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Origin and history

Albert Schweitzer's house in Gunsbach, located in the Munster Valley in Alsace, is the place where young Albert spent part of his childhood and youth. The son of Pastor Louis Schweitzer, he lived there from 1875, a few months after his birth in Kaysersberg. This family home, surrounded by nature, was a setting for his reflections and education, marked by a dual Franco-German culture. Schweitzer soon developed a sensitivity to music, theology and philosophy, inspired by his liberal Protestant father and environment.

It was in Gunsbach that Albert Schweitzer had a decisive illumination in 1896: he decided to devote his life to "a purely human service" after his thirty years, while continuing his studies in theology, philosophy and music. The house thus became a witness to its first ethical and spiritual awareness. Today it houses a museum dedicated to her memory, where personal objects, archives and memories of her Alsatian years and her African work are exhibited.

The house also retains traces of its musical commitment, including its organ and scores, recalling its role as a concertist and musicologist. Schweitzer returned regularly between his stays in Lambaréné, especially to rest and write. After his death in 1965, the house was transformed into a place of memory, attracting visitors from all over the world. It symbolizes both its Alsatian anchor and its universal heritage, between humanism, Protestant faith and respect for life.

In 1969, a monument in his honour, carved by Fritz Behn, was erected on the heights of Gunsbach, at the place called Kanzrain, where Schweitzer loved to retreat to meditate. This site, like the house, perpetuates its thought and action, while providing a space for recollection and reflection on its ethic of "respect for life". The house and its museum welcome about 6,000 visitors a year, showing lasting attachment to its figure.

The Schweitzer heritage in Gunsbach is part of a wider network of memorial sites, including its home in Kaysersberg and museums in Germany, Austria and Gabon. These sites highlight the international impact of his work, while at the same time anchoring his history in the Alsatian territory, marked by cultural and political tensions between France and Germany, which he himself incarnate and surpassed.

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