|
|
The Viennese scholar who almost became
King of Albania:
Baron Franz Nopcsa
and his contribution to Albanian studies
On 26 April 1933, the Neue Freie Presse in Vienna published
the following article:
Bloody drama in the Singerstrasse
Scholar commits murder and suicide
"As we have already reported, the fifty-five year
old lecturer Baron Franz Nopcsa shot his longtime secretary,
the forty-five year old Albanian Bayazid Elmas Doda, yesterday
morning in his fourth-storey apartment in house No. 1 of Singerstrasse
12 and then committed suicide at the desk of his study by shooting
himself through the mouth. The autopsy showed that the secretary
received two gunshot wounds at almost the same spot on his left
temple and that these bullets went right through his skull and
came to rest in the polstering on the back of the armchair.
Nopcsa seems to have prepared the deed carefully. A number
of sealed messages of farewell were found, as were a sealed will
addressed to a Viennese lawyer and a few other documents. That
material motives may also have been involved can be deduced not
only from testimony from his maid, who had not received her salary
for four months and from the fact that Franz Nopcsa, who was
devoted to his books and collections, had been planning to sell
off his extensive library containing many a unique volume.
... a letter to the police, "The motive for my suicide
is a nervous breakdown. The reason that I shot my longtime friend
and secretary, Mr Bayazid Elmas Doda, in his sleep without his
suspecting at all is that I did not wish to leave him behind
sick, in misery and without a penny, because he would have suffered
too much. I wish to be cremated."
Thus ended the life of Baron Franz Nopcsa of Felsöszilvás
(1877-1933), one of the most prominent researchers and scholars
of his day. Nopcsa was born the son of a family of Hungarian
aristocrats on 3 May 1877 at the family estate in Szacsal (Sacel)
near Hatzeg in Transylvania. He was able to finish his schooling
at the Maria-Theresianum in Vienna with the support of his uncle
and godfather, Franz von Nopcsa, who was head master of the court
of the Empress Elisabeth. The perhaps decisive event of his younger
years took place during an outing near Szentpéterfalva
in 1895. There he and his sister Ilona discovered some fossilized
bones belonging to a dinosaur, which he sent to the geologist
and palaeontologist, Professor Eduard Suess in Vienna. From graduation
in 1897 to 1903, Nopcsa studied under Suess at the University
of Vienna, which was a leading centre of palaeontological studies
at the time.
Nopcsa developed quickly into a talented scholar himself.
On 21 July 1899, at the age of twenty-two, he held his first
lecture at the Academy of Sciences in Vienna on Dinossaurierreste
in Siebenbürgen (Dinosaur remnants in Transylvania)
and attracted much attention with it. He is considered one of
the founders of palaeophysiology, in particular because of his
internationally renowned studies on reptile fossils. Well known
were his hypotheses on the 'running proavis,' on the warm-bloodedness
of pterosaurs, and on the significance of a number of endocrine
processes which he considered to have had an important influence
on the evolution and extinction of dinosaurs. Not all of his
theories were accepted at the time, but they did succeed in advancing
and stimulating a wide range of fields of palaeontology. Equally
important were Nopcsa's achievements in the field of geology,
for example, his research into the tectonic structures of the
western Balkan mountain ranges, where he defended some rather
unusual theories.
In later years, he also became one of the leading Albania
specialists of his times. His publications in the field of Albanian
studies from 1907 to 1932 were concentrated primarily in the
fields of prehistory, early Balkan history, ethnology, geography,
modern history and Albanian customary law, i.e. the Kanun.
His early works such as Das Katholische Nordalbanien (Catholic
northern Albania), Budapest 1907, Aus Šala und Klementi
(From Shala and Kelmendi), Sarajevo 1910, and Haus und Hausrat
im katholischen Nordalbanien (House and household in Catholic
northern Albania), Sarajevo 1912, and Beiträge zur Vorgeschichte
und Ethnologie Nordalbaniens (Contributions to the prehistory
and ethnology of northern Albania), Sarajevo 1912, contain a
myriad of fascinating observations, even though from a modern
perspective the material may not always seem well organized.
In his later years, when he had settled down and was no longer
travelling in the Balkans, he produced ambitious works of sounder
scholarly quality. Among the best known of these are Bauten,
Trachten und Geräte Nordalbaniens (Buildings, costumes
and tools of northern Albania), Berlin and Leipzig 1925, and,
in particular, the 620-page Geologie und Geographie Nordalbaniens
(Geology and Geography of northern Albania), Öhrlingen 1932,
which may be considered the magnum opus of the Albanological
studies he published during his lifetime.
The list of Nopcsa's publications includes over 186 works,
primarily in the three above-mentioned fields of palaeontology,
geology and Albanian studies. At least fifty-four of these works
are related specifically to Albania.
Nopcsa's early death, however, left some important works unpublished.
The scholarly works of a palaeontological nature from his estate
were donated to the British Museum in London. The Albanological
part of his estate went to his colleague, the equally renowned
specialist in Albanian studies, Professor Norbert Jokl (1877-1942)
of Vienna. In a letter written on 24 April 1933, the day of his
death, Nopcsa gave Jokl a list of the manuscripts he was leaving
him and asked him to contact Count Paul Teleki in Budapest to
arrange for their publication. For financial reasons, these major
works were never published at the time. Since Jokl's murder at
the hands of the Nazis in early May 1942, the Albanological manuscripts
have been preserved in the Manuscript Division of the Austrian
National Library in the Hofburg in Vienna.
Five manuscripts from this estate are of particular significance.
Firstly is the 510-page study Albanien: die Bergstämme
Nordalbaniens und ihr Gewohnheitsrecht (Albania, the mountain
tribes of northern Albania and their customary law), Ser. nov.
9392, which has fortunately been published recently, in part
at least by Fatos Baxhaku and Karl Kaser in their book Die
Stammesgesellschaften Nordalbaniens, Berichte und Forschungen
österreichischer Konsuln und Gelehrter, 1861-1917 (The
tribal societies of northern Albania, reports and research by
Austrian consuls and scholars, 1861-1917), Vienna, Cologne &
Weimar 1996. Secondly, mention must be made of his Religiöse
Anschauungen, Sitten und Gebräuche (Religious views,
habits and customs), Ser. nov. 9393, a 242-page study of Albanian
folklore, of which the first fifty-eight pages are unfortunately
missing. Thirdly are the Gedichte des Colez Marku, 1895-1932
(Poems of Colez Marku, 1895-1932), Ser. nov. 11912, a 110-page
volume of modest German verse containing 160 poems. Fourthly
is the 36-page fragment of a Dialektstudie (Dialect study),
Ser. nov. 11918, of the northwestern Geg dialect of Shkodra.
Last but certainly not least are the memoirs of Baron Nopcsa
under the title Reisen in den Balkan (Travels in the Balkans),
Ser. nov. 9368.
The five-part monograph 'Travels in the Balkans,' often erroneously
known as Nopcsa's diary, consists of 456 typed and partially
handwritten pages which the author went through several times
with corrections. Indeed there are corrections in ink of five
different colours. It can be assumed that Nopcsa began writing
his memoirs before the end of the First World War. He compiled
them from the notes made in the diary books he kept with him
during his Balkan travels and which until recently were considered
lost. I had the good fortune in 1990 of finding seven original
volumes of these diaries, six on Albania and one on Bulgaria,
in the National Library in Tirana. They contain copious notes,
pencilled landscape drawings, travel route sketches, and calculations
of travel expenditure, a total of 2,700 pages in the Albanian
volumes alone, which date from 1905 to 1913.
These seven octavo volumes, with presumably many other works
from Nopcsa's library, were offered for sale after the author's
death by the antiquarian bookshop Buch- und Kunst-Antiquariat
Heinrich Hinterberger in the Hegelgasse 17 in Vienna for 150
Swiss francs and found their way into the collection of Albanian
writer and politician Mid'hat Bey Frashëri (1880-1949),
also known as Lumo Skendo. Mid'hat Bey, who is said to have possessed
the largest library in Albania at the time, some 20,000 volumes,
served as leader of the anti-Communist resistance movement Balli
Kombëtar during the Second World War, and as such was
forced to flee the country for southern Italy when Enver Hoxha
took power in Albania in 1944. He left behind his famous library,
which was confiscated by the new Communist authorities and which
eventually found its way into the newly created National Library,
forming the core of the Albanian studies department. It need
not be mentioned to anyone who knew Communist Albania that the
pre-war collections of the National Library were available to
very few scholars during the long years of the dictatorship.
Nopcsa's memoirs, as recorded in the manuscript 'Travels in
the Balkans,' comprise a twenty-year period from 1897 to 1917,
when the author turned forty. In a letter to Jokl on 8 October
1928, Nopcsa tells us that he had lost his 1918 diary, which
explains the sudden end to the memoirs in 1917. The memoirs seem
to have been completed around 1929, at the time when Nopcsa had
been planning to publish them. Indeed, the Stadium Press in Budapest
had offered to publish a Hungarian translation of the memoirs
and Kálmán Lambrecht, later appointed librarian
at the Geological Institute in Budapest, was appointed to do
the translation and subsequently to get the publisher's approval
for Nopcsa's innumerable last-minute changes, something which
was even more difficult. After much ado, the publisher withdrew
his offer and, as such, negotiations for an edition of the German-language
original broke down, too. The memoirs thus remained unpublished
in manuscript form for the next seven decades (1).
In the first section of the memoirs, entitled Studien und
erste Reisen, 1897-1905 (Studies and initial travels, 1897-1905),
we encounter the young baron in the wild northern Albanian mountains
for the first time, in a region which few foreigners had ever
glimpsed... and survived. On his return from Greece after finishing
his doctorate at the University of Vienna in the summer of 1903,
Nopcsa travelled from Skopje via Prizren right through the heart
of the Albanian Alps to Shkodra in order to visit the Austro-Hungarian
consul there, Baron Bornemisza Gyula. His first days in Albania
began with a truly Albanian experience:
"From Skopje I thus set off for Prizren. There I was
given three zaptiehs for the trip to Shkodra. I spent the first
night in the han of Brut and, having departed at the break of
dawn the next morning, I was shot at from close range out of
some bushes on the right hand side at a bend in the road. The
bullet went right through my hat and grazed my head, but did
not injure me. I leapt off my horse, sought shelter and wanted
to fire back, but was unable to catch sight of the criminal.
At that moment, I had the very unchristian feeling of being a
hunter laying in wait to shoot game. My Mannlicher Karabiner,
equipped with a field-glass, which I had kept loaded in my saddle
had thus been of no use to me at all. The rest of the journey,
from the Vizier's Bridge to Shkodra, passed without event."
Subsequent travels in the northern Albanian mountains went
off better and Nopcsa learned to love the country and its headstrong
tribes. He gives us the following description from his first
major research trip in the summer of 1905:
"I was deeply impressed by an episode which occurred
in the Cem valley near the Tamara Bridge in Kelmendi country.
I had asked for a glass of water at a house but, instead of water,
the head of the household, whom I did not know at all, gave me
a bowl of buttermilk, which I drank to the very last drop. I
had just finished drinking when the brother of the homeowner,
also unknown to me, happened to come home. As it was evening
by this time and he was tired from his long journey, he asked
to have some buttermilk. All that he found of course was an empty
bowl. When the owner of the house told him who had drunk all
the buttermilk, he was not upset, as one might have expected,
but rather happy and relieved that I had reached the house before
he had, because his family had thus been spared the shame of
letting guests depart without having offered them something to
eat."
It was not simply for personal and scholarly reasons that
Nopcsa spent much of his time in northern Albania at the beginning
of the century. He was also active in politics, often to the
great bother of the Austrian foreign ministry. During the so-called
Annexation Crisis of 1908-1909, Nopcsa was involved in the preparation
of an 'action in Albania' to be undertaken against Serbia and
Montenegro. Before and during the first Balkan War in 1912 he
interfered actively in Austrian foreign affairs and took part
in the First World War as a volunteer in Albania. In 1916, Nopcsa
was commander of a company of Albanian volunteers, which was,
however, soon dissolved when Austria-Hungary conceded defeat
in the Balkans.
Of particular historical interest are Nopcsa's notes on the
Albanian Congress of Trieste in 1913 and on the selection of
a European noble to become the crowned head of the newly independent
principality of Albania. I quote here at length from the memoirs:
"From 27 February to 6 March (1913) I took part in
the Albanian Congress of Trieste. This congress was a strange
affair. The Albanian throne was vacant in the spring of 1913
and Albanian affairs were under the direction of Ismail Qemali
who had first met with Berchtold in Budapest at the home of Excellency
Hadik Janos and had then journeyed to Vlora, entrusted by him
and with his support. There he formed the provisional government
of the newly founded Albanian state. As a long-term friend of
the Greeks and as their paid agent, he also promised to facilitate
their occupation of Janina if he remained head of Albania. It
is obvious that Ismail Qemali wished to remain at the head of
the provisional government because such positions usually bring
in a lot of money. Less obvious was the fact that Berchtold,
after a tête-à-tête with Ismail Qemali, was
convinced that he could outmanoeuvre the Albanian leader. And
of course he failed. I was easily able to foresee that Ismail
Qemali would betray Albania to Greece because Stead had told
me much about Qemali's relations with Greece in 1911 and because
the writer Alexander Ular, author together with Enrico Insabato
of the book 'Der erlöschende Halbmond' (The waning crescent),
Frankfurt 1909 (2), had revealed
to me a number of details about Ismail's conduct as Governor
of Tripoli. When Berchtold asked me what I thought of Ismail
Qemali two weeks after he had founded the provisional government,
I said to him quite literally, "Ismail Qemali is an ass."
Ismail Qemali's betrayal of Albania was confirmed to me completely
by Eqrem Bey Vlora, who was himself the son of the Albanian ambassador
in Vienna, Sureja Bey, and the nephew of Ismail Qemali. I do
not know what the Greeks intended to do with Ismail Qemali once
they had occupied Janina. Perhaps they wished to proceed according
to the old saying, "The Moor has done his duty, the Moor
may now depart." At any rate, intensive propaganda campaigns
were being waged in Europe on behalf of the various pretenders
to the Albanian throne while the provisional government was being
headed by Ismail Qemali, who was open to bribery, though only
with large sums of money.
Albert Ghica, who had been a pretender to the Albanian
throne himself, had managed to interest the Duke of Montpensier
(3) in the Albanian throne. He ceded
his 'rights,' which were recognized by no one as a matter of
fact, to the duke and began to campaign on his behalf in exchange
for an appropriate remuneration. Montpensier easily won over
the miserly Fazil Pasha Toptani and a number of other Albanians,
and thus arose the plan to have Montpensier proclaimed King of
Albania at the Congress of Trieste. Montpensier was at the same
time to break through the Greek blockade and take possession
of Vlora and of Ismail Qemali. Because our Monarchy, in view
of Montpensier's relatives, was expected to resist this choice,
it was shown to be expedient for the Albanian Congress to be
supported by Austria-Hungary. A decision was then taken to hold
the congress in the Monarchy in order to lay a real diplomatic
cuckoo's egg. As a straw man for convoking the conference, skilled
use was made of the kind, but dumb-witted Stefan Zurani, who
suspected nothing. Curani was naive, ambitious and well viewed
at the foreign ministry, and out of pure vanity claimed to the
foreign ministry that he himself had had the idea of convoking
the Albanian Congress in Trieste. Since the foreign ministry
enjoyed the idea of Albanians in the Monarchy demonstrating on
behalf of their country, the plan was accepted and supported
by Vienna. Aside from the Albanians themselves, the Italo-Albanians
also turned up at the congress, and with them came Marchese Castriota
from Naples with all of his sons. Also present was Albert Ghika,
Baron Dungern, who was a university professor and historian from
Czernowitz, two Christian-Socialist Members of Parliament, Count
Taaffe and Mr Panty from Vienna, as well as the Rome correspondent
of the 'Reichspost,' Cavaliere Mayerhöfer, and myself. I
brought with me Dr Leo Freundlich, a former Socialist Member
of Parliament from Vienna who, at the very moment Albania became
'in,' had skilfully founded the periodical 'Albanische Korrespondenz'
and was now on about 'imperialist power politics.' Hasan Arnauti
was in Trieste, too, as my private detective. The press was represented
by various newspapers. Also in Trieste was a certain Mr Jovo
Weis from Belgrade who, it was said, wanted to sell rifles to
the Albanians at a price of 90 crowns a piece, but who in reality
was a Serbian agent.
Representing the Austrian Government was Makavetz, a calm,
intelligent and energetic figure who never lost his composure.
After welcoming ceremonies the first evening, Marchese Castriota
was chosen as honorary president of the congress and Faik Bey
Konitza (4) was elected chairman.
Hilë Mosi (5), Fazil Toptani
and Dervish Hima (6) were also elected
to the chair. The nomination of Konitza was not to the liking
of Ghika since, when the latter was on the point of bringing
up the issue of candidates to the Albanian throne, his old rival
Faik prevented him from doing so. In order to have an ace in
his hand, Ghika, who like many a Romanian had a long career as
an impostor behind him, had cunningly succeeded in getting control
of Ismail Qemali's retarded son. Before the congress started,
he travelled to Nice, where the Qemali family resided in virtual
poverty, and, as Qemali himself was unable to attend, invited
the son Tahir to the Albanian Congress in Trieste at his own
expense, or, to be more precise, at the expense of Montpensier.
Since Tahir did not have a penny to his name and had to have
everything, even his cigarettes, bought for him by Ghika and
as such could not do anything without Ghika or his representative,
he had virtually become Ghika's prisoner. What Ghika intended
to do with Tahir only became clear at a later date...
Since the many Italo-Albanians attending the congress were
becoming over-bearing with their Italian-language speeches, I
had myself introduced at the opening by Faik as an old friend
of the Albanians. I had but a few minutes to think of my reply,
mounted the podium and held a spontaneous speech in Albanian.
With the exception of Kral and a few other Austro-Hungarian and
Italian consuls, I don't think many a central European would
be in a position to repeat that feat.
All in all, there was nothing but hot air at the congress,
aside from a dispute between the Vlachs and Albanians, during
which the little nation of Vlachs, not even officially born yet,
gave substantial proof of its fanaticism and Balkan megalomania,
and from a further clash between the chairman Faik Bey Konitza
and the rather crooked Nikolla Ivanaj (7),
who endeavoured unsuccessfully to challenge the authority of
the chairman simply in order to draw attention to himself. The
day before the congress was to end, I therefore felt compelled
to call Faik Bey Konitza aside and inform him that the congress
had as yet done no work at all and that the least one could expect
from a political congress was a resolution. Faik agreed and I
dictated to him a resolution which the congress was to telegraph
to all the Great Powers the next day. The matter was attended
to within half an hour, and the next day, Faik presented the
document to the congress as a resolution. After a debate on the
position of the Vlachs at the congress and in a future Albania,
which Faik overcame in favour of the Albanians by presenting
the Vlachs more or less with an ultimatum, the resolution was
accepted and, as such, my text was sent to the Great Powers as
the congress resolution.
During the congress, Cavaliere Mayerhöfer learned
from Tahir, the son of Ismail Qemali, that Montpensier was preparing
a putsch. He informed me, but aside from this no one else found
out, not even Freundlich and Dungern. The two of us informed
Makavetz, who told the foreign ministry. All necessary countermeasures
were prepared. Ghika's plan to bring the throne question up at
the congress had failed, but another coup was in the making since
Montpensier disposed of a yacht ready for sail. We spent two
days in Trieste waiting to find out what Vienna thought of Montpensier's
candidacy, in particular in view of his relationship with the
Archduchess Maria Dorothea. The Albanians, among whom Faik Bey,
began to ask us how they should react to the candidacy. I said
to them on my own behalf, "In a hostile manner, for I do
not believe that Montpensier is a candidate for Vienna."
In the end, the reply arrived, confirming my suspicions. We were
now free to act against Montpensier. As it happened, the Viennese
Members of Parliament were holding a banquet for the congress
at the Palace Hotel. I interrupted a pause in the conversation
by saying in an audible voice, "I hear that Montpensier
wants to become King of Albania and that proclamations have already
been printed! Does anyone of the gentlemen here happen to have
one in his pocket? You know, gentlemen, I am a great collector
of printed material on Albania." Tremendous surprise and
a stunned silence. Fan Noli (8)
forgot himself, drew a proclamation out of his pocket and gave
it to me. Montpensier's secret was divulged. That evening the
proclamation was in the mail on its way to Berchtold. Our worries
were less now, but not done away with entirely.
The next day there occurred a dramatic moment at the congress
when rumours suddenly began to fly that a messenger from the
Provisional Government of Albania had arrived in Trieste from
Vlora. A few minutes later a tall, but stooped and awkward-looking
old man, exhausted from his journey, was conducted into the hall,
causing great commotion. It was the Albanian minister, Kristo
Meksi. He had arrived straight from Vlora. There was frenetic
applause, the atmosphere was electric. Faik turned pale for he
realized that the chair had now lost all influence over the congress.
It was now the Provisional Government that was in the chair.
He did not know what message Meksi had brought with him. If Meksi,
as a result of some secret agreement as an emissary of the Provisional
Government in Vlora, were to proclaim the Duke of Montpensier
as King of Albania, he would certainly be elected. I sat down
next to the representative of the Austrian Government, Makavetz,
and said, "You know, if Kristo Meksi proposes Montpensier
as a candidate, we are lost because he will be proclaimed unanimously."
Makavetz remained externally calm but every hair on his head
was raised. He was prepared to let the scandal happen and to
end the congress. Kristo Meksi began to speak. He conveyed to
the Albanian Congress the best wishes of the Provisional Government
and informed those present that the members of the Government
were all well. Then, without even realizing what decision was
in his hands, he left the podium to the frenetic applause of
the auditorium. The storm had passed. We realized that Ismail
Qemali had not yet been informed of Montpensier's plan.
Now it was simply a matter of freeing Tahir from the clutches
of Ghika. A coincidence facilitated our plan. Ghika did not wish
to pay Tahir's hotel bill and had turned to others to solve the
problem for him. As such, an Albanian patriot soon made his appearance.
I believe it was Mark Kakarriqi or Koci who approached me and
explained that Tahir, the son of the president of the Albanian
Government, was in financial difficulties. Knowing me to be a
friend of the Albanians, the patriot asked me if I would be willing
to assist by paying Tahir's debts, adding that, if the matter
became known to the public, it would put Albania in a bad light.
Tahir needed 500-600 crowns and, I was told, was too embarrassed
to approach me directly. I declared myself willing to assist
immediately and promised to pay his expenditures that very afternoon.
At noon I dined with Tahir and Mayerhöfer and succeeded
in making it clear to Tahir that he was being used as a tool
and was in fact a hostage in Ghika's hands. His father in Vlora
could be compelled to resign from the Provisional Government
in favour of Montpensier in order to save his son's life. Tahir
was of course dumbfounded and told me everything he knew, admitting,
however, that he had no money to free himself from Ghika. I promised
to arrange everything. I paid Tahir's hotel bill that afternoon
and left enough money for his expenses until the next day. I
later met the Albanian patriot who had demanded 500-600 crowns
and told him that I had already paid Tahir's debts, but that
he had made a mistake, the debt being a mere 190 crowns and not
500-600. An Albanian patriot was thus deprived of a sum of 300-400
crowns! I also invited Tahir to supper that evening and, in order
to prevent him from talking to Ghika, who was staying at the
same hotel, I got him drunk. At midnight I returned him reeling
to his hotel where we met Ghika in the lobby. He understood what
was going on and realized that he had lost out as far as Tahir
was concerned. At my insistence, Tahir told him that he was leaving
for Vienna, where he would be staying with me. All further contact
between Ghika and Tahir was thus rendered impossible. The next
morning I had Tahir's luggage picked up and he set off for Vienna,
this time as my prisoner, and once again without a penny to his
name. I put him up at a hotel and subsequently bought him a train
ticket to Nice, gave him some travelling money and sent him back
to his mother. The Austrian Foreign Ministry also sent Mrs Ismail
Qemali a larger sum of money to help her with her financial difficulties,
in order that such a problem not occur again. In order to describe
the level of Tahir's intelligence, it is sufficient to note that
he had been a Turkish naval cadet under Abdul Hamid. This tells
it all. This was thus the extent of my involvement at the Albanian
Congress of Trieste....
From Trieste I returned to Vienna, where I urged Berchtold
to ensure that the recently created Albanian throne be occupied
as quickly as possible because I foresaw the negative consequences
of leaving it vacant for too long. He complained that he was
unable to find a suitable candidate for the throne. There were
in fact a good number of candidates. Foremost among them was
Count Urach of Württemberg. An Egyptian prince, Ahmed Fuad,
and the son of the Marchese Castriota of Naples had also made
their candidacies known.
At this moment I resolved to take a step which could easily
have made me a laughing stock and have put all my activities
on behalf of Albania in a bad light. Nonetheless, I decided to
go through with it. I informed Excellency Conrad verbally that
I would be willing to join the list of candidates for the throne
if the Foreign Ministry would support me and told him that, to
have myself proclaimed King of Albania, I would simply need the
one-time payment of a larger sum of money in order to buy the
support of the so-called Albanian patriots which, as I learned
from the Montpensier putsch, was no problem at all. Once a reigning
European monarch, I would have no difficulty coming up with the
further funds needed by marrying a wealthy American heiress aspiring
to royalty, a step which under other circumstances I would have
been loath to take. I was sure of the support of the inhabitants
of the northern part of the country in view of the stance I had
taken in the years 1910 and 1911 and Vienna could expect to overcome
any difficulties caused by Ismail Qemali who was being supported
by Berchtold...
My candidacy may have been ridiculed in competent circles.
Be that as it may, I grew disgusted a few weeks later and withdrew
from all further activities concerning Albania. Some of those
in the know said that I only did so because my highfalutin plans
had not come about. I for my part gave as my reason [for withdrawing
my candidacy] that the Albania created by the Conference of London
was a stillbirth. I did not even attempt to contradict the slanderous
allegations which my opponents revelled in, because I knew that
events to come would prove to be my best defence. The collapse
of the Albanian State in 1914 showed that I was right to get
off the sinking ship in time in 1913. My only 'mistake' was to
have recognized what was to come long before my opponents did.
Prince Wied (9) ascended the Albanian
throne while the Conference of London was still underway...
Soon after the Albanian Congress I resigned from the Albanian
committee because of the borders set forth by London, and withdrew
from all further political activity..."
Such was Nopcsa's role at the Albanian Congress of Trieste
and his short-lived candidacy to the Albanian throne. Much has
been written and published on the life and work of Baron Nopcsa
such that there is no need at this juncture for a detailed biography
of his life before and after the Balkan War. Instead, reference
may be made to a number of books, in German and Hungarian, devoted
to Nopcsa's life and times. The first attempt to survey Nopcsa's
life, his publications and his influence was made by András
Tasnádi Kubacska in his Hungarian-language Nopcsa Ferenc
kalandos élete (Budapest 1937), which appeared in
a German version as Franz Baron Nopcsa (Budapest 1945).
Tasnádi Kubacska centred his writings on Nopcsa as a scholar
of natural science and less as an Albanologist and public figure
of the times. He endeavoured to portray Nopcsa as positively
as he could and, as such, lacked the requisite objectivity and
distance. The German version of his biography contains not only
a useful bibliography of necrologies and newspaper articles on
Nopcsa published between 1920 and 1938, but also Nopcsa's correspondence
with Friedrich Baron Huene, Lucas Waagen, Ludwig von Lócsy
and Kálmán Lambrecht. The first comprehensive bibliography
of Nopcsa's works was published in a necrology by Kálmán
Lambrecht entitled Franz Baron Nopcsa, der Begründer
der Paläophysiologie, 3. Mai 1877 bis 25. April 1933
(Franz Baron Nopcsa, the founder of palaeophysiology, 3 May 1877
to 25 April 1933), which appeared in the Paläontologische
Zeitschrift 15 (1933) shortly after the baron's death. The
main source of information on Nopcsa's life and work is and remains,
however, the monograph Franz Baron Nopcsa und Albanien, ein
Beitrag zu Nopcsas Biographie (Franz Baron Nopcsa and Albania,
a contribution to Nopcsa's biography), published by Gert Robel
in the series Albanische Forschungen in Wiesbaden 1966.
This critical and informative work is based upon the Vienna manuscripts.
Robel deals not only with Nopcsa's important contribution to
the study of Albania but also with his activities on behalf of
the Albanian question as well as with the general political situation
in the Balkans before, during and after the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913.
Nopcsa was a keen, though not always objective observer and commentator
of events in the Balkan Peninsula in the early twentieth century.
Much of his memoirs are put into a more objective context and
made more understandable by Robel. Finally, mention must also
be made of the recent bibliography Franz Baron von Nopcsa,
Anmerkungen zu seiner Familie und seine Beziehungen zu Albanien
(Franz Baron von Nopcsa, notes on his family and his relations
to Albania), Vienna 1993, by József Hála of Budapest.
Baron Nopcsa has been lauded and held in high esteem as a
scholar. As a human being, however, he is much more difficult
to grasp. This is particularly true in his memoirs. Nopcsa writes
little of his closest human relations and most intimate emotions.
His memoirs reveal only indirect and probably unwanted references
to his homosexuality, for instance his early love for the young
officer Louis Draškovic (1879-1909) and his long-term intimate
relationship with his Albanian secretary Bajazid Elmaz Doda (ca.
1888-1933) who died with him. Apart from such ambivalent references,
the author withholds all his emotions and intimate concerns from
his writings.
Robel draws the following conclusion about Nopcsa the man:
"If we look back upon Nopcsa's life, we can observe the
many and extremely diverse aspects in his being, including many
a contradiction. His ingenious intuition was in stark contrast
to his inability to understand and appreciate the motives of
others; his insensitivity and egoism were in contrast to his
devotion to the Albanians, his critical intelligence to his emotional
bias" (Robel 1966, p.161). Indeed Nopcsa does not always
appear congenial or likeable to the reader. He was constantly
driven by a craving for recognition and prestige, was often irritable
and arrogant and on occasion openly anti-Semitic. Some of these
traits may be understandable in view of his background and milieu,
but many of his motives and reactions remain difficult to fathom.
Tasnádi Kubacska and Lambrecht devoted their attention
to Nopcsa primarily in his capacity as a scholar and scientist.
Robel on the other hand, who is sparing in his use of praise,
underlines Nopcsa's significance as an Albanologist.
Sixty-five years since the death of Baron Nopcsa and after
decades of advanced Albanological research carried out in Vienna,
Munich, Berlin, Rome, Cosenza, Palermo and Saint Petersburg,
and of course in Tirana and Prishtina too, one can only agree
with the following quotation:
"His death, which was mourned by his friends and regretted
by his colleagues, was not a loss for palaeontology and geology
alone. His two great manuscripts on Albania which contained important
ethnological material disappeared after his death and have remained
unpublished up to the present day. This is all the more regrettable
because no one else who lived in Albania for a longer period
of time then so vividly recorded and noted what he experienced
there. Nopcsa, with his almost ingenious curiosity, collected
and noted everything he came across in that country. The loss
of his diaries is a major tragedy. He had the privilege of experiencing
the 'old' Albania before the country was touched by 'civilization'
and before the old order with its customs and traditions had
disappeared. The combination of intellectual curiosity, the gift
of observation and eminent diligence which he possessed, made
him destined like no one else to record and pass on his visions
of this 'old' Albania. The difficulties of the age only enabled
him to accomplish this task in a fragmentary manner. The incomplete
manuscripts alone suffice to give him a place among the greatest
scholars of Albanian studies." (Robel 1966, p. 137,
162-163).
Robert Elsie
(1) cf. Tasnádi
Kubacska 1945, p. 275-277, Robel 1966, p. 135-136.
(2) Alexander Ular & Enrico
Insabato: Der erlöschende Halbmond. Türkische Enthüllungen
(Literarische Anstalt, Frankfurt 1909).
(3) Ferdinand François Bourbon
Orléans-Montpensier.
(4) Faik Bey Konitza (1875-1942),
Albanian publisher and patriot.
(5) Hilë Mosi (1885-1933),
Albanian poet and patriot.
(6) Dervish Hima (1873-1928), Albanian
publisher and patriot from Struga.
(7) Nikolla bey Ivanaj (1879- ca.
1948), Albanian publisher and writer from Montenegro
(8) Fan Noli, also known as Theofan
Stylian Noli (1882-1965), Albanian politician, church leader
and writer. He was Prime Minister of Albania in 1924 and later
founder of the Albanian Autocephalic Orthodox Church.
(9) Wilhelm, Fürst zu Wied
(1876-1945). |
Nopcsa.AlbanianPhotography.net
