Albert Schweitzer

Albert Schweitzer was born on January 14, 1875. He was born in Kaisersberg, Alsace-Lorraine, which was a part of the German empire at the time. He spent his childhood in Gunsbach, where his father was a pastor. Dr.Schweitzer went to high school in Mulhouse, and then moved on study philosophy and theology at the University of Strasbourg. He also received his doctor’s degree in 1899 from the University of Strasbourg. Albert Schweitzer was also a lecturer in philosophy and a preacher in St. Nicholas’s church. During these years he also became a musician, with a career as an organist.

In 1905 Albert Schweitzer announced that he wanted to become a mission doctor. In 1913, after receiving his M.D. degree, he founded his hospital at Lambarené in French Equatorial Africa. In 1917, he and his wife were sent to a French internment camp as prisoners of war. Released a year later they returned to Europe preaching in his old church, playing in concerts, taking medical courses, and writing books.

Albert Schweitzer

Schweitzer returned to Lambarené in 1924 and spent the remainder of his life there. With his own money and money that was donated he expanded his hospital to seventy buildings. Schweitzer was a doctor, a surgeon, a pastor, an administrator of a village, superintendent of buildings and grounds, a writer, a musician and a host to many visitors.

Albert Schweitzer Collection

Albert Schweitzer received numerous honors. In 1952 he received the Nobel Peace Prize and with the money he received he started the leprosarium at Lambarene.

Albert Schweitzer died on September 4, 1965, and was buried at Lambarene.