My Journey to Albert Schweitzer

About the Book

This book follows the unique adventures of one man throughout more than seventy years of his life. Born in pre-WW II Germany, Siegfried Neukirch had a dream of traveling to Africa so that he could work with the renowned humanist Albert Schweitzer at his mission hospital in Lambarene. From the time of his studies in Canada and in Europe, Mr. Neukirch's vision of following the pathway of life that had been blazed by the teachings of Albert Schweitzer never wavered. His journey to assist "le grand docteur" in his work led him on an adventurous bicycle trek that took him from Vancouver, British Columbia, along the west coast of the United States, through the jungles of Central and South America, and over the Andes Mountains as he made his way to Lambarene. After crossing the Atlantic Ocean by steamer, and then traveling by boat on the rivers of Equatorial Africa, he arrived at the mission hospital where he assisted in the "good doctor's work" until the death of Albert Schweitzer in 1965. Throughout his travels, especially in both the Western Hemisphere and later in Africa, Mr. Neukirch observed not only the natural beauties of the surrounding world, but also the inherent kindness and generosity of the people that he encountered en route. This book stands as a testament to the fundamental teachings of Albert Schweitzer that each and every person has the obligation to lend a helping hand to those people in our world who are in need of such assistance.

About the Author

Siegfried Neukirch was born in 1930 in Freiburg im Breisgau, gateway to Germany's Black Forest. The son of a bookseller, Mr. Neukirch's early years were spent enduring the hardships that had ravaged Europe in the aftermath of World War II. After early schooling in his native Germany, he went on to study at the University of Toronto in Canada and at the Sorbonne in Paris. Not being a person of means in those early years, he worked at a variety of occupations in order to support himself and his studies. He has been a shorthand typist for a radio station in Germany, a car washer in Toronto, a waiter for the Canadian Pacific Railroad, a baby-sitter, assistant to Albert Schweitzer at the mission hospital at Lambarene, a language tutor, and a staff member at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law in Freiburg. His travels have taken him from the wonders of the natural beauty of his beloved Black Forest of Germany, to the most famous opera houses in many major cities of the world; he has explored the wilds of the Canadian Rockies, the frozen seashore of arctic Alaska, the heat of the American southwest, the rainforests of Central and South America, the sometimes perilous Andes Mountains, and the jungles of Africa. He hopes that these experiences from his own life may serve as inspiration to young people of today as they are guided by Albert Schweitzer's "reverence for life" philosophy.