After a very interesting, stimulating and successful academic and artistic career as a theologian, as a philosopher and as a musician, my grandfather, Albert Schweitzer, decided, at the age of 30, to study medicine, to be able to devote his life as a medical doctor in practical service to humanity.
My grandmother, Hélène Breslau, who also had a fulfilling academic education, decided to become a nurse, so that she could join her friend, Albert, in his humanitarian endeavors. They got married shortly before they embarked on their great life adventure in 1913, to found the hospital in Lambaréné, in the jungle of French Equatorial Africa, which is today the country of Gabon.
In 1915, while on a medical emergency trip on the Ogowé River, surrounded by a herd of hippopotamuses, my grandfather had the profound revelation of “Reverence for Life,” the ethical principle on which his spiritual work is based. Reverence for all life means love extended universally, connecting us spiritually with the universe. It became his religion and philosophy, and his hospital became, as he said, his practical improvisation of this concept.
Added to his devotion to his patients, his mindset of “Reverence for Life” lead him to become a pioneer environmentalist, a pioneer in the concerns of animal protection, and a courageous defender of peace, launching radio and written messages globally, against nuclear testing and nuclear armament. He had become the respected moral voice of the world and an inspiration to millions of people. The Nobel Peace Prize was only one of many distinctions that was bestowed on him.
2013 marks the 100th anniversary of the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Lambaréné. It is the oldest, still functioning very well, medical project in Africa. The reasons for its great success is that the hospital is built like a village, and apart from excellent care, is respecting important social and psychological facts, to make the patients feel as much at home as possible. It allows, for example, family members to stay with the patient, and it treats everybody the same way, even those who have no money.
In 1981, the hospital was renewed and a Medical Research Unit was added, which has become a leading African Research Center, concentrating especially to the research of HIV/Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Most exciting is the development of a Malaria vaccine.
Besides honoring the great medical work that was done during the past 100 years at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital, the true celebration and legacy of Lambaréné, will be the starting of a spiritual revolution, put into
practice by my grandparents at their hospital.
I quote my grandfather:
“A new renaissance must come – one much greater than that into which we stepped out of in the Middle Ages. It must be a revolution in which mankind discovers that the ethical is the highest truth, and the highest practicality. In it mankind must experience liberation from that impoverished understanding of
reality by which it has, up to now, been chained.
“As a humble herald of this renaissance, I proclaim a faith in a new humanity, casting it as a torch into the darkness of our age. I dare to do this because I believe I can offer a philosophy of life as a firm foundation for the movement to humanity, which until now, has subsisted only as a noble sentiment. This philosophy of life is a result of elemental thinking and encompasses a generally intelligible world-view…The future of humanity depends upon each person striving in whatever situation he finds himself, to manifest the humanity to men.”
This message left a decisive mark on me, while working during the nine vacations in my school years, at my grandfather’s Lambaréné hospital. I was able to directly experience his practical improvisation of “Reverence for Life.” Through his work, his thoughts, as a wonderful role model, my grandfather gave me what I was eagerly looking for: a fulfilling, believable philosophy and religion, that, to this day, gives me strength and inner happiness.
For me in my youthful idealism, my grandfather’s “Lambaréné” was paradise on earth, where people and animals lived in harmony together, in the majestic jungle nature, and where sufferance found deliverance. The strong bond to my grandfather, evolving early on in my life, guided me on my path as a medical doctor and as a performing musician, benefitting his work. Today, I continue to care about the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Lambaréné, as a member of the Board of Directors.
Thurston and Georgianna have been long time friends of my mother, Rhena Schweitzer-Miller, and myself. My mother and I deeply admired – and I continue with my devotion - - their passion for the spiritual work of Albert Schweitzer and their artistic expression of it.
Their wonderful multimedia production of “Words of Albert Schweitzer and the Music of Bach,” performed enthusiastically all over the United States and in some European countries, as well as Thurston’s One-Man-Show, “Albert Schweitzer: Memoirs from Africa,” and his DVD, “Dear World,” have deeply touched and inspired large numbers of people and have helped to promote and refresh the important spiritual legacy of my grandfather, which today is needed more than ever.
I believe that in the recent past, Thurston and Georgianna have done, as individuals, more to promote the ethical message of Albert Schweitzer in the United States, than anybody else.
My mother, who passed away in 2009, would be happy to join me in expressing deepest gratitude to Thurston and Georgianna for their remarkable Schweitzer dedication.
Christiane Engel, M.D., Ph.D.