Literature: Books of Albert Schweitzer
concerning medicine in the African rain forest
Medical reports from Africa:
1) On the edge of the primeval forest (orig. German:
Zwischen Wasser und Urwald (Edition Haupt, Berne 1921 -
Spanish: Entre el agua y la selva virgen)
2) Letters from Lambarene 1924-1927 (orig. German: Briefe
aus Lambarene 1924-1927)
3) Out of My Life & Thought (orig. German: Aus meinem
Leben und Denken 1931 - Spanish: Mi vida y pensamientos)
Other sources
Sources for the time from 1924-1927 in Lambarene are also
the reviews of the C.H.Beck Edition, which were mainly
written for the donors of the hospital:
--
Messages from Lambarene. First and
second review (spring 1924 - autumn 1925). C.H.Beck
Edition, 164 pages
--
Messages from Lambarene. Third review
(autumn 1925-summer 1927). C.H.Beck-Verlag, 74 pages
The reviews are also available in Swedish, English and
Dutch, English with the title: "More from the Primeval
Forest" (Life + Thought, p.219)
First World War 1914-1918: White people
kill white people - Albert Schweitzer will be interned
until the end of November 2014 - and the Afros don't
understand that
[The whites have world power - and kill each other
The whites, who rule almost the entire world with their
steam ships, telegraph lines and steam engines, are now
banging on each other. The Afros absolutely cannot
understand THAT. So something is wrong in the brain of the
white people with their Jesus fantasy - because the
fantasy bible says: You shouldn't kill!]
5.8.1914
WWI: outbreak of war in Europe + internment - blacks
complain about black soldiers who lock up a white doctor
The government in Paris immediately put Albert and Helene
Schweitzer under house arrest on Lambarene and placed them
under black French soldiers. Another pair of missionaries
(also Alsatians) on Lambarene is placed under house
arrest. Many black people are protesting and are now
insulting the black soldiers that black people are now
locking up a white doctor (Life+thinking, p.157).
WWI: The black timber trade is gone - inflation - but
Albert Schweitzer has a supply for his hospital
The blacks are losing the timber trade to Europe - and the
inflation is driving up prices (Life+Thought, p.157).
Albert Schweitzer has enough medication and bandages in
stock for his treatments despite the state of war, he and
his jungle hospital are very lucky (Life+Thought, p.174).
WWI: Black perspectives on senseless acts of war
-- some whites who live on the Ogowe River then fall
during acts of war and are killed. The blacks comment on
the war as a pointless "palaver". They also have other
views concerning fatalities:
-- if a war party kills someone, then the perpetrator
party has to pay for the killed person
-- if one kills people without eating them afterwards, the
killing happens out of pure CRUELTY (life + thinking,
p.157).
from 6/8/1914
WWI: The white technology culture turns negative and
destructive
-- The white technology culture is in decline and people
are blasting each other off. Albert Schweitzer's warnings
since 1899 come true (Life+Thought, p.159).
-- the work "The Epigones", which Albert Schweitzer had in
project, has no meaning anymore, but Albert Schweitzer
writes it for himself during his house arrest (!)
(Life+Thought, p.160)
-- at the same time Albert Schweitzer is afraid that the
guards would rob him his written papers (Life+Thought,
p.160)
from September 1914
WWI: House arrest for Albert + Helene Schweitzer cannot
be maintained, is not feasible
-- in Lambarene, from around August 10th, 1914 WHITE AND
BLACK AT THE SAME TIME complain to the French military
authorities that the only doctor in the region is now to
be locked up, and that is not possible
-- some sick people urgently ask for treatment from Albert
Schweitzer [because some of them have traveled over 100s
of km with family members!]
-- the district captain of the French army has to allow
treatments and instructs the guards to let the sick
patients through to Albert Schweitzer (Life+Thought,
p.160).
WWI during the internment: External contacts thanks to
Robert Kaufmann
Albert Schweitzer can maintain his communication with the
world through a Bach singer in Zurich -
Mr. Robert
Kaufmann - who organizes the connection to the
internees office ("Office des Internés Civils") in Geneva
for Albert Schweitzer (Life+Thought, p.173).
WWI during the internment: beginning with the cultural
philosophy with the search for ethics - and why it was
lost
Now Albert Schweitzer has the whole day off and uses the
time from the second day to develop his cultural
philosophy:
-- Whites are only epigones (this was discussed in Berlin
in the summer of 1899 in the Curtius house)
-- humanity is moving towards self-destruction (these was
Albert Schweitzer's thought since he was visiting the
university)
-- during WWI, ideals are no longer valid, the sense of
justice and expediency are decreasing (Life + Thought,
p.158)
-- philosophical hopes for the future of humanity are
reduced to the feasible (Life + Thought, p.158-159)
-- "Reality politics" become short-sighted nationalism
-- anti-progressive tendencies are encouraged
-- the belief in a high level of inventions + knowledge +
spirit + ethics turns out to be superstition, respectively
the old cultures turn out to be smarter than the new
technology cultures of the whites (!) (Life + Thought,
p.159)
Late November 1914
Lambarene: Albert + Helene Schweitzer's internment is
canceled
-- Albert + Helene Schweitzer's internment is canceled at
the instigation of a certain Mr. Widor. They are now
officially allowed to heal people again
-- in his free time Albert continues with cultural
analysis, partly all night long - at the same time always
thinking of the people who are fighting each other on the
battlefields in the trenches. The crux of the big question
is to find out how is it possible to bring whole cultures
to ruin (Life + Thought, p.160)
Summer 1915
Lambarene: Albert Schweitzer has new theses on how a
culture disappears
But now he also wants to know how to rebuild a culture (!)
(Life + Thought, p.160-161)
Albert Schweitzer's findings on the decline of
cultures: First comes the worldview - then the ideals of
culture - then the people
-- First comes a catastrophe concerning the worldview
-- then the destructive world view destroys the culture,
whose ideals are no longer valid (Life+Thought, p.162)
-- affirmation of life, ethics + the will to progress lose
orientation (life + thinking, p.165)
-- worlds are changing from ethical to non-ethical worlds
because the ethical world "was not really based on
thinking" [ethics was only a facade]:
-- there was noble thinking, enthusiastic thinking,
affirmation of life, ethics
-- but this thinking was only superficial without living
according to it
-- the belonging together of the elements is only a
sensation, without acting on it (life + thinking, p.166):
Quote:
"It [the thinking] felt and experienced the combination
of the ethical and of the affirmation of the world and
of life more than it proved it." (Life + Thought, p.166)
and:
"It [the thinking] confessed to world and life
affirmation and to ethics, without really having
explored themselves and their inner connectedness."
(Life + Thought, p.166)
So if a culture breaks down, then the "noble and valuable
worldview" was more of a belief and wasn't real action and
was therefore not capable of survival, but other powers
are taking over the spirit (life + thinking, p.166).
Albert Schweitzer's findings on rebuilding a culture:
ideals + ethics with progress or denial of progress
-- the ideals have to be rebuilt
-- an ethic must be established that protects the world
and life from violence = "world and life affirmation"
Examples: Enlightened technology culture
-- that can be a progressive culture that allows further
development [and makes a non-violent policy]
(Life+Thought, p.162)
-- Europe developed the will to progress in ancient
Greece, then came a standstill, the Middle Ages were
shaped by the Jesus fantasy Church with
ecclesiastical-hostile repression, and at the same time
the Rome-God-Fantasy-Christians believed that the "super
sensible" of her fantasy would be the "meaning of life"
(life + thinking, p.163)
-- the Renaissance renounced the church-life-denying
dogmas, developed a new ethics and a "spiritual-ethical
world", people themselves want to "become an active
force in the world" and so new ideals are developed for
remodeling the world (living + thinking, p.164)
-- this is how the modern culture is founded (Life +
Thought, p.164).
Such ethical-progressive cultures are:
-- the Zarathustra culture (which is then destroyed by
the Mohammed Fantasy Islam: affirmation of life, ethics
and the will to progress lose their orientation)
-- the Chinese thinking of Confucius (Kung-Tse),
Meng-Tse, Mi-Tse etc. (which is then almost totally
destroyed by English colonialism - the affirmation of
life, ethics and the will to progress lose their
orientation [the Mafia the East India Company from
London has drugs grown in India, which are then sold in
China in order to destroy China, this is only revealed
since Coleman's book has come out: "The Committee of
300"].
Culture without development in India
-- that can be a negative culture like in India, which
rejects all progress as "nonsense", [but at the same
time makes nonviolent politics] with an eternal retreat
into the interior - as well as with a lack of interest
for the whole of humanity - and there is no action
during life - and there is waiting just to die - and
there is waiting for a higher existence to stand above
the gods (Life + Thought, p.162).
-- this is how the Brahmins think, and now all people in
India should become like the Brahmins [a false ideal]
(Life + Thought, p.163).
Culture without development of the indigenous people
-- Albert Schweitzer thinks that the native cultures
("primitives and semi-primitives") simply live there
without the will to progress (Life+Thought, p.163).
A decline of a culture is a consequence of the progressive
weakening of the world view: ethical world is going down,
and life affirmation is also going down (life + thinking,
p.166).
Research into how a new culture emerges
from summer 1915
-- Albert Schweitzer is holding on to the ethical
affirmation of the world and of life (Life + Thought,
p.167)
-- how a new culture arises is still unclear for Albert
Schweitzer (Life+Thought, p.167-168)
-- everything he has studied in ethics is useless for the
task of creating a new culture, so: finding the answer to
the question how a new culture is created was "unexplored
land", thus this was pioneering work:
"To my surprise, I found that the central
province of philosophy, to which my thinking about
culture and worldview had led me, was actually
unexplored land." (Life + Thought, p.168)
Albert Schweitzer's spirit is now looking for new words
and concepts (Life + Thought, p.168).
The key to a peaceful life: "Reverence for
life"
September 1915 (in Gabon dry season)
A river trip brings the solution: The key concept for a
holistic culture: Reverence for life
Albert and Helene Schweitzer are at Cape Lopez on the
beach because Helene has to relax. There comes a message
that a Jesus fantasy missionary - Ms. Pelot - should be
treated 200km upriver in N'Gômô. A steamer with a barge is
ready (p.168), Albert Schweitzer quickly gets on the barge
(p.169). A black friend from Lambarene - Emil Ogouma - is
on board on the barge, all others are unknown black people
who let Albert eat with them, because in the rush
Schweitzer had no time to buy food for the trip (Life +
Thought, p.168).
The journey up the river is difficult at low tide between
sandbanks. Albert Schweitzer is on the deck of the barge
with pen and paper and is always looking for a solution to
the creation of a culture. On the evening of the third
day, the steamer and the barge are passing a herd of
hippos, and that's when Albert Schweitzer thinks of the
key term for a holistic culture:
"Awe of Life." (Life + Thought, p.169)
This counts for positive cultures with world affirmation,
with life affirmation, with ethics, with cultural ideals
(Life + Thought, p.169).
End of 1915 approx.
Finally, Albert Schweitzer formulates the positive,
holistic culture
From consciousness man comes to the thinking worldview.
To think with awareness means to think SOMETHING. The
people with awe of life are in the following state (Life +
Thought, p.169):
"I am life that wants to live in
the middle of life that wants to live." (Life + Thought,
p.169-170)
Self-reflection and the control of the relationship to the
environment is that
-- "There is the will to live in the
midst of will to live"
-- "mysterious exaltation of the will
to live" = lust
-- "Fear to be destroyed + the
mysterious impairment of the will to live" = pain (life +
thinking, p.170).
To affirm the will to live means:
-- an act carried out in instinctive thinking is now
consciously realized and put into action
-- the own existence is a "bottomless secret"
(Life+Thought, p.170).
Albert Schweitzer quote (translation):
"Life affirmation
is the spiritual act in which he [the person] stops to
live simply without thinking and begins to devote
himself to his life (life + thinking, p.170) with
reverence in order to bring it to its true value." (life
+ thinking, p.171)
or:
"Affirmation of life is deepening,
internalizing and increasing the will to live." (Life +
Thought, p.171)
The life-affirming person is a "person who has become
thinking"
-- and shows the same respect for other life as you do for
yourself
-- and can "empathize" with another "life, with love,
devotion, compassion, joy, striving, and with solidarity"
(Life + Thought, p.171).
The morality (basic principle) of the affirmation of
life
Occupations and types of work are:
-- preserve / promote / develop life / bring it to its
highest value (life + thinking, p.171).
Activities to be avoided are:
-- destroy / damage life / keep developable life down
(life + thinking, p.171).
The holistic ethics
Ethics worldwide until 1915
Until 1915 ethics only was researching the behavior from
person to person, the animal world and plant world do not
appear in ethical considerations (Life + Thought, p.171).
The holistic ethics of Albert Schweitzer from 1915: The
helping dedication
The ethics from Albert Schweitzer requires to regulate the
behavior of humans towards animals and plants with a
non-violent coexistence (Life + Thought, p.171).
Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):
"He [she - man/woman] is only ethical when his
[her] life as such, that of plants and animals as well
as that of man [women], is sacred and he [she] embraces
life giving help to the ones who are in an emergency."
and: The responsibility towards everything that lives is
limitless
and: The ethics between people is only ONE part of the
whole ethics, but a special part: Quote from Albert
Schweitzer (translation):
"The ethics of human-to-human behavior is not
something separated, but is just something special that
arises from a general context." (Life + Thought, p.171)
The destruction of life - the consumption of meat
= a stronger will who wants to live destroys a weaker will
who wants to live (life + thinking, p.171)
-- Animal husbandry and meat consumption are constantly
destroying life, that is a life based on destroyed life
(Life + Thought, p.171-172)
Quote from Albert Schweitzer:
"This [the solidarity with other life] he [the
human being] cannot fully carry out because the human
being is also placed under the mysterious and gruesome
law, being enforced to live at (p.171) the expense of
other lifes and to be guilty of destroying and damaging
life again and again." (Life + Thought, p.172)
The life of ethical beings - to live with "reverence
for life"
Ethical beings do the best they can
- for not harming others
- for proving themselves with humanity
- for saving others from suffering (life + thinking,
p.172).
THAT is real lived reverence for life with ethics and life
affirmation. This applies to all relationships between
Human being - human being
Human - animal
Human being - plant world (life + thinking, p.172)
All of these relationships are examined. Who lives
according to this has "the thinking world and life
affirmation", which according to Albert Schweitzer
represents "the spiritual and ethical perfection of the
human being" (Life + Thought, p.172).
This strong, ethical spirit is strong and resilient:
-- the "mindless cultural arrogance" can no longer harm
him
-- to look the truth in the eye becomes normal: So:
-- the progress of knowledge + ability
is not only a positive development, but can also always
turn into a negative: The "true culture" will not become
easier but more difficult
-- one recognizes the interrelationship
between spiritual + material
-- poverty is unacceptable (Life +
Thought, p.172).
-- this is how the "true culture" comes
up (Life+Thought, p.173).
1915-1917
Lambarene: Albert Schweitzer develops the structure of
his cultural philosophy
The chapters are as follows: Quote (translation):
"1. Of the current lack of culture and its
causes
2. Examination of the idea of reverence for life with
previous attempts by European philosophy to justify the
world view of ethical world and life affirmation
3. Representation of the worldview of reverence for life
4. From the cultural state."
Missing books for the elaboration are sent to Schweitzer
by the zoology professor Mr. J. Strohl and his wife from
Zurich (Life + Thought, p.173).
With all this, Albert Schweitzer has the idea to work for
an "age of peace" (Life+Thought, p.174)
April 1925 approx.: Cognition from Albert
Schweitzer: The basis of a culture is CRAFT - and not
reading and writing
Albert Schweitzer sees that the basis of a culture is the
craft that educates people to work regularly and to be
reliable. THAT is missing in Africa. So a culture starts
with the handicraft, not with reading and writing (letters
from Lambarene, p.589).
Without good craftsmen there is no basis for a cultural
life, that is clearly evident in Lambarene. The blacks in
Gabon are learning to read and write, but not to work
(Letters, p.589) and they can sell and write, but they
cannot build solid buildings. Albert Schweitzer concludes:
Political studies according to Albert Schweitzer:
Intellect and manual dexterity must be trained
TOGETHER, this is the "healthy basis for
ascension". (Letters from Lambarene, p.590)
"If I had something to say, no black person
should learn to read and write without being an
apprentice in a craft at the same time. No training of
the intellect without simultaneous training of manual
skills! This is the only way to create a healthy basis
for advancement." (Letters from Lambarene, p.590)
Political studies according to Albert Schweitzer:
Political science: Roads and railways in foreign
continents are of no use because the brains of the
natives are not trained with them
When foreigners build roads or railways, nothing has
changed. Blacks become "efficient" through human rights
and handicrafts. Culture comes on this basis. So:
-> Woodcutters -> sawmills in sawmills -> joiners
and carpenters build the houses with the sawn timber.
If that is not developed in this way, then the population
is stuck living in their bamboo huts and having some money
for some consumer goods, but then the mentality does not
change (letters from Lambarene, p.590). Albert Steiner
quote:
"How ridiculous it seems to me when I read
that Africa is being opened up to culture because a
railroad now goes as far as that, the automobile can get
there and an airplane service is to be set up from there
to there. That will not achieve anything. "To what
extent blacks will become good people?" This is the only
thing that matters. They become good through religious
and moral instruction and through the craft. Everything
else only makes sense when this foundation is laid.
And of all manual skills, that of the sawyer
is again the most important. The sawyer creates boards
and beams from the trunks from which comfortable houses
can be built. Before sawmills existed, our ancestors saw
beams and planks by hand. And if the blacks do not go
the same way, then they just remain savages, maybe one
or the other will earns the money as a scribe to get his
wife silk stockings and high-heeled shoes from Europe.
Both of them and their descendants will continue to live
in bamboo huts." (Letters from Lambarene, p.590)
Sawyers can work manually in pairs, making 10 boards or
beams per day (letters from Lambarene, p.590-591).
African governments do not notice the importance of
the sawmills and so the population stays in
bamboo huts (letters from Lambarene, p.591). Quote from
Albert Schweitzer (translation):
"To saw beams and planks out of a tree trunk,
you lay it over a two-meter-deep and four-meter-long
pit. With a long straight saw, it is tackled by two
sawyers, one on the tree, the other in the pit. The way
of the saw is marked out by corresponding lines on the
top and at the bottom of the tree trunk (Letters,
p.590). The art consists in sawing exactly vertically
and staying in the line above and below requires some
practice.Two well-trained sawyers make about 10 boards
or beams a day.
This craft, which is most valuable for us, is the least
respected as it is rated as too easy and too strenuous
at the same time. That is why people live in miserable
huts, but they could live in houses made of mahogany!
But I myself can't even find two sawyers to cut some
thick beams into thinner ones!" (Letters from Lambarene,
p.591)
-- the white colonialist is destroying the African society
by luring policy luring people to "distant" working places
(Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.424)
-- people should remain in their villages and being
educated as craftsmen THERE (Edge of the Primeval Forest,
p.423-424)
-- all in all, plantings should be installed and house
construction should be improved (Edge of the Primeval
Forest, p.424)
The danger of slavery
The government gives "concessions" to large companies
over large areas
-- such "concessions" to big companies can degenerate into
slavery like in the Belgian Congo, or it can have an
educational effect like at the upper reaches of the Ogowe
in Gabon in the area of the "society of the upper Ogowe"
(Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.426)
-- a state must have people who feed and maintain the
troops (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.426)
-- fresh food and jungle paths with sparse settlements and
long distances are a difficult tasks for Africa (Edge of
the Primeval Forest, p.427).
The comparison with Cameroon
-- in Cameroon a road network was built through the jungle
-- women have to do slave labor to repair the roads
-- you can see that the road network is only of limited
use to the native population, but it brings new slavery
(Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.428)
Albert Schweitzer calls for the protection
of the native population
-- Albert Schweitzer demands: The preservation of the
indigenous population must have first priority (Edge of
the Primeval Forest, p.428)
-- education for black people begins with agriculture and
handicrafts, some should also be able to speak languages
and to manage trade, but these highly educated government
officials are then uprooted and prone to alcohol and high
crime, and they do not give up their black wastefulness
and despite high wages they continue to be poor
-- the development of the society and ethics are therefore
not solved with education alone (Edge of the Primeval
Forest, p.428).