Many European streets are named after him, when are hundreds of schools, colleges and institutions. Albert Schweitzer— scholar, doctor, philosopher, scholar, writer, musician and Nobel Peace Prize winner — was much revered for his philanthropic work in Africa.
The doctor he set up in Lambarene in present-day Gabon in West Africa earned him the title,” forest doctor”.
Schweitzer was, however, a solution of his day. Born in 1875 in Alsace, next part of the German Empire, and now eastern France, he was influenced by the continuous and terrible colonialization of big parts of Africa by Western countries.
Schweitzer, marked by his flowing beard and thick nose of light tresses, was a authoritarian who saw himself as being on a kind of” conquering vision” in Africa. He felt called upon to make the populace, which he termed” children without culture” ( ) both healthy and” civilized.
Not a friend of the Nazis — but oddly silent about the Holocaust
Despite his first censure of Hitler, the doctor’s popularity at home attracted the attention of the National Socialists.
Later, Joseph Goebbels ‘ proposal to Gabon is said to have been graciously declined by Schweitzer.
According to journalist and author Caroline Fetscher, Schweitzer kept a mileage from the evils of the Holocaust and not condemned the Nazi crimes despite being in Africa almost constantly since 1924.
Fetscher, who has written about Schweitzer’s confusing place in European history, believes that the forest physician “was well informed of the oppression of the Jews”, despite his loneliness.
He never raised his voice in any way after 1945, despite what his colleagues had demanded and expected of him, Fetscher told DW.
According to Fetscher’s studies, most of the specialists working in his doctor in Lambarene at the time of Nazi law were Hebrew. The Holocaust forced the majority of people to flee Europe.
She explains that a doctor who was being regarded as the hospital’s coming head as the Schweitzer’s aging son had an Auschwitz range tattooed on his shoulder.
” Schweitzer knew his story and knew about the horrors”, said Fetscher.
In contrast, Schweitzer’s family Helene was of Jewish heritage and had only just escaped the concentration camps.
However, his silence represents” a big difference in his life”, something several biographers have noted, said Fletscher.
Still remembered for saving lives and peace activism
Caroline Fetscher believes that Schweitzer and his team’s successful combat against disease and infant mortality in Gabon was quickly overshadow World War II crimes.
Thus, it should come as no surprise that Schweitzer was viewed as an idol by countless children and young people in postwar Germany.
Full college courses wrote him letters, his image appeared on stamps, magazine articles and books also built up his reputation as a noble, healing charity.
Schweitzer hoped to make amends for what other Europeans had done while living in the colonies.
In the end, he once said,” Total good we do for the people of the colonies is not charity, but atonement for all the suffering we white people have caused them since the day our ships found their way to their shores.”
However, Schweitzer did not encourage the aspirations of colonized or exploitational populations who wanted to create a functioning society or economy without the aid of white people.
The polymath used to say to his fellow Africans:” I am your brother. But I am your big brother”.
On the 150th anniversary of his birth, Albert Schweitzer is being hailed as a humanitarian and later a peace activist despite this paternalistic legacy.
He is regarded by the world as a” jungle doctor,” humanist, and lover of animals, as well as a tireless opponent of nuclear armament during the Cold War.
He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952 for this commitment under the banner of his philosophy,” Reverence for Life”.
Schweitzer once remarked,” By having a reverence for life, we enter into a spiritual relationship with the world. By practicing reverence for life we become good, deep, and alive”.
Or put another way:” Do something wonderful, people may imitate it”.
