Albert Schweitzer

Albert Schweitzer, born January 14, 1875, in Kaysersberg in Alsace, then part of the German Empire, was a theologian, organist, philosopher, and physician whose work in equatorial Africa made him one of the most recognized humanitarians of the twentieth century. He grew up in the village of Günsbach, where his father served as a Lutheran pastor.

Schweitzer earned doctorates in philosophy and theology at the University of Strasbourg and published The Quest of the Historical Jesus in 1906, a study that reshaped New Testament scholarship by emphasizing the apocalyptic context of Jesus's preaching. He was also a leading interpreter of Johann Sebastian Bach, and his book J. S. Bach (1905, expanded 1908) influenced organ performance practice for decades.

At thirty he began medical studies, and in 1913 he and his wife Helene founded a hospital at Lambaréné in French Equatorial Africa, in present-day Gabon. He spent most of the rest of his life there, treating patients, expanding the facility, and raising funds through European concert tours and lecture trips.

Schweitzer articulated the ethical principle he called Reverence for Life, which held that respect for all living beings was the foundation of morality. He received the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize and used the prize money to expand a leper village at Lambaréné. He died there on September 4, 1965.

The name Albert comes from the Old High German Adalberht, formed from adal meaning "noble" and beraht meaning "bright." It was carried into England by the Normans and became common across German-speaking lands during the Middle Ages.