July 1 was declared Albert Schweitzer Day in Pitkin County and the city of Aspen this week, honoring the 76th anniversary of the German genius’ visit to Aspen for the Goethe Bicentennial Convocation in 1949. This year also marks Schweitzer’s 150th birthday.
Schweitzer was a philosopher, musician, physician, theologian and Nobel Peace Prize recipient. He was invited by Walter and Elizabeth Paepcke to speak at the Goethe Bicentennial, which gave rise to the Aspen Institute and the Aspen Music Festival and School.
Schweitzer’s visit to the Roaring Fork Valley was the one and only time he visited the United States.
In Aspen, he helped lay the foundation for the Aspen Idea, a concept based on the idea that people can merge the mind, body and spirit to nourish the whole person.
Aspen author Paul Andersen, who recently wrote a book about Schweitzer called “Dr. Schweitzer at the Birth of the Aspen Idea,” announced an impromptu book launch party as part of yesterday’s celebration.
“Over the years, I gained an incredibly deep appreciation for the highest values that Aspen had, and Albert Schweitzer reflects those values,” he said. “So for me, Albert Schweitzer became the avatar for all that Aspen should stand for.”
When Andersen moved to Aspen in 1984 for a job as a reporter at The Aspen Times, he said he “inherited all of the cast off beats of the senior reporters,” which included the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Aspen Center for Physics and the Aspen Institute.
He said he was immersing himself in the Aspen Idea without really understanding what it was until he learned about Schweitzer.
City and county officials, including former Aspen mayor Bill Stirling and Pitkin County commissioner Greg Poschman, delivered an official, joint proclamation of Albert Schweitzer Day at the Wheeler/Stallard Museum in recognition of his legacy in the Roaring Fork Valley.
Stirling said the speech Schweitzer gave in Aspen set the up-and-coming cultural hub apart from other ski towns.
“I mean, ski resort towns in the West, they want to be known as the best of the West,” Stirling said. “But what he did was set the standard by talking about the whole person, the whole human being. And the Aspen Idea kind of emerged from that — the mind, the body and the spirit.”
