Docteur Schweitzer

The house, the square, the path, or even the statue. This man is everywhere in this small village of 950 souls called Gunzbar, in the heart of the Alsatian valley. Albert Schweitzer, this emblematic personality of Alsace, has many facets. As I can see it here in his museum located in the heart of the village. Philosopher, doctor, theologian, musician. This French figure was especially honored by the highest distinction in the world. Albert Schweitzer received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952. Let's go to the discovery of the first universal man in history. Hello Romain. Hello. Thank you for welcoming me to the archives of the Albert Schweitzer Museum. I found this in your museum, which is the box that houses the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize. But it's empty. Yes, that's quite normal. We put the Nobel Peace Prize in the frame to be able to show it to the public in our museum. This is the original document, which is extremely rare for this type of archive. Why did Albert Schweitzer receive the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize? He received the Nobel Peace Prize for the theoretical aspect. The great idea of ​​Schweitzer is the idea of ​​respect for life. Respect for life, what is it? It is the respect for all forms of life, human, animal and plant. We also understand that behind this idea of ​​respect for life, there is a very great ecological idea. We respect everything that surrounds us, everything that is alive. His philosophy of respect for life, he will develop it for nearly 60 years in about 30 books, translated into all languages, and conferences around the world. His aura is such that he maintains thousands of correspondence, including some with the greatest in the world. Among them, there are commendatory letters from the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill. Please accept from one of your colleagues at the Nobel Peace Prize, his best wishes for you and for your magnificent work. Other stars of the time, like Josephine Baker. I would have liked to meet you to talk to you about your humanitarian idea, which is mine. Or some that address more serious societal issues, such as the nuclear issue with American President Kennedy, or the scientist Albert Einstein. His work is also honored by one of the most important French personalities of the time. Here, with the head of the Palace of the Elysée, a letter from 1956 from President René Coty. What is very interesting in this letter is to see that René Coty addresses Schweizer by saying, Dear Master. It is a President of the Republic who says, Dear Master. It means a lot about the respect that people could have for Schweizer. To understand where his love for others comes from, we have to go back in history and show you in which family environment he grew up. Albert Schweizer was born here, in Kaisersberg. This is the house where he was born, on January 14, 1875. Six months later, Albert Schweizer and his family move. His father, a pastor, is mutated in the neighboring village of Gönnbach. In this presbytery, the young Alsatian will grow up around three sisters and his little brother, in a rather easy-going and highly cultivated family. How did his family help him become humanistic? Where his parents certainly helped him a lot, he always said that their parents educated them to freedom. So I think that for a Protestant family at the end of the 19th century, we imagine that there was still a certain discipline, but he must have already had this openness of mind that allowed the young Schweizer to flourish and follow his own path. This is where Albert Schweizer starts his studies in medicine, philosophy, theology and music. He obtains three doctorates. He is already planned to have a brilliant notable career, but the young Alsatian will decide otherwise. So here we are in a room of the former presbytery. This is where he made one of the most important decisions of his life. Yes, he says that one day in 1896, he is 21 years old, he makes this decision by hearing the birds, by seeing the light passing through the window, that he would like to live his life for himself until the age of 30. So do his studies, devote himself to art, to science, but that from the age of 30, he would like to live his life for others, devote himself to a purely human service. And to make this service to humanity, he decides to go to a country that is still very difficult to access at the beginning of the 20th century, in Africa, in Gabon. There, thanks to his medical skills, he wants to create a humanitarian hospital to fight epidemics that hit a remote village called Lambaréné. Jenny, why did Albert Schweitzer want to build a hospital in Gabon? So first a dispensary, I think, in 1913, then a large hospital in 1924. Because he estimated that because of colonialism, which had done a lot of damage, we had debts towards Africans. So here we are in front of a showcase quite revealing of his action. We still see the utensils he used in Africa. Yes, it's true that in 1913 and then in 1924, he was the only doctor. So he was both a surgeon and a dentist, even a veterinarian. Why was this hospital, Albert Schweitzer, Lambaréné in Gabon, different from another hospital? So Schweitzer didn't want to be called a hospital. He said it was a village where people were treated. So we already said everything. In fact, he didn't want a hospital where the patient, who already comes with suffering, and sometimes locked up or alone or with strangers, in a room, he was given food that he didn't know. It was something that made the Africans very uncomfortable. And he wanted the patient not to be de-rooted, in a way, and put in conditions that are not his own, that don't correspond to his culture. So the patient came with his family, and each family cooked for his patient. The family also brought his animals, because he couldn't leave the animals alone. So it's a village with firewood in every corner, animals running around, children. And it's extremely important for the patient to feel surrounded, and to be able to live normally. In all, Albert Schweitzer will go back and forth between Africa and Alsace 14 times. In his humanitarian actions, he will train his wife, Hélène, with whom he will have a unique daughter. He will create with her an association, still active today, to allow the operation of his African hospital, and spread his humanist theories around the world. All his life, Albert Schweitzer will finance his project himself, thanks to org concerts, the sale of his books, or private donors. He will never accept money from the state. For his native region, this man of heart is the perfect ambassador. Norbert Schickel, the president of the communes of the valley of Mainster, takes me to the same place where the doctor came to resource himself, to meditate, in front of his native village. How does Albert Schweitzer embody Alsace? He embodies it by his values, which he conveys. These values, essentially, of transcending the cliffs. I think that's especially what he suffered from, since he was born German, became French again, changed nationality, and so I think that the main embodiment is the crossing of the cliffs, and the crossing of the borders. The Alsace of the beginning of the 20th century has always been shared between two cultures. German territory from 1871 to 1918, Alsace will become French again, at the end of the war. Albert Schweitzer, will make this identity shift a force to carry his message. Does Albert Schweitzer attract tourists here in the Alsatian valley? Of course he attracts tourists. Many international tourists, tourists from Germany, Switzerland, from the Nordic countries, where he has a much stronger notoriety than in the Hexagons, or in the Latin countries, so to speak. Albert Schweitzer must still be better known in the Hexagons. Albert Schweitzer chose the African land for his last trip. He died on September 4, 1965, at the age of 90. He is buried in Lambaréné, in Gabon. But his native Alsace honors every day the memory of this doctor, not like the others.