Albert Schweitzer was born on January 14 1875 in Kaisersberg in Alsace-Lorraine. Schweitzer was a famous doctor who fought very successfully against the terrible disease of leprosy in Africa. He learnt and practised a number of professions during his life. He was a Protestant minister, a musician, a lecturer in theology, a philosopher and a doctor. He wrote many books about religion, the history of music (for example, about Johann Sebastian Bach) and philosophy. But his greatest passion and the central focus of his life was his tropical hospital in the small village of Lambaréné in Gabon in Africa. After completing his medical studies, he went to Lambaréné in 1913 as a missionary doctor with his wife and built a hospital there with a leprosy ward. He financed the hospital with donations and the income he earned with his lectures, his organ concerts and his books. By the time he died in 1965, Albert Schweitzer had fulfilled his greatest desire: to help people and to alleviate their illnesses.

In 1952, Albert Schweitzer received the Nobel Peace Prize for the work he had done for persecuted and endangered people, peace, truth and freedom. He also received such awards as the “Goethe Prize” of the City of Frankfurt and the “Peace Prize of the German Book Trade”.