Zwischen Wasser und Urwald

The young theology professor Albert Schweitzer abandoned his academic career in 1905 at the age of thirty, studied medicine, and set sail for Africa in 1913 to establish a medical station in the jungles of Equatorial Africa in the service of the French missionary society. In 1920, he wrote his famous report "Between Water and Jungle." In a fascinating way, Albert Schweitzer describes his experiences in what seemed to be untouched Africa at the time, the establishment of a hospital on the Ogowe River, and his growing respect for the local population. For him, providing medical assistance was a form of atonement, among other things, for the many sufferings that Europeans inflicted on Africans. "Between Water and Jungle" quickly became a bestseller and remains the best-selling book by Albert Schweitzer to this day. "The reader understands that Schweitzer learned a great deal about himself while helping his African patients. He needed Lambarene to test the extent to which he was capable of credibly applying the idea of solidarity with the population of what would later be called the Third World. Only through the practice did he gain the confidence and persuasive power for his magnificent ethics of reverence for life, which encompasses not only human life but life in creation as a whole." Horst Eberhard Richter.