Description:

Schweitzer Albert 1875 - 1965 Nobel Laureate Albert Schweitzer lengthy ALS, while chief of Medical services at his hospital, "... EVERYTHING IS GOING WELL ... "
Autograph Letter Signed by French missionary physician, philosopher and music scholar, "Albert Schweitzer". Two pages on thin tissue stock, 8.5" x 11", Lambaréné, Gabon, March 24, 1957. With some edgewear, and light staining. Heavily scripted in strong contrast in German to"Dear Doctoresse" [Margrieta van der Kreek] in Johannesburg, South Africa. Accompanied by a full English translation and a glossy black and white photo of Schweitzer 3.75" x 5.5" in fine condition.


"I just telegraphed you that you [shouldn't return] on March [April] 3, as you announced in your telegram, which I received yesterday. It had been arranged from the beginning, after all, that you would not come until mid-April, and it is important to me that you come well rested, as I told you when you went away. Perhaps you were surprised not to receive a reply from me in time. But there was an accident in our correspondence. Your letter of March 2, which Herr Kriendler was to bring (if I understand correctly), I did not receive it until March 22. I think it came via Dr. Hardy. The telegram from me is the answer to that, to what you wrote me about staying longer to get a good rest. A letter would not have arrived in time. I think you have no particular reason to come already on April 3.

"You have not received enough news from me. But in recent weeks I was in a particularly difficult situation. Much paper work and very tired, and my poor hand, cramped from writing, almost refused to function and my overtaxed eyes, too. Writing letters was out of the question for a longer period of time. That is how your letter of Feb.21 went unanswered. I was pleased that you have learned so many interesting things. How great that you are bringing such excellent instruments and things back with you.

"That Drs. Penn and Cohen want to come is fine. If I travel to Europe, it will not be until the end of July. So up to July 20 I will be in Lambarene in any case. But those two should keep it to themselves. I don't like people to know about my travel plans, for they are completely uncertain. So up to July 20 people can surely find me in Lambarene. Tell these gentleman that I am looking forward to their coming here, and am so grateful to them for ... (sentence trails off). Here everything is going well, although I can't be involved in operations as much as I had hoped, because of the paper work that comes up. Please give my regards to Lady Oppenheimer, who wants to act so kindly on behalf of my hospital. I will write her shortly. But this letter was written at night, with a tired hand and tired eyes. Hopefully it will arrive in time to make you stick to your old plan and not come until mid-April or later. The main thing for me is not when you come back, but how you come back: well rested and with full cheeks ..."

In the present letter, Schweitzer not only complains of fatigue, but shows it by writing fragmentary sentences and wrong dates, leaving out words, and misnumbering the second page. Schweitzer had established his renowned hospital in 1913, the year he became a doctor of medicine. With his wife Hélène Bresslau, who had trained as a nurse in order to assist him, he set out for Lambaréné in the Gabon province of French Equatorial Africa. There on the banks of the Ogooué (Ogowe) River, Schweitzer, with the help of the natives, built his hospital, which he equipped and maintained from his income, later supplemented by gifts from individuals and foundations in many countries. A leper colony was added later. The hospital grew steadily in the 1950s, and by 1963

there were 350 patients with their relatives at the hospital and 150 patients in the leper colony, all served by about 36 white physicians, nurses, and varying numbers of native workers. Dr. Margrieta van der Kreek was Schweitzer's chief of medical services at his hospital from March 1955 until August 1960.

Schweitzer received the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize for his philosophy of " Reverence for Life", expressed in many ways, but most famously in founding and sustaining the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Lambarene, now in Gabon, West Central Africa (then French Equatorial Africa).

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