Dr. Albert Schweitzer - Part 1 of 8

This is Dr. Albert Schweitzer. These are the people to whom he has devoted his life, in Gabon, a province in French equatorial Africa. Dr. Schweitzer runs a hospital for the people of Gabon. For the 40 years since he founded this hospital, he has been not only their doctor, caring for the sick and the injured, but their teacher, their builder, designing, planning, and working side by side with them to create a community for about 600 people. Their administrator, managing the daily affairs of what is not quite a native village nor a country town. And their minister, preaching to them a simple Christianity. The story of Dr. Schweitzer's life ends here in Lambaréné on the Ogoé River, where his work has become an inspiration to people everywhere. But the beginning, the world that he gave up for all this, is as important to the sum of his life as the end. It is 4,000 miles north as the crow flies. In France, the province of Alsace, the Münster Valley, the village of Gunzbach. This is where Albert Schweitzer grew up, and here too there are people who know him well. In the third class compartment on a train rolling through the Münster Valley after a long journey across France, Dr. Schweitzer returns to Gunzbach. His work in Africa has made him world famous, but at the station he will be greeted by only a handful of friends. There will be no fanfare. To the local people, he is Monsieur Albert, one of their own, and like them, one who prefers to come and go quietly. Alone he steps to the platform wearing an old-fashioned black suit and a hat 40 years old. He looks after his own luggage and helps load it on a cart. A train man asked him why he rode on the hard benches of a third class compartment. Schweitzer's answer was that he rode third because there is no fourth class anymore. To the shy as well as to the bold, the doctor extends his hand until at last with two members of his hospital staff who have arrived in Gunzbach before him, he begins the ten-minute walk from the station through the village to his ivy-covered house. For most men, the scenes of their boyhood have been retouched by modern times, but the village where Dr. Schweitzer's roots are is not much changed in 80 years. While old men bask in the sun passing the time of day, women still meet to do their laundry in a cold stream running beside a village street. When Albert Schweitzer goes by, they smile as to an old friend come home. His house, built in 1927, is very nearly the latest in Gunzbach. It is like Sunday afternoon with the village choral society there to sing for him. Mrs. Schweitzer gathers her grandchildren around her to listen to the serenade. She worked many years with her husband in Africa until ill health forced her to return to Europe. These children were baptized in Gunzbach by their grandfather, but have never been to Africa so he has missed their growing up.