles R. |title=The Psychiatric Study of Jesus: Exposition and Criticism |publisher=Beacon Press |location=Boston |year=1948 |lccn=48006488 |oclc=614572512 |ol=OL6030284M |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/psychiatricstudy00schw}}</ref> He defended [[Mental health of Jesus|Jesus' mental health]] in it.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Seidel |first=Michael |title=Albert Schweitzer's MD thesis on Criticism of the medical pathographies on Jesus |journal=Würzburger medizinhistorische Mitteilungen |publisher=[[Königshausen & Neumann]] |volume=28 |issue=1 |date= January 2009 |pages=276–300 |issn=0177-5227 |pmid=20509445}}</ref> In June 1912, he married [[Helene Bresslau Schweitzer|Helene Bresslau]], municipal inspector for orphans and daughter of the Jewish pan-Germanist historian [[Harry Bresslau]].<ref name = "Marxsen">Marxsen, Patti M. ''Helene Schweitzer: A Life of Her Own''. First edition. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 2015.</ref>

In 1912, now armed with a medical degree, Schweitzer made a definite proposal to go as a physician to work at his own expense in the Paris Missionary Society's mission at [[Lambaréné]] on the [[Ogooué]] river, in what is now Gabon, in Africa, then a French colony. He refused to attend a committee to inquire into his doctrine, but met each committee member personally and was at last accepted. Through concerts and other fund-raising, he was ready to equip a small hospital.<ref>''From the Primeval Forest'', Chapter 1.</ref>

In early 1913, he and his wife set off to establish a hospital, the [[Hôpital Albert Schweitzer]], near an existing mission post. The site was nearly 200 miles, 14 days by raft,<ref>''From the Primeval Forest'', Chapter 6.</ref> upstream from the mouth of the Ogooué at [[Port Gentil]] ([[Cape Lopez]]). It was accessible to external communications, but downstream of most tributaries, so that internal communications within Gabon converged towards Lambaréné.

[[File:Bassin versant de l'Ogooué-fr.svg|thumb|The catchment area of the [[Ogooué River]] occupies most of Gabon. [[Lambaréné]] is marked centre left.]]
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. In addition to injuries, he was often treating severe [[Tunga penetrans|sandflea]] and [[Onchocerciasis|crawcraw]] infections, ''[[framboesia|yaws]]'', tropical [[Ulcer (dermatology)|eating sores]], heart disease, tropical [[dysentery]], tropical [[malaria]], [[African trypanosomiasis|sleeping sickness]], [[leprosy]], fevers, strangulated [[hernia]]s, [[necrosis]], abdominal tumours and chronic [[constipation]] and [[nicotine poisoning]], while also attempting to deal with deliberate poisonings, [[fetishism]] and fear of [[Human cannibalism|cannibalism]] among the [[Ethnic groups in Gabon|Mbahouin]].

Schweitzer's wife, [[Helene Schweitzer]], served as an anaesthetist for surgical operations. 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. The waiting room and dormitory were built, like native huts, of unhewn logs along a path leading to the boat landing. The Schweitzers had their own bungalow and employed as their assistant Joseph, a French-speaking [[Mpongwe people|Mpongwe]], who first came to Lambaréné as a patient.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Monfried|first1=Walter|title=Admirers Call Dr. Schweitzer "Greatest Man in the World"|date=10 February 1947|location=Milwaukee, Wisconsin|pages=1, 3}}</ref><ref>''From the Primeval Forest'', Chapters 3–5.</ref>

After [[World War I]] broke out in July 1914, Schweitzer and his wife, German citizens in a French colony when the countries were at war, were put under supervision by the French military at Lambaréné, where Schweitzer continued his work.<ref>[http://www.schweitzer.org/german/as/asdbio.htm Albert Schweitzer 1875–1965] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071214021148/http://www.schweitzer.org/german/as/asdbio.htm |date=14 December 2007 }}. schweitzer.org (in German)</ref> In 1917, exhausted by over four years' work and by tropical [[anaemia]], they were taken to [[Bordeaux]] and interned first in [[Garaison]] and then from March 1918 in [[Saint-Rémy-de-Provence]]. In July 1918, after being transferred to his home in Alsace, he was a free man again. At this time Schweitzer, born a German citizen, had his parents' former pre-1871 French citizenship reinstated, and became a French citizen.

Working as a medical assistant and assistant-pastor in [[Strasbourg]], he advanced his project on the philosophy of civilization, which had occupied his mind since 1900. 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 1922, he delivered the Dale Memorial Lectures in the [[University of Oxford]], and from these in the following year appeared Volumes I and II of his great work, ''The Decay and Restoration of Civilization'' and ''Civilization and Ethics''. The two remaining volumes, on ''The World-View of Reverence for Life '' and a fourth on the Civilized State, were never completed.

In 1924, Schweitzer returned to Africa without his wife, but with an Oxford undergraduate, [[Noel Gillespie]], as his assistant. Everything was heavily decayed, and building and doctoring progressed together for months. He now had [[salvarsan]] for treating syphilitic ulcers and [[framboesia]]. Additional medical staff, nurse (Miss) Kottmann and Dr. Victor Nessmann,<ref>Nessmann worked with the [[French Resistance]] during the Second World War, was captured and executed by the [[Gestapo]] in [[Limoges]] in 1944. cf Guy Penaud, ''Dictionnaire Biographique de Périgord'', p. 713. {{ISBN|978-2-86577-214-8}}</ref> joined him in 1924, and Dr. Mark Lauterberg in 1925; the growing hospital was staffed by native orderlies. Later Dr. Trensz replaced Nessmann, and Martha Lauterberg and Hans Muggenstorm joined them. Joseph also returned. In 1925–6, new hospital buildings were constructed, and also a ward for white patients, so that the site became like a village. The onset of famine{{when|date=February 2025}}{{why|date=February 2025}} and a dysentery epidemic created fresh problems.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

Much of the building work was carried out with the help of local people and patients. Drug advances for sleeping sickness included [[Suramin|Germanin]] and {{interlanguage link|tryparsamide|de||fi||it}}. Trensz conducted experiments showing that the non-amoebic strain of dysentery was caused by a paracholera [[vibrion]] (facultative anaerobic bacteria). 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 was there again from 1929 to 1932. Gradually his opinions and concepts became acknowledged, not only in Europe, but worldwide. There was a further period of work in 1935. In January 1937, he returned to Lambaréné and continued working there throughout [[World War II]].

===Hospital conditions===
In 1953, the journalist [[James Cameron (journalist)|James Cameron]] visited Lambaréné, when Schweitzer was 78, and found significant flaws in the practices and attitudes of Schweitzer and his staff. The hospital suffered from squalor and was without modern amenities, and Schweitzer had little contact with the local people.<ref>{{cite book|last=Cameron|first=James|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WM89AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA154|title=Point of Departure|publisher=Law Book Co of Australasia|year=1966|isbn=9780853621751|pages=154–174|orig-year=1978}}</ref> Cameron did not make public what he had seen at the time: according to a BBC dramatisation, he made the unusual journalistic decision to withhold the story, and resisted the expressed wish of his employers to publish an exposé.<ref>On Monday 7 April 2008 ([http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b009przg "The Walrus and the Terrier"]&nbsp;– programme outline) [[BBC Radio 4]] broadcast an ''[[The Afternoon Play (BBC)|Afternoon Play]]'' "The Walrus and the Terrier" by Christopher Ralling concerning Cameron's visit.</ref>

The poor conditions of the hospital in Lambaréné were also famously criticized by Nigerian professor and novelist [[Chinua Achebe]] in his essay on [[Joseph Conrad]]'s novel ''[[Heart of Darkness]]'': "In a comment which has often been quoted Schweitzer says: 'The African is indeed my brother but my junior brother.' 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."<ref name=":0" />

Schweitzer's biographer [[Edgar Berman]], who was a volunteer surgeon at Lambarene for several months and had extended conversations with Schweitzer, has a different perspective.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Berman |first=Edgar |title=In Africa with Schweitzer |publisher=New Horizon Press |year=1986 |isbn=0-88282-025-7 |location=Far Hills, New Jersey, U.S.}}</ref>  Schweitzer felt that patients were better off, and the hospital functioned better given the severe lack of funding, if patients' families lived on the hospital grounds during treatment.  Surgical survival rates were, Berman asserts, as high as in many fully equipped western hospitals.  The volume of patients needing care, the difficulty of obtaining materials and supplies, and the scarcity of trained medical staff willing to work long hours in the remote setting for almost no pay all argued for a spartan setting with an emphasis on high medical standards nevertheless.

==Schweitzer's views==
===Colonialism===
Schweitzer considered his work as a medical missionary in Africa to be his response to Jesus' call to become "fishers of men".

{{blockquote|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.}}

Schweitzer was one of colonialism's harshest critics. In a sermon that he preached on 6 January 1905, before he had told anyone of his plans to dedicate the rest of his life to work as a physician in Africa, he said:{{sfn|Schweitzer|2005|p=76–80}}

{{blockquote|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 colour 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{{nbsp}}...}}In a second memoir, he exalted colonialism as a moral good: <blockquote>When the indigenous people express their discontent for being dominated by the whites, I tell them that without us they would no longer exist, since they would have killed each other off or would have ended up in the cooking-pot of the Pahouins [also known as the Fang, a leading Gabonese tribe]. They cannot rebut this argument. In general, despite the mischief for which the whites are guilty in their work of colonisation everywhere, they can however assert that they have brought peace to conquered peoples.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-02-14 |title=The Legacy of Albert Schweitzer {{!}} Commonweal Magazine |url=https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/albert-schweitzer-racism-africa-medicine-Lambarene |access-date=2025-08-31 |website=www.commonwealmagazine.org |language=en}}</ref></blockquote>

===Paternalism===
Schweitzer was nonetheless still sometimes accused of being [[paternalistic]] in his attitude towards Africans.{{sfn|Brabazon|2000|p=253-256}} For instance, he thought that [[Independence of Gabon|Gabonese independence]] came too early, without adequate education or accommodation to local circumstances. [[Edgar Berman]] quotes Schweitzer as having said 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."<ref>{{Citation | last = Berman | first = Edgar | title = In Africa With Schweitzer | place = Far Hills, New Jersey| publisher = New Horizon Press | year = 1986 | page = [https://archive.org/details/inafricawithschw0000berm/page/139 139] | isbn = 978-0-88282-025-5 | url = https://archive.org/details/inafricawithschw0000berm/page/139 }}.</ref> Schweitzer believed dignity and respect must be extended to blacks, while also sometimes characterizing them as children.<ref name="forest" />

He summarized his views on European-African relations by saying "With regard to the [[negro]]es, then, I have coined the formula: 'I am your brother, it is true, but your elder brother.'"<ref name="forest">{{harvnb|Schweitzer|1924|p=[https://archive.org/stream/ontheedgeofthepr007259mbp#page/n163/mode/2up 130]}}</ref> [[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.<ref name=":0">Chinua Achebe. [http://social.chass.ncsu.edu/wyrick/debclass/achcon.htm "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060118110823/http://social.chass.ncsu.edu/wyrick/debclass/achcon.htm |date=18 January 2006 }}&nbsp;– the [[Massachusetts Review]]. 1977. (c/o [[North Carolina State University]])</ref> Schweitzer eventually emended and complicated this notion with his later statement that "The time for speaking of older and younger brothers has passed".<ref>Quoted by {{cite book |last=Forrow |first=Lachlan |chapter=Foreword | editor-last=Russell | editor-first=C.E.B. | title=African Notebook | publisher=Syracuse University Press | series=Albert Schweitzer library | year=2002 | isbn=978-0-8156-0743-4 | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qa-TVXEkY3sC&pg=PR13|page=xiii}}</ref>

American journalist [[John Gunther]] visited Lambaréné in the 1950s and reported Schweitzer's patronizing attitude towards Africans. He also noted the lack of Africans trained to be skilled workers.<ref>{{cite book | title = Inside Africa | url = https://archive.org/details/insideafrica00gunt | url-access = registration | publisher=Harper | location = New York | year = 1955}}</ref> By comparison, his English contemporary [[Albert Ruskin Cook]] in Uganda had been training nurses and midwives since the 1910s, and had published a manual of midwifery in the local language of [[Luganda]].<ref>{{cite book | title = Amagezi Agokuzalisa | publisher=Sheldon Press | location = London}}</ref> After three decades in Africa, Schweitzer still depended on Europe for nurses.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Paget|first=James Carleton|date=2012|title=Albert Schweitzer and Africa|journal=Journal of Religion in Africa|volume=24|issue=3|pages=277–316|doi=10.1163/15700666-12341230|jstor=41725476}}</ref>

In line with his well-documented racial views, he once summarized: <blockquote>A word in conclusion about the relations between the whites and the blacks. What must be the general character of the intercourse between them? Am I to treat the black man as my equal or my inferior? I must show him that I can respect the dignity of the human personality in every one, and this attitude in me he must be able to see for himself; but the essential thing is that there should be a real feeling of brotherliness. How far this is to find complete expression in the sayings and doings of daily life must be settled by circumstances. The negro is a child, and with children nothing can be done without the use of authority. We must therefore so arrange the circumstances of daily life that my natural authority can find expression. With regard to the negroes, then, I have coined the formula: “I am your brother, it is true, but your elder brother.”<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-02-14 |title=The Legacy of Albert Schweitzer {{!}} Commonweal Magazine |url=https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/albert-schweitzer-racism-africa-medicine-Lambarene |access-date=2025-08-31 |website=www.commonwealmagazine.org |language=en}}</ref></blockquote>

==Reverence for life==
{{Main|Reverence for Life}}

[[File:Albert Schweitzer 1955.jpg|thumb|upright|Schweitzer in 1955]]
The keynote of Schweitzer's personal philosophy, which he considered to be his greatest contribution to mankind, was the idea of ''[[Reverence for Life]]'' ({{lang|de|Ehrfurcht vor dem Leben}}). He thought that [[Western culture|Western civilization]] was decaying because it had abandoned affirmation of life as its [[Ethics|ethical]] foundation.

In the Preface to ''Civilization and Ethics'' (1923) he argued that Western philosophy from [[René Descartes|Descartes]] to [[Immanuel Kant|Kant]] had set out to explain the objective world expecting that humanity would be found to have a special meaning within it. But no such meaning was found, and the rational, life-affirming optimism of the [[Age of Enlightenment]] began to evaporate. A rift opened between this world-view, as material knowledge, and the life-view, understood as [[Will (philosophy)|Will]], expressed in the [[Pessimism|pessimist]] philosophies from [[Arthur Schopenhauer|Schopenhauer]] onward. 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.

Schweitzer wrote, "True philosophy must start from the most immediate and comprehensive fact of consciousness, and this may be formulated as follows: 'I am life which wills to live, and i exist in the midst of life which wills to live.{{'"}}<ref>''Civilization and Ethics'', Chapter 21, p. 253: reprinted as A. Schweitzer, ''The Philosophy of Civilization'' ([[Prometheus Books]], Buffalo 1987), Chapter 26.</ref> In nature one form of life must always prey upon another. However, human consciousness holds an awareness of, and sympathy for, the will of other beings to live. An ethical human strives to escape from this contradiction so far as possible.

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. Life and love are rooted in this same principle, in a personal spiritual relationship to the universe. Ethics themselves proceed from the need to respect the wish of other beings to exist as one does towards oneself. Even so, Schweitzer found many instances in world religions and philosophies in which the principle was denied, not least in the European Middle Ages, and in the Indian [[Brahmin]]ic philosophy.

For Schweitzer, mankind had to accept that objective reality is ethically neutral. It could then affirm a new Enlightenment through spiritual rationalism, by giving priority to [[Volition (psychology)|volition]] or ethical will as the primary meaning of life. Mankind had to choose to create the moral structures of civilization: the worldview must derive from the life-view, not vice versa. Respect for life, overcoming coarser impulses and hollow doctrines, leads the individual to live in the service of other people and of every living creature. In contemplation of the will-to-life, respect for the life of others becomes the highest principle and the defining purpose of humanity.<ref>''Civilization and Ethics'', Preface and Chapter II, "The Problem of the Optimistic World-View".</ref>

Such was the theory which Schweitzer sought to put into practice in his own life. According to some authors, Schweitzer's thought, and specifically his development of reverence for life, was influenced by [[Indian religions|Indian religious]] thought and in particular the [[Jainism|Jain]] principle of [[Ahimsa in Jainism|ahimsa]], or non-violence.<ref>Ara Paul Barsam (2002) "Albert Schweitzer, Jainism and reverence for life", in: ''Reverence for life: the ethics of Albert Schweitzer for the twenty-first century'', Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-8156-2977-1}} pp.&nbsp;207–208</ref> Albert Schweitzer noted the contribution of Indian influence in his book ''Indian Thought and Its Development'':<ref>Albert Schweitzer and Charles Rhind Joy (1947) ''Albert Schweitzer: an anthology'' Beacon Press</ref>

{{blockquote|The laying down of the commandment to not kill and to not damage is one of the greatest events in the spiritual history of mankind. Starting from its principle, founded on world and life denial, of abstention from action, ancient Indian thought&nbsp;– and this is a period when in other respects ethics have not progressed very far&nbsp;– reaches the tremendous discovery that ethics know no bounds. So far as we know, this is for the first time clearly expressed by Jainism.}}

Further on ahimsa and the reverence for life in the same book, he elaborates on the ancient Indian didactic work of the [[Tirukkural]], which he observed that, like the [[Buddha]] and the [[Bhagavad Gita]], "stands for the commandment not to kill and not to damage".<ref name="Maharajan_2017"/><ref name="Schweitzer2013"/> Translating several couplets from the work, he remarked that the Kural insists on the idea that "good must be done for its own sake" and said, "There hardly exists in the literature of the world a collection of maxims in which we find so much lofty wisdom."<ref name="Maharajan_2017">{{cite book |author= S. Maharajan |title= Tiruvalluvar |year= 2017 |edition = 2 | publisher=Sahitya Akademi |location= New Delhi | isbn=978-81-260-5321-6|pages=100–102}}</ref><ref name="Schweitzer2013">{{cite book |first= Albert |last=Schweitzer |title= Indian Thoughts and Its Development |year= 2013 |edition = | publisher=Read Books |location= Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada | isbn=978-14-7338-900-7|pages=200–205}}</ref>

Dr. Schweitzer had a great love of cats. "There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats" he stated.{{Citation needed|reason=with Schweitzer source|date=May 2024}}

==Later life==
[[File:Albert-Schweitzer-Haus.jpg|thumb|The Schweitzer house and Museum at [[Königsfeld im Schwarzwald|Königsfeld]] in the Black Forest]]
After the birth of their daughter ([[Rhena Schweitzer Miller]]), Albert's wife, Helene Schweitzer was no longer able to live in Lambaréné due to her health. In 1923, the family moved to [[Königsfeld im Schwarzwald]], Baden-Württemberg, where he was building a house for the family. This house is now maintained as a Schweitzer museum.<ref>[http://www.albertschweitzer-haus.de Schweitzer museum]</ref>

[[File:Albert Schweitzer-Archiv und Museum Gunsbach.jpg|thumb|Albert Schweitzer's house at [[Gunsbach]], now a museum and archive]]
From 1939 to 1948, he stayed in Lambaréné, unable to return to Europe because of the war. 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. During his return visits to his home village of Gunsbach, Schweitzer continued to use the family house, which after his death became an archive and museum of his life and work. 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. 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 was awarded the [[Nobel Peace Prize]] of 1952,<ref>{{cite web | title=The Nobel Peace Prize 1952 | website=The Nobel Foundation | date=21 May 2014 | url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1952/ | access-date=18 August 2017}}</ref> accepting the prize with the speech, "The Problem of Peace".{{sfn|Schweitzer|1954}} With the $33,000 prize money, he started the [[Leper colony|leprosarium]] at Lambaréné.<ref name=":2" /> From 1952 until his death he worked against [[nuclear tests]] and [[nuclear weapon]]s with [[Albert Einstein]], [[Otto Hahn]] 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 [[Peace Action|The Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy]]. On 23 April 1957, Schweitzer made his "Declaration of Conscience" speech; it was broadcast to the world over Radio Oslo, pleading for the abolition of nuclear weapons. 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."<ref>[http://tennesseeplayers.org/declaration.html Declaration of Conscience speech] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071016064238/http://tennesseeplayers.org/declaration.html |date=16 October 2007 }}&nbsp;– at Tennessee Players</ref>

Weeks prior to his death, an American film crew was allowed to visit Schweitzer and Drs. Muntz and Friedman, both [[Holocaust]] survivors, to record his work and daily life at the hospital. The film ''The Legacy of Albert Schweitzer'', narrated by [[Henry Fonda]], was produced by Warner Brothers and aired once. It resides in their vault today in deteriorating condition. Although several attempts have been made to restore and re-air the film, all access has been denied{{why|date=February 2025}}.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://culturedarm.com/albert-schweitzer-henry-fonda-lost-special/|title=Albert Schweitzer and Henry Fonda's Lost Special|date=20 January 2015|website=Culturedarm|language=en-US}}</ref>

In 1955, he was made an honorary member of the [[Order of Merit]] (OM) by [[Elizabeth II|Queen Elizabeth II]].<ref>
{{cite web |url=http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page1747.asp |title=List of Members of the Order of Merit, past and present |publisher=British Monarchy |access-date=2 December 2008}}</ref> He was also a [[Knight|chevalier]] of the [[Order of St Lazarus|Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem]].

[[File:Robert Brumter - Gabon 31.jpg|thumb|Schweitzer's grave in Lambaréné, marked by a cross he made himself]]
Schweitzer died on 4 September 1965 at his beloved hospital in Lambaréné, now in independent Gabon. His grave, on the banks of the [[Ogooué River]], is marked by a cross he made himself.

His cousin Anne-Marie Schweitzer Sartre was the mother of [[Jean-Paul Sartre]]. Her father, Charles Schweitzer, was the older brother of Albert Schweitzer's father, Louis Théophile.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://roglo.eu/roglo?lang=en&m=NG&n=Louis+Th%C3%A9ophile+Schweitzer&t=PN |title=Louis Théophile Schweitzer |publisher=Roglo.eu |access-date=18 October 2011}}{{Self-published source|date=May 2019}}</ref>{{Better source needed|date=May 2019}}

Schweitzer is often cited in vegetarian literature as being an advocate of vegetarianism in his later years.<ref>Barkas, Janet L. (1975). ''The Vegetable Passion''. Scribner. p. 131. {{ISBN|9780684139258}}</ref><ref>Gregerson, Jon. (1994). ''Vegetarianism: A History''. Jain Publishing Company. p. 104. {{ISBN|9780875730301}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ivu.org/history/europe20a/schweitzer.html |title=History of Vegetarianism&nbsp;– Dr Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) |publisher=Ivu.org |date=4 September 1965 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110521101835/http://ivu.org/history/europe20a/schweitzer.html| archive-date= 21 May 2011 | url-status= live}}</ref> Schweitzer was not a vegetarian in his earlier life. For example, in 1950, biographer Magnus C. Ratter commented that Schweitzer never "commit[ted] himself to the anti-vivisection, vegetarian, or pacifist positions, though his thought leads in this direction".<ref>Ratter, Magnus C. (1950). ''Albert Schweitzer: Life and Message''. Beacon Press. p. 179</ref> Biographer [[James Bentley (author)|James Bentley]] has written that Schweitzer became a vegetarian after his wife's death in 1957 and he was "living almost entirely on lentil soup".<ref>Brentley, James. (1992). ''Albert Schweitzer: The Enigma''. HarperCollins. p. 200. {{ISBN|9780060163648}}</ref> In contrast to this, historian [[David N. Stamos]] has written that Schweitzer was not a vegetarian in his personal life nor imposed it on his missionary hospital, but he did help animals and was opposed to hunting.<ref name="Stamos 2008">Stamos, David N. (2008). ''Evolution and the Big Questions: Sex, Race, Religion, and Other Matters''. Wiley. p. 175. {{ISBN|9781405149020}}</ref> Stamos noted that Schweitzer held the view that evolution ingrained humans with an instinct for meat, so it was useless in trying to deny it.<ref name="Stamos 2008"/>

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 Lambaréné Hospital today. Schweitzer considered his ethic of Reverence for Life, not his hospital, his most important legacy, saying that his Lambaréné Hospital was just "my own improvisation on the theme of Reverence for Life. Everyone can have their own Lambaréné".<ref name="The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship">{{cite web|url=http://www.Schweitzerfellowship.org |title=The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship |publisher=Schweitzerfellowship.org |date=23 June 2011 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110716093859/http://www.schweitzerfellowship.org/| archive-date= 16 July 2011 | url-status= live}}</ref>

Today, the ASF helps large numbers of young Americans in health-related professional fields find or create "their own Lambaréné" in the US or internationally. 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. The peer-supporting lifelong network of "Schweitzer Fellows for Life" numbered over 2,000 members in 2008, and is growing by nearly 1,000 every four years. Nearly 150 of these Schweitzer Fellows have served at the Hospital in Lambaréné, for three-month periods during their last year of medical school.<ref name="The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship"/>

;Schweitzer eponyms
Schweitzer's writings and life are often quoted,<ref name=Byers>See [https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/47146.Albert_Schweitzer quotations].
Byers, J.Q., 1996. ''Brothers in Spirit: the Correspondence of  Albert Schweitzer and William Larimer Mellon, Jr.'' (New York, Syracuse University Press).</ref> resulting in a number of [[eponym]]s, such as the 'Schweitzer technique' (discussed below), and the 'Schweitzer effect'. The 'Schweitzer effect' refers to his statement that 'Example is not the main thing in influencing others; it is the only thing'.<ref name=Byers/> This eponym is used in medical education to highlight the relationship between lived experience/example and medical students' opinions on professional behaviours.<ref>{{cite journal | doi=10.1080/0142159X.2023.2284660 | title=The Schweitzer effect: The fundamental relationship between experience and medical students' opinions on professional behaviours | date=2023 | last1=McGurgan | first1=Paul | last2=Calvert | first2=Katrina | last3=Celenza | first3=Antonio | last4=Nathan | first4=Elizabeth A. | last5=Jorm | first5=Christine | journal=Medical Teacher | volume=46 | issue=6 | pages=782–791 | doi-access=free | pmid=38048408 }}</ref>

<gallery>
File:Strasbourg, standbeeld Albert Schweitzer IMG 5441 2023-05-07 11.55.jpg|A statue of Albert Schweitzer in Strasbourg
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1984-0423-317, Weimar, Albert-Schweitzer-Gedenkstätte.jpg|The Albert Schweitzer Memorial and Museum in [[Weimar]], 1984
File:Albert Schweitzer.jpg|An Albert Schweitzer Monument in [[Wagga Wagga, New South Wales|Wagga Wagga]], Australia
</gallery>

==International Albert Schweitzer Prize==
The prize was first awarded on 29 May 2011 to [[Eugen Drewermann]] and the physician couple Rolf and Raphaela Maibach in [[Königsfeld im Schwarzwald]], where Schweitzer's former residence now houses the Albert Schweitzer Museum.<ref>{{cite web|author=<!-- vh2010-02-28 Foto:--><!-- rs2009-10-27 5810938 --> |url=http://www.suedkurier.de/region/schwarzwald-baar-heuberg/koenigsfeld/Koenigsfeld-feiert-bdquo-Schweitzer-Erben-ldquo-;art372523,4916774 |title=Königsfeld feiert ?Schweitzer-Erben? &#124; Südkurier Online |work=[[Südkurier]] |date=30 May 2011 }}</ref>

==Sound recordings==
Recordings of Schweitzer playing the music of Bach are available on CD. In 1934 and 1935 he resided in Britain, delivering the Gifford Lectures at [[Edinburgh University]], and those on ''Religion in Modern Civilization'' at [[University of Oxford|Oxford]] and [[University of London|London]]. He had originally conducted trials for recordings for [[His Master's Voice (British record label)|His Master's Voice]]  on the organ of the old [[Queen's Hall]] in London. These records did not satisfy him, the instrument being too harsh.<ref name="harrison-organs.co.uk">This 1909 [[Harrison and Harrison]] organ was destroyed in the war (cf W. Kent, The Lost Treasures of London (Phoenix House 1947), 94–95) and rebuilt in 1957, see {{cite web |url=http://www.harrison-organs.co.uk/london.html |title=Harrison & Harrison organ catalogue by name London |access-date=6 May 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080705030431/http://www.harrison-organs.co.uk/london.html |archive-date=5 July 2008}}.</ref>

In mid-December 1935, he began to record for [[Columbia Records]] on the organ of [[All Hallows-by-the-Tower|All Hallows, Barking-by-the-Tower]], London.<ref name="harrison-organs.co.uk"/> At his suggestion the sessions were transferred to the [[Saint Aurelia's Church, Strasbourg|church of Ste Aurélie]] in Strasbourg, on a mid-18th-century organ by Johann Andreas [[Gottfried Silbermann|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.{{sfn|Seaver|1951|p=139–152}}

===Schweitzer technique===

Schweitzer developed a technique for recording the performances of Bach's music;<ref>{{cite book |last1=Goodin |first1=David K. |title=An Agnostic in the Fellowship of Christ: The Ethical Mysticism of Albert Schweitzer |date=2019 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=9781978701571 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0iELEQAAQBAJ&dq=%22Schweitzer+Technique%22&pg=PT8 |access-date=21 May 2025}}</ref> or perhaps engineers developed it to record his performances.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Davies |first1=J.Q. |title=Creatures of the Air: Music, Atlantic Spirits, Breath, 1817–1913 |date=2023 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=9780226826141 |page=197 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uXDEEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Schweitzer+Technique%22&pg=PA197 |access-date=21 May 2025}}</ref> Known as the "Schweitzer technique", it is a slight improvement on what is commonly known as mid-side. The mid-side sees a [[Microphone#Bi-directional|figure-8 microphone]] pointed off-axis, perpendicular to the sound source. Then a single [[Microphone#Cardioid|cardioid microphone]] is placed on axis, bisecting the figure-8 pattern. The signal from the figure-8 is muted, panned hard left and right, one of the signals being flipped out of polarity.

In the Schweitzer method, the figure-8 is replaced by two small diaphragm [[Microphone#Condenser microphone|condenser microphones]] pointed directly away from each other. The information that each capsule collects is unique, unlike the identical out-of-polarity information generated from the figure-8 in a regular mid-side. The on-axis microphone is often a large diaphragm condenser. The technique has since been used to record many modern instruments.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}{{explain|date=May 2025}}

===Columbia recordings===
Altogether his early Columbia discs included 25 records of Bach and eight of César Franck. The Bach titles were mainly distributed as follows:
* '''Queen's Hall''': Organ Prelude and Fugue in E minor ([[Edition Peters]]{{NoteTag|Schweitzer's Bach recordings are usually identified with reference to the Peters Edition of the Organ-works in 9 volumes, edited by [[Friedrich Konrad Griepenkerl]] and Ferdinand August Roitzsch, in the form revised by [[Hermann Keller]].}} Vol 3, 10); {{lang|de|Herzlich thut mich verlangen}} (BWV 727); {{lang|de|Wenn wir in höchsten Nöten sein}} (Vol 7, 58 (Leipzig 18)).<ref>(78&nbsp;rpm HMV C 1532 and C 1543), cf. R.D. Darrell, ''The Gramophone Shop Encyclopedia of Recorded Music'' (New York 1936).</ref>
* '''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.<ref>(78&nbsp;rpm Columbia ROX 146–152), cf. Darrell 1936.</ref>
* '''Ste Aurélie''': Prelude and Fugue in C minor; Prelude and Fugue in E minor; Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Chorale Preludes: {{lang|de|Schmücke dich, O liebe Seele}} (Peters Vol 7, 49 (Leipzig 4)); {{lang|de|O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde groß}} (Vol 5, 45); {{lang|de|O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig}} (Vol 7, 48 (Leipzig 6)); {{lang|de|Christus, der uns selig macht}} (Vol 5, 8); {{lang|de|Da Jesus an dem Kreuze stand}} (Vol 5, 9); {{lang|de|An Wasserflüssen Babylon}} (Vol 6, 12b); {{lang|de|Christum wir wollen loben schon}} (Vol 5, 6); {{lang|de|Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier}} (Vol 5, app 5); {{lang|de|Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin}} (Vol 5, 4); {{lang|de|Sei gegrüßet, Jesu gütig}} (Var 11, Vol 5, app. 3); {{lang|de|Jesus Christus, unser Heiland}} (Vol 6, 31 (Leipzig 15)); Christ lag in Todesbanden (Vol 5, 5); Erschienen ist der herrlich Tag (Vol 5, 15).<ref>{{harvnb|Joy|1953|pp=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</ref><ref>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.</ref>

[[File:GünsbachKirche.jpg|thumb|upright|Gunsbach parish church, where the later recordings were made]]

Later recordings were made at '''Parish church, Günsbach''': These recordings were made by C. Robert Fine during the time Dr. Schweitzer was being filmed in Günsbach for the documentary "Albert Schweitzer". Fine originally self-released the recordings but later licensed the masters to Columbia.
* 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).<ref>Columbia LP 33CX1074</ref>
* 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).<ref>Columbia LP 33CX1084</ref>
* Chorale-Preludes: {{lang|de|O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde groß}} (1st and 2nd versions, Peters Vol 5, 45); {{lang|de|Wenn wir in höchsten Nöten sein (Vor deinen Thron tret ich hiermit)}} (vol 7, 58 (Leipzig 18)); {{lang|de|Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ}} (Vol 5, 30); {{lang|de|Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ}} (Vol 5, 17); {{lang|de|Herzlich tut mich verlangen}} (Vol 5, 27); {{lang|de|Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland}} (vol 7, 45 (BWV 659a)).<ref>Columbia LP 33CX1081</ref>
The above were released in the United States as Columbia Masterworks boxed set SL-175.

===Philips recordings===
* J. S. Bach: 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.<ref>E.M.G., ''The Art of Record Buying'' (London 1960), pp. 12–13. Philips ABL 3092, issued March 1956.</ref>
* J. S. Bach: 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.<ref>E.M.G., op. cit., Philips ABL 3134, issued September 1956. Other selections are on Philips GBL 5509.</ref>
* César Franck: Organ Chorales, no. 1 in E major; no. 2 in B minor; no. 3 in A minor.<ref>Philips ABL 3221.</ref>

==Portrayals and dedication==
Dramatisations of Schweitzer's life include:
* The 1952 biographical film ''Il est minuit, Docteur Schweitzer'', with [[Pierre Fresnay]] as Schweitzer.
* The 1957 biographical film ''[[Albert Schweitzer (film)|Albert Schweitzer]]'' in which Schweitzer appears as himself and Phillip Eckert portrays him.
* The 1962 TV remake of ''Il est minuit, Docteur Schweitzer'', with [[Jean-Pierre Marielle]] as Schweitzer.
* The 1990 biographical film ''[[Schweitzer (film)|The Light in the Jungle]]'', with [[Malcolm McDowell]] as Schweitzer.
* Two 1992 episodes of the [[George Lucas]] television series ''[[The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles]]'' ("German East Africa, December 1916" and "Congo, January 1917"), with [[Friedrich von Thun]] as Schweitzer. The episodes were later combined to create ''Oganga, Giver and Taker of Life.''
* The 1995 biographical film ''Le Grand blanc de Lambaréné'', with [[André Wilms]] as Schweitzer.
* The 2006 TV biographical film ''Albert Schweitzer: Called to Africa'', with [[Jeff McCarthy]] as Schweitzer.
* The 2009 biographical film ''{{Ill|Albert Schweitzer (2009 film)|de|3=Albert Schweitzer – Ein Leben für Afrika|lt=Albert Schweitzer}}'', with [[Jeroen Krabbé]] as Schweitzer.
The Greek author [[Nikos Kazantzakis]] dedicated his novel [[The Poor Man of Assisi]] to him.

==Bibliography==
* {{Citation |last=Schweitzer |first=Albert |title=The Quest of the Historical Jesus; A Critical Study of Its Progress From Reimarus To Wrede |orig-year=German, 1906. English edition, A. & C. Black, London 1910, 1911 |translator-link=William Montgomery (cryptographer) |translator-first=William |translator-last=Montgomery |publisher=Augsburg Fortress Publishers |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-8006-3288-5 |author-mask=1|title-link=The Quest of the Historical Jesus|ref=none}}
* {{Citation |last=Schweitzer |first=Albert |title=J. S. Bach, Le Musicien-Poète |trans-title=JS Bach, the Poet Musician |others=introduction by C. M. Widor |publisher=Breitkopf & Härtel with P. Costellot |place=Leipzig |year=1905 |language=fr |author-mask=1|url=https://archive.org/details/jsbachlemusicien00schw|ref=none}}
* {{Citation |last=Schweitzer |first=Albert |title=J. S. Bach |edition=enlarged |language=de |publisher=Breitkopf & Härtel |place=Leipzig |year=1908 |author-mask=1|ref=none}}. English translation by [[Ernest Newman]], with author's alterations and additions, London 1911. Fulltext scans (English): [https://archive.org/details/jsbachsc01schwuoft Vol. 1], [https://archive.org/details/jsbachsc02schwuoft Vol. 2].
* {{cite book |last=Schweitzer |first=Albert |title=Deutsche und französische Orgelbaukunst und Orgelkunst |url=https://archive.org/details/deutscheundfranz00schw |trans-title=German and French organbuilding and organ art |publisher=Breitkopf & Härtel |location=Leipzig |year=1906 |language=de |author-mask=1|ref=none}} (first printed in ''Musik'', vols 13 and 14 (5th year)).
* {{cite book |last=Schweitzer |first=Albert |title=The Psychiatric Study of Jesus: Exposition and Criticism |orig-year=1911 |location=Gloucester, Massachusetts |publisher=Peter Smith Publisher |year=1948 |isbn=978-0-8446-2894-3 |author-mask=1|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Schweitzer |first=Albert |title=Paul and His Interpreters, A Critical History |url=https://archive.org/details/paulhisinterpret00schwuoft |translator-first=W. |translator-last=Montgomery |year=1912 |location=London |publisher=Adam & Charles Black |author-mask=1|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Schweitzer |first=Albert |title=The Mystery of the Kingdom of God: The Secret of Jesus' Messiahship and Passion |orig-year=1914 |publisher=Prometheus Books |year=1985 |isbn=978-0-87975-294-1 |author-mask=1|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Schweitzer |first=Albert |title=On the Edge of the Primeval Forest|translator-first=Ch. Th. |translator-last=Campion |publisher=A. & C. Black |location=London |year=1924|orig-year=1922|edition=reprint|url=https://archive.org/stream/ontheedgeofthepr007259mbp#page/n9/mode/2up/|author-mask=1|ref=none}} (translation of ''Zwischen Wasser und Urwald'', 1921)
*''The Decay and the Restoration of Civilization'' and ''Civilization and Ethics'' (''The Philosophy of Civilization'', Vols I & II of the projected but not completed four-volume work), A. & C. Black, London 1923. Material from these volumes is rearranged in a modern compilation, ''The Philosophy of Civilization'' (Prometheus Books, 1987), {{ISBN |0-87975-403-6}}
* {{Citation |last=Schweitzer |first=Albert |title=The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle |orig-year=1930, 1931 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-8018-6098-0 |author-mask=1|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Schweitzer |first=Albert |title=Aus Meinem Leben und Denken |publisher=Felix Meiner Verlag |location=Leipzig |year=1931 |author-mask=1|ref=none}} translated as {{cite book |last=Schweitzer |first=Albert |title=Out of My Life and Thought: An Autobiography |publisher=Henry Holt and Company |year=1933 |author-mask=1 |url=https://archive.org/details/outofmylifethoug00schw_0/mode/2up|ref=none}}; {{cite book |last=Schweitzer |first=Albert |title=Out of My Life and Thought: An Autobiography |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-8018-6097-3 |author-mask=1 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/outofmylifethoug0000schw|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Schweitzer |first=Albert |title=Indian Thought and Its Development |location=Boston, Massachusetts |publisher=Beacon Press |year=1935 |oclc=8003381 |author-mask=1|ref=none}}
*''Afrikanische Geschichten'' (Felix Meiner, Leipzig and Hamburg 1938): tr. Mrs C. E. B. Russell as ''From My African Notebook'' (George Allen and Unwin, London 1938/Henry Holt, New York 1939). Modern edition with foreword by L. Forrow (Syracuse University Press, 2002).
* {{cite web |last=Schweitzer |first=Albert |date=4 November 1954 |title=The Problem of Peace |website=The Nobel Foundation |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1952/schweitzer-lecture.html |author-mask=1 }}
* {{cite book |last=Schweitzer |first=Albert |title=Peace or Atomic War? |location=New York |publisher=Henry Holt |year=1958 |isbn=978-0-8046-1551-8 |author-mask=1 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/peaceoratomicwar00schw|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last1=Schweitzer |first1=Albert |title=The Kingdom of God and Primitive Christianity |url=https://archive.org/details/kingdomofgodprim00schw |url-access=registration |editor-first=Ulrich|editor-last=Neuenschwander|editor-link=:de:Ulrich Neuenschwander|location=New York |publisher=Seabury Press |year=1968 |oclc=321874 |author-mask=1|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Schweitzer |first=Albert |editor-first=James |editor-last=Brabazon |title=Albert Schweitzer: Essential Writings |place=Maryknoll, New York|publisher=[[Orbis Books]] |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-57075-602-3 |author-mask=1}}

==See also==
*[[List of peace activists]]
*[[:Category:Cultural depictions of Albert Schweitzer|Cultural depictions of Albert Schweitzer]]
*[[Helene Bresslau Schweitzer]]
*{{ill|Albert Schweitzer Organ Festival Hartford |qid=Q125975928|lt=Albert Schweitzer Organ Festival}}

==Notes==
{{NoteFoot}}

==References==
===Citations===
{{Reflist|25em}}

===Sources===
{{div col|colwidth=45em}}
* {{cite book |last=Schweitzer |first=Albert |title=On the Edge of the Primeval Forest |translator-first=Ch. Th. |translator-last=Campion |publisher=A. & C. Black |location=London |year=1924 |orig-year=1922 |edition=reprint |url=https://archive.org/stream/ontheedgeofthepr007259mbp#page/n9/mode/2up/}} (translation of ''Zwischen Wasser und Urwald'', 1921)
* {{cite book |last=Schweitzer |first=Albert |author-link=Albert Schweitzer |title=The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle |year=1931 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press}}
* {{cite book |last=Brabazon |first=J. |author-link=James Brabazon |title=Albert Schweitzer: A Biography |publisher=Syracuse University Press |series=Albert Schweitzer library |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-8156-0675-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zOm0iqkRsYEC |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=zOm0iqkRsYEC&pg=PA84 84]}}
* {{cite book |last=Free |first=A.C. |title=Animals, Nature and Albert Schweitzer |publisher=Flying Fox Press |year=1988 |isbn=978-0-9617225-4-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nkTObUVhYBAC |access-date=2 July 2017}}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Joy |editor-first=Charles R. |title=Music in the Life of Albert Schweitzer |location=London |publisher=A. & C. Black |year=1953}}
* {{cite book |last=Oermann |first=N. O. |title=Albert Schweitzer: A Biography |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-19-108704-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=egiDDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT110 |access-date=2 July 2017}}
* {{cite book |last=Pierhal |first=J. |title=Albert Schweitzer: The Life of a Great Man |publisher=Lutterworth |year=1956 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cyq1AAAAIAAJ |access-date=2 July 2017}}
* {{cite book |last=Pierhal |first=J. |title=Albert Schweitzer: the story of his life |publisher=Philosophical Library |year=1957 |isbn=9780802219756 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OflHAAAAMAAJ}}
* {{cite book |last=Seaver |first=G. |title=Albert Schweitzer: The Man and His Mind |location=London |publisher=A. & C. Black |year=1951}}
{{div col end}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |last1=Anderson |first1=Erica |last2=Exman |first2=Eugene |author-link2=Eugene Exman |title=The World of Albert Schweitzer |url=https://archive.org/details/worldofalbertsch00ande |url-access=registration |publisher=Harper & Brothers |location=New York |year=1955|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Anderson |first=Erica |year=1965 |title=The Schweitzer Album |author-link=Erica Anderson |url=https://archive.org/details/schweitzeralbump00ande |url-access=registration |publisher=Harper & Row |place=New York |ref=none}}
* Bartolf, Christian; Gericke, Marion; Miething, Dominique (2020): ''[https://refubium.fu-berlin.de/bitstream/handle/fub188/27820/Exhibition%20Catalogue%20(A5)%20-%20(Online)%2016.7.2020.pdf Dr. Albert Schweitzer: "My Address to the People" – Commitment against Nuclear War]''. Berlin: Freie Universität Berlin, Gandhi-Informations-Zentrum. {{doi|10.17169/refubium-27573}} {{ISBN|978-3-96110-357-7}}.
* {{cite book | last=Brabazon | first=J. | author-link=James Brabazon | date=1975 | title=Albert Schweitzer: A Biography | location=New York | publisher=[[G. P. Putnam's Sons]] | isbn=978-0-399-11421-2 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/albertschweitzer0000brab|ref=none}}
*{{cite book |last=Cousins |first=Norman |title=Albert Schweitzer's Mission Healing and Peace |publisher=W. W. Norton|year=1985|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Rud |first=A. G. |title=Albert Schweitzer's Legacy for Education: Reverence for Life |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2011 |pages=173ff|ref=none}}
* {{cite journal |author=Smiley, Xan |date=February 2023 |title=Ahead of his time, behind ours |journal=Commonweal |volume=150 |issue=2 |pages=26–33 |url=https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/albert-schweitzer-racism-africa-medicine-Lambarene |url-access=limited <!--|access-date=2023-06-12-->}}<ref group=lower-alpha>Online version is titled "The legacy of Albert Schweitzer : can we still admire him?".</ref>
———————
;Notes
{{reflist|40em|group=lower-alpha}}

==External links==
{{sister project links|d=Q49325|b=no|v=no|voy=no|wikt=no|m=no|mw=no|c=Category:Albert Schweitzer|s=Author:Albert Schweitzer|n=no}}
* [https://vimeo.com/26478396 Award-winning documentary about him] 
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20180117180506/http://www.albertschweitzer.info/ Albert Schweitzer info] at [[Internet Archive]]
* {{Gutenberg author |id=42712 |name=Albert Schweitzer}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Albert Schweitzer}}
* {{Librivox author}}
* [http://library.syr.edu/digital/guides/s/schweitzer_a.htm Albert Schweitzer Papers] at Syracuse University
* [http://nwda.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv38287 John D. Regester Collection on Albert Schweitzer]
* The [http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:DIV.LIB:div00535 Helfferich Collection], collected by Reginald H. Helfferich on Albert Schweitzer, is at the Harvard Divinity School Library at [[Harvard Divinity School]] in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts|Cambridge]], Massachusetts.
* [http://www.worldhistorysite.com/Jesusbook.html What Jesus was thinking] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200629150020/http://www.worldhistorysite.com/Jesusbook.html |date=29 June 2020 }} An interpretation and restatement of Schweitzer's last book, The Kingdom of God and Primitive Christianity
* {{PM20}}
* {{Nobelprize}}

{{1952 Nobel Prize winners}}
{{Nobel Peace Prize Laureates 1951–1975}}
{{Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels}}
{{Anti-nuclear movement}}
{{Tirukkural}}
{{Authority control}}

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