Research Report

Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer was born on 14 January 1875 in Kaysersberg in Alsace. He was the son of
Louis Théophile and Adèle Schillinger. He received the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize for his
philosophy of “Reverence for Life”, becoming the eighth Frenchman to be awarded that prize.
He accepted the prize with the speech, “The Problem of Peace”. With the $33,000 prize money,
he started the leprosarium at Lambaréné. His philosophy was expressed in many ways, but
most famously in founding and sustaining the Hôpital Albert Schweitzer in Lambaréné, French
Equatorial Africa (now Gabon). He also won the Goethe Prize in 1928, and the James Cook
Medal in 1959. As a music scholar and organist, he studied the music of German composer
Johann Sebastian Bach and influenced the Organ Reform Movement (Orgelbewegung). (Nobel
Price.org–Albert Schweitzer)