Albert Schweitzer was born January 14, 1875, in Kayserberg, Upper Alsace, Germany (now part of France), the son of a Lutheran pastor. He studied philosophy and theology at the University of Strasbourg. He obtained a doctorate of philosophy in 1899, and in theology a year later, work which led to the publication of Von Reimarus zu Wrede, which made him a major figure in religious studies. He studied music in Paris, where his organ teacher encouraged him to write a book on J. S. Bach; accordingly, he wrote J.S. Bach: le musicien-poète, which was published in 1905. The same year, he decided to become a mission doctor, and completed his medical degree in 1913. His wife, Hélène Bresslau, had trained as a nurse to help in his work, and together they went to Lambaréné in the Gabon province of French Equatorial Africa, where they built a hospital. Schweitzer and Bresslau were interned first there and then in France as enemy aliens during World War I. Released in 1918, they spent six years in Europe, with Schweitzer preaching, giving musical performances, and writing books. They returned to Gabon in 1924, where they rebuild the hospital. He was awarded the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize, and used the money to add a leprosarium. Schweitzer died on September 4, 1965, in Lambaréné, Gabon.
From the guide to the Albert Schweitzer letter to Dr. Harold F. Walton (MS 231), May 12, 1946, (University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries. Special Collections Dept.)
