Early Photography in Albania
Robert Elsie
Baron Franz Nopcsa
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).
The Viennese scholar who almost became King of Albania:
Baron Franz Nopcsa
and his contribution to Albanian studies