Albert Schweitzer: Humanitarian With a “Reverence for Life”

In 1893, after obtaining his "Abitur" certificate from the Mulhouse Gymnasium (secondary school), Schweitzer began to study Protestant theology at the Kaiser Wilhelm University in Strasbourg, while he also continued piano and organ lessons. Schweitzer applied, but was turned down because of his Lutheran theology and inexperience in medicine. [...]in 1905, at the age 30, Schweitzer began to study medicine at the University of Strasbourg, much to the surprise of his family and friends. In 1913, now with formal medical qualifications, he finally convinced the Paris Missionary Society to support him, and with his wife traveled to the French Equatorial Africa colony to the Missionary Society's outpost in the village of Lambaréné, 200 miles upstream from the Atlantic on the Ogooué River in presentday Gabon.