Rhena Schweitzer-Miller

Rhena Schweitzer-Miller (born January 14, 1919 in Strasbourg in Alsace , France , † February 22, 2009 in Los Angeles in California , USA ) was the daughter of Nobel Peace Prize laureates Albert Schweitzer and Helene Bresslau .

life and work

Rhena Schweitzer-Miller grew up in Germany , France and Switzerland .

In 1939 she married Jean Eckert , an organ builder whom she had met in Paris, but was later divorced from him. She completed medical training by the end of the 1950s.

Work in Lambarene

From 1960 she worked in her father's hospital in Lambaréné in Gabon and after his death took over the administrative management of the hospital in September 1965 to 1970. The documentary she made about working in the hospital in Lambaréné is still recommended in religious education today.

She met her second husband, the American doctor David C. Miller , while working in Lambaréné , where he worked with her father.

Humanitarian work

She and her second husband did humanitarian work in the spirit of her father in several countries. They worked u. a. in India , Vietnam , Bangladesh , Nigeria , Yemen and Egypt in medical projects. In Pakistan , her husband was responsible for 80,000 refugees.

In the late 1960s, during the Biafra War in Nigeria , she took in about 20 Igbo children in her home, according to the New York Times in 1968.

Together with Harold Robles , Schweitzer-Miller founded the Albert Schweitzer Institute for the Humanities in 1984 , which later moved its headquarters to Quinnipiac University in Hamden , Connecticut . In 1990 Robles and Miller created the "Reverence for Life Commendation" to honor humanitarian efforts in the spirit of Albert Schweitzer.

Ambassador for the Albert Schweitzer Societies

In addition to this commitment, she was also later active for her father's work as an ambassador for many organizations that bore his name. Among other things, she visited the Fobung Foundation in Cameroon in 2001 . She also found out more about the Austrian Albert Schweitzer Society.

Private life

Rhena Schweitzer-Miller is the mother of Philippe, Monique Egli, Christiane Engel and Catherine Eckert from her first marriage and had eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren at her death.

Literature / media

• Literature by and about Rhena Schweitzer-Miller in the catalog of the German National Library
• The Years Before Lambarene - Letters 1902–1912 . Edited by Rhena Schweitzer-Miller and Gustav Woytt, 1992, CH Beck, ISBN 978-3-406-36788-5
• Albert Schweitzer in his jungle hospital in Africa (short version) by Rhena Eckert-Schweitzer, FRG 1965, 25 min, f, documentary film
• Rhena about her mother
• My father, Albert Schweitzer. Published by Miriam Devine, Saturday Evening Post, 1994
• Greetings for the 2007 anniversary year of the Albert Schweitzer Children's Villages

Web links

• Albert Schweitzer Children's Village
• Visit to Rhena Schweitzer-Miller in Albert Schweitzer Aktuell September 2006 (PDF; 398 kB)
• Albert-Schweitzer-Familienwerk eV about Albert and Rhena Schweitzer
• News of the death of Rhena-Schweitzer-Miller (PDF; 13 kB) from Christoph Wyss, President of AISL (PDF; 13 kB)
• San Francisco Chronicle : Rhena Miller dies - ran Schweitzer hospital
• Bunte Newsline : Albert Schweitzer's daughter dies
• Sächsische Zeitung : Albert Schweitzer's daughter died at the age of 90
• Deutschlandfunk , February 4, 2014, Corinna Mühlstedt: ondemand-mp3.dradio.de: In the shadow of the jungle doctor: Helene Schweitzer ( Memento from February 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ): Interview with the daughters Monique Egli and Christiane Engel (February 7th 2014)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} People are borne by communities - communities live from the contribution of the individual (diakonia) teaching aids religion / community studies
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Rhena Schweitzer Miller, 90, Dies; Aided Father's Work
3. ↑ ^{a b} Albert Schweitzer Familienwerk: Our namesake Albert Schweitzer ( Memento of the original from September 16, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ Hamilton, Robert A. “Connecticut Q&A: Harold E. Robles; Honoring Albert Schweitzer's Philosophy " , The New York Times , July 11, 1993. accessed on 2 March of 2009.
5. ↑ Harold Robles joins Board of Advisors ( Memento of the original from December 15, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Legacy International. Retrieved March 2, 2009. 
6. ↑ Fobang Foundation ( Memento of the original dated November 9, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
7. ^ Austrian Albert Schweitzer Society
8. ↑ The years before Lambarene at CHBeck  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
9. ^ The years before Lambarene on Google books
10. ↑ Helene Schweitzer-Bresslau ( Memento of the original from December 18, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
11. ↑ engl.
12. ↑ Greetings for the anniversary year 2007 of the Albert Schweitzer Children's Villages  ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.