Literature: Books of Albert Schweitzer concerning medicine in the African rain forest

Medical reports from Africa:
1) On the edge of the primeval forest (orig. German: Zwischen Wasser und Urwald (Edition Haupt, Berne 1921 - Spanish: Entre el agua y la selva virgen)
2) Letters from Lambarene 1924-1927 (orig. German: Briefe aus Lambarene 1924-1927)
3) Out of My Life & Thought (orig. German: Aus meinem Leben und Denken 1931 - Spanish: Mi vida y pensamientos)

Other sources

Sources for the time from 1924-1927 in Lambarene are also the reviews of the C.H.Beck Edition, which were mainly written for the donors of the hospital:
-- Messages from Lambarene. First and second review (spring 1924 - autumn 1925). C.H.Beck Edition, 164 pages
-- Messages from Lambarene. Third review (autumn 1925-summer 1927). C.H.Beck-Verlag, 74 pages
The reviews are also available in Swedish, English and Dutch, English with the title: "More from the Primeval Forest" (Life + Thought, p.219)

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Chronology

Feb.14-April 9, 1924: The journey from Bordeaux to Lambarene

Everything is prepared for the trip. In Europe there are people managing the administrtion for the hospital in Lambarene:
-- Mrs Emmy Martin from Strasbourg
-- the Jesus fantasy pastor Dr. theol. Hans Baur in Basel
-- the Jesus fantasy pastor Albert Woytt from Oberhausbergen near Strasbourg, the brother-in-law of Albert Schweitzer (Life + Thought, p.220).

February 14, 1924
Departure from Strasbourg
Wife Helene stays in Europe because of health problems (Life+Thought, p.214)

The helper and chemistry student Noël Gillespie
Albert Schweitzer is accompanied by a young chemistry student from Oxford, Noël Gillespie, he is supposed to be a help to Albert Schweitzer for a few months (Life + Thought, p.214).

Embarkation in Bordeaux
Albert Schweitzer attracts attention by 4 full sacks of potatoes with unfinished letters in them. The customs officers want to find something in the letters, then after teh control of all the letters of the second potatoe sack after 1 1/2 hours they give up when they still had not found any hidden money (Life+Thought, p.214).

The crossing from Bordeaux to Gabon
-- the travel is on the Dutch freight steamer "Orestes"
-- Albert Schweitzer is visiting other places on the west coast of Africa (Life+Thought, p.214).

The project is a two-year stay from 1924 to 1926 and the return in 1926 - but the stay in Lambarene should last 3 1/2 years (Life+Thought, p.219).

Albert Schweitzer describes it in his "Letters from Lambarene" as follows (Letters from Lambarene, p. 479 - translation):

"On Thursday morning, February 21st, still in the dark of night, the Dutch steamer that was carrying me out to Africa for my second job left the port of Bordeaux. Since I have been writing all night to answer urgent letters sending them by mail, I go to sleep immediately and only wake up around noon when the ship, in bright sunshine, takes the sea from the Gironde.

Helene is not there
My thoughts wander back to the first exit in 1913, where my wife moved with me as a loyal assistant. This time she has to stay behind because of her shaken health. An 18-year-old Oxford student of chemistry and geology, Noël Gillespie, of Alsatian origin by his father, accompanied me for a few months to help me with the work of the first difficult period.

No heating on the ship
A wonderful northeast wind is after us on the journey south. It is grimly cold in the cabin, as if we had been shipped to Africa as frozen meat. The steam heating is unusable. The ship was built during the war. Iron had to be used for the steam heating tubes, which were supposed to be made of copper. They are now rusted through so that the heater cannot be used. Our consolation (p.479) is that each of the next days will be warmer than the previous one.

The radio from Europe falls silent
At the height of Gibraltar I spend an evening up in the radio telegraph operator's room and listen to a concert in London. A modern violin concerto, played ravishingly, accompanied by the orchestra and the rushing waves of the sea, can be heard with wonderful clarity. After the applause has subsided, one can hear one lady saying goodbye to the other. The following evening we tried in vain to hear another concert. Only a confused sound can be heard. Europe is finally behind us.

Tropical heat - tropical clothing - tropical helmets - March 1, 1924: Dakar (Senegal) - and a steamer is missing!
After six days we pass Las Palmas at night. The next day, at the height of White Cape (Cap Blanca), we are already pulling out our tropical clothes and tropical helmets. On March 1st [1924] in the morning we are in Dakar, where we have cargo to unload for two days. Here we learn that a large steamer that left Bordeaux one week before us has not yet arrived and must be considered lost.

The cargo steamer stops at every corner - get to know the west coast of Africa "a little more thoroughly"
With a lady traveling to see her husband in Cameroon, we are the only passengers on board. I deliberately chose a cargo steamer that stops in some ports and little ports. I would like to get to know the west coast of Africa a little more thoroughly. I also hope to be able to rest and work better on the freight steamer than on the mail steamer, where passengers are always asking things.

The beautiful weather remains loyal to us. Now that we fear the heat in the cabin, we can no longer understand that we were still freezing in it a few days ago. As a true Dutchman, the chief steward grew hyacinths from onions in water glasses. But how strange and pathetic they look under the tropical sun that shines through the hatches of the dining room! (p.480)

The ports of the west coast of Africa - astronomy science on the bridge with the captain
After Dakar our ship has to stop at the following ports: Conakry, Freetown, Sassandra, Grand Lahou, Grand Bassam, Sekondee, Accra, Lome, Cotonou, Fernando Po, Duala. We enjoy being able to be on the navigating bridge with the captain and the officers at all times and to gain an insight into the art of shipping. Often we are up late into the night doing astronomy with the captain. Venus, shining in its most glorious splendor, which we had before us so far, now rises in our back, in the north. It casts a glimmer of light on the water like a little moon. While the north polar star remains visible, the southern cross is already rising.

There are other worlds with other stars
To see only the curved surface of the water and the stars on a swaying ship in a quiet night is something wonderful. How do you get gripped by reality that we are floating on a small ball in the midst of countless worlds! How tremendous are the questions about where the world is from and where the world is going! How futile appears the striving of the peoples and the ambition of the humans! And with magic tones the [Jesus-Fantasy] passion time rings out to me in these quiet hours between sky and water.

3 dolphins swim in competition with the steamer
At the height of Conakry we have marvelous sea lights. One evening we watch three mighty dolphins swimming with the ship and throwing themselves around the bow like flaming monsters in flaming waters until, after half an hour, they can no longer participate.

March 7, 1924: Freetown - as clean as no other African city
Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, where we arrive on March 7th [1924], is one of the busiest places on the west coast of Africa. Never before have I seen such clean streets and such neatly dressed negroes in an African place.

50 Kroo people set up a tent on the front deck - and 1 captain - and endless formalities
Here in Freetown we are accepting 50 Kroo people (p.481) on board. Kroo people are called black people organized in groups who are recruited by the ships to take care of unloading and loading on the journey along the African coast. On the return journey, they are put back on land in the port where they came on board.

As soon as our 50 men have climbed on board on the ropes from the launches they brought, they begin to erect a mighty tent and a kitchen on the front deck, which is now theirs. They have brought everything that is necessary for this. They'll be done with it in an hour. The order is excellent. Everyone knows where to tackle. One of their own is above them as their captain. The ship's officers transmit their orders to this. People don't accept direct instructions.

The formalities with the harbor police because of the Kroo people take hours. Each individual's papers are examined; a detailed list is drawn up. The Freetowner representative of the Dutch shipping company is responsible for ensuring that all 50 are brought back and that no other, inferior Negro is replacing a Freetowner Krooman. All the African colonies are vigilant to ensure that their natives, the precious workers' material, cannot emigrate. The formalities for exporting a negro from Africa are only surpassed by those required to import a dog into England.

There are steamers on the African coast - almost 12 wrecks being put there by storms
From Freetown on, the drive along the coast requires a lot of caution because of the many shallows [rocky banks or sand banks] that push out into the sea. Right at Cape Sierra Leone one can see a steamer stranded years ago on such a rock slab. Almost a dozen such wrecks will show up in the next few days. To save speed, our captain dares to stay so close to the coast (p.482) so we never lose sight of it. He has made the path several times. That is why he is even allowed to enter ports at night that can only be identified by one single light.

The Kroo people "is working" on the ship: knocking off the paint with a hammer to repaint the ship - headache without end
The day after we leave Freetown, the Kroo people are gathered and everyone is given a hammer. I look at this appeal without thinking bad things. After a quarter of an hour, 50 hammers start pounding on the iron parts of the deck and don't stop until evening. The next morning the same concert woke me up from my sleep and continued all day. The same on the third day. Got something, I asked the first officer when the job would be finished. He laughs and replies that the "ship's band" will continue to play like this for the entire journey. In order to keep the Kroo people busy - everyone gets two shillings a day - they take the opportunity of the trip to Africa with the glorious sun and the many rainless days to repaint all accessible iron parts of the ship. To do this, however, the old paint must first be knocked off, which is a tedious job.

Now the idyll of the journey on the freight steamer is over. One no longer knows where to save oneself from the hammer. In the evening you can no longer stand it because of a headache. After a few agonizing days, I discover a spot on the back of the screw, which I cover with boards and old canvas to protect against the sun. It's more or less bearable here.

March 10, 1924: Cape Palmas - an upturned ship on the beach - the steamer reaches the Gulf of Guinea
Monday, March 10th [1924], around noon we drive past Cape Palmas. We can clearly see the palm trees on the heights that give it its name. To the north of the lighthouse there is a big ship that the hurricane has put on the beach and turned over so that the keel is looking towards the sky (p.483).

From Cape Palmas the journey no longer goes south, but east, into the Gulf of Guinea, to the countries around which the Niger draws its enormous bow.

Port of Sassandra (Ivory Coast) - unloading cargo onto boats in front of shallow harbors
A little boat is carrying us from the steamer to the port of Sassandra passing big waves, Ivory Coast, and the captain of the rudderers tells Noël who is in Bermuda shorts: "You are still too young to come to Africa!" To save his dignity, I interject: "Yes, but he is clever and capable," which provokes an approving "Ah!" (p.484) [...]

[And now see how disorganized the African ports are only because the authorities never build any protection dams or piers]:

The boats typically have 10 rowers and a navigator who handles the big flap behind. They are only loading a few boxes or barrels. The heavier the boat, the more vulnerable it is in the surf, because it can then no longer adapt enough up and down the waves. The crew of an unloading boat receives around 10 schillings for each trip. Often the ship has to anchor so far from the beach that they can only make 3 or 4 trips a day. This is then an expensive unloading. The freight to these African ports is also not cheap for the ship, although it is relatively high. Under certain circumstances, even in calm weather, it may have to lie for a day to unload only 20 tons. Or several ships happen to come together in such a port. Then the number of unloading boats is insufficient and there are waiting days for the last ones to arrive.

Unloading cargo on boats in shallow harbors: damage by the blacks
In addition to these inevitable losses, there are those that come at the expense of negligent or inefficient operation. In Sassandra I see the rowers loading boxes of sugar and sacks of rice into a boat that is still half full of seawater when it comes back through the surf. "Please empty the boat first," I tell the guide. "What (p.486) are the insurance companies for damaged freight for?" he replies.

Unloading cargo onto boats in front of shallow harbors: The port's schedule means long waiting times
In a port, I don't know in which one, the rule applies that unloading is not allowed from 11:30 am to 2pm and from 5pm on. Now I can see at 11:15am two unloading boats coming to the steamer, for this trip they needed more than an hour. Then when the boats should be cargoed, the rudders are clasping their hands as a signal that it's 11:30am and they leave returning home whereas they could have had their load within 10 minutes - the sea is calm. At 2pm they begin a new trip and are at the steamer at 3:30pm. In former times, the rudder teams were having break and were eating when they returned from a trip in the middle of the day, and in this way there was a circulation of teams. Today all is ruled in a way that all efficiency is not important any more and much time is lost only damaging to everybody. How many hours our steamer is dancing on the waves being fixed by it's anchor chain waiting for the unloading boats!

African ports with bureaucracy: "A whole afternoon" waiting for the "issue of the health certificate of our ship"
And what delays in handling the arrival and departure formalities! One time, we are waiting for leaving a port, we are waiting a complete afternoon for a cirtificate of health by the port medical doctor for your ship. Together with the captain I am calculating that by all this inefficiant mechanisms and delays with procedures of arrival and leaving we loose at least 4 days during the first way. Considering the same figure for the way back, these are 8 lost days during the complete trip. The costs of the ship with it's crew of 36 men are 150 English Pounds per day. Thus the cost for the freight could be kept 1200 English Pounds lower (p.487) for this ship, and this is the sum of which people in Africa could have the goods cheaper when the work would be efficient instead of inefficient concerning the unloading rudder teams and officials.

The port of Sekondee on the "Gold Coast" - and a little bit of plague
The port of Sekondee, on the Gold Coast, has been declared contaminated because of some plague cases inside. Nobody is allowed to come on board from the shore and nobody is allowed to go ashore from the ship. Unloading is permitted, but the port police ensures that only boxes and barrels move between the ship and the unloading boats.

Despite the poor quality of the ports, there has always been good trade activity in the Gulf of Guinea, that is to say on the Pepper, Ivory, Gold and Slave Coast. Because these ports are located at the entrance of large lagoons that connect the sea with large areas of the interior and with rivers that come down from the Niger watershed.

Sailing ships with rum and gunpowder - the blacks then act drunk against the sailing ships
Additionally there is the indication that the sailing ships of former times were not affected by the unfavorable ports as the big steamers are today. Sailing ships had a shallow draft which permitted them to enter the lagoons where rum and gunpowder was unloaded and slaves were loaded - just exchange trade. Of course the lagoons were also a trap and the natives were attacking them because rum is provoking euphoria and courage for stealing. In the lagoon of Sassandra it was in the 19th century when a complete sailing ship crew was killed and only one cabin boy could escape of it.

Guinea - the origin of the "Gulf Stream" and countercurrents
On the trip along the coast of Guinea, as a guest of the command bridge, I gain insight into the mysteries of the Gulf Stream that rises in these waters. It is well known that the Gulf Stream does not flow in a uniform current westward out of the Gulf of Guinea and then towards the north, but currents and countercurrents go along side by side (p.488). Already at the height of the coast of Liberia this strange game begins, which the shipping maps, in spite of all related investigations, are only able to reproduce very imperfectly. You never know exactly whether the ship is in the current or in the countercurrent. In 24 hours, depending on the course it is taking, it can get out of the current into the counter current and from the counter current into the current several times. Currents and countercurrents have speeds of three to 10 kilometers per hour. Depending on whether it goes with or against the water in the river, the ship can gain or lose around 100 kilometers of travel in 24 hours, which then turns out to be a pleasant or unpleasant surprise the next day when determining its location from the midday height of the sun turns out.

Ivory Coast - the wood test with the current
In the roadstead [ship construction site] at Grand Bassam, on the Ivory Coast, I take the opportunity to roughly calculate the speed of the current. When there is no wind, when our anchored ship is positioned in the direction of the current, I throw pieces of wood from the bow, which I have begged from the ship's carpenter, into the water several times and calculate how long it will take to reach the other end of the ship. The ship is 106 meters long. The timbers are passing this distance in 5 minutes and 48 seconds. The current goes along the coast in the direction from west to east and is therefore a countercurrent to the Gulf Stream. Despite the inhibition of the beach, which is only 200 meters away, the water here moves with a speed of about one kilometer per hour along the coast!

Cotonou harbor with quarantine - passengers have to go to Fernando Po - stories of natives
Although we had no contact with the country in Sekondee and meanwhile we were admitted without quarantine in Accra, on the gold coast, and in Lome, in Togoland (p.489), we are declared in quarantine in Cotonou, the port of Dahomey. We have to unload our cargo in the strictest of seclusion, which does not help to speed up business. Some colored tween deck passengers who have come on board on the Gold Coast and want to go to Cotonou are not allowed to land and have to go to Fernando Po, even though they are penniless and do not know how to get back from there. I feel sorry for them and tear myself away from my book to show them my condolences. I take a look at the book that one of these negro passengers has in front of him. He reads stories of natives in "America" in English. I myself hold a well-worn volume of familiar native stories from "America" in my hand, which a boy from the vicinity of Strasbourg was giving me as a present for my trip to Africa. After the negro passenger has come to terms with his fate, we sit next to each other and read native stories from "America" under the African sun.

March 22, 1924: Port of Cotonou - a birth on the ship? - Preparing the feeding bottle 8 times a day?
In the night we are near Cotonou, just as March 22nd [1924] has dawned, the lady traveling to Cameroon uses the opportunity that a doctor is on board to give birth to a baby who is only expected for Duala. As she is the only woman on the ship, I take care of the mother and the child, with which my days are subsequently filled. I am now getting to know the heat of a ship's galley in the tropics; because eight times a day I stand there to prepare the feeding bottle. And since the child - it is a boy - has not yet fully understood the situation, it sleeps during the day and screams through the night. It then has to be carried around for hours in the hot dining room, where its cradle stands made from a box. Noël is also helping in this affair. He has to make friends (p.490) with the role as a nurse in Africa, too.

[This story sounds pretty impossible. African women actually always breastfeed their baby WITHOUT a feeding bottle].

March 26, 1924: The Spanish colonial island of Fernando Po - guest workers because the population was destroyed - cocoa at an inflated price
Wednesday March 26th [1924] we are in the little port of Santa Isabella on Fernando Po. Fernando Po is a volcanic island off the Cameroon Bay, belonging to Spain, of extraordinary fertility. The cocoa grows particularly well on it, although the best cocoa does not come from Africa but from Guatemala. But the great difficulty on Fernando Po is finding workers to grow cocoa. There is no longer any indigenous colored population, so to speak. It has been eliminated by the cruel forced labor which was practiced previously. Fernando Po, a true paradise, is therefore dependent on workers who move there. But no African colony allows their blacks to emigrate. The current governor has now managed to conclude a contract with the negro republic of Liberia, according to which so many Liberians are allowed to go to Fernando Po as workers for a certain period of time every year are needed. In the following time he is called the savior of the igland, also when the Liberia workers for the island are not enough, and he got his bronce statue in front of the Government Palace. Nothing presents the African worker's question in such a bright alarming light as this monument on Fernando Po which is sprinkling in the sunset's light. Workers are hardly to have, so they must be payed with high salaries and are to treat carefully. Their working performance is poor. Therefore cocoa of the island costs much more than the world market price. Principally this cocoa could never be sold at all, but Spain is putting customs on all cocoa deliveries which are not from the colonies. Therefore the Fernando Po cocoa is sold in Spain. Spaniards are drinking cocoa which is much more expensive than other europeans consume, only for maintaining the cocoa cultivation artificually on one of the most fertile islands of the world. (p.491)

Duala (Cameroon) March 27, 1924: Mother with baby has to wait 2 days because of stamp issues
In the dark of night, the captain maneuvers the steamer out of the small bay in a virtuoso manner, and on March 27th around noon we are in Duala. Since the passport of the young mother in bed does not have all the stamps that she should have, she has to stay on board until further notice, and Noël and I with her, as she would have no one else to look after. After two days, permission was obtained to disembark her for the time being as sick. My last job is to carry her down the swaying stairway alone to the launch, the Kroo people are astonished of the strong man. Then we rush ashore as free people.


Cameroon: Albert Schweitzer visits the lost Basel Jesus fantasy mission in Nyasoso

Duala (Cameroon): Accommodation in a Jesus fantasy mission
I'm staying in Cameroon for a while because I want to visit a lost station of the Basel Mission, Nyasoso, which is now in the Cameroon part with an English administration. People knowing the country and the conditions gave me the idea when a second hospital should be founded, this would be a good location for it. So, I visit Nyasoso.

We are housed in the house of the Evangelic [Jesus fantasy] missionaries, there are camping 5 missionary couples from the inner of the country with all in all 12 little children. They are waiting for the steamer who will bring them to Europe and "America". Now we enjoy to listen to babies crying but we are not in duty to serve them!

Cameroon April 2nd, 1924: From Duala to Lum with the Cameroon Northern Railway
We are kindly guided by the [Jesus fantasy] missionaries, we are go shopping preparing the trip and arranging our things in 10 portions for the carriers. On Wednesday, April 2nd [1924], we travel with Cameroon Northern Railway a little bit more than 100km from Duala to Lum, then the next day we start from Lum to Nyasoso. The native [Jesus fantasy] pastor Kuo from Duala which was recommended to me by a Basel [Jesus fantasy] missionary is so friendly to be with us during the whole trip for helping us as a travel guide and translator. The (p.492) trip project is for 3 weeks, but has to be performed much faster because the Cameroon rainy season has begun already - one month too early - and because the daily cost of a trip with carrieres is much more expensive in Cameroon than I had imagined. And in Duala came the news to me that ill people are waiting for me in Lambarene.

Cameroon: From Lum to N'Gab with carrieres - 1/3 is road - 2/3 is "express march"
In Lum we find carrieres who were ordered in advance. They ar carrying our luggage to N'Gab, which is about half the way. There the black teacher is calling for the people of the village with tamtam drums for us. After some negociations we find carriers for the second part of the trip. Noël is charged being the leader of the caravan. He is distributing the loads, he is responsible that people walk, he is observing that nobody stays behind or is putting away the load, he is responsible for the water desinfection and for the camp beds - and the most difficult thing - in the morning the things have to be packed again not forgetting anything. Just on the first day he detects that as a well trained European "scout" one can learn something in Africa. But I don't claim with him, it's his affair, and I am going ahead with pastor Kuo for having information in the villages with the chiefs, with the [Jesus fantasy] evangelists and with the teachers.

By the way we meet the chief of Nyasoso. He is controling the road which is built from Lum to Nyasoso so cars will circulate on it. I mean that the Cameroon rain will provoce some questions concerning this road yet. 33% are built already and this is very good for our "express march". We reach the location during the afternoon already.

Cameroon: The ex Basel Jesus fantasy mission of "Nyasoso" at 800m above sea level on volcanic earth - at the volcano "Kupeberg" 2000m high
Nyasoso is on 800 meters over sea level at a flank of the 2000 meters high Kupeberg. Kupe Hill is volcanic like Cameroon Hill. With (p.493) it, the volcanoes lie on the big volcanic line that stretches from [the Spanish colonial island] Fernando Po to the interior of Africa. The soil of Nyasoso is almost as fertile as that of the Spanish island. Food for the hospital would be easily available here. There are even cows here. What a difference to Lambarene!

The former mission garden has become a wilderness again. Only the orange and lemon trees have survived. Richly hung with fruits, they give shadow to the bushes beneath. With the ax I make my way to the grave of a missionary woman who rests here.

Cameroon: Nyasoso with craftsman training - the Jesus fantasy missionaries have been expelled for 10 years - no more craftsmen - a choir is still there
The big mission house which is built for 2 families is in good condition despite of 10 years of neglect. Basel mission members built the house up solidly. But much work and money it would cost to rearrange it as dwelling house. Native craftsman would be available for that. Where Basel mission had worked, there came up good black craftsman always. In all English colonies of West Africa the merchants are claiming that since the Basel mission was expelled no native craftsman were trained any more. Therefore there is a big movement to open them the doors again which were shut by short-sighted propaganda.

In the evening the people of the village come. I have to tell them from the life of the expelled missionaries as far I know about it. The choir is singing songs in four voices. I am astonished what this congregation has preserved by their own energy with [Jesus fantasy] Christian life without a shepard.

Cameroon Nyasoso: Help is available for building a hospital
There are deep discussions about a probable foundation of a hospital here. People are declaring ready to help with all they have. When Basel mission and English government will permit to use a part of the left mission's houses for my hospital, then they want to help with building material and craftsman (p.494) repairing all. But in one point a question remains. I am asking myself if Nyasoso is too high for being reached by the ill persons of the region. At the other hand it's the most central point of the hilly region.

Cameroon Nyasoso: The Basel pioneers were expelled
After finishing the meeting and most people left the site, Noël and I are listening to the little noise of the fountain in the court, and we are warmly remembering the Christian cultural pioneers who have created here something durable, and now they have to live elsewhere without home and with a bronken heart.


Further trips in Cameroon

Plan: Nyasoso - Buea - explore Nyasoso - Bombe - M'Pondo
I want to continue from Nyasoso to Buea for speaking with the English resident about a latter foundation of the  hospital in Nyasoso. My original project was to explore the region of Nyasoso some days as an orientation about the traffic possibilities for the hospital, then after four or five days, the project should continue to the Mungo River valley down to the mission station of Bombe, from there with boats to M'Pondo, from there to Buea upwards. But now the project is not possible because all has to be fast and cheap. I decide to use the railway again reaching Bombe. Although I make a detour, I save four days and a lot of money.

Cameroon: Nyasoso - Mujuka - trip in the "standing car for blacks" - the choir at the train station
So the trip is heading for Lum! There is heavy rain. The next day the trian is going 70km back to Mujuka where we reach at 3pm. There is a high element of the government traveling in a saloon car. I myself I share a big part of the trip in a full negro standing car for protecting my boy, a shy person, against mistreating of a black train conductor who is angry against him by an inexplicable reason.

In Mujuka, there is a four-part choir singing on the train platform. I assume this singing concert is for the saloon car where is accumulating a large group of blacks behind the colons of negro soldiers. With Noël I am controling the unloading of our luggage. Because during the train trip of before the saucepan had almost stayed in the train. But now we notice: the choir is singing and singing one song after the other, and it's not a national song at all, and the children have no flags, but they have palm leaves in their hands. So I begin to ask myself. And right: This beautiful singing is for us. The [Jesus fantasy] Christs from Mujuka are pickung us up. They remain singing songs during the march from the train station to the village. Again there are questions about the [Jesus fantasy] missionaries who were expelled; and again I am astonished about that what the native [Jesus fantasy] evangelists and teachers maintained with their group about Christian life.

Cameroon: Hike from Mujuka to Bombe - another abandoned Jesus fantasy mission station - the mission garden
Schoolboys carry our burdens for an hour to the next village; there the school children of this village take them in and take them through the dense forest to the Mungo River in two hours. In the dark we cross the water and are in Bombe. Once again we spend the night on an abandoned mission station. The houses show numerous bullet marks from the battle that took place there. Furniture can no longer be found in these mission houses, as is the case in Nyasoso. The next day - it is Sunday - I go on the wistful hike passing the wildered mission garden in the morning and say a few words in the service for [fantasy] God.

Cameroon: A ship from Bombe to M'Pondo - then hike to Ekome
Then it goes down the Mungo River in the boat to M'Pondo, about 60 kilometers away. The rowers row like a boarding school on a park pond. Sometimes they stop for a quarter of an hour to tell each other stories. Instead of 12am., we're in M'Pondo only at 3 a.m. From there to Ekome, where we are supposed to spend the night, there are still at least four hours to go.

As soon as the boat stops at the lonely (p.496) landing place, a black man with khaki trousers and a military cap emerges from the sedge and introduces himself as a customs officer of the customs chain between the English and the French part of Cameroon which was permitted by the League of Nations. In just a cort time many more customs inspectors come to us. We spend an hour and a half in the blazing sun to get rid of the customs officers and to bring together the necessary porters from the village 20 minutes away. We will now have to do the last two hours of our hike as a night walk. I promise high gifts if we arrive by eight o'clock.

Now it goes up the first of the many terraces of the Cameroon Mountain, some time passing cocoa plantations, some time passing forest. Sparkling stars replace the sun. We walk one behind the other in silence. It will be a solemn hike in the quiet of the night of Passion Sunday. The vision is that they had hiked to Jerusalem also in this way...

Cameroon: Ekome
We arrived at half past eight. Friends of [Jesus fantasy] pastor Kuo in Ekome ensure that our brave porters have good food and are well housed.

In the rest house, Noël enjoys the joys of African scouting with me and is initiated into the art of unpacking, setting up beds, getting wood, chopping wood, how to cook a meal with wet wood and with much hunger not arguing about the boy who is making trouble in the smoke, who is touching all at the end and who is anxious of fear of thieves and murderers and doesn't dare to go into the next room and the courtyard alone.

Cameroon: Trek from Ekome to Buea
The next morning we go with fresh carriers passing the cocoa plantations up to Buea. Often the carriers use steeper paths than the normal path. They hadrly give us time to enjoy the view of the Cameroon Bay which is coming up more and more (p.497). Above the clouds in the distance, the mountains of Fernando Po [the Spanish colonial island with the overpriced cocoa] are greeting us.

Buea (Cameroon): The half empty Buea at 1000m above sea level - the mountain railway no longer works - everything has to be carried up
Buea is 1000 meters high on the southwest flank of the 4000 meter high Cameroon Mountain. Oranges no longer thrive here. Most houses have stoves for heating in the cold season. Almost all food has to be brought up from the lower plantations. The single-track tracks set up earlier are no longer in operation. So life in the splendid Buea is very expensive. For a chicken you pay two to three English shillings. While we are there, the prices are still rising in a particularly high manner. The crew of an English warship anchored in Victoria, who is up there to relax, buying everything up.

Only one thing is cheap in Buea: the houses. Around 80 Europeans used to live up there; only about a dozen have left now. The most splendid villas have been empty for years, and there is no telling when they will be inhabited again.

Buea (Cameroon): The English resident Ruxton - Basel Jesus fantasy missionaries will be allowed again
For two days we are guests of the English resident, Major Ruxton, who gives us a warm welcome with his wife. Questions about a possible hospital in Nyasoso are discussed and I am assured that the government will show me the greatest possible concession if the plan should come true. At the same time, however, I learn that the Basel Mission will probably receive permission to resume its activities on its stations in the English part of Cameroon of the League of Nations. This makes it questionable whether there will still be room for me in the mission houses at Nyasoso.

Cameroon: Hike from Buea to Tiko on the Mungo River - black people want a doctor
After two days, it goes down the mountain with porters supplied by the government. In one day we cover the 40 kilometers to Tiko, at the mouth of the Mungo River, under the burning sun. (p.498)

In the evening at the rest house the natives come to me and ask me to find a doctor for them. They are ready to contribute a significant amount each year. The next day the once a week steam sloop brings us back to Duala through a tangle of wooded islands. On Palm Sunday I hear [Jesus fantasy] pastor Kuo preaching in an overcrowded church.


Trip to Gabon - hardly any agriculture - the killer gang of the "leopard people"

Cruise with a steamer from Cameroon to Gabon - arrival in Cape Lopez (Port Gentil)
On Monday we will go on board the mail steamer "Europe", which took me to Africa on my first voyage. In two days we will be in Cape Lopez, which is now called Port Gentil. On the beach I am recognized by natives who are delighted that "our doctor" is back again. (p.499)

Gabon: Cruise from Port Gentil to Lambarene on the steamer "Alembe"
We leave Cape Lopez on Maundy Thursday [of a Fantasy Jesus] in the afternoon on board of the river steamer "Alembe", on which I also made my voyage up the Ogowe River in 1913. How old and frail and dirty is this steamer now! Among the white timber merchants on board I meet some friends from before and I am warmly welcomed.

In the quiet of Good Friday I move back between the water and the jungle. There are the same antediluvian landscapes again, the same swamps overgrown with papyrus, the same crumbling villages, the same ragged blacks. How poor this country is compared to the Gold Coast and Cameroon ... poor because it is so rich in precious forests!

Gabon: Everyone works in the timber trade - nobody does agriculture anymore
The exploitation of the forests has a bad consequence because agriculture and plantation are neglected. So there is hardly any own food production and food has to be imported. Whereever we stop, the same is unloaded: sacks of rice, boxes with ship's biscuits, boxes of stockfish and barrels of red wine.

Gabon: The killer mafia of the "leopard people"
During a meal on the ship we talk about wood prices and work forces, and then we speak about the societies of leopard men, whose criminality is always rising and rising during the last years. They are spread over the complete west coast of Africa. [Jesus fantasy] missionaries from Duala are telling me that they are coming to regions (p.500) which are suffering under the terrorism of leopard people since months, so after the sunset nobody has the courage any more to walk around. Two years ago, a leopard man also committed a murder at the Lambarene mission station.

Leopard people are people who are obsessed with the belief that they are actually leopards and as such must kill people. When killing them, they try to behave like leopards. You go on all fours; they tie leopard claws or iron claws to their hands and feet for provoking traces like leopards at their victims; they injure the carotid artery of their victims like the leopard does.

The "leopard people" mafia: the inauguration to the group with a test of courage

First they normally have to hijack a brother or a sister where leopard people is attacking the victim and killing it. Then they have to murder themselves.

What is really strange is that most of leopard people are becoming like this just involuntarily. They are made like this by the leopard peiople society without knowing about it. Friom the blood of a murdered person a magic drink is prepared. Then an elected person gets a drink with a little bit of this magic drink in it. Having drunk this mixture it is presented to the victim having enjoyed the magic drink and by this would be member of the association. Nobody defends against this offer. The belief of having magic force with a magic drink is dominating them. They obey without will.

The "leopard people" mafia: suicide in the group

An official in the interior of the Ogowe area, who had received orders during these months to control the mischief of the leopard people, had captured 90 suspects. But they didn't reveal anything, they poisoned themselves all in prison. (p.501)

May be this society of leopard humans is a movement of pure superstition, or it's a group for revenge and plundering. It's not known. In Africa there is a great development of rebellion going on, and there are more secret societies coming up. There is new superstition, primitive fanatism, and mordern Bolshevism having strange connections on the black continent. (Letters from Lambarene, p.502)

Living conditions in the tropical part of Gabon on the Ogowe River

-- Beams and boards have a high value, also used ones, because there is hardly any sawmill in the jungle (letters from Lamarene, p.677).

-- Tornadoes and sinking ships: Tornadoes and sinking ships or canoes because of tornadoes are always possible on the tropical-African Atlantic coast [because the coast is at the same height as the Caribbean] (letters from Lambarene, p.582)

-- Tornadoes destroy the roofs of leaves of the houses: Every tornado constantly provokes holes in the roofs of leaves, which then have to be repaired and every 2 to 3 years the roofs have to be made completely again (letters from Lambarene, p.640)

The roofs are so bad that Albert Schweitzer is always busy with repairs of roofs in the afternoon (letters from Lambarene, p.640).

-- only 2 months of dry season: In the tropical part of Gabon on the Ogowe River there is only two months of dry season in July and August, and eventhis short dry season is not safe (letters from Lambarene, p.529).

Gabon with a criminal tradition in the jungle: the natives only want to plant where they destroyed the forest by fire - depending on the dry season (!)

-- the blacks have a tradition of planting after burning forest (slash and burn), the soil is fertilized with the ashes of the fire and then freshly planted on the ashes as fertilizer
-- if the dry season does not come and when there is rain also during july and august, no fires can be proceeded, and therefore no planting will be - this is a brainless reaction of course for not planting anything (!!!) (Letters from Lambarene, S.603).

Planting would also be possible when it rains, maize already yields in 4 months in the tropical climate, but the blacks in Equatorial Africa prefer to eat the maize that is intended for sowing. Instead of hunting, the famine is "celebrated" (letters from Lambarene, p.604).
There are wild boars to hunt, but the hunters are hypnotized and just don't hunt because there is "famine" (letters from Lambarene, p.605).
Or there would also be hippos to be hunted, but that is not done either (Liefe, p.536-537).
Bananas and cassava can always be planted in the tropics - but the blacks refuse to cultivate them if they have not been cleared by fire beforehand (letters from Lambarene, p.605).

[Childish, destructive behavior by Afros concerning agriculture
All in all, the behavior of the blacks with the tradition of only planting after destroying the forest by fire (slash and burn), because then a thin layer of ashes covers the earth, is totally CHILDISH and SELF-DESTRUCTIVE. Because: The ashes of the kitchen fires at home are NOT collected - that is NOT EVEN mentioned by Albert Schweitzer...]

Dry season in Gabon
-- everything grows best during the dry season
-- Vegetables and cabbage do not grow in tropical rain (letters from Lambarene, p.606).

[People never get the idea of ​​roofing garden beds].

Brick production in the jungle in Gabon: exactly 2 dry months (July + August)

Production of bricks in Gabon can be performed only during the short dry season in July and August. The clay is extracted in the swamp and then burned. Nobody wants to help, many are going fishing on the sand banks of the river and then Schweitzer is reducing the rations and is losing his good reputation (Briefe, p.529). In the end, Schweitzer loses against the blacks. They don't help for the bricks. For the year 1924 it doesn't matter because the dry season does not come ... (letters from Lambarene, p.530).

Dry season in Gabon: drying bricks in the sun - can go wrong
So if you plan, e.g. to dry bricks in the sun, the plan can go wrong if the drying season is not coming (letters from Lambarene, p.529). Quote (translation):

"There are no covered rooms to dry the bricks. So you have to dry them on the floor in the sun. Only July and August are good for this, when it usually doesn't rain here." (Letters from Lambarene, p.529)

The Jesus Fantasy Pastor Silvanus said to Albert Schweitzer about the dry season of 1925: "Now every day is worth 3 days." (Letters from Lambarene, p. 606).

-- Mismanagement: Gabon of 1924 is suffering a huge mismanagement (people work much timbering and in timber trade and neglegt agriculture), this is "misery and horror" (Letters, p.502), and: the government does not support the handicraft, so that the population lacks the handicraft basis. (Letters from Lambarene, p.504)

-- Coconut trees: Coconut trees are growing everywhere, sometimes the coconuts are rotting on the ground because nobody is going to fetch them (letters from Lambarene, p.557)

[and Albert Schweitzer cannot detect natural medicine with coconuts...]

-- Goalas, Pahuins, and the often criminal Bendjabis: In the hospital of Lambarene there are coming patients of different tribes, from 1913 to 1917 there were only two tribes, the Goalas and the Pahuins - then since about 1920, there are also coming "wild blacks" to the river for working and come therefore also to the hospital - these are people from the inner of the country - the Bendjabis, they develop that strongly that they are 20% of the population of the Ogowe River at the end (p.547) - unfortunately they speak many different languages and partly are not understandable, but one has to heal without communication (p.555) - and unfortunately the Benjabis have often a high criminality and are terrorising patiantes and staff in the hospital with robberies and thefts etc. (Letters from Lambarene, p.553-559,578)

-- Letters of condolence: When a person has died in the hospital, Albert Schweitzer always has to write a condolence letter to the relatives, that is always very depressing for him (letters from Lambarene, p.584, p.673)


The nicknames of the doctors in the hospital of Albert Schweitzer
The native blacks give doctors their own nicknames:
-- Dr. Albert Schweitzer (since April 19, 1924) is the "chief" (letters from Lambarene, p.585)
-- Dr. Viktor Nessmann (since October 19, 1924) is "the little doctor", whereby "little" means rather "young" (letters from Lambarene, p.540), Dr. Viktor Nessmann is also called "Ogula", the "son of the chief" (letters from Lambarene, p.585)
-- Dr. Marc Lauterburg (from March 16, 1925) is also called "N'Tschinda-N'Tschinda", as "the man who bravely cuts" (letters from Lambarene, p.585)

-- Hippos: Hippos are a danger to canoes
Hippos are a constant danger for canoes, can capsize canoes, can destroy entire loads, and if the crews cannot swim, people drown (letters from Lambarene, p.606)


Food of Ogowe River region in Gabon

Very poor food on the Ogowe River

-- the diet is very bad, there is hardly any agriculture and the white rice is mainly imported from Europe or Asia (p.624), and instead of developping a strong own agriculture the strong young men go timbering for getting more salary with timbering than with agriculture (Letters from Lambarene, S.503-504)

[until there is no food left at all].

Almost only white rice
-- Eating only white rice all the time damages the blacks' intestines, which loses its resistance, so that the blacks then become susceptible to the smallest pathogens, because they usually drink the river water, which they normally can drink without problems, but combined with the white rice they get infections without end with it (dysentery) - when there would be a wholefood diet, all this would not be a problem (letters from Lambarene, p.635)

-- Hippos: A canoe full of hippopotamus meat
If there is no dry season and there is no agricultural cultivation in the jungle, the population is forced to stock up on meat by killing hippos, but then one has to search and hunt for days or weeks (letters, p.536) and it is not said that the hunt is successful - but you MIGHTY win a canoe full of hippopotamus meat (letters from Lambarene, p.537).

-- Canoes: maintaining canoes
Canoes have to be repaired and tarred again and again (letters from Lambarene, p.606)

-- Whaling at the coast of Cap Lopez
Every August, the whales of the southern hemisphere swim as far as the equator to escape the cold at the South Pole, so there are Norwegian whalers at Cap Lopez. (Letters from Lambarene, pp. 606-607)

[The government of Gabon apparently allows this or is charging for whaling license well].

since April 19, 1924: The new construction of the old hospital in Lambarene - up to 150 patients per day

The material for the hospital
-- the steamer "Alembe" is anchored on the river and unloading boats have to pick up the passengers and the cargo (letters, p.502). Albert Schweitzer quote (translation):

"On Easter Saturday, April 19 [1924], at sunrise, we arrive at Lambarene. The landing site for the steamer is at a side arm of the river, and the boats of the mission station need one hour to come to the steamers landing station. We have too much luggage for the boates. Now the boats of the natives also have to come and voluntary rudderers have to be found. Finally the vessels needed are all here and well packed. Paddles are hitting the water. At the curve of the side arm of Ogowe River the [Jesus fantasy] mission houses become visible on three hills." (p.502)

April 19, 1924
Arriving in Lambarene - buildings - more and more patients
(Life + Thought, p.214-215; Letters, p.502)

-- the hospital is like in a "deep sleep" (letters from Lambarene, p.502)

"We land at noon. While Noël is supervising the unloading, I go to the hospital like a dreaming person. It looks like sleeping beauty here. Grass and undergrowth (Letters, p.502) grow where barracks once stood, which I built with such great effort. There are big trees which were little trees when I left from here. The corrugated iron barrack, in which was the operating room, the examination room and the pharmacy, and one of the barracks are still standing upright to accommodate the sick. These buildings are still in pretty good shape. Only their roofs are in a desolate condition." (Letters from Lambarene, p.503)

-- the mission staff has looked after the houses until 1923, until there were no roof leave bricks more to have. Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"Missionary Herrmann and missionary Pelot, both Swiss [with a Fantasy Jesus], Mrs. Herrmann and the woman teacher, Miss Arnoux, who are currently the staff of the station, are dear friends from my first stay. As soon as we sit down at table, I feel in Lambarene at home again. Mr. Herrmann and Mr. Pelot have tried to maintain my roofs of leaves. But they have had to give it up for more than a year. Bricks made from plaited leaves have run out. There are two world exibitions in project in Europe and in "America" so the demand for wood is big so the timber traders at teh Ogowe River cannot fulfill all the demand. People with an ax goes timbering with good salary in the forst. People who manage rafting (p.503) are managing the rafts downwards the Ogowe River. The few natives who learnt a craft don't do it any more because they earn more in the forest." (Letters from Lambarene, p.504)

"For months no one has thought of stapling raffia leaves together over bamboo sticks to make bricks. Only those who have to do it for the government as corporal service [the prisoners in prisons] deal with it." (p.504)

[And it's not understandable that Albert Schweitzer is not organizing good corrugated sheets from the beginning since 1913. Only in 1927 he is doing it so he is loosing hours every day controling roofs and the roofs have holes and patients and their family members are living and sleeping under the holy roofs and rain comes in - it's just a horror].

-- Albert Schweitzer, however, says in his text "Living and Thought" that he only found the houses as "skeletons"  (Leben + Denk, p.215):

"Friom the hospital was only one little barrack with corrugates sheet roof, and there was the skeletton of one of the big bamboo huts. All other buildings had broken and pured during my absence of 7 years." (Life+Thought, p.215)

-- the path from the hospital to the doctor's house is overgrown and hardly to be found (Leben + Denk, p.215)

-- but there are even worse cases such as an English doctor in China, to whom the hospital in China has been destroyed twice and who is now building it up a third time (letters from Lambarene, p.503):

"Going up the hill [to the doctor's house] I am thinking about an English missionary doctor who was working in China, he had a hospital and a doctor's house which was destroyed to the ground by the Boxer Rebellion first, then again in the civil war, and now he is building up all a third time. So I have a better luck!"(Letters from Lambarene, p.503)

-- first the rotten and perforated leaf roofs have to be repaired, then the hospital buildings have to be restored, that is many months of tiring work (Life+Thought, p.215)
-- but there are hardly any leaf bricks to be found (letters from Lambarene, p.504)
-- There are hardly any artisans in Africa and those who are artisans are not there (letters from Lambarene, p.504). Albert Schweitzer quote:

"The few natives who have learned a craft, they no longer practice it because they earn more in the forest. There were carpenters who wrote me or gave me the message by other persons in written that they will help me for the repairs, but now they are not here. One even does not know where they are." (p.504)

[This problem of carpenters in the jungle was well known since 1913 and stupid Albert Schweitzer did NOT take European carpenters with him - one can only shake the head about his stupidness referring to carpenters. Albert Schweitzer is not learning it either].

-- The locals are so busy in the timber trade that they even let their own huts fall into disrepair (!) because nobody is weaving the leaf bricks anymore:

"The natives don't even have roof bricks of leaves for themselves. Their roofs are as dilapidated as those of the buildings on the [Jesus fantasy] mission station." (Letters from Lambarene, p.504)

-- So Albert Schweitzer is going by canoe from village to village to find some bricks, and he finds 64 pieces that he can take with him with promises of gifts and threats not to cure any more (letters from Lambarene, p.504). Albert Schweitzer quote (translation):

"I was out for searching for leaf bricks, I was promising things and made gifts for getting 64 leave bricks, I have to forget my promises. I am even urging the people blackmailing them I would not heal any more when they would not give me the leaf bricks. People goes on smiling with the threats "of our doctor". Enough: in the evening at nightfall in full rain Noël and I are heading home with 64 leave bricks." (Letters from Lambarene, p.504)

-- During these months Albert Schweitzer is a doctor in the mornings and a builder in the afternoons (Life + Thought, p.215), he divides the time "between medicine and building" (letters from Lambarene, p.507)
-- Albert Schweitzer saves many lives and reduces pain and agony [but unfortunately with many injections and WITHOUT natural medicine]

[and when Albert Schweitzer had taken two European carpenters with him, he would have had no time lost building houses but had been able to heal all day long. He himself did not want to pass a carpenters' training either with which he also had spared a lot of time...]

Gabon: The timber trade is withdrawing all craftsmen - but sometimes the timber traders also make losses

-- the logging and timber trade in Gabon is about okoume trees (letters from Lambarene, p.549).

-- there are no black workers, they are all active in the timber trade and cut or transport jungle wood to the coast [to Cap Lopez, now Port Gentil] (Life+Thought, p.215)

So: In Gabon there "timber trade fever" has broken out again and work for Schweitzer is often not attractive for Afros, BUT:
   -- the Afros also often lose a lot of money in the timber trade (!)
   -- some wood dealers donate something to Albert Schweitzer for the hospital (letters from Lambarene, p.528). Quote (translation):

"Joseph [...] The timber trade fever has seized him too. He and some friends have leased a large area of ​​forest to exploit with day laborers who were recruited for a year: I have to promise him that he can take holiday whenever he wants for controling his affairs. Now his wife is representing him as a ward of the workers on the timber place, this is a 3 days travel far from here. But I fear that Joseph as many natives who become independent with the wood trade are finally loosing monay and not winning.

Sometimes some of the few native timber traders who reached an economic safety with it are giving me some gifts for the hospital management, this idea is spread by Emil Ogouma. I have a great joy with it. They possibly want to contribute the sum what cost the travel of Mrs. Kottmann. But I don't know if such a sum will come together." (Letters from Lambarene, p.528)

-- so Albert Schweitzer obliges some relatives of some patients to do construction work, but they are not enthusiastic about it or even disappear (Life+Thought, p.215)

[For an own hospital in the jungle in Africa, to have European carpenters is one of the KEY POINTS for not loosing time and nerves].

Gabon - since 1919: Much more hunger in Gabon than in 1913, because strong men from the interior of the country are now chopping wood instead of farming

-- the interior of Gabon is partly depopulated, further factors of the population reduction are the "Spanish flu" in 1919, hunger after the war 1919-1920 and sleeping sickness (letters from Lambarene, p.547)
-- in the interior of Gabon are missing strong men because they all go timbering at Ogowe River so the strong men are missing for agriculture work (letters from Lambarene, p.547).

The homeless "wild men" are timbering then at Ogowe River and are neither there doing agriculture. Therefore hunger in Gabon is preprogrammed.
--> the government has limited the change of locations and has prescripted obligations of return (letters from Lambarene, p.548)
-- others think that the wild timber men should go to Ogowe River with all their family members so they would plant fields for their families (letters from Lambarene, p.548-549)
-- but the theory of bringing the family to the Ogowe River and planting fields here does not work, according to Albert Schweitzer, because the wood yard will be empty in 1 to 2 years and the group will move on, exactly when the plantings start to generate income (letters from Lambarene, p.549).

Foresighted white landowners lay out fields in advance, which then yield when the timbering work is on the way (letters from Lambarene, p.549-550).

Africa since 1919: false pride with ex-soldiers from Europe
-- some Afro-soldiers who survived the First World War in Europe, are coming home with gold in their mouth: as a joke they let install golden crowns only for showing them off and making impression in Africa (letters from Lambarene, p.562)
-- some Afro-soldiers who survived the First World War in Europe have experienced such cruelty that they cannot tell about it for a lifetime (letters from Lambarene, p.562-563).

Gabon: The timber trade has no profit guarantee - a lot of fraud and losses are possible

Timber traders don't all get rich, but
-- often a flood is a case of luck to move the trunks away
-- next year may be the flood is missing and no big profit is possible
-- often the lumberjacks are missing (letters from Lambarene, p.550)
-- those who work in the wood business on credit often end up with debts (p.550-551), so this is so bad that indebted wood businessmen land in the hospital of Albert Schweitzer, are treated there and beg for free food respectively they ask for credit "until better times" (letters from Lambarene, p.551).

Gabon from 1919: people from the interior (the "wild blacks" (Bendjabis) from the interior) move to the timbering locations at Ogowe River - they have often never seen an ax and sometimes cannot even swim
-- black lumberjacks often have to learn first to handle an ax and therefore they are often working without big result for months and this provokes high costs for the workers in the jungle (Briefe, p.551)
-- since 1919 the "wild blacks" (Bendjabis) are pushing to the Ogowe river because they want to profit from the timber trade (Briefe, p.554)
-- the "wild blacks" are bringing many new languages ​​from the Gabon highlands to the Ogowe river (Briefe, p.555)
-- the arriving wild blacks are often suffering from foot ulcers when they arrive at the Ogowe River and are also infecting each other in narrow houses ("phageenic, tropical ulcer") (letters from Lambarene, p.553)
-- the wilds from the interior cannot stand the humid climate at the Ogowe River (p.551) and are already half sick when they arrive at the river (letters from Lambarene, p.552)
-- the wild blacks from the interior of the country are not used to water and shallows, they do not recognize them and there is the constant threat to die by drowning
-- the wild blacks from the interior of the country cannot swim either, some never learn to swim, but they have to operate the rafting and are constantly afraid of drowning (letters from Lambarene, p.551) [some are probably drowning]
-- in addition, the food is changing for the wild blacks who come to the Ogowe River from the interior of the country (p.551), and the rice food on the river is unfamiliar for them, makes them half sick again, but there is almost no more food at Ogowe River than white rice and dried fish (Letters from Lambarene, p.552)
-- the wild blacks from the interior of the country are cooking the rice only half, it does not taste them when it's well cooked and salty, but the half cooked rice is damaging totally to the black, they loose weith, they get gastrointestinal disorders, they get often beriberi, also dysentery due to the consumption of dirty water. The wild blacks from the interior of the country cannot maintain a water spring either properly (letters from Lambarene, p.552)
-- in addition the savages from the interior of the country are getting malaria, which is unknown in the highlands in the interior of Gabon (letters from Lambarene, p.553)

Gabon: the canoes
-- to all this, hardly canoes are built anymore, but almost everything is done with motor boats (letters from Lambarene, p.576)
-- but the canoes are needed because the motorboats cannot go through small watercourses, e.g. in the swamps, where bamboo is harvested (letters from Lambarene, p.576).

[Now, with hunger and dysentery and with the lack of European carpenters, the hospital of Albert Schweitzer is converting into a crazy concentration camp]:

Lambarene - from April 21, 1924: Concentration camp-like conditions in Albert Schweitzer's hospital

until October 19, 1924
Albert Schweitzer is a doctor and builder (without formation!) in one and can only offer medical basic services
(Letters from Lambarene, p.539)

Albert Schweitzer quote (translation):

"How have I suffered from the fact that so many examinations of patients that should have been deepened were not carried out because time and energy were not enough, even with the highest tension of energy! And what unrest it caused me to be with the such energetic and dangerous cures as some tropical diseases require, could not pursue the sick enough. How often should the microscope and test tube have been questioned - but remained unquestioned! In surgery only the bare minimum was undertaken." (Letters from Lambarene, p.539)

[One wonders why Albert Schweitzer doesn't take a carpenter from Strasbourg with him!]

Conditions similar to concentration camps in 1924: rooms without windows
-- the rooms for the patients consist only of dark, dull rooms with damp earth floors (letters from Lambarene, p.678)

Conditions similar to concentration camps in 1924: The barrack for the sick has a perforated roof in the rainy season - colds and deaths among patients
-- Albert Schweitzer is constantly struggling with leaf bricks and holes in the roofs, patients have to accept that it rains in, some catch colds and die of colds:

"Every night there are heavy thunderstorms. In the morning I find my patientes lying soaked on the ground. Several severe colds occur, two of which are ending fatal. I am very desperate." (Letters from Lambarene, p.506)

-- the leaf roofs have to be checked daily for shifting of the tiles, because every gust of wind can shift the leaf tiles again (letters from Lambarene, p.529).

[Why the roofs are not fastened with ropes or fishing nets, that is the question].

Concentration camp-like conditions from 1924: Terminally ill black people are dropped anonymously on the riverbank - and blankets and mosquito nets are missing
-- sometimes seriously ill people are dropped off at the hospital overnight (letters from Lambarene, p.517)
-- sometimes blankets and mosquito nets are not enough, then a patient is waiting for the death of another one (letters from Lambarene, p.518).

Conditions similar to concentration camps in Lambarene 1913-1925: Children have to dig graves and carry dead people - Albert Schweitzer maintains a hospital cemetery - no cremation of the dead

Afro mentality of the 1920s: the dead are unclean - digging a grave for "strangers" is impossible - mission children have to dig graves and carry corpses
No black person wants to dig graves for strangers because of the "uncleanness" of "others". It is a vow among black people never to have anything to do with dead strangers [that means: people of one tribe are not allowed to dig a grave for the deads of another tribe, because the "other tribe" is considered "foreign"] (Letters, p .520). Often the children of the mission school classes have to dig the graves for the deads, sometimes it is also the helper Noël Gillespie (letters from Lambarene, p.521).

Concentration camp-like conditions in Lambarene 1925: Chicken shall live under the house in the tropics?
Albert Schweitzer is planning a new wooden house on stilts for white sick people, employees and storage space. The chickens are said to live under it (letters from Lambarene, p.569).

Albert Schweitzer quote (translation):

"On the site of the mission station which is available to me, there is just a piece left that can accommodate a house 16 meters long and 12 meters wide. In this house will be housed white sick people, deposits, Joseph and the cook. The chickens are housed under them between the stakes." (Letters from Lambarene, p.569)

[Comment: It's funny that Albert Schweitzer allows chicken droppings to spread bacteria under the house of the white sick, under the supplies and under the assistant Joseph and under the cook. This is MURDER].

Conditions similar to a concentration camp in Lambarene in 1925: The barracks have no windows - you cannot replace bandages there
In the barracks it is too dark to install bandages and all patients, even those who can hardly walk, have to come to the doctor to bandage, or also crawl (letters from Lambarene, p.578).

Concentration camp-like conditions in Lambarene 1925: the barracks are overcrowded and some patients flee before the end of the treatment
The barracks where the patients live are often overcrowded. This is not a stimulus for patients to stay in hospital for a long time, so some are fleeing before the end of the treatment. In this way, Albert Schweitzer is damaging some treatments himself (letters from Lambarene, p.578).

Conditions similar to concentration camps in Lambarene - April 1925: Murder in the hospital by defamation: patient kills patient
-- one patient with dysentery kills another on the pretext that the other is trying to steal food from him
-- the murderer is allowed to live, because after a short time also he will die by dysentery (letters, from Lambarene, p.588).

Concentration camp-like conditions in Lambarene - case: injury by cutting and then attempted poisoning
Because of rivalries, one has cut another person, and now the hurt person is brought by his clan
-- a tendon is repaired with a tendon suture
-- the injured person cannot cook himself, someone has to stay with him
-- the clan determines one (Letters, p.592)
-- in the course of the healing time the healing patient suddenly gets difficulties, he looks dilapidated, he staggers when connecting, he is dazed (Letters, p.592), he can hardly talk anymore (Liefe, p.592-593)
--> It turns out that the assistant is not an assistant, but is his rival, who should serve as a penance for the injured, but the rival now also wanted to poison the injured
--> so one has to stop the vengeance: the "assistant" is employed elsewhere, doing the laundry and carrying water for the hospital (letters from Lambarene, p.593).

Albert Schweitzer PROMOTES concentration camp conditions in the hospital May 1925: House construction: Zimmermann Schatzmann has finished the roofs of the 10-room house and Albert Schweitzer urges Schatzmann to take a new job at a large company (!)
Then the carpenter Mr. Schatzmann is lured away by a big company and Albert Schweitzer allows it (?? !!) (Letters from Lambarene, p.598). Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"At the same time the two roofs of the new house will be finished. Without Mr. Schatzmann's help, we would not be that far. The black carpenter can finish the floor, the wooden walls and the doors if necessary ... if wood is available for it .

The largest trading company in the Ogowe area hires Mr. Schatzmann to manage all of its buildings. Upon my persuasion, he decides to accept the beautiful and interesting position. But he would like much rather build a whole hospital for me. "(Letters from Lambarene, p.598)

[Albert Schweitzer is an idiot to give away the best carpenter, and then, the concentration camp conditions in the hospital are going on].

Conditions similar to concentration camps in Lambarene June 1925
Death of an elephantiasis patient waiting for the operation - he dies of pneumonia
-- Albert Schweitzer travels to Cap Lopez for a week's vacation
-- meanwhile a patient with elephantiasis is dying of pneumonia while he is waiting for the operation (letters from Lambarene, p.598)
-- Albert Schweitzer says succinctly, pneumonia always comes at the beginning of the dry season in June [due to the changeover] (letters from Lambarene, p.598).

[As it seems, Albert Schweitzer has no garlic and no ginger].

Lambarene - from April 21, 1924: pioneering work at Albert Schweitzer's hospital

Pioneering achievement: preventing amputations in the event of severe injuries or fractures
-- Albert Schweitzer is a pioneer preventing amputations whenthere are heavy injuries or bloken bones: he is working with moist, methyl violet bandages (Edge of Primeval Forest, p.449)
-- he is a pioneer with skin transplants for healing open locations whre ulcers have been before (phageenic ulcers) (Letters from Lambarene, p.660-661)
-- then from 1926 the phageenic ulcers were removed with a homeopathic dilution with mercury oxycyanur, or with copper sulphate, or with Breosan ointment, so that general anesthesia was no longer necessary (Edge of Primeval Forest, p.369,449; Letters from Lambarene, p.511-516, 660-661 - see surgery: ulcers)

Pioneering achievement: curing blackwater fever
Albert Schweitzer was finally able to cure the dreaded blackwater fever (which is provoked for example by the intake of high doses of quinine against malaria, destroyes red blood cells), the cure of the blackwater fever comes by injecting 3% saline solution under the skin of the thighs was curing it (letters from Lambarene, p.575-576 - see: blackwater fever).

Pioneering work: ulcer healing
-- from 1926 onwards, ulcers are "blown up" with the drop method with mercury oxycyanur or with copper sulfate, or with the ointment Breosan
-- Healing and new skin formation come with moist kept bandages with the dye methyl violet
-- Skin transplants shorten the healing time by 1/3 (see: surgery: ulcers).

Pioneering work: curing leprosy
The mixture with four parts chaulmoogra oil mixed with 5 parts peanut oil injected under the skin cures leprosy:

-- the exact mixture works with 4 parts of heated Chaulmoogra oil and 5 parts of heated peanut oil
-- then the mixture is sterilized [boiled?]
-- 1/2 to 2 cm3 are injected under the skin every day, which shows good healing results (letters from Lambarene, p.579).

Discovery 1926: Dysentery was often not at all dysentery but it was cholera
In 1926, Dr. Trensz  is working in the hospital of Lambarene, and under the microscope he finds that many people with dysentery have no dysentery, but a kind of cholera (cholerine) - it heals with white clay water (letters from Lambarene, p.663). The pathogen is in the river system of the Ogowe River. Normally it doesn't do any harm, but if black people only eat white rice, the immune systems and the intestines are weak and susceptible to the pathogen (letters from Lambarene, p.635).

Pioneering work: curing boils
The cure is proceeded since 1926 with the medicine "turpentine steel" (letters from Lambarene, p.658).

[Hemorrhoids heal in 2 months with silver water (colloidal silver), take 3 tablespoons in the morning, wait 1 hour until eating, or take 3 tablespoons before sleeping on an empty stomach - or both - link].

And any operation for hernias or elephantiasis should also be seen as a pioneering achievement. Regarding natural medicine with herbs, roots or salts, Albert Schweitzer unfortunately has NO pioneering achievements to present.


The events in Lambarene 1924-1927

The helper and chemistry student Noël Gillespie

Albert Schweitzer is accompanied by a young chemistry student from Oxford, Noël Gillespie, he is supposed to be a help to Albert Schweitzer for a few months (Life + Thought, p.214).

The chemistry student Noël Gillespie plays an important role in Albert Schweitzer's hospital, he is
-- medical assistant
-- clerk at the typewriter
-- carpenter
-- controler
-- and is digging graves (letters from Lambarene, p.532).

-- Noël Gillespie is constantly making search trips to the villages in order to find new leaf bricks with plaited leaves (letters from Lambarene, p.506)

[loosing days for looking for leaf bricks instead of purchasing corrugated sheets - Albert Schweitzer is soooo stupid!]

-- Albert Schweitzer has the white assistant Noël (Noël Gillespie, chemistry student from Oxford - Life + Thought, p.214) who is called "lieutenant" by the natives (letters from Lambarene, p.517). Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"Fortunately, Noël learned the technique of intravenous injections quickly and it saves me so much work.

Among the natives, Noël is called "the lieutenant". From the time the country was under military administration, they are used to having a lieutenant in addition to the district captain. Since they only know military doctors, I also have a somewhat military character for them. It is therefore obvious to them to regard the white man who is next to me as the doctor’s lieutenant. Noël has already got used to this name. All on the station call him like this." (Letters from Lambarene, p.517)

In Lambarene are missing: building materials, carpenters and helpers

Building is only possible in the short dry season of July and August

Construction work can only be carried out in the jungle in the dry season, [otherwise everything without a roof is always swept away] (letters from Lambarene, p.571).

The normal dry season in Lambarene in Gabon is July and August, when e.g. bricks can be dried in the sun (letters from Lambarene, p.529). Quote (translation):

"There are no covered rooms to dry the bricks. So one has to dry them on the floor in the sun. Only July and August are good for this, when it usually doesn't rain here." (Letters from Lambarene, p.529)

Schutz gegen Heeresameisen, Schlangen und Leoparden

Protection against army ants, snakes and leopards

-- the Albert-Schweitzer-Spital must offer protection against snakes and leopards and should consequently be built solidly on piles (against army ants, must be absolutely leak-proof (against snakes) and should also have a stable roof (against leopards that could come from above) (Letters from Lambarene, p.524). Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"Has to guarantee security against snakes and leopards. An African henhouse has to meet completely different requirements than a European one. Because of the army ants, it has to be a pile structure and rest on as few posts as possible; because of the leopard, it has to be very solid and also have a roof, in which the strongest leopard paws cannot tear a hole to slip through; it has to be absolutely tight because of the snakes. " (Letters from Lambarene, p.524)

The PROVISIONAL approval of a hospital - the transfer to another location is already in the contract

-- and the Jesus fantasy mission management has only approved a "provisional hospital" for Albert Schweitzer, so every building must be able to be torn down again quickly (letters from Lambarene, p.524). Quote (translation):

"Since my chicken coop is only in a provisional place and may have to be moved to another place, it's also required that all buildings have to be built in a way so they can be dismantled easily again and reassembled easily again." (Letters from Lambarene, p.524)

-- the house buildings in Albert Schweitzer's hospital have to be dismantled and relocated quickly, because the Jesus fantasy mission wants to consider the hospital only as provisional because the hospital is only causing difficulties [ups!!!!!] (letters from Lambarene, p.569-570). Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"And one thing should not be forgotten: the new building has to be built up so it can be dismantled without big difficulties and transported to another place! The mission society, whose hospitality I am grateful for, has given me the opportunity to return to its land (p.569) only with the precondition that I consider the hospital on the mission's station's territory as provisional. They think that such a big project as mine would provoke series of inconveniencies for the mission station, and for the schools on it, and especially because hills, rocks and swamps on the territory don't permit to change the position of my buildings to some end of the station. There are pros and cons that may be discussed without end. The facts now have decided. When I had been able to organize beams and planks and craftsmen at my arrival, so the change of position of the hospital had been able to perform soon. But there were none! So the emergency situation dictated that I stay here. And I do it with a good conscience. For the mission society this is an advantage to be present with a hospital in the region as big as the inconveniences to have it on the same territory will not be equal. [...] But I have to consider a change of position always and I have to plan the buildings in this way, beginning with the chicken house." (Letters from Lambarene, p.570)

The search for furniture wood

Blacks have no tradition of carpentry, use softwood instead of hardwood for beds, and termites will eat the softwood in a few years. Everything is made of branches and bamboo, there are no planks or boards (letters from Lambarene, p.543).

The swamp where bamboo grows is 20 km away. The groups spend days in the jungle to find long wood, so that "a canoe full of wood" comes home. But sometimes it is unusable softwood, and the blacks knew that. When Albert Schweitzer sees the group again, the punishment comes (letters from Lambarene, p.544). Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"When they came back and I could decide what to do, they paid for it with a lot of sweat that they had taken it too lightly with the difference between softwood and hardwood in terms of my person." [more is not said ...] (Letters from Lambarene, p.544)

In this way 40 beds (plank beds) are created with difficulty (letters from Lambarene, p.544).

Shelves and theft-proof cupboards are almost impossible without boards (letters from Lambarene, p.544-545).

Storage rooms follow, then a barrack with 30 beds. The hospital has to take care of 60-70 patients every day and a healing room for the operated patients with 15 beds is still missing (letters from Lambarene, p.545).

The search for building material

-- Albert Schweitzer or helper Noël are constantly making search trips to the villages in order to find new leaf bricks with plaited leaves (letters from Lambarene, p.506) [no corrugates sheets? stupids!]

-- only in June 1924 the roof of the patient barracks is more or less tight: "pretty well mended" (letters from Lambarene, p.506)

-- in 1924 and 1925 the Albert Schweitzer hospital gets support with two doctors and 2 nurses (Life+Thought, p.216)

-- April 1925: The helpers of the timber merchant Mr. Ogouma have ended their year and are disappearing, there is no replacement, and therefore the building of a second wooden house is not possible because there are no free people anywhere (letters from Lambarene, p.506). Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"During this work the people of Emil Ogoumas leave. Their year is over. Now they are moving home. For no money they could be induced to stay even one month longer. Their master does not want to recruit other workers. I am not even trying this. The people in the area are so great that it is hopeless from the start. So I depend on family members who have come here to accompany the sick. Now I have to play the building supervisor myself, chasing all morning the people from their cooking pots for working, to flatter them, to promise them food and (p.506) presents, give them the tools and in the evening find out whether all axes, hatchets, machetes and all unrelated building materials have been brought back. " (Letters from Lambarene, p.507)

[TWO big mistakes of Albert Schweitzer:
-- not installing corrugated sheets
-- not bringing European carpenters to Lambarene]

-- Often there are no volunteers because they go fishing or go to their village to fetch food, or they have an appointment for a palaver - in general, blacks can hardly be motivated to build a hospital for strangers. Holistic thinking is completely lacking for black people, and tribal rivalries (e.g. between Bakele and Bapunu) also blocks help (letters from Lambarene, p.507). Quote (translation):

"The zeal of my blacks to provide those a better house who come after them building up a better place to stay than those they have themselves is very little. They just don't work for strangers." (Letters from Lambarene, p.507)

<Once, towards evening, a wounded man should be brought to the examination room fast for a change of bandage. I ask a man who is sitting by his fire and whose brother I am curing from a heart disease, he should help me performing the transport on the stretcher. He is simulating not to hear anything. I repeat the order a little bit louder. Then he answers quietly: "No. The man on the stretcher is from the Bakele tribe. But I am a Bapunu."> (Letters from Lambarene, p.507)

Lambarene with a perforated roof
-- as long as the roofs still have holes, Albert Schweitzer sometimes gets a sunstroke from all the work in the sun and can then hardly walk (letters from Lambarene, p.528-529). Albert Schweitzer quote (translation):

"In the period after Pentecost [1924] I did not feel well for a number of weeks. I have to drag myself to work. As soon as I have come up from the hospital at noon and in the evening, I have to lie down. I am not even capable to prepare the orders of medicaments and bandages in order. The main culprit for this discomfort is probably the roof of the hospital. I hadn't noticed that there were some (p.528) small holes again and I will have gotten a few small sunstrokes therefore. A patched roof should actually be checked every day. The slightest gust of wind is enough to move the rotten leaf bricks against each other so that a new hole is created. " (Letters from Lambarene, p.529)

[So Albert Schweitzer looses every day time with roofs? And why Albert Schweitzer is not purchasing corrugated sheet? Because he is stupid...]

Lambarene without a large canoe: Long bamboo poles, the raphia palm leaves, the bast - harvest only during floods or dry seasons
-- Albert Schweitzer and the Jesus fantasy mission don't have a big canoe for long bamboo poles for the roofs, and the long bamboo poles can only be harvested at certain places and only when the water level is certain (letters from Lambarene, p.507-508) . Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"The construction work is made even more difficult for me by the fact that I don't have a large canoe. The Mission doesn't have one either. They manage the search for bamboo with two repaired boats of middle size. Thus I have difficulties to get the bamboo poles for the roofs. And time is urging. It's not so simple that one is entering the rain forest for getting some bamboo. But the big bamboo poles can be found only in certain locations in swamps. In the region there is only one location for this to take them out. The locations far behind in the swamps (p.507) and are not reacheble neither on water neither on land have to stay outside of considering. With the raffia palms, which provide the material for the leaf bricks, it is the same. The same counts for the plant from which the bast cords are made to fix the rafters to the roof and for fixing the leaf tiles on the rafters. For the material for this bast, I need my canoo being sent 30 kilometers away!

For the possession of places of bamboo, raffia and bast easily exploitable, the tribes used to wage war with one another, like the whites over ore and coal mines.

But even the exploitable places cannot be reached at any time of the year. They are all in swamps. They can therefore be reached by boat when the high tide is high enough so one can enter the swamp from the river, or one can enter the territory when the swamp becomes so dry in the dry season that you can walk through it. But the swamp is seldom accessible in the dry season. Very often the autumn floods are not so high that the bamboo sites can be reached by boat. So the time to pick bamboo is the spring flood. Whoever does not get the necessary bamboo poles in these two or three weeks runs the risk of not getting any at all and not being able to build for one year. "(Letters from Lambarene, p.508)

-- Albert Schweitzer has to borrow a big canoe and then still have people available - and then the water level has to be favorable for the bamboo harvest - this is how 400 to 500 bamboo sticks arrive (letters from Lambarene, p.508-509)

Albert Schweitzer's helpers: The Morel couple - Noël Gillespie - and a Joseph
-- Ms. Morel (wife of Jesus fantasy missionary Mr. Morel) finds an assistant G'Mba from the village of Samkita, who does not steal, who is only a construction assistant and foreman for the time being because he doesn't understand anything about medicine (letters, p.509) - sometimes G'Mba is also a cook, but he lacks authority, so carrying kitchen rubbish to the dung heap is already too much for the women (letters from Lambarene, p.541). Quote (translation):

"G'Mba had become a healing assistant from his inner vocation. He loved his work. Only he could not be brought to include the care of order and cleanliness in the hospital as part of his duties. He could see without worry that the wives of the ill patients just left the kitchen garbage and other garbage before the baracks instead of bringing them to the dung heap. When I confronted him again about it, he replied, "What do you want me to tell you? My own wife doesn't obey me. How are other women supposed to listen to me?" (Letters from Lambarene, p.541)

-- Albert Schweitzer and Noël Gillespie still have to do everything themselves (letters from Lambarene, p.509)
-- the helper Joseph from Libreville has debts, Albert Schweitzer must first pay him the debts so that he can come to Lambarene (letters from Lambarene, p.509)
-- the helper N'Kendju cannot be found (letters, p.509)
-- in June Albert Schweitzer receives a canoe from Samkita from the Jesus missionaries Mr. and Mrs. Morel, which has been ordered for 2 years (letters, p.509)

-- in 1922, on the advice of Albert Schweitzer, Mr. Morel also bought a deposit of building materials and cleaning soap and tinned food, some of which had already been transported to Lambarene, and the rest will now also be transported to Lambarene in the new canoe:
   -- wire mesh for chickens, for the garden fence, against "sick people who are too thieving" (letters, p.509)
   -- large saws for cutting tree trunks
   -- ordinary saws
   -- axes and hatchets, picks, shovels, hammers, carpenters tools, screws, nails in all sizes
   -- boxes with soap, canned food, chickens (letters, p.509).

Lambarene is given 2 motor boats from Sweden + Denmark
The Albert Schweitzer hospital receives two motor boats as a gift:
   -- the motorboat "Tack sa mycket" - a gift from Swedish friends
   -- the motor boat "Raarup" - a present from Jutland friends from Denmark (Life+Thought, p.216)

[The rich Church in Europe does NOT give ANYTHING for the hospital - the rich Church rather likes the blacks in zoos next to animals!]

One of the motor boats arrives on June 21, 1924, with the river steamer, together with the Jesus fantasy missionary Mr. Abrezol from Switzerland, who can drive motor boats (letters from Lambarene, p.525).

Now the hospital is getting full
After it became known that it was no longer raining on the patient's head during the night, patients came in large numbers (letters from Lambarene, p.509). Quote (translation):

"After [Jesus-Fantasy] Pentecost, a large influx of sick people sets in. The thunderstorms have eased somewhat and it has been known that it no longer rains on the heads of the sick in the barracks." (Letters from Lambarene, p.510)

- there are about 25 patients with sleeping sickness and about 25 patients with lepra (letters from Lambarene, p.510)


Lambarene: In 1924 there were "very different sick people" than in 1913: Now there are strong men from the interior of the country from logging (the Bendjabis)

It is no longer just the two tribes of the Goalas and the Pahuins - homeless wild blacks from the interior of Gabon are in the timber business - with brutal consequences
Albert Schweitzer states that "completely different sick people" came in 1924 than in 1913 because the economic conditions on the Ogowe River in Gabon changed radically in some cases with the First World War and the post-war period since 1919 (letters from Lambarene, p.547):
-- until 1914 there were mainly black patients of the two competing tribes the Goalas and the Pahuins, in those times only these two languages ​​were spoken by the blacks in the hospital (Life+Thought, p.156)
-- from 1924 on many "wild black" without contact to their home villages are coming, they have migrated from the inner of Gabon (the Bendjabis - letters, p.554) who work as woodcutters on the Ogowe River in white territories, they meanwhile make up about 20% of the population (Letters from Lambarene, p.547)

-- The hospital was immediately overrun with sick people, because now not only Goalas and Pahuins bring their patients, but also the "wild blacks" (Bendjabis) from the interior of Gabon who are now chopping wood near the Ogowe River, they suffer many injuries by timbering (Letters from Lambarene, pp. 593-594)
-- often hopelessly "wild blacks" have lost weight remaining like skelettons and are deposited at the hospital of Albert Schweitzer, without family members who are waiting in the highlands for the sick person and for some earned money (!) (Letters from Albarene, p.554)
-- the "wild blacks" (Bendjabis) from the interior of Gabon bring many new languages ​​to the Ogowe River, they speak at least 10 different languages ​​that no teacher in the hospital understands - helper Dominik can speak some of the languages, but not all (Letters, p.555), and therefore, one has to heal and operate without a conversation - really not a thankful task (Letters from Lambarene, p.555-556)

-- there is not enough time for common celebrations with the patients (p.560). So with these "wild blacks" (Bendjabis) the hospital staff is only under constant stress (letters from Lambarene, p.560-561).


Food distribution in Albert Schweitzer's hospital

-- Food is distributed at noon at 12am
-- the "ration" for difficult cases that come from far away and are without money is 700 grams of salted rice or 10 big bananas or 6 cassava sticks (letters, p.521)
-- those people who work in the hospital get a "half ration" at noon and then another half ration in the evening, because with a full stomach one can hardly work in the afternoon (letters from Lambarene, p.521)
-- many also ask for rations in case of a slight illness or if there is no replenishment from home (p.521) and they often remain on the list of those "to be fed" even though the families could supply more, ie: So the family members save the delivery from the village (letters, p.522)
-- other patients run out of money because the treatment takes longer and so they are put on the list of those "to be fed" (letters from Lambarene, p.522)
-- sometimes people don't have the courage to say that they need food and the go hungry for 3 days until it is noticed (letters from Lambarene, p.522-523)
-- sometimes the cook G'Mba decides with "Solomonic wisdom" who gets food and who doesn't (letters from Lambarene, p.523)
-- daily 20 to 30 rations of rice are given out, but often more (letters from Lambarene, p.523).

June 21, 1924
Replenishment with 73 boxes, 1 motorboat and missionary Abrezol
The river steamer ["Alembe"] brings Albert Schweitzer's jungle hospital
-- 73 boxes of material
-- a motor boat with driver comes for taking in everything, with the Jesus fantasy missionary Abrezol, who can now drag the canoes, two boxes are lying there for weeks because of lack of time and space (letters from Lambarene, p.525). Albert Schweitzer quote (translation):

"On June 21st [1924] the river steamer finally brought my 73 boxes. On the same day a powerful motorboat arrived for the mission station and at the same time a 23-year-old new missionary, a Mr. Abrezol from Switzerland. He learned in Europe, to handle the motorboat, and makes himself available to me in the afternoon to haul the canoes that are supposed to fetch my boxes at the landing place of the river steamer, where they lie on grass under the open sky, exposed to the rain and thieves, if they fail to get them all home before night.

The Catholic Mission lends me their large canoe that can hold my eight largest boxes at once. The motorboat allows the canoes to make two trips in the afternoon. Finally, at sunset, the little steamer from a Dutch timber merchant, which I have been looking after for weeks, happens to come along. Of course he is requisitioned to help with the transport.

At 8 o'clock in the evening, all boxes, with the exception of the box with the stove, are housed in the open boat house. They have to stay there for two or three weeks, protected from the rain as much as the perforated roof of the boat shed can protect, and as safe from the thieves as the two sick people whom I put there as watchmen are on the watch. We don't have the time and space to unload." (Letters from Lambarene, p.525)

June 21, 1924

The Jesus fantasy missionary Mr Pelot has left and left 4 rooms empty (letters from Lambarene, p.526).

The 73 boxes are unpacked in the 4 rooms and the material is stacked (p.526) or sorted into sacks (letters from Lambarene, p.526-527).

July 18, 1924
Arrival of helper Ms. Mathilde Kottmann
who does the washing + household, and additionally she is
-- filling the lamps
-- boiling the drinking water (letters from Lambarene, p.527)
-- performing the evening counting of the chickens
-- performing the egg hunt (letters from Lambarene, p.528).

July 1924
The Jesus fantasy missionary Abrezol dies by drowning
in a lake near N'Gômô and is buried there (letters from Lambarene, p.531). Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"In July we are deeply saddened by the death of the newly arrived missionary Abrezol. He drowns in the morning at sunrise while bathing in a lake near N'Gômô in front of missionary Herrmann and Noël, with whom he has traveled for a few days. His body is found. But it cannot be brought to Lambarene because the motorboat breaks when it hits a sandbank. So he is buried on the hill of N'Gômô. " (Letters from Lambarene, p.531)

July + August 1924
No brick production this year
In July and August 1924 (the two months that are normally the dry season) the dry season does not occur and thus brick production is not possible. The catholic Jesus fantasy mission is losing over 30,000 bricks (letters from Lambarene, p.531).

[Where's the brick oven?
Bricks need to dry in the sun or in a hot blower in a brick oven. Albert Schweitzer does not have a kiln for bricks, because that would also have to be made from bricks. The Jesus fantasy missions were unable to build that, because that is "construction worker" knowledge that seems to them to be too "low" ...]

Early August 1924
Mr. Morel from Samkita is visiting Albert Schweitzer and kills a boa
The killed boa is then distributed to the sick. There is a struggle for distribution among the blacks (letters from Lambarene, p.532). Quote (translation):

"At the beginning of August, Mr. and Mrs. Morel are coming here for a fortnight to start their journey home to Alsace. They have to take the river steamer here, as it is not certain whether it will go up to Samkita when the water level is low.

Near the girls' school, Mr. Morel kills a giant snake (Boa constrictor). Since it's shot with my rifle, I get half of it for the hospital, as is due. Unfortunately, it's only 5 1/2 meters long and not particularly fat. With the distribution of the delicacies there is almost a fight among the sick. " (Letters from Lambarene, p.532)

Late August 1924

     The Morel couple and the chemist Noël Gillespie travel to Europe from Lambarene

(Letters from Lambarene, p.532)

In Albert Schweitzer's hospital there are four white patients and a new cook, Aloys, who is being directed by Ms. Kottmann. Chef Aloys makes varied meals out of little (letters from Lambarene, p.532-533).

Homeless patients sometimes stay
Patients without a home and without a family often stay in the hospital as employees, e.g. as a roofer (letters from Lambarene, p.535).

Leaf bricks from the Talagouga mission station
The mission station Talagouga some 100km above Lambarene is producing leaf bricks for Albert Schweitzer (letters from Lambarene, p.536).

July + August 1924: The dry season did not come - no bananas + no dried fish - hunger threatens - the hippopotamus hunt
-- since there was no dry season in 1924, various agricultural activities could not be carried out, so that there is also a risk of hunger:
   -> if no forest is cleared -> no new banana plantations are created -> hunger comes
   -> if there is no low water -> you cannot organize any big fish campaigns on the sandbankds -> no stocks of smoked fish (letters from Lambarene, p.536)

[They DON'T HAVE the idea to build islands or to anchor rafts in the river for fishing!]

As a result the population is forced to stock up on meat by killing hippos, but then you have to search and hunt for days or weeks (letters, p.536) and it is not said that the hunt is successful - but PERHAPS one wins a canoe full of hippopotamus meat (letters from Lambarene, p.537).

So the blacks like meat, they are not alive without eating meat, with rice food they are limp (letters from Lambarene, p.537). Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"It is a great misfortune that we did not have a dry season. This made it impossible for people to clear and burn down forests and plant new land with bananas. So we are approaching a year of famine.

[Albert Schweitzer does not know permaculture with mulch as fertilizer which is developped in Japan by Fukuoka in those times...]

Because the water stayed high, the indigenous people were not able to make any big fishing trips. Nowhere are there any supplies of smoked fish that would otherwise cover the meat requirement for months. The [Jesus fantasy] Catholic mission, usually well stocked with everything, has barely gathered 500 little carp for their schoolchildren. That's why the [Jesus fantasy] Father Superior, an excellent shooter, bravely goes on the hippo hunt. With 12 boys he goes in search of this game for days. It means spending the night in the rain on the sandbanks or in the swamp. They may have to go home after 2 or 3 weeks with no prey; maybe they also filled the big canoe to almost sink (Letters, p.536) with smoked hippopotamus meat. Then school operations are secured for the winter.

A Negro boy who gets meat two or three times a week is willing and eager to learn; without meat he is a disgruntled creature that, even when stuffed with rice, always complains of hunger. The jungle inhabitants have a downright morbid hunger for meat. "(Letters from Lambarene, p.537)

[The stupid missionaries don't know how to set up an artificial island for fishing - and they don't know anything about permaculture either - but they accept a famine! So they really only have the Fantasy Jesus and a certain Fantasy Bible in their head and they do not learn the essentials: installing islands and permaculture. Albert Schweitzer was a blind man ...]

since October 19, 1924
Lambarene gets his second doctor: Dr. Viktor Nessmann from Alsace (nickname: "Ogula")
(Letters from Lambarene, p.539)
-- with the black patients he gets the nickname "the little doctor", whereby "small" means rather "young" (letters from Lambarene, p.540).
-- Albert Schweitzer and Viktor Nessmann are hospital supervisors now and examining magistrates in one and lose a lot of time to educate black people to basic cleanliness (letters from Lambarene, p.541-542)
-- among the natives, Dr. Nessmann is also called "Ogula", which means "son of the chief" - Albert Schweitzer is said to be a "chief" (letters from Lambarene, p.585)
-- Viktor Nessmann is not getting old: During World War II he was a member of the Resistance and was killed by the Gestapo on January 5th, 1944 (Link).

Other helping people in Lambarene:
-- Dominik (an illiterate person) becomes a new helper (letters from Lambarene, p.542)
-- Joseph is becoming a medical helper and is doing injections, sometimes for a whole morning (letters from Lambarene, p.542)
-- no more helpers can be found because of the irregular working hours (letters from Lambarene, p.542)

The carpenter Monenzali who cannot read numbers
The helper Monenzali is the husband of a woman with sleeping sickness. He is a carpenter, but he cannot read numbers and needs constant control. He is building 1 3-room house on stilts that is occupied by the little doctor "Viktor Nessmann" and by white patients (letters from Lambarene, p.545-546).

Beams come from the villages of the blacks, boards come from the sawmill of the Jesus-Fantasy-Mission in N'Gômô (letters from Lambarene, p.546).

Death of healing assistant G'Mba from a cold + fever (???)
-- the healing assistant from the village of Samkita - who never stole and started as a construction assistant (Letters, p.509), who was then also a cook and decided on food rations (Letters, p.523), dies after a cold from heavy rain (Letters, p.540), finally there was a violent fever that could not be controlled, and after 14 days in a coma G'Mba goes into another dimension. He was probably infected with something because of his uncleanliness. Carrying kitchen scraps to the dung heap was already too much for him (letters from Lambarene, p.541).

The new cook is the illiterate Dominik (letters from Lambarene, p.542)

from July 1924 approx.: Albert Schweitzer suffers from foot ulcers - he does NOT manage to heal himself
-- Albert Schweitzer had foot ulcers as early as 1913-1917, which then healed well
-- during construction work in 1924, he suffers new injuries and the foot ulcers break open again and he hobbles and cannot walk well, he controls the construction work by limping, sometimes he is carried to the hospital when the burning pain no longer even allows him to hobble (!) (Letters from Lambarene, p.564). Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"I myself have been a patient for weeks. From my first stay there were foot ulcers which had well healed, but now I suffered new injuries during construction works and the ulcers opened again and make a big theater. I am hobbling around as well as I can. During very bad days, I let myself be carried down to the hospital. I just have to be controling the building site all day, otherwise the building will not progress. The worst thing about foot ulcers is the nervousness that sets in as a result of the persistent burning pain. " (Letters from Lambarene, p.564)

[When Albert Schweitzer had taken two European carpenters with him, all these problems had never been...]

Mrs. Kottmann and the "little doctor" Dr. Nessmann want to see Albert Schweitzer resting, but nothing is going on without supervision (letters from Lambarene, p.564). Quote (translation):

"On December 12th, a room will finally be ready in the little house for the new doctor and the white patients. I work with the black carpenter until late at night fixing the doors and shutters. How right I am, not to hear on the new doctor's or Mrs. Kottman's advice who want to forbid me the building work considering the condition of my feet!" (Letters from Lambarene, p.564)

December 16, 1924
Arrival of 6 sick whites, one of them with a beginning sleeping sickness
(Letters from Lambarene, p.564)

January 1925
Foot ulcers of Albert Schweitzer get worse, he can only walk in wooden shoes
(Letters from Lambarene, p.566)

Now also Viktor Nessmann is in bed
The "little doctor" Viktor Nessmann is suffering from furunculosis and is lying in bed (letters from Lambarene, p.566)

Mrs. Kottmann feels "miserable" (letters from Lambarene, p.566).

January 17, 1925
Death of the wife of the black carpenter Monenzali from sleeping sickness
The wife of Monenzali dies, cannot be saved. Only the bedsores could be prevented. Now the black carpenter Monenzali is not allowed to work for weeks: He has to sit in the hut in bad clothes for weeks and is not allowed to do anything, this is a "sacred duty" after the death of his wife. The black carpenter Monenzali is off for Albert Schweitzer for weeks (letters from Lambarene, p.571)

[NO natural medicine with Albert Schweitzer
The occasion to learn natural medicine would have been there with every death. Albert Schweitzer does NOT get the idea - but he has time to practice piano and he has time to look for holes in the roofs... Albert Schweitzer is missing some education...].

The boils of Dr. Nessmann do not heal as quickly
The "little doctor" Dr. Viktor Nessmann with his furunculosis does not heal, but there are always new boils and now also fevers (letters from Lambarene, p.571). Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"The new doctor [Viktor Nessmann] had to do with his furunculosis until the second half of January [1925]. Sometimes he feels pretty well for a few days. Then fever and new boils appear again." (Letters from Lambarene, p.571)

[From 1926 onwards, boils heal faster with a new drug called "turpentine steel". Hemorrhoides are healing in 2 months with silver water (colloidal silver) taking 3 big spoons of silver water before sleeping on an empty stomach - link].

Plan March 1925: New house on stilts and the chickens underneath
There is a lack of housing for employees who live far away, come late and leave early. Stilt houses are being built, and the chickens are living under them (letters from Lambarene, p.569). Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"On the site of the mission station available to me, there is just a piece left that can accommodate a house 16 meters long and 12 meters wide. This will house the white sick people, the supplies, Joseph and the cook together. The chickens are housed under them between the stakes. " (Letters from Lambarene, p.569)

[Chickens under a hospital house in the tropics? Can be very infective].

from February 20th, 1925: Sunstroke and new muscle abscesses with the "American" Mr. Crow
Then the "American" Mr. Crow, who was supposed to start his journey home on February 20th, 1925, also gets a sunstroke (letters from Lambarene, p.572).

The "American" patient Mr. Crow: At the very end after the successful treatment of muscle abscesses, Mr. Crow got a sunstroke while driving to a friend and again burdened the hospital with a weak immune system and new muscle abscesses (letters from Lambarene, p.572) .

Case: rotten tooth root with pain as hell
Tooth is extracted, Albert Schweitzer does that too (letters from Lambarene, p.572).

Case: A leopard comes to the hospital
A leopard is entering the hospital area, is killing a goat and a cub during the day (letters from Lambarene, p.572)

January 27, 1925
Warning: a canoe can overturn easily
During the day Albert Schweitzer sees a tree lying in the water on the way there. The return is in the evening at night. Albert Schweitzer's canoe almost crashed into the tree during the night and would have capsized if Albert Schweitzer hadn't insisted on driving further away from the bank. (Letters from Lambarene, p.572-573)

Well, the blacks always said: No, no danger. Blacks are often reckless and don't take danger seriously. (Letters from Lambarene, p.573). Quote (translation):

"You can never rely on local black people, not even in things that they should know by their profession. They are unpredictable with their recklessness." (Letters from Lambarene, p.573)

January 28, 1925
Arrival of a motor boat from Sweden called "Tack so mycket" ("Thank you very much")
In Sweden since 1922 money has been collected for the motorboat, it is covered with a canvas roof (Letters, p.573), it is 8.5 by 1.5 m, has a 3.5 HP engine, drives up to 12km/h, in countercurrent less, can hold up to 1 ton of cargo. So now much more and heavier loads are possible, because fuel costs less than paying the many rowers who always have to be fed (letters from Lambarene, p.574).

Motor boats have been customary for woodcutters for a long time already (letters from Lambarene, p.574).

Now patients also come by motorboat:

February 10, 1925: Sick Dutch woman arrives by motorboat
A sick white woman from Holland is brought to Lambarene in a motorboat by Mr Drew.
At the same time, the "American" Mr. Crow travels home, first by motorboat to Cap Lopez. He has recovered and is is stable enough for his travel home (letters from Lambarene, p.574).

For 10 days only Albert Schweitzer is present in Lambarene as a doctor. There are almost always about 6 white patients there (letters from Lambarene, p.574).

Case: patient Rochowiack from Poland with foot injury + blackwater fever
-- he has a foot injury, then there is also blackwater fever because as a prevention he thought his fever would be malaria and he has taken quinine (quinine destroys red blood cells)
-- Rochowiack is terrified because in Rhodesia he saw 7 people die of black water fever, but Albert Schweitzer has cured ALL black water fever cases so far
-- the healing is done with syringes with saline solution being injected in each thigh, and there are put syringes with blood serum, artificial serum and with strongly dosed calcium chlorate (letters from Lambarene, p.575)

The healthy Pole Rochowiack teaches Albert Schweitzer some house building
The Polish man Mr. Rochowiack then recovers, he turns out to be a carpenter and is teaching Albert Schweitzer a lot, also the simplified construction in wood, as it is common in South Africa, where he stayed for a long time (letters from Lambarene, p.576). Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"As soon as Mr. Rochowiack has recovered a bit, he helps me with the construction. He is a carpenter. I learn a lot from him. He teaches me the simplified construction in wood, as it was in South Africa, where he stayed for a long time, how it's common there." (Letters from Lambarene, p.576)

[Why didn't Albert Schweitzer do an apprenticeship as a carpenter?
One wonders why the intelligent Albert Schweitzer was not so intelligent to quickly complete an apprenticeship as a carpenter in Strasbourg, too, and take his own carpenter with him. Apparently this was under his estate!]

Then:

Arrival of Dr. Nessmann from Cap Lopez
(Letters from Lambarene, p.576)

Then:

Two large canoes escape and are found again
The helper Dominik, an illiterate (letters, p.542), but who speaks some languages of the "wild blacks" (Bendjabis) (letters, p.555), did not fix the canoes properly in the evening and now they are somewhere "down there". Dominik can now go looking for the canoes, first in one forearm of the river, then in the other one, and he actually finds them again and his group is celebrated (letters from Lambarene, p.576-577).

Then:

Two black patients with bite wounds

Human bites provoke severe infections up to the risk of general blood poisoning, even with rapid treatment. The helper Joseph is rating the different origin of bites like this: leopard bites are bad, poisonous snake bites are even worse, monkey bites are even worse and human bites are the worst (letters from Albarene, p.577). Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"Biting as an attack or defense action is more common with the Blacks than on our continent. "The worst," Joseph says, "is the leopard's bite; the bite of the venomous snake is even worse; even worse is the bite of a monkey; and worst of all, however, are the bites of humans." There is something true about it. So far [as of February 1925] I have seen about 12 injuries from human bites in Africa. All of them soon showed symptoms of severe infection. In 2 cases there was a risk of general blood poisoning, although the patients came to me within a few hours." (Letters from Lambarene, p.577)

With one of the bitten - the carpenter Vendacambano - the end link of a finger has to be removed, and after that he is supposed to help with the construction for two months (letters from Lambarene, p.577). When he then healed well in April 1925, he ran away and got work elsewhere (letters from Lambarene, p.584-585).

Then:

Toothache
Whites sometimes come to Albert Schweitzer because of a toothache (letters from Lambarene, p.577).

In Lambarene, the number of sick people is going on increasing (letters from Lambarene, p.577).

Details:

Phageenic foot ulcers - in 14 people
-- there are 14 Bendjabis with phageenic foot ulcers, some of them are already in a fatal stage (letters, p.577-578)
-- the putrefactive substances produced are damaging the whole body, and death often comes suddenly (letters from Lambarene, p.578). Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"In one day, 14 Bendjabis with severe phageenic foot ulcers are arriving all from the same lumber site. Some of them are in such a miserable condition that we can hardly save them. After a long period of time, the putrefactive substances associated with the ulcers begin to affect the general health in the most severe way. People become weak and then only rarely recover. Death usually comes very suddenly." (Letters from Lambarene, p.578)

In den Baracken ist es zu dunkel zum Verbinden und alle PatientInnen, auch die, die kaum laufen können, müssen zum Verbinden zum Doktor kommen, oder auch kriechen (Briefe aus Lambarene, S.578).

Lambarene: The barracks have no windows - you cannot change bandages there
In the barracks it is too dark to bandage - and all patients, even those who can hardly walk, have to come to the doctor to bandage or crawl (letters from Lambarene, p.578).

Then:

The progress in the treatment of leprosy: 4 parts chaulmoogra oil + 5 parts peanut oil
-- Attempts with chaulmoogra oil injections intravenously [ONLY chaulmoogra oil] are not very successful and are dangerous and must always be done by the doctor himself, this needs much time with the doctors (letters from Lambarene, p.578-579)
-- From 1925 onwards, Albert Schweitzer now injects the mixture of chaulmoogra oil + peanut oil just under the skin, a 50-50 mixture of chaulmoogra oil + peanut oil, which is painless, is well absorbed, is harmless and can also be injected by medical assistants
-- This pioneering research in leprosy comes from Prof. Giemsa and from his assistant Dr. Adolph Kessler from Hamburg
-- in the peanut oil, chaulmoogra oil does not form any precipitates
-- the exact mixture works with 4 parts of heated Chaulmoogra oil and 5 parts of heated peanut oil
-- then the mixture is sterilized [boiled?]
-- daily 1/2 to 2 cm3 are injected under the skin, which shows good healing results of leprosy (letters from Lambarene, p.579).

Then:

Dr. Nessmann specializes in the healing of phagedenic ulcers - the Belgian treatment without anesthesia: iodoform + methyl violet
(Letters from Lambarene, p.579).

-- the phageenic ulcers are a long-running hit in Albert Schweitzer's hospital and practically only occur with men (letters from Lambarene, p.581)

-- The microscope is now also used with the phageenic ulcers and confirms the assessments made with the naked eye
-- In addition, a new healing method from Belgium is used that works without anesthesia, so that one can save the anesthetics, which are much more expensive in Africa than in Europe due to the transport of flammable goods in steamers (the price is per m3, regardless of whether it is is a small box or a large box)
-- and also 50% of the ether and of the chloroethyl are now saved (letters from Lambarene, p.580)

The new procedure:
-- the ulcer is cleaned out fairly vigorously for half a minute with a "sublimate lozenge"
-- the pain comes only after the procedure (Letters, p.580)
-- after 1/2 minute the ulcer is rinsed off well with sterilized water [which was boiled and has cooled again before]
-- the ulcer is covered with iodoform and placed in gauze compresses soaked in a thin solution of methyl violet
-- the bandage must remain moist (always has to be watered again) and must be renewed daily
-- after 2 to 3 days, the wound is covered with wound powder (Dermatol, Salol, Aristol, Vioform etc.) and is bandaged dry
-- the skin is slowly growing back, needs 8 to 10 weeks (letters from Lambarene, p.581)

-- Albert Schweitzer is also planning skin transplants: Strips of skin should be taken from the thigh and placed on the ulcer so that the skin strip grows there, so the healing time should be reduced by 2 to 3 weeks (letters from Lambarene, p.581)

Albert Schweitzer quote (translation):

"The treatment we are practicing nowadays consists in wiping out the ulcer quite vigorously for half a minute with a sublimate lozenge [gauze?]. This is painful. But the pain is only coming when the procedure is already over. After (Letters, p.580 ) half a minute the ulcer is rinsed well with sterilized water [boiled and then cooled]. Now it is sprinkled with iodoform and covered with gauze compresses which were soaked before with a thin solution of methyl violet. These compresses are often renewed so that the bandage always remains moist. After two or three days, the ulcer is so far cleaned that it is sufficient to bandage it dry with Dermatol, Salol, Aristol, Vioform or another wound litter powder.

But when the ulcer is large, the healing process can last up to 8 or 10 weeks, or even longer. Skin is growing only slowly again. Later, when we have operations regularly, we want to try skin transplants that means: We will take fine strips from the thigh and put it over the ulcer so it will grow there. When this is successful with ulcers as with normal wounds, we will much with it again. So we can spare much work with bandages, medicaments and also rice when we reach that the coverning with new skin is proceeded in only 7 instead of 15 weeks!" (Letters from Lambarene, p.581)

Case: The white patient Rupin - seems poisoned
-- Rupin is without money and has already suffered several sunstrokes
-- Rupin comes with some diarrhea and a fever, and this slight fever never goes down
-- he behaves slightly drunk and the slight fever never goes down, regardless of how he is treated (letters from Lambarene, p.582)
-- on March 19th, 1925 Rupin dies suddenly without prior warning, he is buried on the catholic Jesus fantasy mission, together with Joseph's mother who is buried there the same day (letters from Lambarene, p.584)


Case: The Jesus fantasy missionary Mr. Soubeyran from N'Gômô with malaria
-- he has had malaria for a long time
-- now he also has a weak heart (letters from Lambarene, p.582).


Lambarene March 16, 1925: Arrival of Dr. Marc Lauterburg (nickname: "N'Tschinda-N'Tschinda")

A third doctor comes to Lambarene, this is Dr. Marc Lauterburg (Letters, p.566-567), because a surgeon is needed who only does surgery and nothing else (Letters from Lambarene, p.567).

Dr. Lauterburg is pushing for more living space and house construction in order to increase the storage capacity (letters from Lambarene, p.568).

In total there are reserves for 1 year in approx. 100 suitcases and boxes that need their safe storage (letters from Lambarene, p.568-569).

-- during his trip, Dr. Lauterburg experienced a tornado, tornadoes are always possible on the tropical-African Atlantic coast [this is the same climate as the Caribbean] (letters from Lambarene, p.582)

-- Dr. Lauterburg is a surgeon and assistant at the same time, the natives call him "N'Tschinda-N'Tschinda" - "the man who cuts courageously" (letters from Lambarene, p.585)

-- Dr. Marc Lauterburg always wants to amputate something, but Albert Schweitzer is changing his habit, otherwise it is said that arms and legs would be cut off in Lambarene (letters from Lambarene, p.585)

Lambarene - March 1925: Patient Mr. Crow has recovered from his muscle abscesses and is organizing wood for buildings (timber, lumber)
In the end the American Mr. Crow can do everything again and even fetches timber from a distance of 30 km (letters from Lambarene, p.570-571). Quote (translation):

"The new house is to be a pile building with a corrugated iron roof. The now almost completely restored "American", Mr. Crow, is fetching the hardwood piles (letters, p.570) from a small river 30 kilometers upstream from here with a good team that I can care for a few days." (Letters from Lambarene, p.571)

And:
-- Albert Schweitzer and Dr. Lauterburg shovel away earth to level the terrain
-- the sawmill from N'Gômô promises wood deliveries
-- and in the dry season building work should be possible then (letters from Lambarene, p.571).

Albert Schweitzer sees: the carpenter is not there and the "little doctor" has boils. So he has to build everything by himself (letters from Lambarene, p.572).

Case: Yezu with sleeping sickness + purulent pleurisy wants to steal a chicken
-- The "wild black" Yezu has been in the hospital for months - a Bendjabi - with sleeping sickness and with a purulent pleurisy (inflammation of pleura)
-- a rib resection is needed
-- the sleeping sickness seems to be overcome, but the pleurisy not (letters from Lambarene, p.583)
-- when one day the hospital staff has gathered in the operating room to operate another person, the crawling Yezu and his Bendjabi "friends" take the opportunity to chase a chicken from Dr. Albert Schweitzer, but this is reported (letters from Lambarene, p.583-584).

April 1925
Lambarene: The helpers Joseph and Monenzali are back - Vendacambano is leaving without paying
-- Monenzali now wants clear working hours and he doesn't work overtime any more, and he demands more wages (letters from Lambarene, p.584)

[Suspition: manipulations!
Here, too, it seems that criminal, arch-conservative pastors have manipulated the Monenzali against Albert Schweitzer, just as the Bendjabi with their high crime rate seem to have been manipulated against Albert Schweitzer for reducing his success].

The patient Vendacambano with an amputated finger part has healed well, but then runs away and gets work elsewhere, doesn't help with Albert Schweitzer (letters from Lambarene, p.584-585).


Lambarene from April 1925: Accident injuries heal with bandages with the healing effect of the dye methyl violet

-- Accidental injuries are treated by Albert Schweitzer with the dye methyl violet, i.e. with moist bandages that have been dipped in the dye methyl violet
-- On the other hand, dried bandages with methyl violet can become dangerous because of the layer formation on the wound, under which the infection can spread further (letters from Lambarene, p.585)

-- the dye methyl violet does not irritate, has an analgesic effect when moist, heals wounds and even heals burns, the mode of action is unknown up to that day [as of 1925] (letters from Lambarene, p.586)

[Little burns which are not opened are also healing with putting sodium bicarbonate water or with silver water (coloidal silver)].

So:
-- when boils, panaritia and narrowly opened suppurations are connected with methyl violet and become dry, then the matter can easily worsen instead of improve (letters from Lambarene, p.585)
-- the dye methyl violet must "not form any dry precipitates" and only has a healing effect when it is wet (letters from Lambarene, p.585-586).

Methods to keep the methyl violet bandage moist:

-- on the bandage with methyl violet again and again moist gauze is put which are dipped in sterile water before
or
-- it's possible to cover the bandage with an impermeable clothe and thus avoid evaporation

-- the moist bandage with methyl violet can also be used where a moist bandage would otherwise be a danger
-- in severe cases one can also sprinkle the bandage with a weak methyl violet solution (letters from Lambarene, p.586).

[Boils should heal like hemorroids healing in 2 months with the intake of silver water 3 table spoons in the morning or / and in the evening before sleeping on an empty stomach - when the intake is in the morning on an empty stomach: wait 1 hour for the next meal].

The native healers believe in "powdered tree bark" - but this provokes new amputations (!)

The healers of the black natives in Gabon have the wrong fantasy that wounds heal sprinkling powdered tree bark into the wound. But this only provokes a rotting of the whole part of the body followed by an amputation (letters from Lambarene, p.587).

April 1925: Hernia operations and elephantiasis operations with Dr. Lauterburg and Dr. Nessmann

Case of elephantiasis: The patient from Samkita suffers from a 30kg tumor that he can even use as a stool, he cannot walk. He is successfully operated with Albert Schweitzer in 5 hours from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., using the surgical method by Dr. Ouzilleau from 1913 applied (letters from Lambarene, p.587):

-- the tumor is split in the middle like a pear
-- this makes it easier to find the blood vessels
-- so the hemostasis can be performed exactly (letters from Lambarene, p.587).

April 1925: Lambarene: Arrival of carpenter Mr. Schatzmann
(Letters from Lambarene, pp. 587-588)
-- he is first building a house with 10 rooms (Letters, p.588)
-- but the house building will soon come to a standstill due to lack of wooden boards (Briefe, p.589)
-- the wooden beams of the timber merchant Matthieu are too thick and sawmen are missing (letters, p.589)
-- and soon other companies want to poach him (letters from Lambarene, p.588).

Concentration camp-like conditions in Lambarene - April 1925: Murder in the hospital by defamation for allegedly planned mouth robbery: patient kills patient
-- one patient with dysentery kills another on the pretext that the other is trying to steal food from him
-- the murderer is allowed to live because he will die by himself soon afterwards anyway also by dysentery (letters, from Lambarene, p.588).

Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"A dysentery patient who cannot stand on his feet kills his neighbor by slapping, who is just as poor a skeleton as he is. He said he wanted to take food away from him. Some people with dysentery have good appetite until the last day. We leave the killer unmolested who shows no remorse about his deed,  because it can be foreseen that he will follow his victim into death in a few days, and this really happens." (Letters from Lambarene, p.588)

April 16, 1925
Mr. + Mrs. Herrmann are leaving Lambarene for holidays in Europe
(Letters from Lambarene, p.588)

April 17-30, 1925
Many operations in Lambarene
-- many hernia operations
-- the hernias with Afros have many adhesions that do not occur in Europe, and the operations are correspondingly more complicated
-- Thesis: The Afros want to get rid of the hernias by themselves and then squeeze the tissue (letters from Lambarene, p.589)

End of April: 20 operated persons die and more deaths
especially because the sick are only brought here in the deadly stage (letters from Lambarene, p.589).


from April 1925 approx.: animals on the hospital grounds of Lambarene

since April 1925: chimpanzee babies in Lambarene hospital
-- Chimpanzees: Miss Haussknecht takes care of a baby chimpanzee named "Fifi", which always hangs on her apron, the baby chimpanzee comes from a mother chimpanzee who was shot by a hunter. In January 1926 approx. a European leaves another chimpanzee child so that from then on two little chimpanzees are playing together on the hospital grounds (letters from Lambarene, p.667)

[To what extent the small chimpanzees can be controlled and "contribute" to hygiene is an open question. Later, the two chimpanzees are a trademark for Albert Schweitzer's hospital - he builds a large hospital 3km away and the old, small hospital becomes a leprosy station and animal hospital].

-- Dogs: Some black people are very cruel to dogs. This has the consequence that white people returning tu Europe leave their dogs rather with Albert Schweitzer in the hospital than to give them to blacks (letters from Lambarene, p.667).

[Could it be that these animals transmit diseases?]

-- Goats: Albert Schweitzer's hospital also wants to install goat breeding so that goats will give more milk:

The goats are supposed to supply the hospital with fresh milk (Letters, p.666), because until that day, a goat only gives 1/2 glass of milk per day, there is hope for goat breeding and more milk production in the hospital (letters from Lambarene, p.667) .

[Why were no goats imported from Europe that give more milk?]

-- patients after a successful operation often give the hospital a goat (letters from Lambarene, p.607)

-- Chickens: Albert Schweitzer's hospital takes care of its chickens for fresh eggs

    -- some successfully operated patients give a few chickens to the hospital (letters from Lambarene, p.636).


1925: The discussion about the relocation of the hospital
-- the mission management wants to get rid of the hospital because it only causes difficulties and because the area around the mission is limited
-- the Jesus Fantasy missionaries of the Ogowe area think that the hospital should stay (letters from Lambarene, p.570).


Knowledge from Albert Schweitzer: The basis of a culture is CRAFT - and not reading and writing
Albert Schweitzer sees that the basis of a culture is the craft that educates people to work regularly and to be reliable. THAT is missing in Africa. So a culture starts with the handicraft, not with reading and writing (letters from Lambarene, p.589).

Without good craftsmen there is no basis for a cultural life, that is clearly evident in Lambarene. The blacks in Gabon are learning to read and write, but not to work in crafts (Letters, p.589), and they can sell things and write bills etc., but they cannot build solid buildings. Albert Schweitzer concludes:

Political studies according to Albert Schweitzer:

Intellect and manual skills must be trained TOGETHER, this is the "healthy basis for ascension." (Letters from Lambarene, p.590)

"If I had something to say, no black person should learn to read and write without being an apprentice in a craft at the same time. No training of the intellect without simultaneous training of manual skills! This is the only way to create a healthy basis for advancement." (Letters from Lambarene, p.590)

Political studies according to Albert Schweitzer:

Political science: roads and railways are of no use because the brains are not trained with them

When foreigners build roads or railways, nothing has changed yet. Blacks become "efficient" through human rights and handicrafts. Culture comes on this basis. So:
-> Woodcutters -> sawers in sawmills -> carpenters are building houses with the sawn timber.

If that is not developed like that, then the population will stay with their bamboo huts and with some money (letters from Lambarene, p.590). Albert Steiner quote (translation):

"How ridiculous it seems to me when I read that Africa is being opened up to culture because the railroad now goes up to that point, the automobile goes there and an airplane service is to be set up from here to there. That will not achieve anything. "To what extent do blacks become good people?" This is the only thing that matters. They become good through religious and moral instruction and through the craft. Any further matter only makes sense when this foundation is laid.

And of all manual skills, that of the sawyer is again the most important. The sawyer creates boards and beams from the trunks from which comfortable houses can be built. Before sawmills existed, our ancestors saw beams and planks by hand. And if the blacks do not go the same way, they just remain wilds, may be one or another is making much money as a scribe for purchasing nice silk stockings and high heelsfrom Europe. Both with their children will go on living in bamboo huts."

Sawers can work manually in pairs, making 10 boards or beams per day (letters from Lambarene, p.590-591).

African governments do not notice the importance of the sawmills and so the population is staying in bamboo huts (letters from Lambarene, p.591). Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"To saw beams and planks out of a tree trunk, the trunk is put over a pit 4 meteres long and 2 meters deep. Then two sawyers begin their work with a long saw, one on the tree, the other in the pit. The way of the sawing line is marked on the top and on the bottom of the trunk (Letters, p.590). The art consists in sawing exactly vertically and staying in the line above and below, this requires some practice.Two well-trained saws can finish about 10 boards or beams a day.

This craft, which is most valuable for us, is the least respected because it' simple, but very hard work. That is why people live in miserable huts where they could live in houses made of mahogany! But I myself can't even find two sawyers to cut some thick beams into thinner ones!" (Letters from Lambarene, p.591)

Then:

Case: Severe angina
-- the lady of a timber merchant comes with a severe angina
-- as payment Albert Schweitzer gets two sawyers from the timber merchant, who saw all the beams to size for him which are too thick (letters from Lambarene, p.591).


since May 3, 1925: Dysentery epidemic on the Ogowe River - loads of new patients
-- On a timber yard an epidemic of dysentery has broken out
-- There have already been some deaths
-- Albert Schweitzer goes there with a group, there are instructions for the slightly ill, the seriously ill are taken along (letters from Lambarene, p. 591)

May 5, 1925: Death of Albert Schweitzer's father
(Letters from Lambarene, pp.591-592)

May 1925: Hunger due to the lack of drought of 1924 is foreseeable - and there is a dysentery epidemic on the Ogowe River in Gabon
-- since the timber trade is so attractive, agriculture is forgotten and a famine comes (Life+Thought, p.216)
-- at the same time there is also a dysentery epidemic (Life + Thought, p.216)
-- the number of patients is skyrocketing again, now to 150 per day - and Albert Schweitzer now has to go on long journeys in the motorboats to somehow buy rice when the food runs out in the hospital (Leben + Denk, p.216)
-- Albert Schweitzer means that the high number of sick people is only temporary (Leben + Denk, p.216)

The 10-room house with a double roof from the carpenter Mr. Schatzmann
The 10-room house is getting a double roof: corrugated iron above and leaf bricks below, so it never gets too hot in the house, the double roof is a masterpiece by carpenter Mr. Schatzmann (letters from Lambarene, p.592).

May 1925 approx.
Concentration camp-like conditions in Lambarene - case: injury by cutting and then attempted poisoning
Because of rivalries, one has cut another person, and now the hurt person is brought by his clan
-- a tendon is repaired with a tendon suture
-- the injured person cannot cook himself, someone has to stay with him
-- the clan determines one (Letters, p.592)
-- in the course of the healing time the healing patient suddenly gets difficulties, he looks dilapidated, he staggers when connecting, he is dazed (Letters, p.592), he can hardly talk anymore (Liefe, p.592-593)
--> It turns out that the assistant is not an assistant, but is his rival, who should serve as a penance for the injured, but the rival now also wanted to poison the injured
--> so one has to stop the vengeance: the "assistant" is employed elsewhere, doing the laundry and carrying water for the hospital (letters from Lambarene, p.593).

Cap Lopez May 13, 1925
Case in Cap Lopez: Purulent hand injury and childbirth
Dr. Lauterburg is in Cap Lopez [French: Cap Gentil] for 1 month to wait for the birth, during this time he is healing many black and white people there (letters from Lambarene, p.596)

Lambarene May 14, 1925
Injury from leopard on an arm - healing with bandages with methyl violet - the Italian Signore Boles
-- it is about an Italian, Mr. Boles, he wanted to shoot a leopard accompanied with black people, but the leopard survived and attacked the Italian biting him volently into one of his arms (letters, p.596)
-- then the blacks killed the leopard with lances
-- The Italian let 10 days pass before he got to Lambarene, and the arm is in bad condition and the general physical condition is worrying
-- Albert Schweitzer heals the arm [with disinfection] and with bandages with methyl violet, he avoids the amputation (letters from Lambarene, p.597).

Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"On May 14th, an Italian, a Mr. Boles, is coming, whose arm has been badly beaten up by a leopard in the lagoon area south of Cape Lopez. He had shot the animal and followed the trail of blood that plunged it into a small valley with sedge. In this moment seeing the leopard again starting to shoot at him again, also the blacks were seeing it, and they were shouting much warning their boss, but this provoked the leopard so he gave up his retreat and attacked the Italien by jumping before there was a shot. Now the Italian stepped backwards defending his body from the leopard with his rifle. Then he fell to the floor and the animal was biting (Letters , p.596) his arm until the blacks killet it with their lances.

The Italian only arrives at my place 10 days after the accident. The arm looks bad, and the general condition alone gives rise to concern. But methyl violet bandages, after sufficient opening of the wound, has it's effect also this time." (Letters from Lambarene, p.597)

Deads in Albert Schweitzer's hospital - patients often come in a terminally ill condition

-- Yezu (a Bendjabi) with purulent pleurisy, he has survived the sleeping sickness, but the purulent pleurisy pulls him away, nothing heals anymore (letters from Lambarene, p.597)

-- also with N'Dunde: Nothing heals (letters from Lambarene, p.597)

-- the maximum of one day are 3 dead patients in one day, especially people who are brought too late when they are already terminally ill, they die (letters from Lambarene, p.597)


Digging graves with a reward - the agreement with the helper Dominik
-- Dominik has to organize 4 workers and he has to play the foreman, the four workers also carry the corpse
-- As a reward for each grave and funeral, a gift and a large ration of food are given, and the afternoon is free for those involved
-- the funerals only take place in small groups, everything else would be too much for the hospital inmates, because a jungle cemetery is "scary" for them, where only palm trees stand and birds are chirping etc. (letters from Lambarene, p.597)
-- there are no boards for coffins (letters, p.597), so the corpses are wrapped in cloth and put in tied palm branches, that is like a "green coffin" (letters from Lambarene, p.598).

Late May 1925
Death of a white timber merchant employee
-- he is brought when he is already in a coma (letters from Lambarene, p.598).

House construction: Carpenter Mr. Schatzmann has finished the roofs of the 10-room house - Albert Schweitzer urges Schatzmann to work for a large company (?? !!)
Then the carpenter Mr. Schatzmann is lured away by a big company and Albert Schweitzer allows it (?? !!) (Letters from Lambarene, p.598). Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"At the same time, the two roofs of the new house will be finished. Without Mr. Schatzmann's help, we would not be that far. The black carpenter can finish the floor, the wooden walls and the doors if necessary ... if wood is available .

The largest trading company in the Ogowe area entrusts Mr. Schatzmann with the building up of all of its buildings. Upon my persuasion, he decides to accept the beautiful and interesting position. But he would much rather build a whole hospital for me." (Letters from Lambarene, p.598)

[Albert Schweitzer is an idiot to give away the best carpenter, because then concentration camp conditions are coming again].

Early June 1925
The Italian man Mr. Boles with Albert Schweitzer in Cap Lopez - outbreak of dysentery in some harbor ships
-- the Italo Signore Boles with his bite of a leopard bite is partly recovered and can go back to Cap Lopez, Albert Schweitzer is traveling with him to spend his first week of vacation since 1 year and to relax (letters from Lambarene, p.598)
-- but there are also new sick people there. Dysentery has broken out in the harbor ships, triggered by contaminated drinking water [and by eating bad food only white rice provoking weak systems!] (letters from Lambarene, p.598).

Conditions similar to a concentration camp in Lambarene June 1925
Lambarene June 1925: Death of an Eleofantiasis patient waiting for the operation
A patient with elephantiasis is dying of pneumonia while he is waiting for the operation (letters from Lambarene, p.598).

[So: Dr. Albert Schweitzer travels to Cap Lopez to take a week's vacation and leaves the helpless patient, who cannot even walk, to wait for the operation].

Albert Schweitzer says succinctly, pneumonia always comes at the beginning of the dry season in June [due to the changeover] (letters from Lambarene, p.598).

Lambarene - June 1925
Tetanus does not cure - a patient dies
(Letters from Lambarene, p.599)

Lambarene case: a Bendjabi woman is bitten by a fish
-- she comes to the hospital as soon as possible
-- the arm is badly infected
-- she herself asks for an amputation
-- it is "healed" [without a statement whether the arm is now being healed or amputated] (letters from Lambarene, p.599).

Case in Lambarene: A lady from N'Gômô has sleeping sickness
-- she comes with a fever and a headache
-- then sleeping sickness is discovered through microscopic examination
-- she is healing soon (letters from Lambarene, p.599).

Fall in Lambarene: a white lady has a birth
-- a boy is born healthy
-- Albert Schweitzer takes care of the mother in childbed
-- at the end, the mother and the son return home healthy (letters from Lambarene, p.599).

Case in Lambarene: the white mother has become insane

[Explanation: Sometimes the mother thinks when the first child has born that she would be trapped now with the child and the men remain "free", then a young mother becomes insane with jealousy - this happens quite often].

-- months ago the white woman gave birth to a child and Albert Schweitzer took care of her in childbed
-- then she comes to the hospital insane with her child and husband
-- the young family wants to go to Europe and the hospital is the waiting room (letters from Lambarene, p.599). Albert Schweitzer quote (translation):

"At the same time, another white lady is about to give birth in our hospital; she is returning home with a boy.

A European woman whom I nursed in childbed months ago comes mentally ill with her child from inner Gabon, accompanied by her husband. Fortunately, the rooms in the new house are already ready so that I can house them until they leave for Europe. It is a very serious case." (Letters from Lambarene, p.599)

Lambarene concentration camp - June 1925: More and more dysentery - Albert Schweitzer cannot get the dysentery under control

Albert Schweitzer's hospital is getting full with dysentery patients (letters from Lambarene, p.599). There prevail cruel conditions:

From June 1925, a dysentery epidemic ruled Gabon on the Ogowe River. The starting point is the port of Cap Lopez, where apparently ship personnel are drinking contaminated brackish water. Albert Schweitzer's hospital is subsequently overcrowded with dysentery patients and he cannot get the dysentery under control. Instead of quickly building a new healing station 1km away, Albert Schweitzer's hospital becomes a dysentery concentration camp. The "wild blacks" (Bendjabis) still don't accept any instruction, but they are going on taking the water from the river instead of the 100m distant water spring and they infect lots of patients (letters, p.599-601) or at the end hide the dysentery and end up with dysentery on the operating table (letters from Lambarene, p.608).

There are two types of dysentery:
 
1) Amoebic dysentery
-- the amoebic dysentery occurs only in the tropics, with amoeba in the large intestine, which provoke bloody ulcers
-- the remedy for the treatment of dysentery is emetine from the ipecacuanha bark (letters from Lambarene, p.599)
-- The remedy is dissolved in water and injected under the skin for several days, then there is a break of several days, then another round of injections follows, 8-10 centigrams per syringe
-- all in all a healing of dysentery consumes 2 grams of emetine per person (letters from Lambarene, p.599-600)

2) The bacilli dysentery
-- occurs all over the world, according to Albert Schweitzer there is NO remedy available (letters from Lambarene, p.599).

Amoebic dysentery and bacillary dysentery can also occur at the same time at the same location. Since the "wild blacks" (Bendjabis) moved from the interior of Gabon to the Ogowe River in 1919 to take part in the timber trade, both species - the amoebic dysentery and the bacilli dysentery - have appeared AT THE SAME TIME on the Ogowe River (letters from Lambarene, p.600).

-- The dysentery patients are a huge mess in the hospital, can no longer move, they are soiling everything with endless diarrhea, sometimes they have to be fed because they don't even have the strength to hold a spoon
-- the family members do NOT help or only rarely help
-- dysentery sufferers have to be isolated, there is an absolute alarm level (letters from Lambarene, p.600)
-- but there are no isolating barracks there (letters, p.600-601), the only thing to do is to install dividing walls
-- when the dysentery sufferers are outside, they pollute everything with their diarrhea
-- and at the same time, the members of the Bendjabis remain lazy: they prefer to fetch the drinking water from the river only 20 paces away, although this is forbidden, and the clean water spring, which is 100 paces away, is too far away for the criminal Bendjabis
-- the relatives eat with their hands [as is customary in Africa] TOGETHER with the dysentery sufferers
-- THIS is the infection center: healthy people who cook and eat by hand with people with dysentery then also get infected with dysentery (letters from Lambarene, p.601).


Lambarene concentration camp - June 1925: hookworm disease (ankylostomiasis)
can be seen with a microscope, about 1cm long worms in the small intestine (letters from Lambarene, p.601)
-- these hookworms were discovered during the construction of the Gotthard tunnel in Switzerland; they can be found in warm, moist soil, i.e. in tunnels or in the tropics
-- the larvae come from the earth through the skin into the lungs and then settle in the small intestine, the worms eat the intestinal mucosa, which then bleeds continuously
-- intestinal disorders occur - anemia occurs [lack of red bloodcells] - [lack of oxygen] - general physical weakness occurs (letters, p. 602) up to heart failure (letters, p. 603)
-- the worm eggs of the hookworms can be seen with a microscope in the feces (letters from Lambarene, p.602).

The cure for hookworm disease according to Albert Schweitzer:
-- take thymol or carbon tetrachloride several times
-- the worms are driven away
-- the patient becomes healthy and has the normal level of oxygen in the blood and strength again (letters from Lambarene, p.602)
-- during the healing process no alcohol or fat should be consumed, otherwise the thymol will be dissolved and have a toxic effect
-- so every hookworm patient is isolated and observed for 2 to 3 days, including white people! (Letters from Lambarene, p. 603).

Healing with carbon tetrachloride: One has to know that it contains traces of carbon disulfide (letters from Lambarene, p.603).


Lambarene concentration camp - June 1925: famine comes up upstream because there were no slash and burns in 1924 (?? !!)

Gabon with a criminal tradition in the jungle: The natives only want to plant where there was a slash and burn - depending on the dry season (!)

The dysentery (dysentery) depresses the mood in the hospital and the simultaneous news of the famine in the upper part of Ogowe River is depressing even more (letters from Lambarene, p.603).

-- particularly affected of the famine are the frontier areas to Cameroon with it's caravan route N'Djôle-Boue-Makokou
-- the blacks have a tradition of planting after burning the forst (slash and burn), the soil is fertilized with the ashes of the fire and then plantations are freshly planted on the ashes as fertilizer
-- In 1924 there was no drought, it also rained heavily in July and August 1924, nothing could be burnt, so nothing was planted in 1924 - so of course that is a mindless reaction not to plant anything (!!!)
-- so it was in Gabon in the border region to Cameroon and also in Lambarene (letters from Lambarene, p.603).

[Blacks don't know anything about permaculture agriculture...]

Albert Schweitzer quote (translation):

"Our mood, which was very depressed by the increasing dysentery, is depressed by news of severe famine upstream. The areas bordering Cameroon and crossed by the N'Djôle-Boue-Makokou caravan route are particularly affected. The ultimate cause of this severe famine is the rain that came down in the dry season of 1924. This blocked the procedure to cut the dry forest and burning it because it never became dry. The habit, however, requires only planting where the forest has been burnt before. Wood and scrub are removed and the ground is fertilized by ashes. If rain makes this process impossible, they simply do not plant any plants, regardless of the consequences. That is how it was kept up there, including in our region. In our area, when the rains continued, no forest was cut at all." (Letters from Lambarene, p. 603)

But planting would also be possible in the rain. In Lambarene, rice arrives by ship from Europe and India. In the interior of Gabon, however, it is hardly possible to supply rice from outside by land with footpaths and porters. So in June 1925 the situation is like this:
-- Lambarene is suffering from a slight famine
-- the interior of Gabon is suffering from a severe famine (letters from Lambarene, p.604).

Albert Schweitzer quote (translation):

"But planting is not blocked when it's raining, but it's only more work. Instead of burning wood and brushes, one needs only to put it on heaps, then planting can be proceeded on the free locations between the trunks and the heaps. But there was no resolution to act like this, and therefore no plantations were installed yielding fruits now. In our region this fact is not having a big effect, because on the broad Ogowe River the delivery of rice from Euorpe and India is possible. But in the inner of the country with transports of rice by carriers over 100s of kilometers, the food delivery for the population is only ristricted now. Therefore there is a heavy famine there, but in our region only a little one." (Letters from Lambarene, p. 604)

Gabon - June 1925: Possible corn cultivation was not done - the corn was eaten - looting - nobody is planting anymore
If corn had been planted at the beginning of the famine, there would have been no famine. Maize in tropical Gabon grows very quickly, is yielding and harvested already in the 4th month, but the black natives ate the maize instead of sowing it (!!!). And the hungry in the interior then also began to plunder where there were still crops to steal, thus provoking the famine where it didn't exist yet. The result is that there is no longer any agricultural cultivation for fear of looters. Everyone is waiting for a miracle. (Letters from Lambarene, p. 604).

Albert Schweitzer quote (translation):

"Had maize been planted in good time when the famine began, the worst could have been avoided. Maize thrives here excellently and is already yielding fruit in the fourth month. But when food became scarce, the natives ate the maize that should have been sown. The misfortune was compounded by the fact that the inhabitants of the hardest hit areas moved to areas where there was still some food and plundered the plantings, which also caused misery. Now nobody has the courage to plant anything. It would only be for the looters. The people is sitting in their villages without will and are awaiting their fate." (Letters from Lambarene, p.604)

Gabon - June 1925: The people do not want to go hunting, not even the hunters - because there is "famine" - they freeze as if in hypnosis
The peoples in Equatorial Africa are not gifted to cope with difficult situations. There remains hunting in the jungle or in the steppe (Briefe, p.604), e.g. 20 people against wild boars, which are not as dangerous in Africa as in Europe (Briefe, p. 604-605). But:
-- the blacks do not organize the hunting because there is famine
-- the blacks don't know the slogan "Emergency makes inventive", but blacks in the jungle are rather living with the slogan "Emergency makes stupid" (letters from Lambarene, p. 605).

There are trained hunters in Gabon, but they are hypnotized and simply don't hunt because there is "famine". (Letters from Lambarene, p. 605).

Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"This lack of resilience and this [mental] inability to adapt to difficult circumstances are typical for the natives of Equatorial Africa and make them pitiful creatures. There is no plant food available. But in the forest and in the steppes meat food could be obtained. Twenty men armed with bush knives and lances could surround a herd of wild boars and capture an animal (Letters, p. 604). The local wild boars are much less dangerous than the European ones. But the starving blacks do not get up to it, but they are staying in the huts and wait for their death, because there is famine. Here, the rule is not "Emergency makes inventive", but "Emergency makes stupid".

I am told that a gentleman from the hungry region has a black hunter who otherwise kills a lot with his rifle. Instead of going out to hunt with increased zeal when the famine breaks out, he crouches with the others in the hut to die of hunger, where he could save them with the ammunition that his master has made available to him. Bananas and cassava are part of the diet. So you can't live without it. Hypnotized by logic, hundreds and hundreds are now surrendering to death up there." (Letters from Lambarene, p. 605)

Lambarene concentration camp - June 1925: New leaf tiles because of holes in the roof of Albert Schweitzer
Albert Steiner was able to get 3000 more leaf tiles for the roof renovation, Dr. Nessmann was very convincing to urge the black patients to pay for the healings with leaf tiles (Letters from Lambarene, p.605). Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"At the end of July I will be replacing the roof of leaves on my house, which allows sun and rain to pass through countless large and small holes. We have brought together the 3,000 leaf bricks required for this over the past few months. The credit goes to Mr. Nessmann who has the talent to convince the patients to pay with a leaf tile tribute, he is better convincing than me." (Letters from Lambarene, p. 605)

[Holes in the roof - holes in the brain
Psychology has proven that persons with holes in the roof also have holes in the brain. With Albert Schweitzer it is clear when he permits conditions as in a concentration camp in a hospital].

Lambarene concentration camp June 1925
Case: hippopotamus overturns a motorboat in the river
(Letters from Lambarene, p. 606)


Dry season July + August 1925
The Jesus fantasy pastor Mr. Silvanus said to Albert Schweitzer about the dry season of 1925: "Now every day is worth 3 days." (Letters from Lambarene, p. 606).


Gabon - since summer 1925: famine in the whole country - Lambarene has 2500kg of rice in store

-- the famine was long hidden by the rice imports
-- since April 1925 rice is getting scarcer (letters from Lambarene, p.611).

Lambarene - from June 1925
-- In June and July 1925 the first open signs of rice shortages appear
-- Albert Schweitzer has assembled an "iron supply" of 2500kg of rice, which are stacked in the new 10-room house, the motor boats were decisive in the quick procurement against thieves [and against capsizing]
-- neighbors know about the rice supply in the hospital and envy the hospital
-- the steamboat from Cap Lopez is bringing everything possible, but no more rice (letters from Lambarene, p.612).

There are now over 120 patients who need care, plus the hospital staff:
-- so: 60 to 80 kg of rice are consumed per day
-- there are no more bananas anywhere to have
-- Albert Schweitzer is looking for rice every day in a panic and often finds it thanks to the motorboat (letters from Lambarene, p.612).

-- timber merchants help each other with rice (letters from Lambarene, p.613)

-- Albert Schweitzer helps with rice
    -- to the Jesus fantasy mission from Samkita
    -- to two friends who are timber merchants
    -- to an English trading post (letters from Lambarene, p.613)

August 1925
Whaling off Cap Lopez
In August, the whales of the southern hemisphere swim as far as the equator to escape the cold at the South Pole, and then Norwegian whalers are in Cap Lopez. (Letters from Lambarene, pp. 606-607)

[See this: The government of Gabon apparently allows this or the whalers are paying for the whaling license well - instead of giving the whale meat to the famine struck population!]

Lambarene Concentration Camp - August 1925
Case: elephantiasis with the patient Tippoy
-- he comes from the famine area 500km away
-- he is operated on successfully, gives the hospital a goat and brings new patients (letters from Lambarene, p.607). Albert Schweitzer quote (translation):

"These days a man with a large elephantiasis tumor is arriving from inside the country to have an operation. Tippoy is his name, he has dragged himself about 500 km. He can only walk in very small steps, partly he was passing the famine area. A man whom we had freed from such a tumor terrifies the people of his village. When he steps lightly and rejuvenated under them again, they think it is his ghost and run apart. HE tells it ourselves when he brings us a goat as a present and new patients to operate on. " (Letters from Lambarene, p.607)

Lambarene concentration camp - early September 1925
Case: a white man with sleeping sickness
-- this patient has only been in Africa for 3 1/2 weeks, the infection is only brief
-- the patient looks like an advanced sleeping sickness case
-- he will be healed in 3 weeks (letters from Lambarene, p.607). Albert Schweitzer quote (translation):

"At the beginning of September [1925] another European comes to us with the a beginning sleeping sickness. The case is extremely interesting because the patient has only been in the area for 3 1/2 weeks and has never been in a colony before. So here it is certain that the infection is young. But the gentleman already looks very old and weak. He is wearing the mask of suffering that is characteristic of the facial expression for advanced sleeping sickness cases. I have never seen such a stormy course of the disease. After three weeks of treatment he feels like newborn." (Letters from Lambarene, p.607)

Lambarene concentration camp - early September 1925
The dysentery among the "wild blacks" (Bendjabis) is still increasing - total failure with Albert Schweitzer
-- the hospital is becoming more and more contaminated (letters from Lambarene, p.607)
-- several normal patients become infected with dysentery, even after their operation yet
-- the criminal "wild blacks" (Bendjabis) disobey and do not adhere to any regulations, e.g. always consume river water instead instead of spring water, even when the water spring is only 100 paces away
-- the dysentery patients are now hiding their dysentery more and more in order to avoid observation
-- other dysentery patients are covering those who are hiding their dysentery, and especially if someone needs an operation, because people with dysentery are not operated with Albert Schweitzer
-- with these maneuvers, dysentery patients end up with Albert Schweitzer in the operating room, where it is only noticed on the operating table that the patient has dysentery
-- the hospital staff is exhausted
-- and the criminal wild blacks (Bendjabis) only take revenge even more with their criminality (Letters, p.608), they still are consuming unclean river water (Briefe, p.608-609)
-- Albert Schweitzer only now realizes that he is a "fool" to deal with criminals (translation):

"What a fool I am to have become the doctor of such wilds." (Letters from Lambarene, p. 609)

[But
-- he does not admit to his main mistake of not organizing a separate hospital station or e.g. an old steamer ship for the dysentery patients and thus protecting the other patients
-- he is not admitting that he should have had taken two European carpenters with him for regular and fast building works of wooden houses
-- he is not admitting that he has not installed corrugates sheets yet but is going on operating with roofs with holes
-- he is not admitting that he should have convinced the black to plant also without dry season and without forest fires
-- he is not admitting that he does not learn any natural medicine from the jungle for sparing costs for chemical medicaments
-- he is not admitting that he could purchase the big territory 3km above the river now already...].

Lambarene concentration camp - early September 1925
Helpers leave because of the dysentery epidemic
-- Helper Minköe is annoyed by the dysentery patients and family members have manipulated him, he shouldn't "wither" with his talents in the hospital (letters from Lambarene, p.609)
-- Minköe wants to go to the mission school and he wants to have a period of rest before
-- Albert Schweitzer now has to do all himself, collect, saw and carve wood (Letters from Lambarene, p.609)

A reserve pharmacy is ready
So finally the deposits can be properly arranged (letters from Lambarene, p.609).

New orders - expecting rapid inflation
-- Albert Schweitzer places new orders in advance now because rapid inflation is expected
-- Albert Schweitzer is planning corrugated iron roofs instead of leaf roofs, which always have to be renewed and in the end cost the same as corrugated iron (letters from Lambarene, p.610).

[ONE point of progress after suffering 6 years in total].

Lambarene concentration camp - from September 1925
It's rainy season again
-- all timber has to be dragged into the dry (letters from Lambarene, p.610).


The famine is now also becoming serious on the lower Ogowe River

-- the population was concentrated only on the timber trade and no longer planted bananas or manioc
-- merchants underestimated the famine and did not buy enough rice
-- a ship with rice leaks and the rice becomes waste
-- other ships lose a lot of time when unloading at the ports due to bad weather
-- and now the inflation is getting going (letters from Lambarene, p.611).

[Albert Schweitzer wants to remain a doctor and not become a farmer - but apparently does not call for help either, so that European farmers would come!]

-- small timber merchants only find out about the famine before the shortage, when the inflation starts (letters from Lambarene, p.612).


Healed people no longer want to leave the hospital
The new situation arises that healed patients prefer to stay in hospital rather than go home because they don't want to go into famine. Albert Schweitzer cannot get rid of them and there are only a few canoes still driving to bring people back to their villages (letters from Lambarene, p.613).

Famine and standstill in Gabon
-- Lumber yards are orphaned
-- wild blacks (Bendjabis) become hunters and gatherers with berries, mushrooms, roots, wild honey, palm nuts, wild pineapples
-- sometimes it's possible to find abandoned fields where one can dig for manioc in the ground (letters from Lambarene, p.613).
-- the little steamers that have always delivered rice to the timber merchants are no longer going because freight only comes irregularly - so rice only comes by canoe, which can easily capsize (letters, p.613), so a lot of rice is lost because of bad weather and because of the madness of the black rowers (letters, p.613-614)
-- at the end of November the mango trees will carry their mangoes where there are lost villages (letters, p.613)
-- corn sown in September yields in December, bananas planted in September need until February (letters from Lambarene, p.613).

[The famine in Gabon in 1925 seems STEERED
Why has the Gabon government not guaranteed safe ship transport for rice? - Why the wale meat is not given to the hungry population? Why the Gabon Government is not organizing a good natural agriculture without superstition in ashes? The whole famine seems to be a maneuver STEERED from above].

Lambarene concentration camp - Summer 1925
Albert Schweitzer's hospital (dysentery concentration camp) is becoming more and more overcrowded - new poisonings: mushrooms + wild honey
-- more and more dysentery patients are coming
-- now there are also people ill by hunger, only a skeleton is left from them
-- now there is also mushroom poisoning from eating poisonous mushrooms
-- and there is still poisoning with wild honey of a certain type of bees, because the wild blacks (Bendjabis) eat so much of it and sometimes die from it too
-- this particular species of bees nests in trunks where a particular species of ants lives, and as a result, the wild honey is mixed with formic acid from the ants, which provokes severe kidney infections
-- the wild Bendjabis eat the wild honey of this type of bee in large quantities and also eat all the "dirt attached from the ant's nest" (letters from Lambarene, p.614)

Of the many Bendjabis who come to the hospital because of honey poisoning, only two survive. It is those who have been discriminated when the honey was distributed and they only got a little of it. Their kidney inflammations are healing well (letters from Lambarene, p.614).

Albert Schweitzer is warning to avoid dark, wild honey, but the Bendjabis do not listen to him, as so often (letters from Lambarene, p.614).

[Kidneys heal with sodium bicarbonate water, rising pH value in the body over pH7, may be combined with maple syrup or with apple cider vinegar].

Lambarene Concentration Camp - October 1925
The nurse Emma Haussknecht is coming - woman helper Ms. Kottmann can work for the hospital 100% now
-- Ms. Haussknecht is a teacher from Alsace, she always wanted to come, she does the housework and takes care of white sick people
-- now the helper Ms. Kottmann has 100% of working time for the hospital
    -- She supervises the food distribution
    -- She supervises the fire for drying fish
    -- In the morning she controls the handing out of axes and machetes
    -- In the evening she checks whether axes and machetes come all back
    -- She administers the hospital bed linen and controls the people who wash the hospital linen
    -- on days with operations she is the operating room nurse (letters from Lambarene, p.615).


Lambarene concentration camp - October 1925: The considerations for a new building of the hospital 3km above on a place with the possibility of expansion - the pile dwelling village

The dysentery and the famine are now getting worse. Every day one more person is infected with dysentery in Albert Schweitzer's hospital (letters from Lambarene, p.615).

Six people with dysentery are coming and Albert Schweitzer is also taking them in yet (letters from Lambarene, p.616).

Now Albert Schweitzer has concrete ideas about moving his hospital to a place where expansion is possible:

-- until 1917 there were 50 patients per day, now there are 150 patients per day - and unfortunately not only "temporarily" (Life+Thought, p.216)
-- actually Albert Schweitzer's hospital is only designed for 40 patients, now there are 120 (letters from Lambarene, p.616)
-- the many dysentery patients make it clear to Albert Schweitzer that his hospital needs a place where it can expand, in Lambarene with the river Ogowe, with swamps and hills it's not possible (Life+Thought, p.216)
-- in addition there are no isolating barracks for people with infectious diseases (Life+Thought, p.216) - so the dysentery patients are now infecting the whole hospital (Life+Thought, p.217) - the dysentery patients and the the mentally ill cannot be separated from the other patients (letters from Lambarene, p.616)
-- so for the mentally ill there are only two rooms (Life + Thought, p.217), with naked earth ground (Life + Thought, p.220), and Albert Schweitzer is brought mentally ill patients who he has to refuse because there are no other rooms available for them (Life + Thought, p.217)
-- the rooms are without windows and without light, absolutely harmful for healing patients [at best dog houses] (letters from Lambarene, p.616)
-- The mentally ill bother other patients, the mentally ill need distance (letters from Lambarene, p.616)
-- Bandages are made in the open air, that is very laborious and against every medical rule, there is no room to put bandages on and to exchange them (letters from Lambarene, p.617)
-- there are no separate rooms for septic operations, bacteriology, microscopic examinations (letters, p.617)
-- Operations and examinations take place in two rooms on a surface of 4 by 4 meters, and 2 adjoining rooms are for a pharmacy and a laboratory with a sterilization room (Letters, p.617)
-- in the examination room
   -- are examined the ill patients
   -- Joseph is injecting remedies with syringes
   -- two black people wrap bandages
   -- two black people are cleaning bottles (letters, p.617).

So, everything is very tight and everyone is nervous in Albert Schweitzer's hospital, [which has converted since the dysentery epidemic into a concentration camp of WWII in the Third Reich].

But Albert Schweitzer's concentration camp in Lambarene has even more to offer:
-- Dying patients are not separated
-- If there is no place for the dead, the dead remain in the barracks of the sicks until they are carried to the cemetery
-- Helpers live in "corners" separated only by cartoon (in "nooks and crannies"), so the helpers never stay long and that's why there is always a lack of healing helpers (letters from Lambarene, p.617)

Albert Schweitzer's concentration camp is much too narrow:
-- the risk of fire is great, because the buildings are built too close together
-- if a fire breaks out somewhere, the whole hospital will burn down immediately (letters from Lambarene, p.617-618).


Gabon 1925: The famine shows: The hospital must have its own agriculture - be self-sufficient

-- A hospital must have its own agriculture so that it can always produce it's own food
-- e.g. plant maize yourself
-- Light field work is feasible for many people in the hospital with their healthy companions, as well as those who have recovered and those who are only slightly injured
-- Sick people with foot ulcers after the operation who are just waiting for the skin to come off [and have to change the bandage with methyl violet every day] can also work a little
-- the conclusion is the following: there are field workers, but the land is missing
-- with 40 patients self supply was not so necessary and possible, but with 120 patients it's possible (letters from Lambarene, p.618)
-- and the government is not correcting the structures and so the hunger will remain (letters, p.618-619). Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"So far, this idea [to run one's own farm] was not so important. With 40 sick people, the available workforce came into consideration much less than now, when there are 120 patients and more. The thinking about an own hospital with an own agriculture was not so attractive but was more charging as long as banana and manioc (cassava) could be provided in some way. But now with famine and when it becomes more and more clear that this will be a chronic evil in the country the matter becomes another face. For surviving the hospital has to grow at least a certain part of it's food itself." (Letters from Lambarene, p.618-619)

AND:

-- You can't always only offer rice, you have to have your own bananas and corn
-- Bankrupt patients without money could work in agriculture and thus produce their own food (letters from Lambarene, p.619). Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"A plantation next to the hospital would even give to some poor patients who cannot give anything for the cure they get the opportunity to create food and sparing money which had been spent for rice." (Letters from Lambarene, p.619)

[And the black GOVERNMENT of Gabon permits walers waling without requiring wale meat for the hungry population, or did they? Research is missing].

since October 1925: The decision to purchase land 3km above the river - the COMPLETE new building of the hospital 3km above

-- Albert Schweitzer decides to buy land and to move the hospital to its own, large territory (letters from Lambarene, p.619)
-- the corrugated iron that has already been bought is now being used for the new hospital (letters from Lambarene, p.619-620)
-- now corrugated iron buildings are being built, they simply cost more, but are not as susceptible to repairs as the leaf roofs
-- to protect against floods all houses are built on stilts, so that a stilt village with corrugated iron barracks is built (Life+Thought, p.217)
-- the experiences from the first hospital building are very instructive and are now benefiting Albert Schweitzer with the complete new building (Life+Thought, p.219)
-- a black carpenter - Monenzali - is helping, and leter last there is a young carpenter from Switzerland (Life+Thought, p.219)

Three helping doctors - new possibilities with research - improvement of treatment - healing trips to the villages
There come
-- Dr. Nessmann (an Alsatian)
-- Dr. Lauterburg (a Swiss)
-- Dr. Trensz (an Alsatian, he will replace Dr. Nessmann then) (Life+Thought, p.217).

With 3 or more doctors in the Lambarene Hospital, the circumstances change positively:
-- research becomes possible and so improves treatments
-- the duration of treatment decreases, the profitability increases
-- a doctor alone is always overloaded and has no time for research, these times are over now (letters from Lambarene, p.663)
-- it is now also possible to travel without the hospital has a standstill, every month a few days' trip to the villages are possible now where there are sick people who cannot come to the hospital (letters from Lambarene, p.664).

Such healing trips with first aid kit and instruments are becoming normal now, because enough doctors are remaining in the hospital (letters from Lambarene, p.664).

-- there is one doctor is for the normal service
-- there is another doctor for performing surgery
-- and there is one doctor on a healing journey in the villages (letters from Lambarene, p.664).

The patients who can come to the hospital really come
The hospital patients and their relatives are where there is rice, they have become tame in view of the famine: Those who work receive a normal portion, the others a reduced portion, that is the stimulation principle now (letters from Lambarene, p.620).

The inflation says it clearly: Building work has to be proceeded as fast as possible because in three months may be all is more expensive (letters from Lambarene, p.620).


October 1925: Land purchase for the large hospital

Albert Schweitzer is controling ALONE the territory of 3km above the Ogowe River where is it's devision into two river arms, where once large villages of the "Sun King" stood. The forest there is young, no problem for clearing. Sometimes still oil palms from the former villages can be found there (letters from Lambarene, p.620).

-- the valley basin is the place for the new hospital
-- the gentle hills are the place for houses (letters from Lambarene, p.620).

As early as 1913, the Jesus fantasy missionary Mr. Morel recommended this piece of land to Albert Schweitzer near the river's split, where the villages of the "Sun King" had stood. Albert Schweitzer had refused to buy the land at that time (letters from Lambarene, p.620).

Now in 1925 Albert Schweitzer applies to Mr. Morel to buy the property (letters from Lambarene, p.620-621).

The emergency situation makes a provisional decree possible for a purchase lease being called "concession" without waiting for the formalities of a land purchase, which would take months. The normal procedure is very simple: territory which is planted and where buildings are built becomes property. Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"The district captain will respond to the request for purchase of the site in the friendliest way. The formalities to be completed will take months. But considering the special sircumstances and as there will not be any resistence from other sides, the territory is given to me with a provisional decree. Thus I get about 790 hectares of forest and shrubland as a "concession". This means that the land remains state property, but is left to me for building and planting. What is cultivated and planted of it then becomes property. The rest remains with the state. There is no other kind of purchasing land in the colony." (Letters from Lambarene, p.621)

October 1925: The land purchase for the new hospital is announced - the clearing work

Albert Schweitzer announced the purchase of the lease and purchase aggreement and all the employees of the hospital in Lambarene are cheering. The move takes about 6 months [until about April 1926], actually in this time Albert Schweitzer wanted to be at home in Strasbourg then with Helene and his daughter. The system can only be set up under Albert Schweitzer's direction, and only then the interior work can also be done without him (letters from Lambarene, p.621).

The new norm: 1 patient + 2 workers
From now on a new norm is introduced: A sick person should bring 2 family members who are able to work to help with the clearing - and it is often like that (letters from Lambarene, p.637).

The new hospital is designed for 200 patients and their assistants:
-- three rows of houses are on one side
-- two rows of houses are on the other side with a surgery operation building
-- the orientation of the houses is from east to west, so that the big wall of the houses only stands in the sun for a relatively short time (letters from Lambarene, p.649)
-- roofs protruding far provide shade when the sun is high, [the long wall is only illuminated in winter] (letters from Lambarene, p.650).

Building supervisor Mr. Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer will be the site supervisor for 1 1/2 years, supervising the clearing of the site and supervising the construction work. With the many relatives and those who have recovered who are helping with the building, only the authority of the "old doctor" counts, that's why Albert Schweitzer has to have the building supervision (Life + Thought, p.217). During this supervising work, Albert Schweitzer has to be much in the sun, and this provokes that he is dulled. But he has yet enough energy "for practicing on his piano with the organ pedal." (Life + Thought, p.219).

[instead of learning natural medicine with the plants of the rain forest for replacing expensive pharma remedies by cheap natural remedies... - Albert Schweitzer was really stupid...]

-- now carpenters and building materials are needed
-- there is a fear that others might dispute the land
-- the territory is measured, paths are installed, obstacles are swamps and red ants (letters from Lambarene, p.623)

[Why there was no excavator brought from Strasbourg, only Albert Schweitzer knows]

-- the first clearings are for maize cultivation
-- the search for wholegrain rice (with vitamins, white rice is disease-causing in the long run) is unfortunately in vain, wholegrain rice is not available in the commerce, the minimum delivery quantity would be 10 tons (!) - so civilization still has some developments to do (letters from Lambarene, p.624).


The rewards for helping during the famine
-- persons helping with clearing get a complete ration of food, and also the seriously ill patients get this
-- ordinary non-helpers receive a 2/3 food ration
-- in rare cases during famine, all only get 2/3 of the normal food ration (letters from Lambarene, p.624).
-- often a steamboat touts, then Albert Schweitzer rushes with the motorboat to the landing stage for rice, but often the ship doesn't bring rice and Albert Schweitzer makes many futile trips with lost time, but the steamboat brings "tobacco, dishes, glasses, lanterns, gramophones " etc.
-- Albert Schweitzer also often thinks that a steamship has toured, but then there is no ship coming and he went out again in vain with the motorboat (letters from Lambarene, p.625).

Old "currencies" during the famine in Gabon - Albert Schweitzer's medium of exchange for blacks
-- During the slave trade, the highest goods were: gunpowder, lead, tobacco and alcohol, and during emergency times these goods remain a medium of exchange
-- Albert Schweitzer only gives "useful things" as a reward such as (translation):

"Spoons - forks are not much required - but there are needed: cups, plates, knives, saucepans, raffia sleeping mats, blankets and fabrics for clothes and mosquito nets." (Letters from Lambarene, p.625)

The people who help with the clearing of the territory receive a voucher every 2 days and a gift is given every 10 days. Gifts require so and so many vouchers, e.g. 1 blanket for 15 vouchers, knives are most wanted as gifts (letters, p.625) with a cord hole to carry the knife around the neck for not loosing it, because blacks don't have more than loincloth at that time, they don't have trouser pockets. When they arrive at their villages they can exchange the knives for useful things (letters from Lambarene, p.626).

The clearing of the territory
-- the starting procedure for going to the territory for the clearing is very complicated, one has to call the blacks
-- when there are not enough canoes, the women are transported by motorboat, the men have to paddle alone
-- on average there are 15 workers and one supervisor (letters from Lambarene, p.626).

The working day with felling wood is very emotional for black people:
-- axes and machetes are distributed
-- the bushes and trees to be felled are determined (letters from Lambarene, p.626)
-- work in the morning is rather slow
-- during the lunch break there is laughing, there are jokes, there is singing, hooting, screeching and incantations against the forest
-- felling in the afternoon then goes very quickly without distraction, the forest must be "defeated"
-- at the end there is the return journey, instruments and paddles are collected after arriving at the old hospital site and the food is distributed
-- at 6 pm it is already sunset at the equator (letters from Lambarene, p.627).

During the clearing work, the overseer has to constantly watch the sky to see if a tornado is coming. It is important for blacks to absolutely avoid staying in the rain, otherwise malaria may come or canoes could capsize and people drown, [because blacks can hardly swim] (letters from Lambarene, p.628).

[Why Albert Schweitzer has no swimming education for the blacks? Nobody there had this idea?]

Example Dec.4, 1925: The clearing is under the supervision of Dr. Nessmann and they are surprised by a tornado on the way home, they flee to the river bank and arrive very late in Lambarene - that has already spread fear in the hospital (letters from Lambarene, p.628).

Put down trees - and leave many trees there too
-- Large trees remain to provide shade
-- Albert Schweitzer has all trees felled in the fields, including large hardwood trees, which make blacks a lot of work [why doesn't he leave them standing?]
-- oil palms are remain standing (letters from Lambarene, p.628)
-- felled trees are piled up as a supply for firewood (letters from Lambarene, p.628-629)
-- large tree trunks remain in place
-- roots remain in the ground
-- in the piled wood, snakes are nesting - the area is full of snakes
-- oil palms (Elaeis guineensis) are liberated from creepers
-- the climbing plants (creepers) are partly as high as a man and tunnels must be installed
-- so there is a constant battle in the forest itself between trees and creeping plants (letters from Lambarene, p.629).

Birds, monkeys and palm trees in the jungle
-- Birds and monkeys spread the oil nuts of the oil palms, and now Albert Schweitzer inherits whole groves with oil palms for palm oil products
-- Palm kernels are sent to Europe to squeeze the palm oil [why is there no oil press in the mission?]
-- Patients with foot ulcers are allowed to pound palm nuts (letters from Lambarene, p.630).


Plantings and fields on the new site of the large hospital

-- possible plantings are: corn, bananas, plantains, yams, taro, manioc, peanuts, breadfruit, rice (letters from Lambarene, p.630)

Planting course
-- Banana trees are cut off, then there are new side shoots (letters from Lambarene, p.630), but elephants like to eat the bananas, in one night they can eat a whole field away (letters from Lambarene, p.634)
-- Plantain has to be transplanted after it has been cut, because it uses up the soil so much that no new side shoots appear
-- the sweet potato carries for 3 years on the same spot, but rats eat a lot of it (letters from Lambarene, p.631)

[Albert Schweitzer did not invent any underground protection, nor did he invent the plantation of potatoes and sweet potatoes in large boxes as a protection from mice and rats - sad, indeed].

-- Yam is rarely planted in Africa
-- Taro is sometimes very common in Africa, but not in Gabon on the Ogowe River
-- Cassava tubers from the cassava bush: The tubers are soaked in water so that the hydrogen cyanide is dissolved out and disappears. Unfortunately wild boars also like to eat cassava, so only fenced cassava fields are safe (letters from Lambarene, p.632)
-- Peanuts grow in the earth, but it has to be pure arable soil to achieve profitability, but that is hardly possible with Albert Schweitzer if he leaves all the roots in the soil (letters from Lambarene, p.632-633)
-- Sliced ​​breadfruit is a highlight for the blacks. But raising breadfruit trees is long and complicated. One has to plant and raise root shoots, many die in the process
-- Rice: mountain rice does not need irrigation. But birds eat the rice away [seedlings have to be grown in a greenhouse, and how about scarecrows, Mr. Schweitzer?] (letters from Lambarene, p.633)

Compulsory plantings
The government of Gabon obliges in the case of a lease purchase the planting of coffee and cocoa (Letters, p.633-634) for export, that is the law, otherwise the land remains in the possession of the state and does not pass to the tenant.

Coffee: Coffee trees take a few years to grow before yield. Machines are necessary for unveiling.

Cocoa: Cocoa beans are fermented, the brown mass is separated from the oil, then the brown mass is dried as a tablet. From now on the patients will always get some chocolate as concentrate with their rice, but the locals don't like it that much [some additives for the chocolate are missing] (letters from Lambarene, p.634).

-- Rodents eat cocoa pods and thus prevent the ripening (letters from Lambarene, p.634).

The goal is: create an orchard

-- an orchard is arranged, so: Around the Albert Schweitzer Hospital a garden of Eden should be created, where everyone can take himself, so that there is no more theft (Living+Thought, p.218). Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"Here as much fruit should grow so anybody can take as he / she wants and theft and robbery will be abolished." (Life + thinking, p.218)

One part of the orchard is already there: papaya trees, mango trees, oil palms

With papaya trees, mango trees and oil palms the situation is already so far, resp. mango trees and oil palms had already grown in the jungle, the workers liberated them from the other trees and have yield now in abundance (Life+Thought, p.218). Albert Schweitzer quote (translation):

"The papaya plants that we have planted in abundance are already producing a yield that exceeds the needs of the hospital. Mango trees and oil palms, however, were so many in the surrounding forest that after the rest of the trees were cut down they made up entire groves. When they were liberated from creeping plants (which were taking them almost the breathing), and when they were liberated from the huge trees (enclosing them in their shadow), they began to yield soon." (Life + thinking, p.218)

The fruit trees were imported from the Caribbean ("West India"): banana trees, manioc trees, oil palms, mango trees etc. (Life + Thought, p.218)

Growing the banana trees on the hospital site is not worthwhile, the families of the patients have to help because (Life+Thought, p.218-219):

"The bananas that I grow with paid workers are much more expensive to me than those that the natives supply me from their own plantations that are conveniently located on the water. The natives have almost no fruit trees because they don't live in the same place all the time, but often relocate the villages." (Life + thinking, p.219)

And rice must ALWAYS be available when there is a lack of bananas. Albert Schweitzer quote:

"Since the bananas cannot be stored either, I always have to have a large supply of rice in case there are not enough fruiting banana plants in the area." (Life + Thought, p.219)

November + December 1925
Concentration camp conditions in Albert Schweitzer's hospital: Dysentery is going on in the hospital
-- often six people come at once, many of them emaciated and terminally ill. There are so many dead bodies lying around that the doctors themselves have to function as grave diggers, dig graves and have to carry corpses (letters from Lambarene, p.635).
-- other patients are continuously infected with dysentery
-- case: The woman patient Menzoghe, who had her arm amputated, is infected with dysentery and dies from it (letters from Lambarene, p.635)
-- case: Albert Schweitzer finds a starving man, takes him to the hospital, is infected with dysentery and dies despite being cared for (letters from Lambarene, p.635-636)
-- Albert Schweitzer cannot send people away either because they don't permit of being turned away (letters from Lambarene, p.636)

[The question arises why Albert Schweitzer does not have an infirmary for dysentery patients e.g. set up on a steamer].

November-December 1925: Operations in Albert Schweitzer's hospital

OP of elephantiasis: the ulcer is over 40kg
The operation is from 10:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Dr. Lauterburg operates successfully and the patient says "Akewa" = thank you.

Further elephantiasis cases with ulcers of 10 to 20 kg follow. One of them pays with a goat and chickens and brings another case of elephantiasis with him (letters from Lambarene, p.636).

PLUS: Lots of hernia operations - and every person who has been operated on sends more cases
PLUS: Many hernia operations are not operated because there are no transports (letters from Lambarene, p.636).

Trauma surgery - Examples
-- Case: A shot shattered two shanks - Bone splinters are removed, the wound is wrapped in gauze with methyl violet (pyoctanin), always kept moist and so the suppuration is stopped so that healing can occur, but the bones need time to grow together - for bandaging the patient has to be carried to the hospital by two relatives (letters from Lambarene, p.637).


December 1925: White patients arrive

-- Case: Mr. Stähli: He has deep, multiple abscesses (Letters, p.637) and a sunstroke, he is almost constantly dazed, at Christmas he receives a little concert, he has a "light moment", but on December 25th, 1925 he dies (Letters from Lambarene, p.638)

-- Christmas 1925: A crazy man with violent attacks is secretly dropped off at the hospital and brings unrest to the hospital (letters from Lambarene, p.638)

[Suspition: This action could be a maneuver of envious pastors having manipulated the natives to harm Albert Schweitzer].

December 26th, 1925: One has to dig the grave for Stähli (letters, p.638)

December 27, 1925: Albert Schweitzer on trips searching for wood - he loses many weeks with it
He has to go 60km down the river with the canoe and 5 paddlers to a sawmill for getting beams and boards, it was agreed that a steamer would bring him back, but contrary to the agreement the steamer was there one day earlier, so Albert Schweitzer had to wiat 1 week for the journey home with the next steamer (letters from Lambarene, p.638)

[Also here is the clear suspition that the criminal Church launched a maneuver against Albert Schweitzer simply manipulating a steamer by one day].

Albert Schweitzer loses several weeks in his life because of such trips searching for wood and cannot heal (letters from Lambarene, p.639).


1926

Ehrendoktorwürde von Prag
Honorary doctorate from Prague
One day in 1926 Albert Schweitzer receives an honorary doctorate from the Philosophical Faculty of the German University in Prague (Life+Thought, p.217).

January 1926: clearing forest and building activity

At the new location of the large hospital, Ms. Kottmann is in charge of clearing and Albert Schweitzer is in charge of construction:
-- no more bamboo huts will be built
-- no more leaf roofs will be installed, but corrugated iron, which costs more but does not cause any repairs [and no rain on patients and no caughs and pneumonias any more] (letters from Lambarene, p.640)

-- corrugated iron barracks are being built with wooden beams, namely stilt houses on stakes made of hardwood (normal wood would soon be eaten away by termites) - stone houses or brick buildings are too expensive (letters from Lambarene, p.641)

-- the new hospital will be built on the river bank because the natives have the habit of always living close to the water
-- dwellings on stilts are built because of the risk of flooding and because of flash floods that can flow down the hill
-- with this building project with stilts without end, Albert Schweitzer feels like a combined, prehistoric-modern person (letters from Lambarene, p.641).

Fetching piles for Schweitzer's pile dwelling hospital on stilts
-- the place where the hardwood piles are fetched must be upstream so that the piles can be easily transported to the construction site with the current of the river
-- the stake actions take place under the supervision of Dr. Neumann, 30 piles are coming with each trip, then the piles are debarked (letters from Lambarene, p.642)
-- the posts are 2 to 3 m long, with a diameter of approx. 30 cm, are very heavy (letters from Lambarene, p.643)
-- the piles are "charred" with a fire with dried palm branches (letters from Lambarene, p.642): The piles are placed on a dam by groups of 6 to 8 men (letters, p.643), the ends stick out to the fire (Letters, p.642-643) that is laid along the dam, and when one half is well charred, the fire is put out, the piles are turned and the other half of the piles are charred. Trick for durability: charred, glowing posts can be poured over with water before the end of the fire, so the posts will be particularly strong (letters from Lambarene, p.643)
-- Albert Schweitzer manages to char 20 to 30 stakes per day (letters from Lambarene, p.643).

The black carriers that carry the heavy stakes are difficult to educate, because they often drop the stakes to the ground or think that someone will drop the stake and then spring aside as a preventive measure. Albert Schweitzer makes every effort to educate black people to work constructively with rewards and punishments. At the end Schweitzer has to carry the bars with each other at the end where the bar finally goes to the ground so that the blacks can finally do what is normal (letters from Lambarene, p.643).

400 posts are charred in one week WITHOUT an accident - that is a MIRACLE! (Letters from Lambarene, pp.643-644).

January 1926 approx.
A European leaves a chimpanzee child
so that now two little chimpanzees can play together on the hospital grounds of Lambarene (letters from Lambarene, p.667).

Early February 1926
The Morel missionaries move from Samkita to Baraka (Libreville)
For the change of location, Albert Schweitzer helps with a large 4-ton canoe that is attached to the rear of a steamer. Morel is a combined craftsman and as a reward he helps with the construction of the big hospital (letters from Lambarene, p.644).

February 15, 1926: Hospital construction site
The construction hut is inaugurated under Morel's direction, it has a lockable room for tools, so that the tools for cleansing the forest are no longer distributed or handed in every day (Letters from Lambarene, p.644).


February 1926: Construction site: setting of the piles
Then the piles of the first barrack for the sick are set (Letters, p.644). The most important detail is: A hole for a post must have a firm, stony bottom so that the post never sinks when a house is on it. In addition, the posts must be set in lines and flush at the top, otherwise beams have to be set with underlays or cut (letters from Lambarene, p.645). A water level is the control for the level of the posts (letters from Lambarene, p.649).

Albert Schweitzer puts the piles close together, then he can lay the floor frame with 10cm thick beams, if the posts were further apart, 15cm thick beams would be required. Walls and the roof are laid with beams 8 by 8 cm and then braced (connected with more beams) in order to be stable against tornadoes (letters from Lambarene, p.645).

About 1/3 of a pile is in the ground. It takes weeks to set all the piles, this is partly heavy cling work (letters from Lambarene, p.648).

Albert Schweitzer can set about 12 piles per day. The only carpenter who can be used for this is Tatie, who was a patient with an inflammation of the jawbone, he was operated well and recovered well (letters from Lambarene, p.469).

By March 1926 approx. all piles are set (letters from Lambarene, p.650).

Animal protection during setting the piles

-- the holes for the posts are prepared, and animals sometimes get in there overnight
-- Albert Schweitzer then takes the animals out of the holes before the stakes are set, and also instructs the blacks to protect animals for not killing animals when they are found in bushes that are being cleared (letters from Lambarene, p.667)
-- the instructions have partly effect with the argument that the animals were also "created by [fantasy] God [from Rome]"
-- in the end, some of the blacks are even educating each other to protect animals, something that Albert Schweitzer did not necessarily expect! (Letters from Lambarene, p.668).

Construction site: the barracks in the large, new hospital
Finally sawn wood is as expensive in Gabon as in Europe because of the long transports (letters from Lambarene, p.645).

Barracks:
-- a barrack has a floor plan of 25 by 5 meters: has 2 rooms for operated persons and many rooms for black medicine helpers, with wooden floors and mosquito windows, so the medicine helpers will stay longer and will not be poached so quickly (letters from Lambarene, p.646)
-- 1 barrack 13.5 x 6.5m
-- 1 barrack 23.5 x 6.5m
-- 1 barracks 36.5 x 4.5 m
-- 1 barrack 22.5 x 8m (letters from Lambarene, p.650)

and upstream of the hospital village the house for white patients is being built, 2 by 8m on 48 piles (letters from Lambarene, p.650).

Monenzali and his assistants should get a room as soon as possible, then they can spare the time for the way back to Lambarene and can work longer (letters from Lambarene, p.646).

The mission of N'Djôle is lending Albert Schweitzer two craftsmen, and two more carpenters come from a European, but they don't have a good training, but they are still a help (letters from Lambarene, p.646).

February 22, 1926
Dr. Trensz comes and replaces Dr. Nessmann
-- Trensz is a Jesus fantasy pastor's son, he will now fetch the stakes
-- Dr. Nessmann has to do the military service (letters from Lambarene, p.646).

[Dr. Trensz will make a decisive discovery].

The construction site is only running under the supervision of Albert Schweitzer
When Albert Schweitzer is not present, almost nothing is done
-- or the black carpenters saw off beams wrongly
-- and Monezali sees the mistake, but does not correct it with the argument that he is "not the master for him", for the fallible sawyer (letters from Lambarene, p.647).

Only now Albert Schweitzer is asking for a carpenter from Alsace (!!!) (letters from Lambarene, p.647).

[Albert Schweitzer would have better learned to be a carpenter quickly ...]

March 1926
Garden is created
with beans and cabbage etc. (letters from Lambarene, p.651).

Events in the old hospital

-- The case of crazy ill people: An insane person is brought, this man is tearing down the hut for breaking out - then he is brought back to his village, where he will probably be killed (letters from Lambarene, p.647)
-- and the hut for the mentally ill in the old hospital has to be repaired yet (letters from Lambarene, p.648).

The chimpanzee child Fifi
Fifi has teeth now and can eat alone with a spoon (letters from Lambarene, p.667).

[Why time is spent on animals and the monkey children are not given to a zoo? This is one more question. Albert Schweitzer will later say, ALL life counts - but natural jungle medicine DOES NOT COUNT for him - and this is really a big mistake].

April 1926 approx.: Magicians and fortune telling with horoscopes reach Africa
-- a European magician has arrived in Cape Lopez [Cap Gentil] who impresses the blacks
-- throughout Africa prophecy is propagated now with fortune telling, horoscopes and finding lost objects
-- now the blacks accuse Albert Schweitzer of having concealed European sorcery
+ Albert Schweitzer's sermons are losing their effect and an endless discussion about superstition starts (letters from Lambarene, p.668)

-- there comes e.g. propaganda from Holland in the form of brochures, one should send in money + some hair + the date of birth and with this material a horoscope would be provided and a talisman is sent with the promise one can choose:
-- success in business
-- happiness in love
-- good health
-- luck in the game

or all in one, but at a higher price (letters from Lambarene, p.669)

The blacks
-- are treated in rows by these scams, but some blacks don't even know their birthday
-- some black employees in Lambarene's hospital ask Albert Schweitzer for an advance payment, but he refuses them the advance payment
-- many black people are losing a lot of money with these horoscope affairs from Europe (letters from Lambarene, p.669).


The construction of the new hospital

April 26, 1926
Arrival of Martha Lauterburg, the sister of Dr. Lauterburg (letters from Lambarene, p.666)
Arrival of Hans Muggensturm, a young carpenter from St. Gallen (letters from Lambarene, p.650, 666)

-- Muggensturm is good at dealing with black people, that means:

"What is this gift in? In the right combination of firmness and kindness, in avoiding unnecessary speech and in the ability to find a cheerful word at the right moment." (Letters from Lambarene, p.650).

Albert Schweizer has to coordinate the tools, material, screws and nails (p.650). Muggensturm is now organizing the blacks so well that Albert Schweitzer can finally go on a log drive without the construction site coming to a standstill (letters from Lambarene, p.650-651).

The roofs have to be made by August until the end of the dry season (letters from Lambarene, p.651).

Martha Lauterburg is a nurse and takes her service in the hospital.
-> So Ms. Kottmann is free for agriculture and for the building supervision at the new hospital site
+ another European is coming for monitoring the clearings (letters from Lambarene, p.666).


Lambarene: The role of housekeeping in the hospital - Mrs. Emma Haussknecht
The household is run by Emma Haussknecht:
-- she has to control the cook for example only using boiled water
-- she has to wash and mend the hospital linen
-- she has to clean the rooms of the white sick patients and assist the white sick patients, because the black helpers of the white people hardly help, but often only cause trouble
-- she has to look after the chickens and goats (letters from Lambarene, p.666).

Goats in Lambarene Hospital - goat breeding
The goats are supposed to supply the hospital with fresh milk (Letters, p.666), so far a goat only gives 1/2 glass of milk per day, there is hope for goat breeding and more milk production in the hospital (letters from Lambarene, p.667) .

[Why were no goats imported from Europe that give more milk?]

May to July 1926 approx.
Dr. Lauterburg is operating on hernias and elephantiasis a lot
The patients pay with bananas, banana seedlings, fruits, seedlings of breadfruit trees, smoked fish etc. (letters from Lambarene, p.665).

Some operated patients leave the hospital to avoid payment, or there is one black who wants to leave his second wife in the hospital as a deposit until the payment arrives in the form of bananas and fruits. Albert Schweitzer refuses the idea of depositing a woman because one cannot control it ... (Letters from Lambarene, p.665)

Early June 1926
Healing journey by Dr. Lauterburg in the villages
Dr. Lauterburg is going on a healing journey over several weeks in the region south of Lambarene, hiking from village to village, getting in touch with the villages and healing people who cannot come to the hospital (letters from Lambarene, p.664).

June 1926
Lambarene concentration camp - healings
-- 120 to 160 patients are permanently present
-- there is treated and cured: malaria, frambösia, dysentery, leprosy, sleeping sickness
-- 1/3 of the patients still have the annoying phageenic ulcers
-- 15 to 20 people are connected to the surgery room, waiting for an operation or have had an operation
   -- case: there was someone looking for honey and fell from the tree and suffered a serious broken bone - and was healed
   -- case: a big trunk was rolled in a wood yard and one came under it - and was healed (letters from Lambarene, p.652)
-- one of them was chasing a gorilla, shot him hurting him, the gorilla disappeared, the hunter was walking on, then returned his way, and then came the gorilla attacking him and tore the hunter's hand to pieces (letters from Lambarene, p.652-653).

-- Case: an elephant throws an attacking black man in the air and is pierced with his tusks - the patient cannot be saved any more and dies (letters from Lambarene, p.653)

-- Hunting accident with bodily harm and fine
A black man with a shotgun named N'Zigge considers another black man as a wild boar - the victim is brought to Lambarene and survived - but now the victim's family is threatening with revenge and N'Zigge escapes with his wife and child to the hospital (letters, p.653) and becomes a healing helper and earns the money for the fines to the victim family while clearing (letters from Lambarene, p.653-654)

-- Case: There was a little battle between different groups in a lumber yard, which provoked 6 injured people who are coming to Lambarene (letters from Lambarene, p.654)

-- Case: 2 people are injured by dynamite blasting while building a road, because they have moved too slowly from the place of the blast (letters from Lambarene, p.654)


Lambarene 1926: Patient N'Tsama with sleeping sickness is healed - new pharma medicaments against sleeping sickness: Tryparsamide + Bayer 205
He's being treated with tryparsamide, which is a new drug that the Rockefeller Institute has given up for testing purposes. The patient heals, but there remains a tendency to steal things. He is stealing from other patients and is being beaten by them (letters, p.655). He is treated with even more tryparsamide, is cured of his kleptomania and then works in the hospital. Altogether 6.5 grams of tryparsamide were used for this healing (letters from Lambarene, p.655).

In 1926, two new drugs against sleeping sickness were available in Lambarene's hospital:
1) tryparsamide
2) Bayer 205.

Tryparsamit comes from the Rockefeller Institute and is given to Albert Schweitzer for experimental purposes against sleeping sickness [these are human experiments on blacks] (letters from Lambarene, p.654).

Tryparsamide also cures sleeping sickness in an advanced stage, but it has the side effect that the patients damage the optic nerve and in rare cases they go blind - one of Albert Schweitzer's cases goes blind - the drug Atoxyl has the same side effect provoking blindness (letters from Lambarene, p.655).

Bayer 205 cures sleeping sickness only to the middle degree [but without the side effect of blindness] (letters from Lambarene, p.655).

The Lambarene Hospital can proudly announce that it can now also cure sleeping sickness in the advanced stage, and the blacks see it with their own eyes and are also spreading the message (letters from Lambarene, p.656).

-- Case: 3 white patients are healed from a beginning sleeping sickness (letters from Lambarene, p.656)

-- Case: A sleeping sick person is sleeping on a river bank - Albert Schweitzer takes him with him and Albert Schweitzer finds the sleeping sickness under the microscope - the sick person is cured (letters from Lambarene, p.656)

Construction site - August 1926
Floods are flooding a part of the garden
and in this way, a part of the beans and cabbage is lost (letters from Lambarene, p.651).

[One wonders why no protective dam was built].

Lambarene 1926: Cases of poisoning
-- Case: A child staggers and broods in a dull mind - seems to be poisoned by something - Albert Schweitzer puts powdered charcoal in water as a remedy and is controlling the food the child gets. The child is slowly recovering. Who poisoned the child remains unknown (letters from Lambarene, p.656).

-- Case: A timber merchant comes in a "strange condition", he can neither speak nor swallow (letters from Lambarene, p.656)
-- He seems to have been poisoned by relatives because of a money issue, or a rival wants to get rid of him and blame the relatives who argue about money
and there are
-- a "strange stiffness" of the muscles
-- trembling limbs
-- a strange arm posture with cataleptic symptoms [permanent posture, muscles are no longer loosening]
-- he asks for a quill to write, but cannot write
-- he spits everything out so that he has to be fed with a tube through his nose
Dr. Trensz is healing the patient with hydrochloric acid and drugs that are injected intravenously (letters from Lambarene, p.657).

-- Case of an overdose from a healer: The poisoned person cannot stand, cannot speak, cannot swallow and survives thanks to the great effort of the doctors in Lambarene (letters from Lambarene, p.657-658). Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"In some cases it is accidental poisoning. The sick person who seeks help from the fetish man gets too much of the dangerous substance with which he handles. In the spring of [1926] such a patient is brought to us in a terrible condition. He cannot stand, cannot speak and cannot swallow. We have to spend a lot of (Letters, p.657) work and effort to tear him away from death. (Letters from Lambarene, p.658)

-- Case: tongue ulcer: The pathogen is "fusiform bacilli and spirilla" like phageenic ulcers (letters from Lambarene, p.658).


from 1926: New pharma drugs and procedures in Lambarene for furunculosis, ulcers, skin transplants

-- Termpentine steel: is a mixture of Termpentine and quinine against purulent processes and against "stubborn furunculosis", is injected intramuscularly (letters from Lambarene, p.658)

-- Mercury oxycyanur: There is a new development of therapy method with a homeopathic dilution "Mercury oxycyanur", the solution is dripped drop by drop onto the ulcer site (letters from Lambarene, p.659):
-- The ulcer is "vigorously dabbed" with a "sublimate lozenge", but it is very painful
-- Later, sprinkling method was invented to minimize this pain
-- By sprinkling, there is no touching any more, but the disinfection takes place through the pus and through the dead tissue to the base of the ulcer
-- The pus is then "wiped off" and the necrotic tissue "pushed off", in this way are avoided any contact, friction or pressure
-- Then comes rinsing with boiled water
-- Then every morning a homeopathic dilution of 1 gram of mercury oxycyanur in 6 to 7 liters of water is dripped onto it, one drop in several liters of water, and the dripping occurs first from a height of a few cm, then from a height of up to 75 cm, and in this way the ulcer bursts (Letters from Lambarene, p.659). Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"Instead of scratching the ulcer out, we now clean the ulcer by vigorously dabbing with a sublimate lozenge. But this is very painful. To save the poor from such agony, we try sprinkling. We made several trials which is best, and we achieved a proceedure which is very satisfying now. The big thing with it is that one can evade any touching of the ulcer and the desinfecting agent is even better brought throuth the tight necrotic tissue down to the ground of the ulcer than before. The pus is wiped off with a gauze pad and the necrotic tissue is pushed off as far as it loosens, avoiding any rubbing or pressing, because that would be extremely painful for the patient.

Then the ulcer is rinsed off with boiled water. Then the falling water drop comes into action. He does the main work. One gram of mercury oxycyanur is dissolved in six or seven liters of water. Every morning, depending on the size of the ulcer, we let drip the drops during 5 to 20 minutes depending on the dimension of the ulcer from a height of 50 to 75cm. At the beginning the drops from a height like this cause much pain. So during the first days one lets drip the drops only from a height of some centimeters. These drops find their path passing the thick necrotic coating of the ulcer. When the drops are crashing on the surface, they tear the ulcer apart. The disinfecting liquid is penetrating down to the ground of the ulcer (Letters, p.659). May be there is an additive stimulating effect from the constant hammering of the drops on the ulcer." (Letters from Lambarene, p.660)

--> the ulcer is cleaned in a few days and begins to heal
-- in the case of large ulcers, drops are applied in the morning and in the evening
+ the concentration of the homeopathic solution is increased: 1 gram to just 2 or 3 liters of water
-- the bandages are dipped in a mixture of iodoform, dermatol and salol, mixed in equal parts
-- during the healing process the drop solution is getting more and more diluted and weaker, to avoid damage, up to 12 liters per gram of mercury oxycyanur (letters from Lambarene, p.660).

With the method with mercury oxycyanur from 1926, dropping the drops from a height on the ulcer, also heal all other ulcers well (letters from Lambarene, p.661).

Improvement of skin transplants after ulcer removal
Skin transplants accelerate the skinning by 1/3 of the time: First the Thiersch method was used with transplanted skin strips, then in 1926 the Dawis method is used (p.660) with the island tactic of transplanting many small circles of skin so that only a few corrections must be made, when pus is forming on a skin circle (letters from Lambarene, p.660-661). Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"So far we have used the usual Thiersch method for transplantation transplanting long strips of thin skin being removed to be placed on the surface where new skin has to form. But often, however, the surface is not completely clean. Suppuration forms under the piece of skin and prevents it from growing. That is why we are now thinking of turning to Dawis' method, in which a number of small, round pieces of skin (p.660) about half a centimeter in diameter are placed on the surface as islands at intervals of half a centimeter, so pus is not so dangerous for the small pieces as for the large rags with the method of Thiersch. These [little circle] pieces also prove to be more resistant than the long, thin rags of the method of Thiersch." (Letters from Lambarene, p.661)

from 1926: New healing methods against ulcers

since 1926: The healing method against ulcers with a dilution with mercury oxycyanur: The dilution is dripping from above onto the ulcer and heals all ulcers well (letters from Lambarene, p.661).

or a solution with copper sulfate or other disinfectant:

1/2 gram of copper sulphate is mixed with 1 liter of water and it is allowed to drip on the ulcer (letters from Lambarene, p.661). Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"Treatment with the falling drop also gives good results for ulcers other than specifically tropical phageenic ones. With many, a solution of half a gram of copper sulphate per liter of water is very successful. In general, all kinds of disinfecting substances can be used for this procedure being used in a diluted solution." (Letters from Lambarene, p.661)

or also the ointment Breosan is very good, e.g. against craw-craw ulcers of white Europeans, the patients often show staphylococci at the same time (letters from Lambarene, p.661).

Foot ulcers healed: From 1926 on, Albert Schweitzer was finally able to heal his own foot ulcers, which were provoked by bruises or skin abrasions on the feet. The week long stress with non-healing foot ulcers is over for Albert Schweitzer (letters from Lambarene, p.661).

After the healing process, the white patients are often given a tube with Breosan ointment, that becomes a standard (letters from Lambarene, p.661).


Lambarene 1926: discovery by Dr. Trensz: Dysentery often turns out to be cholera - concentration camp conditions stop

Dr. Trensz has set up a small bacteriological laboratory. Through microscopic examinations and systematic experiments with faecal samples from dysentery patients, Dr. Trensz found out that the patients' dysentery is often not dysentery at all, but that they have vibrions that are related to the cholera vibrio. Dr. Trensz states that it is often not about dysentery but about cholerine (letters from Lambarene, p.662). Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"In the treatment of the unfortunately still numerous dysentery patients, Dr. Trensz makes a valuable observation. As is well known, there are two types of dysentery: that caused by amoebas - that is, unicellular organisms - and that caused by an infection with dysentery bacteria. Dr. Trensz arranged a little bacteriologic laboratory with most primitive means and is now installing cultures of feces of the patients when no amoebas could be found. Now see what happened: He waits for bacillus dysentery, but he discovers vibrions which are very familiar to cholera vibrio only differing from it by an agglutination difference. So, what was considered bacillus dysentery is detected (Letters, p.662) in the most cases a heavy cholerine being caused by paracholera vibrio." (Letters from Lambarene, p.663)

Treatment of all unexplained dysentery cases as cholera cases: with white clay water (white clay dissolved in water)
Since this discovery, Albert Schweitzer has cured dysentery like cholera: with white clay dissolved in water. And since it is cholera and not dysentery, the people are now healing [finally!] (Letters from Lambarene, p.663). Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"I had always treated the unexplained cases of dysentery based on cholera therapy with white clay dissolved in water and had seen good results. Now Dr. Trensz's statement explains why something was achieved with this treatment. The matter is a familiar disease related to cholera." (Letters from Lambarene, p.663)

The injection against cholerine by Dr. Trensz - the cure of cholerins in 2 to 3 days
Dr. Trensz is growing the vibrions on cultures and is producing an injection treatment ("vaccine") so that the cholerine is cured in 2 to 3 days (letters from Lambarene, p.663). Albert Schweitzer quote (translation):

"Cultivating the vibrios in the laboratory allows Dr. Trensz to produce a vaccine that can cure such cases of cholerins in 2 to 3 days." (Letters from Lambarene, p.663)

[More details are not known. Why they did not find a herb of the jungle against it so the blacks also could perform the healing?
How the hospital of Albert Schweitzer has managed the injection garbage? Healing herbs don't produce injection garbage...]

Diet with only white rice is the cause of susceptibility to the cholerin bacterium
The pathogen "Choleravibrio" is found in the river system of the Ogowe River, which is "native" there. With good nutrition, however, the cholerin bacterium is harmless. The eternal rice food at the Ogowe river is damaging the intestinal flora, so that the resistance in the intestines is decreasing with the black people and the river water with the cholerine bacteria becomes dangerous (letters from Lambarene, p.663).

The research of Dr. Trensz about the cholera disease with the cholerin bacterium is in progress and a scientific treatise is in progress (letters from Lambarene, p.663).

[Titles are missing
In 1927 Dr. Trensz published the first scientific publication on cholera pathogens in hospitals. Later on, other medical doctors published works on elephantiasis, burns, tumors, sickle cell anemia and on the still very common and stubborn skin ulcer called ulcus buruli. A particularly noteworthy dissertation dealt with the relationship of the traditional African healer to his patient [web01].

The construction summer for the new hospital

-- during the construction summer the black medical helpers in the old hospital have more freedom because there is hardly any supervision (letters from Lambarene, p.670)
-- in June 1926 the planks are running out: the sawmill in N'Gômô has no hardwood tree trunks and Albert Schweitzer organizes new trunks from timber merchants, he can have trunks that are not suitable for export because they are too short or "not good enough", he ties the trunks together in a raft and brings them to N'Gômô, the captain is Emil Ogoumas, he knows all the sandbanks at low tide
-- besides canoes need repair and tarring yet, with this affair European patients are helping (letters from Lambarene, p.670)
-- in July 1926 the mail steamer drives to a sandbank at low tide and gets stuck for several days (letters from Lambarene, p.670)

[Strange? It seems strange why the Gabon Government is not arranging the sand banks so no boat accidents occur any more with sand banks. Could the sand banks at least been marked with metal poles so the captain's assists will not commit faults because of lack of experience?].

July 1926
Healer Joseph is leaving the hospital
-- because of insufficient wages
-- he wants to spoil his wife with clothes from Europe
-- he thinks that as a timber merchant he will get rich (letters from Lambarene, p.669).

Joseph is and remains "the first healing assistant of Doctor Albert Schweitzer" (letters from Lambarene, p.670).

There are enough new black medical assistants there, the most capable is Bolingi, he assists the operated patients (letters from Lambarene, p.670).

The paint for the new hospital - blacks destroy the brushes when painting
-- the new pile dwellings are painted to protect the wood
-- the color is mixed with
   -- well sieved calcium solution plus
   -- carpentry glue being dissolved in warm water
-- this mixture is almost as good as expensive oil paint - only the rainy sides of the houses are painted with oil paint
-- blacks are not allowed to paint, they destroy the brushes in 2 days so that they remain without brush hairs, the method of destruction could never be determined
-- the doctors and the white nurses have to work, have to paint the new houses, because the blacks CANNOT manage the brushes (letters from Lambarene, p.671).

80 bags of rice got wet
During one transport, 80 bags of rice got wet and Miss Kottmann now has to "arrange this":
-- she has to arrange space to put all the rice sacks beside one another, because wet rice sacks must not be piled, otherwise it will spoil immediately
-- she has to cut open wet rice sacks, take out the wet rice and sew the sacks with the rest of the dry rice again (letters from Lambarene, p.671).

Rice depot - the famine is slowly reducing
The hospital has a rice deposit of 2 tons of rice. The famine is going back thanks to rice imports from Europe (p.671). Bananas and cassava are still almost completely missing (p.671-672). They will only be ready in January 1927 (letters from Lambarene, p.672).

Move oil palms
On the new hospital site, Albert Schweitzer loves the oil palms and has them moved when they get in the way of the buildings. The blacks are only shaking their heads, why the oil palms are not cut down (letters from Lambarene, p.672).


Healings in the summer of 1926

-- case: 2 white births (letters from Lambarene, p.672)
-- case: A storm falls a tree and hits a white man who remains dazed. Dr. Lauterburg drives 2 day trips downriver to get him, the patient is unconscious, has an infected pelvic fracture and a severe shock. After 10 days in the hospital, he remains unconscious for 10 days and dies. Albert Schweitzer has to write the condolence letter to the family in Europe (letters from Lambarene, p.673)
-- case: there comes a seriously ill European woman
-- case: 50 starving black people come from a hungry area and take the place away from others (letters from Lambarene, p.673).

[In a famine, food becomes medicine].

Dr. Nessmann goes back to Europe
(Letters from Lambarene, p.674).

-- Malaria: Generally almost 50% of the white patients have malaria (letters from Lambarene, p.674).

[Mosquitoes do not bite people who eat a lot of garlic, may be this works also against malaria mosquitoes].

-- case: blackwater fever occurs twice
-- and many sunstrokes, 2 of them heavy ones (letters from Lambarene, p.674).

-- case: Amoeba dysentery with a merchant heals in a few weeks - and as a thank he has two canoes built, he gives the order to transport them to black people and the canoes are stolen and NEVER arrive (letters from Lambarene, p.674).

-- case: Mrs. Rusillon from the Jesus fantasy missionary station of Ovan in the interior of Gabon comes to Albert Schweitzer from an area of ​​hunger to relax (letters, p.674) - aid shipments to the mission station of Ovan are often "lost" or take a long time ( Letters from Lambarene, p.675)

-- case: blacks had the order to bring a European with luggage to the hospital, but they unloaded him on a sandbank at the hospital, that was enough for the blacks - Albert Schweitzer then discovered him (letters from Lambarene, p.675)

-- case: white timber dealers or trade managers have so much responsibility that they only come to the hospital when it is almost too late. Without a substitute, the blacks are doing in a lumberyard what they want and are ruining the existence of the white man (p.675). The whites then help each other out, even if they have to overcome long distances (p.675-676). Or whites leave the hospital too early and die 3 weeks later (letters from Lambarene, p.676).

[Suspicion of the criminal church: All these maneuvers have the smell of evil church manipulation against whites who are not with the criminal pedophile church. I think that the blacks are even PAID by the criminal church to destroy the existence of independent whites. Only in this way this destructive behavior can be explained. Albert Schweitzer never mentioned this clear suspicion].

Autumn 1926:
The house for the doctors
Albert Schweitzer is installing the piles of his house: 31 x 8.5m, 105 piles (letters from Lambarene, p.651).

Two whites died in the hospital
-- case: the Frenchman Monsieur Bannelier got an acute TB after a trip in the rain
-- case: a French Jesus fantasy pastor Monsieur Bouvier from N'Djôle, gets a weak heart, cholerine and a "puzzling fever" (letters from Lambarene, p.676).

Both cases lie in the hospital for weeks and nothing heals. The burials are depressing (letters from Lambarene, p.676).

[Where is homeopathy? Where are the medicinal herbs of the jungle? Where's Noni? Why didn't Albert Schweitzer discover sodium bicarbonate? I think, because he prayed too much and played music instead of researching ...]

November 1926
-- case: Mrs. Jesus fantasy missionary Madame Morel comes from Libreville to recover from severe malaria (letters from Lambarene, p.676)


January 21, 1927: The new hospital 3km above is partially finished - the move

-- all patients now get rooms with wooden floors (Life+Thought, p.220)
-- the patients praise Albert Schweitzer from all sides: "This is a good hut, doctor, a good hut!" (Life + Thought, p.220)
-- for the first time the patients are accommodated in a humane manner (Life+Thought, p.220)

-- parts of the old hospital are used for the new hospital
-- the transports are realized with canoes that are pulled by motor boats, also white ex-patients help with their own motor boats (letters from Lambarene, p.677).
-- during the move a white pregnant woman arrives for her birth, Albert Schweitzer has prepared already three beds for white patients (letters from Lambarene, p.677)

-- all patients now have rooms with wooden floors: "This is a good hut, doctor, a good hut"
-- the kitchen is still in the old hospital and the food is being shipped to the new hospital in a canoe - being called "dining car" (letters from Lambarene, p.678).
-- the old houses in the old hospital are demolished, the blacks have to be monitored not to damage the boards during the dismantling
-- nails need to be tapped straight
-- the old boards of the old hospital are for the beds of the patients in the new hospital
-- Dr. Trensz is constructing double beds with it which can be taken apart for cleaning and drying (letters from Lambarene, p.679).

from January 24, 1927
New influx of white patients
(Letters from Lambarene, p.678)

February 18, 1927
Dr. Trensz is going back to Europe
(Letters from Lambarene, p.679)

March 1927 approx.
Malaria kills two whites
-- case: two whites suffer from malaria and die from it because nothing heals

[Malaria heals with silver water / colloidal silver - two spoons per day on an empty stomach and wait 1 hour [web02]

-- one of the patients drank two glasses of beer, whereupon the fever became uncontrollable the next day, that is the second case that Albert Schweitzer observed, where beer aggravates the malaria (letters from Lambarene, p.683).

March 23, 1927
Dr. Ernst Mündler replaces Dr. Trensz
with him comes Mrs. C.E.B. Russel from Canada as a helper for a few months, she then leads the clearing and agriculture, so that Ms. Kottmann is free
(Letters from Lambarene, p.679)

April 1927
Arrival of Mrs. C.E.B. Russell - she takes over the construction supervision + agriculture
-- Mrs. Russell has authority over blacks
-- Mrs. Russell is arranging a first agricultural field (Life + Thought, p.220). Quote (translation):

"In April 1927 I was able to hand over the supervision of the workers who cleared the jungle around the hospital to Mrs. CEB Russell, who had just arrived, because she had the talent to get them obedient. Under her supervision, the arrangement of a plantation was begun. Since then I have had the general experience that the authority of white women is more recognized by our primitives than that of us men." (Life + Thought, p.220)

This is a principle: Blacks obey best when a white woman is the boss. Quote (translation):

"Strangely enough, the white woman has the greatest authority over the primitives." (Letters from Lambarene, p.680)

-- As a result, more barracks will be completed
-- Albert Schweitzer's hospital can now care for over 200 sick people with their families (Life+Thought, p.220)
-- In the last few months there have been 140 to 160 patients and their relatives
-- the dysentery patients are isolated
-- the house for the mentally ill was built with the donated money of the Guildhouse Congregation in London, the occasion was the death of member Mr. Ambrose Pomeroy-Cragg (Life + Thought, p.221)

-- In addition, the interior is still being under construction (Life+Thought, p.221).


May 4, 1927
A Scottish woman doctor comes to help for a few months
she was previously in a "US" mission station in the Congo, she is now looking after sleeping sick, dysentery sick and working in the laboratory (letters from Lambarene, p.679)

Helper Karl Sutter
A Swiss - Mr. Karl Sutter - is an ex-timber merchant, he is forming a team of two with Mrs. Russel for the remaining clearing and for arranging agriculture (letters from Lambarene, p.680).


Last construction work on the large hospital territory

-- the houses for the hospital staff are still under construction and will be available step by step (letters from Lambarene, p.680)
-- in June 1927 the kitchen in the large hospital is finished next to the dwelling house
-- this is followed by stables and the move of the chickens and the goats
-- and only now the house of the doctors is being built on the hillside, the stakes are being set
-- on the hill is the nurses house with white patients, there are also pantries, dining room and living room (letters from Lambarene, p.680)
-- then another 500m fence is put in place: Some trees that have been cut down take root when they are put into the ground, and this is how trees can be put as piles:

"This is how we create a fence with living posts."

-- and wire mesh is being installed between the trees so that goats cannot break out and leopards cannot break in (letters from Lambarene, p.681).

The barracks
The big barrack is 22.5 by 8 m, with mosquito windows and with a double roof: a wooden roof and 25 cm above the corrugated iron roof - air is the best insulator (letters from Lambarene, p.681)
-- with an operating room for normal operations
-- with a small operating room for infection diseases
-- with a pharmacy
-- with a room as a medicine deposit
-- with a room for cloths and bandages
-- with a laboratory (letters from Lambarene, p.681).

Next to it there is a barrack as a laundry room (p.681) and with a room for the foot ulcers (p.681-682). The doors are arranged so that the doctors can monitor the laundresses from the operating theater (letters from Lambarene, p.682).

-- Next to it is a long barrack for the dysentery and the mentally ill
-- Above that is installed a barrack for the sick and with a food store and equipment
-- Above that is installed a barrack for sick people with families with children, for women and girls who come alone
-- Behind this is a barrack for the operated
-- in all the patient barracks, healing workers have their own room and they are watching the patients (letters from Lambarene, p.682)
-- In the end, the new, large hospital has a maximum capacity of 250 patients (letters, p.682), normally 140 to 160 patients are present (letters from Lambarene, p.683)

-- there is also the canoe shed with the canoe rowing groups (letters from Lambarene, p.683).

Dr. Lauterburg and Dr. Mündler operate in the new hospital with enough space, air, light and coolness (letters from Lambarene, p.683).


July 1927
Albert Schweitzer is preparing his trip home to Europe


from July 21, 1927: The journey home to Europe

After the construction of the new hospital 3km above, Albert Schweitzer is now preparing the journey home (Life+Thought, p.221)

July 21, 1927
Albert Schweitzer's journey home from Lambarene to Strasbourg
With him are traveling
-- Miss Mathilde Kottmann, nurse since summer 1924
-- the sister of Dr. Lauterburg (Life + thinking, p.221; letters from Lambarene, p.684).

The steamer to Europe has hit a sandbank in the Congo and is delayed so that Albert Schweitzer [and the others] have to wait a few days in Cape Lopez [Cap Gentil] (letters from Lambarene, p.684).

July 29, 1927
Albert Schweitzer leaves Cape Lopez for Europe
(Letters from Lambarene, p.684)

There remain
-- Miss Emma Haussknecht (Life + Thought, p.221)
-- and soon there will be more staff to support them (Leben + Denk, p.221).


1927-1929: Albert Schweitzer in Europe with concerts and lectures without end

Albert Schweitzer lives in Europe from 1927 to 1929 giving many concerts and lectures:
-- in the autumn and winter of 1927 in Sweden and Denmark
-- in spring and early summer of 1928 in Holland and England
-- in the autumn and winter of 1928 in Switzerland, Germany and the CSSR
-- in 1929 several concert tours in Germany (Life+Thought, p.222).

During the rest of his time, Albert Schweitzer is staying with his wife Helene and his child, who live in the mountain health resort of Königsfeld in the Black Forest [where Danube River has it's springs] or in Strasbourg (Leben + Denk, p.222).

Personnel rotations in Lambarene keep Albert Schweitzer on his toes because employees cannot tolerate the climate or are returning earlier than planned because of family issues (Life+Thought, p.222). The following are hired as new doctors:
-- Dr. Mündler from Switzerland
-- Dr. Hediger from Switzerland
-- Dr. Stalder from Switzerland
-- Miss Dr. Schnabel from Switzerland (Life + Thought, p.222)
and
-- Dr. Erich Dölken from Switzerland died on the voyage to Lambarene in the port of Grand Bassam without prior notice, probably of a heart attack (Life + Thought, p.222).

[This seems to be another attack of criminal pedophile Church against Albert Schweitzer: murder by intoxication of food].

from December 1929: Albert Schweitzer back in Lambarene
-- Crossing from Bordeaux to Cape Lopez
-- with his wife Helene Schweitzer
-- with the woman doctor Dr. Anna Schmitz
-- with Miss Marie Secretan for laboratory work (Life + Thought, p.225)

1930: New buildings in Albert Schweitzer's hospital

Construction work is the order of the day again (Life + Thought, p.225) because the many dysentery patients are now also occupying the rooms of the mentally ill. So a new house has to be built for the insane (Life+Thought, p.226). And there are more buildings built:
-- barracks for the seriously ill with single beds
-- an airy, but thief-proof magazine for food supplies
-- apartments for the black healing helpers (Life + Thought, p.226)
-- a fully equipped operating theater (Living + Thought, p.226)
-- a fully equipped pharmacy, also with medicines for colonial diseases ("often quite expensive specialties") (Leben + Denk, p.226)

[Effective and cheap natural medicine does not appear with Albert Schweitzer, no jungle herb, no noni, it's a SHAME!]

The black carpenter Monenzali is helping again with the construction work (Life+Thought, p.226).

Timber merchant and master builder Mr. G. Zuber also carried out cement constructions at the hospital,
-- with a collecting basin for rainwater
-- with an airy cement building as a dining room and lounge for the hospital staff (Life+Thought, p.226).

Albert Schweitzer's hospital is known within 100s of kilometers. Patients are traveling to the hospital for weeks (Life+Thought, p.226).

The doctors and nurses are so many now that there is no more stress (Life+Thought, p.227).

All this is only possible through the donations from the European friends of the hospital (Life+Thought, p.227).

Easter 1930
Wife Helene Schweitzer returns to Europe
because she doesn’t tolerate the humid climate (Life + Thought, p.226).

Summer 1930
Arrival of Dr. Meyländer (Alsace)
as further support for the hospital staff (Life+Thought, p.226).

---

Racism with Albert Schweitzer

-- Natives / aborigines are called "primitives and semi-primitives" without applying or developing their natural medicine at all (Life + Thought, p.163)

-- Destroying the jungle: "What a pleasure I felt to win fields from the jungle!" (Life + thinking, p.218)

-- the term "workers material" (original German: "Arbeitsmaterial" - in: Letters from Lambarene, p.482)

Albert Schweitzer's hospital is a test laboratory for Rockefeller - for example, sleeping sickness in 1926 with tryparsamide or Bayer 205
Tryparsamide comes from the Rockefeller Institute and is given to Albert Schweitzer for experimental purposes against sleeping sickness [human experiments on black people] (letters from Lambarene, p.654).


Logical questions for more efficiency with Mother Earth in a hospital

Bringing European craftsmen to Lambarene?
-- Why didn't Albert Schweitzer have his own craftsmen come from Strasbourg or take them with him?
-- These European craftsmen could also have trained black craftsmen - the chance was wasted!

Learn to be a carpenter and roofer himself?
-- why didn't Albert Schweitzer quickly learn to be a carpenter and roofer himself? Instead, he has given concerts and lectures in Europe?

Why not corrugated iron right from the start?
-- Why did Albert Schweitzer not calculate clearly that corrugated iron not only saves repair time, but also more patients survive who are killed by pneumonia with perforated leave roofs in the rain at night?

Hasn't there been any plastic sheeting yet?
-- Why is Albert Schweitzer always looking for leaf bricks? Wasn't there any plastic sheet there? Why didn't he bring any plastic sheeting when there were already car tires?

Albert Schweitzer is not learning natural medicine?
Afro-healers damage the healings of Albert Schweitzer when the patients go home before they have completely healed (letters from Lambarene, p.513).
-- One wonders why people don't go into the villages and teach healing there - but unfortunately without natural medicine and only with chemicals in his hands Albert Schweitzer cannot teach the Afros anything.
-- So, there is the question: Why didn't Albert Schweitzer learn natural medicine and learn natural medicine with tropical plants? Homeopathy, jungle plants and noni are missing. Why didn't Albert Schweitzer discover baking soda as a remedy? The port would have been there! In his freetime he has only prayed and played the piano...

Albert Schweitzer = puppet of criminal pharmaceutical industry
And I don't like the fact that Albert Schweitzer doesn't have anything good to say about natural medicine in Africa. That will not do! He really seems to have been a puppet of the criminal pharmaceutical industry, who HAS BEEN OBLIGED TO HIDDEN ANYTHING ABOUT NATURAL MEDICINE!

Chicken coop under the house in the tropics?
How can Albert Schweitzer plan a new wooden house on stilts for white sick people, employees and storage space and think that chickens can "live" under it? (Letters from Lambarene, p.569).

Questions to African governments

Why was the government of Gabon incapable
-- to create a fairway in the Ogowe River so that accidents with sandbanks no longer occur when the water is low?
-- to catch whales and distribute whale meat when there is famine in the country - and let Norwegian whalers catch the whales instead?

Why are African governments incapable
-- to build moles for the harbors in order to proceed loading and unloading operations fast and safe?
-- to set up their own school system and instead let the false praying worshipers from Rome lead the population into false arrogance, which in the end only ends in alcohol again?

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