It took a long time for Albert to realise the advantages of education. He went to a secondary school (gymnasium) in Mulhouse, staying with a stern uncle and aunt, and still he would not learn. Only when he realised that one of the teachers had a real sense of dedication and responsibility did he respond – and then suddenly there was no stopping him. He shot from the bottom of the class to near the top in one term.

In music too he blossomed. He practised long hours on the piano and organ, and astonished his teachers. But now there was a new problem. All of a sudden he wanted to know everything. Wherever he was he argued passionately in the effort to learn the truth. Easy-going grown-ups were assaulted by this intense lad who would not be put off with easy answers. He became such a pain in the neck that his parents couldn’t take him anywhere. And all the time he had a growing feeling that he was too lucky. It was not fair that he should have such an easy life while the world was so full of suffering...

Soon after his 21st birthday he woke one morning with the conviction that somehow, some day, he was going to have to pay something back for his good fortune. Here are his own words: “Calmly thinking the matter over before I got up, while the birds were singing outside, I decided that I would consider myself justified in living till I was thirty for science and art, and from that time on would devote myself to the direct service of humanity. I had often tried to settle what meaning lay hidden for me in the saying of Jesus 'Whosoever would save his life shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the Gospel’s shall save it!' Now the answer was found. In addition to the outward, I now had inward happiness.”

And from that decision he never swerved.

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