Albert Schweitzer and his controversial legacy (born 150 years ago today)

By Free Republic | Created at 2025-01-14 23:02:52 | Updated at 2025-01-15 09:33:05 10 hours ago

Albert Schweitzer and his controversial legacy (born 150 years ago today)
MSN ^ | 1/14/25

Posted on 01/14/2025 2:39:26 PM PST by Borges

Numerous German streets are named after him, as are hundreds of schools, universities and hospitals. Albert Schweitzer — scientist, doctor, philosopher, theologian, author, musician and Nobel Peace Prize winner — was long revered for his humanitarian work in Africa.

The clinic he set up in Lambarene in present-day Gabon in West Africa earned him the moniker, "jungle doctor."

But Schweitzer was also a product of his time. Born in 1875 in Alsace, then part of the German Empire, and today eastern France, he was influenced by the ongoing and brutal colonialization of large parts of Africa by European countries.

Schweitzer, marked by his flowing mustache and thick head of white hair, was a paternalist who saw himself as being on a kind of "civilizing mission" in Africa. He felt called upon to make the population — which he described as "children without culture" — not only healthy but also "civilized."

The doctor's fame at home earned him the attention of the National Socialists — despite his early criticism of Hitler.

Later, an invitation sent to Gabon by Joseph Goebbels is said to have been politely declined by Schweitzer.

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...

TOPICS: History
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1 posted on 01/14/2025 2:39:26 PM PST by Borges

To: Borges

When I was a kid in the 60s I read a biography of Schweitzer. He just seemed like a nice guy who practiced medicine. I guess that book was FULL OF LIES!

To: Borges

3 posted on 01/14/2025 2:44:08 PM PST by Romulus ( )

To: Borges

> But Schweitzer was also a product of his time. <

And that’s the key point. Liberals will agree with that, but only when it suits them.

Liberals:

George Washington held slaves. He was a product of his time. No matter. George Washington was a monster!

Martin Luther King thought homosexuality was a mental disorder. He was a product of his time. So let’s forgive him, and focus on the good he did.

4 posted on 01/14/2025 2:49:45 PM PST by Leaning Right (It’s morning in America. Again.)

To: Borges

He “…was a paternalist…”

If he did it in the b-tt, he would have been called “a great guy.”

5 posted on 01/14/2025 2:49:56 PM PST by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)

To: Borges

They have to create “conflict” everywhere.

This man is a humanitarian and hero.

He wasn’t a politician and didn’t get involved in every issue like many today do in order to virtue signal.

He was a minister and doctor a healed people. He dedicated his life to this.

Everyone famous has to be gay today, and all great humanitarians or statesmen need dragged through the mud by some asshole trying to get their 15 minutes of fame with trash like this.

6 posted on 01/14/2025 2:56:25 PM PST by Red6

To: Borges

was a paternalist

That describes all the European colonizers, who sent Christian missionaries and doctors into the Dark Continent, and to Asia and the Americas.

The French wanted to make all colonials "Frenchmen."

The British enthusiastically pursued Kipling's "White Man's Burden," seeing it their duty to educate, civilize, and uplift the "wogs."

7 posted on 01/14/2025 2:56:39 PM PST by Angelino97

To: Borges

Whatever one thinks about his views Albert Schweitzer spent many agonizing years in various hellholes of Africa tending to sick people and ended up dying there.

8 posted on 01/14/2025 2:58:28 PM PST by plain talk

To: Borges

9 posted on 01/14/2025 3:00:03 PM PST by ansel12 ((NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.))

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