Albert SchweitzerAlbert Schweitzer was born at Kaysersbert in Alsace on January 14, 1875, the eldest son of a Lutheran pastor. He studied organ under Charles Marie Widor in Paris. He eventually earned doctorates from the University of Strasbourg in philosophy, theology, music, and medicine (1913).
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He married Helen Breslau in 1912. They went to Lambarene in 1913 under the auspices of the Paris Missionary Society, where they established a hospital on the banks of the Ogowe River in the province of Gabon in French Equatorial Africa. They were interned in Gabon by the French as enemy aliens (German) during World War I and were later sent to France as prisoners of war. It was 1924 before Schweitzer was able to resume his work in Africa, in a location about two miles from his earlier hospital.
So many and significant were his publications that it is difficult to single out a few as examples, but these include: J. S. Bach, The Philosophy of Civilization (two volumes, The Decay and Restoration of Civilization and Civilization and Ethics), Out of My Life and Thought, The Quest of The Historical Jesus, The Mystery of the Kingdom of God, and The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle.
He died at Lambarene at the age of 90, in 1965, after a brief illness.