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Albert Schweitzer: My Life is My Argument (Director's Cut)
Quinnipiac University
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96,020 views Oct 28, 2011
ALBERT SCHWEITZER: MY LIFE IS MY ARGUMENT presents the life story of Albert Schweitzer and explores his decision to give up a prestigious career as a musician and philosopher to become a medical doctor and serve native inhabitants of Gabon, Africa. Schweitzer's life continues to inform a new generations that there is great value in offering service to others.
Executive Producer: David T. Ives
Directed by Liam O'Brien
Camera & Editing by Rebecca Abbott
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One of the key lessons that everyone learns from dr. swatch is that you can
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serve global humanity in one village dr. Schweitzer's example has said a powerful
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and inspirational standard for us and for many other people who have attempted
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in various ways to follow in his footsteps
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we quite often told me the hospital is my improvisation but for him his most
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important contributions was as a philosopher with the principle of
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reverence for life which was the foundation of his philosophy theologian
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philosopher musician author by age 30 Albert Schweitzer's seemed destined for
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an end be able and comfortable future as a scholar and a performer but that
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wasn't the future he had in mind instead to the shock of both family and friends
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Schweitzer returned to school to prepare for a very different sort of life to
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serve the sick and poor thousands of miles away in the jungle for more than
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50 years Schweitzer would devote himself to building a hospital in a small village on a tributary of the great ogle Way
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River in French Equatorial Africa no one least of all Schweitzer could have
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foreseen that his work would capture worldwide attention or that his thoughts
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and ideas scribbled at a rustic desk deep into the jungle night would still
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resonate today people called me a man of action but I am really a dreamer Albert
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Schweitzer was born on January 14 1875 in the town of kaisers Berg in Alsace a
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region between France and Germany which was then a part of Germany
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Albert's father Louis was a Protestant pastor in the mainly Catholic town he
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preached to his small congregation in a tiny chapel built behind the family home
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soon after Albert's birth the family moved to the village of goons back in
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the munster valley 40 miles south here most Protestant and Catholic congregations shared pastor Schweitzer's church when I was still merely a child I
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felt it to be something beautiful that in our village Catholics and Protestants worshiped in the same building but the world beyond
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the stained-glass harmony was somewhat less benign
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school was a trial for young Albert he may have grown up to be a scholar but he
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certainly didn't start out as one his less than stellar marks caused his mother no end of grief worse by far though was being teased by his
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classmates for being a rich man's son which given the poverty of the village
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was true Albert was so bothered by this inequality that he even refused to wear an overcoat in cold weather because the
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other boys didn't have them Albert's budding sense of justice soon grew to include all living creatures one day another boy invited him to shoot
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birds with slingshots in the hills above town Albert found himself torn he wanted
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to please his friend but he was appalled at the idea of killing for fun but just
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as Albert readied his first shot the church bell rang out for the start of Lent to Schweitzer this was a divine warning
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he dropped his slingshot and ran forward shouting and waving his arms to scare
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and save the birds ever since when the passion tied bells
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ring I reflect with a rush of grateful emotion how on that day their music
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drove deep into my heart to the commandment thou shalt not kill from
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that day onward I took courage to emancipate myself from the fear of man
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and whenever my inner convictions were at stake I let other people's opinion
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wait less with me than they had done previously this early influence upon me
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of the commandment not to kill all to torture other creatures is the great experience of my childhood and youth these intense personal childhood
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experiences would one day help form Schweitzer's philosophy of reverence for
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life a philosophy that embraces the oppressed and indeed all living things
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Schweitzer 'z interest in Africa also has roots in his childhood his mother
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was an avid newspaper reader so even in bucolic Gunes Bach they knew of the
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slave trade and other horrors making headlines from the Congo and perhaps
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this is partly why he was so fascinated by a statue of an African man in the
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town of colmar where his grandparents lived it was sculpted by Frederic
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Auguste Bartholdi a fellow Alsatian whose most famous work sits in New
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York's Harbor the colmar statue was an intense and vivid portrait and Schweitzer was mesmerized and haunted by the Africans gaze his face with its sad
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thoughtful expression spoke to me of the misery of the Dark Continent years later
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in Africa he would write ever since the world's far-off lands were discovered
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what has been the conduct of the white people to the colored ones what is the
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meaning of the simple fact that this and that people had died out as a result of
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their discovery by man who professed to be followers of Jesus who can describe
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injustice and cruelties they have suffered at the hand of the Europeans we
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and our civilizations our burden really with a great debt
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there was however one area of young Schweitzer's life that was a steady source of joy music he came from a long line of musicians his grandfather was
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famous for his improvisations on the organ and it was a gift Albert would inherit by age five he was playing the piano but it was the organ
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in his father's Church at Gunn's Bach that fascinated him when the organist
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became suddenly ill one Sunday Albert then nine and barely able to reach the
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pedals was good enough to fill in and play all the music for the service later
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as a student in the nearby town of mol Heusen he studied music formally by his
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mid-teens he was playing the massive organ at mul house and st. Stephen's Church
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Albert loved most music of Johann Sebastian Bach by the time he was 30
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Schweitzer had become a published authority and master performer of Bach's many works he also studied the art and science of organ building when the organ
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at Gunn's Bach was damaged during World War one and again during World War two it was Schweitzer who designed its restoration
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it was clear to everyone that albert schweitzer was preparing for two careers
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music and the church at 18 in 1893 Schweitzer enrolled at the University of
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Strasbourg the preeminent liberal University in Europe at the time and the school his father had attended over the next seven years he would study organ in
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Paris explore philosophy at the Sorbonne and pursued theology at the University
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of Berlin by 1900 choice er had been awarded three university degrees - in
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theology and a PhD in philosophy a year later he finished an advanced
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degree in theology with an in-depth study of the Last Supper this research
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became in 1906 Schweitzer's great theological work the quest of the
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historical Jesus Albert Schweitzer was becoming well-known in academic and musical
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circles as a man of original vision energy and determination but he had a
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very practical side too once when Schweitzer missed a pre concert lunch
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and dinner held in his honor his frantic host eventually found the star musician
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in his shirtsleeves climbing down from the organ pipes in the church Schweitzer had arrived as scheduled earlier that day but it stopped by the
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church to try out the organ finding it in disrepair he spent the next six hours
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tuning it that night the townspeople remarked the organ never sounded so
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brilliant professionally Schweitzer's future seemed assured by his mid-20s he was
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ordained as a Lutheran minister became a professor at the University and was
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appointed dean at st. Thomas Theological College yet for all his outward signs of
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success Schweitzer was in a state of profound inner turmoil when he was just 21 at the start of his studies
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Schweitzer had made a promise to himself he would dedicate the first 30 years of
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his life to the study of music theology and philosophy after that he would
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devote the rest of his life to serving humanity it was the only way he felt he
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could repay the wonderful gifts he had been given life love friendship good
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health and education but what could he offer his only confidante was Helene
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Breslau a professor's daughter and a rather unconventional liberated soul
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herself raised in a Jewish household she trained as a social worker and teacher
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their friendship bloomed over a 10-year correspondence and in the safety of
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private letters meant only for her kind and discerning eyes Schweitzer shared his hopes and dreams I think that one day I may have to fulfill a major task
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for which I will need you and then I will simply ask you to work with me and
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that perhaps Providence will lead us toward working for the same cause that
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cause arrived in the form of a pamphlet published by the Paris Missionary Society in the fall of 1904 it called for doctors to work in French Equatorial
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Africa Schweitzer knew immediately this was his long sought destiny but of
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course first he would have to become a doctor with the exception of Helene Schweitzer's friends and family were
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shocked by the decision but Schweitzer clearly saw his future as a medical missionary in Africa in a sermon at st. Nikolai's church around the time of his
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pivotal 30th birthday he explained we must make atonement for all the terrible
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crimes we read off in the newspapers we must make atonement for the still worse
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ones which we do not read about in the papers crimes that are shrouded in the
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Silence of the jungle night but more than atonement it was about teaching
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much later in life Schweitzer would tell his friend American journalist Norman Cousins I decided that I would make my life my
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argument I would advocate the things that I believed in terms of the life I
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lived and what I did for the next eight years in between writing books and his
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other responsibilities Schweitzer studied medicine on June 18th
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1912 he and Helene were married she had trained as a nurse and he would
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soon receive his degree in tropical medicine and surgery now nearly 40 years
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old and with half a lifetime of study behind him Schweitzer wrote to the Paris Missionary Society seeking an appointment at their
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African mission station at Lam bahraini they turned him down flat
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Schweitzer it seemed was far too controversial a theologian to sponsor
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but what if the society didn't have to put up a single franc what if he and Helene could raise all the money to run the hospital for two
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years the Schweitzer is immediately set to work raising money from their many
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friends across France and Germany the following January twice her sent a
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second letter to the society with a much sweeter offer a deal was struck their
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daughter Reina explains the Paris Mission Society for their theological
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views they are quite different from my father they were much more fundamentalist and he was a very liberal theologian but my father's and promised
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him that for theology he would be silent mute as a fish but he would only work as
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a medical doctor at last they were ready to set off on their journey and to begin
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as Schweitzer later put it this great improvisation
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the voyage from Bordeaux to Lambrini took three weeks fun connect Lyon with
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we were almost always within sight of the coast the pepper coast the Ivory
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Coast the Gold Coast the slave coast if only that line of forest on the
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horizon could tell us about all the cruelties it had to witness here the
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slave dealers used to land and ship their living cargoes for transport to
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America they boarded the elem Bay an old riverboat for the last leg of their
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journey 200 kilometers up the mighty ogle a river the reality of Africa what Schweitzer called the prose of Africa as
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opposed to its poetry was just around the bend the hospital had no buildings
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only patients with crates of medical supplies still enroute there was only so
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much the Schweitzer's could do drums beat out the message far and wide from
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village to village across the jungle that Oh Ganga the white fetish man has come among us and he is powerless until the next boat arrives with his charms
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those seeking his medicine should remain in their villages until the elem Bay
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returns in the meantime the Schweitzer's cleaned and whitewashed an old chicken
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coop for their office and surgery room when the elem be arrived weeks later with their supplies and a piano a present from the Box society in Paris
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hundreds of people crossed the river by canoe or walked out of the jungle to see
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if the white fetish man could help them it was a daunting task patience came
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from many tribes speaking different languages and dialects the Schweitzer's had to navigate native customs superstitions and rivalries and since
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the sick came to the hospital from long distances they stayed until they recovered often for weeks at a time they and the family members who traveled with
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them needed to be housed and fed the list of ailments was staggering sleeping
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sickness malaria dysentery leprosy hernias bronchitis pneumonia heart
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disease mental illness venereal diseases elephantiasis he damaged their medicines
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there was no running water and no electricity operations like everything
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else at lambeau rainy were done either in daylight or by kerosene lamp the
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Schweitzer's could cope with all that but a world at war was something else again
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on August 5th 1914 Albert and Helene who were German nationals were seized at
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gunpoint by French colonial troops and placed under house arrest but after hundreds of villagers protested to the colonial authorities
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Albert and Helene were allowed to continue tending the sick many natives
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are puzzling over the question how it can be possible that the whites who
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brought them the gospel of love are now murdering each other and throwing to the
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winds the command of the Lord Jesus when they put the question to us we are
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helpless meanwhile the medical work goes on as usual I'm worried however about how to provide food for the sick
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ironically their arrest gave Schweitzer both time and inspiration to start
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writing two books on the philosophy of civilization he was struggling to
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distill a new system of ethics on which to build a more just and compassionate civilization Schweitzer took his work with him one day while traveling up the
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yoga way to treat a missionary who had fallen ill it was the dry season and we
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had to fill our way through huge sand banks I sat in one of the scouts before
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boarding I had resolved to devote the entire trip to the problem of how it culture could be brought into being that possessed a greater moral depth and
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energy than the one we lived in I felt page on page was disconnected sentences
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primarily to center my every thought on the problem weariness and a sense of
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despair paralyzed by thinking at the sunset of the third day near the village
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of the Ganga we moved along an island set in the middle of the wide river on
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ascend bang to our left for hippopotamuses and their young flooded
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along in our same direction just then in my great tiredness and discouragement
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the phrase reverence for life struck me like a flash I realized at once that it
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carried within itself the solution to the problem that had been torturing me
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reverence for life encompasses all living things not just human life it
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demands respect for the will to live and it requires compassion and tolerance for
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others whether of other species or other cultures reverence for life provides a
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rational basis for determining right from wrong in weighing the consequences of one's actions we must try to demonstrate the essential worth of life
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by doing all we can to alleviate suffering reverence for life which grows
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out of proper understanding of the will to live contains life affirmation reverence for life became a central theme of the book
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Schweitzer was writing and the guiding principle of his life from then on in
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October 1917 the end of the war was in sight now that the United States entered
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the fray but because the Schweitzer's were still technically POWs they were
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deported to France the next few months were spent in garrison France a former
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monastery turned prison camp in the Pyrenees winter was fast approaching by
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the time they reached the prison unaccustomed to cold weather after four and a half years in the tropics they both became ill Helene with tuberculosis
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in March they were moved again this time to a camp specifically for Alsatians at
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another converted monastery as saul remedio Provos despite the conditions
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Schweitzer forced himself to keep busy by writing and studying yet even in the
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midst of so much misery life and hope have a way of prevailing as Sol Remi
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Elaine became pregnant by mid-july the Schweitzer's were released and headed
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home to Alsace exhausted Albert and Hellenes daughter Reina was born in
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early 1919 it was a rare ray of joy in those dark years
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the Europe to which the Schweitzer's had returned had been ravaged by war
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surrounded by death destruction poverty and sickness Schweitzer's thoughts
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returned to the idea of reverence for life only a shift to this life-affirming
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ethic could prevent civilization from again sinking into cruelty and chaos but
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before he could take on the ills of the world he had to deal first with the difficulties in his own life although improved Hellenes health was fragile his
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own wasn't much better after emergency hospitalization and surgery for complications from his prison illnesses there was a new baby to provide for and
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large debts to the Paris missionary society to repay the idealism and hope
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that had led him to serve in Africa seem naive and futile then out of the blue
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Schweitzer got an invitation the Archbishop of Sweden asked him to
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lecture at the University of Uppsala in the spring of 1920 the trip revived him
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providing both a forum to share his ideas and a way out of debt at the
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Archbishop's urging Schweitzer toured the country giving organ recitals and talks about Africa if Archbishop's saw the bloom had not
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called me to Sweden and stimulated interest in my work as doctor in the
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primeval forest among his countrymen I'm not at all sure that it would have been
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possible for me to return to lumbini the decision to return to Africa wasn't
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easy he would have to go without hélène this time she was still too weak and
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Reina was too young to travel the next few years were devoted to raising money
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through concerts and lectures interest in Schweitzer's work grew as he traveled
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through Switzerland England Germany Spain France Holland and Denmark his
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fame increased with the publication in 1921 of his first memoir on the edge of
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the primeval forest in 1923 both volumes of the philosophy of civilization were
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released by the time Schweitzer now almost 50 set sail for Lambeau Rene in
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February 1924 his mission had changed
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initially a private choice to serve now his goal was a public symbol for
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humanitarian good works reverence for life an idea born of his first years in
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Africa would become the foundation for Schweitzer's work there for the next 40 years what began to take shape was more than a hospital it was a healing village
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complete with vegetable gardens and plantations to provide food for the sick
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and their families
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throughout the 1920s and 30s schweitzer traveled home regularly to see Helene
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and Reina and to raise money for the hospital honorary degrees and awards
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flooded in with proceeds from the Goethe prize he built a house in goons Bach
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that would serve as his European headquarters in 1931 Schweitzer's
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autobiography out of my life and thought was published not long after that he
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recorded his first album the Columbia gramophone company promoted him as the
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greatest interpreter of Bach it was a solid hit and more Recordings followed
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but social and economic problems were plaguing both Africa and post-war Europe
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Schweitzer sense that a new war was imminent and traveled to Europe only long enough to get supplies by June 1940 Hitler invaded France which meant the
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surrender of all French colonies little Lambrini found itself in the crossfire
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located at the junction of river and jungle routes it was strategically important although technically neutral territory the hospital grounds were
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sometimes subject to stray gun shots corrugated metal was taken from rooftops
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and turned into barricades for protection nonetheless the hospital
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treated wounded soldiers from both sides
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as war raged in Europe hélène joined Schweitzer in Africa her Jewish heritage
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made the long journey from nazi-occupied France that much more daring news of the
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war's end in Europe reached Lambrini by radio in May 1945 but any sense of
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relief was tempered three months later when atomic bombs obliterated the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki bringing the Asian conflict to
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an end never before had the world witnessed weapons capable of such mass destruction
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and the nuclear arms race that followed a reverence for death was the antithesis
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of Schweitzer's ethic of hope throughout his years in Africa Schweitzer was many
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things at lambeau reign a doctor surgeon pastor administrator superintendent
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builder author musician correspondent and host he built his hospital he made
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his decisions he acted his way obstinate strong-willed he possessed a single-minded determination that his life would spell
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out his argument for a better future for humankind it came as a complete surprise
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to Schweitzer that he had won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1952
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it was one afternoon that a nurse came in dr. Schweitzer dr. Schweitzer very
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excited and my father looked at her and said which ket has has had kittens so
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that's how he learned this young nurse had heard about a Nobel Peace Prize he
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was honored by the students with torch parade at the residue he was given the
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prize fame was always so easy to bear because he couldn't take public
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transportation in Europe anymore because he was mobbed wherever he turned up
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after that Nobel Peace Prize but from that time on he mostly had to travel by
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car and then it was his pleasure to pick up people who were walking along and he
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had wonderful conversations which he enjoyed with students at all kind of
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people as donations from friends and supporters arrived at lambeau Rene Schweitzer poured these funds as well as the money from the Nobel Peace Prize
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into his hospital he was also very happy about the money to pay for the roofs of
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the village for the leprosy patients he was building said throughout his years
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in Africa Schweitzer kept up a torrent of Correspondence often by kerosene lantern with supporters and friends around the
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world his friends included the cellist Pablo Casals yarrow lal nehru and the physicist Albert Einstein
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with Einstein and others like Bertrand Russell Schweitzer corresponded extensively about the dangers of the newest form of warfare atomic bombs
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Schweitzer and other scientists believe that atomic testing was a grave peril that could best be stopped by the moral force of their combined voices
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two years after Einstein's death well-known publisher Norman Cousins visited Lambrini in January of 1957 to discuss the dangers of nuclear
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proliferation with Albert Schweitzer cousins persuaded Schweitzer to go
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public with his opposition to nuclear testing nuclear proliferation and nuclear war with that urging and just before the death of his wife Elaine
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Schweitzer made a radio address that was heard around the world it was his first
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public pronouncement against nuclear war
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that first radio address turned into a series that was heard worldwide and
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schweitzer began writing many articles for the world's press as well in private
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correspondence schweitzer appealed to global leaders including John F Kennedy for support in 1963 the first international nuclear test ban treaty
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was signed with her own children in boarding school Reyna Schweitzer joined her father at
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lambeau Rainey as a medical technician now in his late 80s Schweitzer was
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grateful for her help and companionship near the end of his life Schweitzer
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wrote reverence for life gives us something more profound and mightier
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than the idea of humanism it includes all living beings we reject the idea
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that men is must of other creatures Lord above all others we must realize that
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all life is valuable and that we are united to all life by ethical conduct
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toward all creatures we enter into a spiritual relationship with the universe
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when albert schweitzer died at 10:30 p.m. on the evening of September 4th
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1965 radios in jabal and around the world carried the news the jungle drums
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which over 50 years before had signaled a no Ganga the white fetish man had
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arrived now boomed out up a poor new amour our Father is dead families began to fill the trails and the canoes to lambarena
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thousands trekked to pass by his grave a procession that would go on for months
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many who traveled to express their grief had been born or treated and healed at
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Lambrini others arrived simply because they felt they had to come
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lagron doctor was dead
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over a half century the hospital at Lambeau ran a station had grown from a
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chicken coop to 72 buildings with beds for 600 patients and a staff of six
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doctors and 35 nurses today while many patients arrived at Lambeau Raney by
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Road others still arrived just as their grandparents and great-grandparents had by canoe their family and friends are still welcome to take up residency on
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the hospital grounds to cook and to care for the needs of their loved ones between 6,000 and 7,000 patients are treated at Lambeau Rene every year the
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original Hospital buildings house a museum to Albert Schweitzer his philosophy of social action and his life's work he quite often told me the
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hospital that is as he said my improvisation but and he knew that it
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would one day disappear it's now 90 years old and that is already a miracle
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but he said what ought to continue is the building of my philosophy of
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reverence for life the ancient Presbyterian guns Bock the
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Schweitzer family home where Albert grew up and his family shared so many happy and sad moments is today an active conference center where visitors from
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around the world share their thoughts on advancing Schweitzer's philosophy
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the home albert schweitzer built for Helene and Reina we're on each of his visits to Europe after 1927 he greeted neighbors at the window of the study is
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a museum and the repository of his correspondence with people around the world the Albert Schweitzer Institute at Quinnipiac University has grown into a
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leading global promoter of the ideas of Albert Schweitzer our goals of the Albert Schweitzer Institute here at Quinnipiac University are to promote the
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values and ideas of dr. Albert white surrounded worldwide basis we are doing this in many different ways working with Nobel Peace Prize laureates is one
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taking our students on humanitarian missions to other countries especially in the third world is another and also working on some of the more particular
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issues that dr. Schweitzer was interested in such as nuclear non-proliferation and relieving poverty
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and now there are six layers and that's what we did today we sifted the sands to
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make the working conditions throughout the week when we were building the
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additions to the school in Nicaragua were very hot and oppressive but it was
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rewarding at the end of the day because so you get caught up and that good feeling you're oblivious to what you're actually doing too and you actually are
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providing a good service to people that need it and people are that are in need and need help the children we're so excited to see us every day when we got
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off the bus they would come running up to us full of hugs and smiles and even
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though the days were so hot and whatnot I went in the back your head you didn't realize the conditions you're in anymore it was like my new home and I now have a
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family in a world that I never imagined possible one of the reasons you do come
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to college in the first place is to grow it's to grow as a person to grow as a human being and I can tell you that and all the time that I was at Quinnipiac
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one of the best things that kind of reacted for me with let me go on that trip because I've grown more in that time when I was gone for about four
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and a half months that I think I have in my entire life don't want to change the world you have to let all those experiences that you have transforming
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and not just see them as like you know passing in the wind that oh yeah one time I went down to Nicaragua and I saw destitute and I saw poverty and I saw
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sickness but to actually learn from that and should let it transform your life and to not work against it
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it's amazing that out of four years of college how essentially one week could
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have really changed the way I think about the world globally not just the
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world that I know I think there's a an unexplored untapped reservoir of
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idealism among the world's young people these days and it's not just theoretical
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idealism I think many of them are very eager to find a way to put their moral
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ideals into actual practical application and that's that's a lesson that dr.
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Schweitzer's life exemplifies vividly
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I'm delighted that writer Institute is at Quinnipiac University my father would
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be very happy to know that his thoughts go out to these young people and that it
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has meaning for them well he's a perfect role model he gave
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everything up including an enormous ly brilliant career he could have had a
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nurse at native land yet he chose to sacrifice that to do better for mankind
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and if young people were to look at what he did and continues to do because you
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know lambarena is still there his work still goes on the Schweitzer Institute at Quinnipiac with david ives as a growing and beautiful flower
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Albert Schweitzer was a real humanitarian a true man of peace we must
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harness the wisdom Albert Schweitzer left us in our efforts to build a world
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free from violence and threats to human security because this philosophy is not
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just the system of ethics it is a way of life
we must look to reverence for life
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as the keystone for our pursuit of peace and human progress this adventure of an
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unpredictable nature among people in need who are dissimilar from you will
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never prove to be a sacrifice the biggest obstacle to overcome is just a
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decision to do it and the willingness to invest part of our existence in the
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lives of other people
I think it is very important to make
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people realize how precious is life and that we can do something about it and
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perhaps one day bring about peace on this earth
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over the course of his life Albert Schweitzer's work established inspired or anticipated many of the major social and humanitarian movements of the 20th
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century but it was for future generations that he expressed the greatest hope in youthful idealism man perceives the truth in youthful idealism he possesses riches that should not be bartered for anything on earth
Albert
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Schweitzer was known to say everyone must find their own lambarena it's not
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enough merely to exist, it is not enough to say I'm earning enough to live and
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support my family, I do my work well.
you must do something more seek always to do some good somewhere every man has to seek his own way to make his own self more noble.
you must give something to your fellow man even if it's a little thing.
do something for those who have needs of a man's help, something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing it.
today thousands of people from all walks of life around the globe are creating
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their own improvisations answering the most personal of calls defining their
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own lamborghini's and acts great and small that serve all people and the
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world
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you
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you
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