Part One
A historical perspective on the multi-faceted Albanian-German contacts and exchanges over the years
Memorie.al / “Bonn, through its exports to Albania, certainly can’t reap any great benefits. But in the political aspect, in the case of Albania, ever since the withdrawal of the Chinese, a large space has been left unexploited. The social and political order of Albania, of course, does not correspond to Western perceptions. This order, however, does not differ much from that of other socialist countries with which Bonn has long built good relations and contacts. In its policy to preserve the ‘status quo’ in the Balkans as much as possible and thus limit Moscow’s influence as much as possible, Bonn first and foremost relies on Yugoslavia. But we cannot have any doubt that an Albania completely independent of Moscow contributes to the stability of the Balkans, just as an uncommitted Yugoslavia does. It would have been a serious political mistake to continue to neglect this fact for a long time.”
This is what a West German journalist and a good connoisseur of the Balkans, Heiko Flottau, wrote in an article for “Sueddeutsche Zeitung” on 12.02.1982. It seems that this was the best synthesis of what the Germans expected from establishing relations with a country like Albania, at that time, the “black spot” of Europe.
Taking a cue from the renewed interest in recent days in the Albanian media and public opinion for the time, which is widely (and rightly) called “the lost chance” by many in Albania, namely the delayed (re)establishment of diplomatic relations between the Federal Republic of Germany and Albania in the autumn of 1987, I was prompted to bring a summary of materials and facts published in Germany, precisely at the moment of the establishment of these relations.
They constitute in themselves findings, facts, comments, analyses, and testimonies on the stage of these relations from a historical point of view and also try to find the reasons why they were realized so late!
Moving back in time, about 20 years ago, most of the materials scoured in the lines of the German press (many of which are being published for the first time in the Albanian press), everything seems more than interesting, considering the fact that Germany is now not only the economic locomotive in Europe, but also in politics, since it currently holds the EU presidency this year.
Meanwhile, Albania has also changed a lot since then, and much about the dark points regarding their establishment has been clarified thanks to the presence of its protagonists in the press.
In fact, this study does not try to deal much with the analysis of the facts or the reasons that led to these relations, or the way they were realized, much less to dwell on Strauss’s famous visits to Albania, which were in any case the culmination of efforts (not just individual ones of this great German political personality), but it wants to shed more light on Albanian-German relations over the centuries in many fields, and this viewed in the light of the facts found in German documents and studies, after a relatively long research.
Thus, we are helped by materials taken from the Library of the Bundestag, the German Federal Institute for “International and Eastern Studies” in Bonn, the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Albanian one, the German and German-speaking press and media, etc.
At the very beginning of a study dedicated to the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, the author Wolf Oschlies emphasizes, among other things: “…The purpose of my study is to present Bonn’s newest diplomatic partner, Albania – the most isolated, most stubborn, most backward, most totalitarian, and at the same time also the most independent country in Europe,” referring in fact to another scholar, Hennig von Loewis.
Below he raises three questions: What kind of country is Albania? How has its political path been shaped in modern and postmodern history? What tradition of German-Albanian relations can be testified to? At the same time, the very logical questions raised by him seem interesting. “Why was diplomatic relations established so late, 15 years later than with other Eastern states?” – He notes.
How informed has the German reader (of newspapers in particular) been about such obscure regions of Eastern Europe, and to what extent have German authors preferred to explicitly address the problems of this region, offering basic knowledge for a reader who is almost completely uninformed and perhaps even uninterested?
These and much more will be answered in the course of the following article, which, as we emphasized, tries more to present the historical course of these relations, in order to better understand how we reached their establishment. But in the following, we will certainly also reserve a place for the political causes and analyses that scrutinize the period after the Second World War.
Even in the times when Germany had become the bridge of cultural ties between Eastern and Western Europe, Albania remained foreign and unknown to the Germans! Although, in fact, there had been multilateral ties for centuries. From old chronicles, for example, it has been made known to us that among the troops that helped Skanderbeg, a unit (i.e., a military detachment) with German fighters was often present.
Shadows of doubt have been cast on their role and influence in modern times, but it is an undeniable fact that in Albania there are families with the surnames Allamani and Gjermeni. In fact, this finding made by German researchers truly coincides with the forms of surnames relatively known in our country, which in dialect are perhaps also found in the form Gjermëni.
Even the surname Valteri (let’s remember here the assassin of Zog I, Beqir Valteri) is of German origin, as no other explanation for his origin is found, and specialists and etymologists fully approve this thesis. In the 17th century, German princes, including Valenshtajn, encouraged Albanians to rise in revolt, in order to reach the crown of Byzantium as soon as possible.
For one hundred years, from 1638 to 1737, leaders and commanders of German armies fought together with Albanians and (re)conquered entire parts of the country’s territory taken by the Turks and Venetians.
INTEREST IN THE ALBANIAN LANGUAGE
In addition to political and military interests for Albania, there were also scientific interests. For the Albanian language in particular, it is worth mentioning the contributions of Leibniz and the scientist from Leipzig, Thunmann, who in 1774, tried to publish a detailed study on the Albanian language.
At almost the same time, the German geographer A.F. Byshing (also nicknamed Strabon of Germany), published two maps of the “Kingdom of Albania,” which he presented as a whole, with areas stretching from today’s Montenegro to Thessaly, occupying almost the entire southwestern space of the Balkans.
It seems that in this case we were dealing with a well-wisher of the “land of eagles,” since at that time in fact there was no “Kingdom of Albania,” and this is mentioned at the end of the sheets in a special explanation.
In 1835, the German philologist Ritter von Xylander, scientifically processed the first grammar of the Albanian language. At the same time, the Austrian consul born in Frankfurt, Johann von Hahn (1811-1869) undertook a series of trips through Albania. As a result, in 1853-54, the famous “Albanesische Studien” saw the light of publication, which for centuries has been considered a work on which many other subsequent works are based.
In a similar way, Gustav Mayer, from Upper Silesia, Weigand from Leipzig, and also the famous Viennese Albanologists, Norbert Jockl and Maximilian Lambert, worked, whose numerous works shed light on the problems of Albanian folklore and language, becoming a tribune for conveying the image of the Albanians to the continent.
GERMAN GEOGRAPHERS AND ARCHAEOLOGISTS IN ALBANIA
The philologists were not left behind by the geographers and archaeologists. Thus, in 1844, Joseph Myler, a German doctor from Prague, who had stayed for several years in Southern Albania, published a detailed work with descriptions of the geography of this country. Works in this scientific field were published relatively a lot, until the beginning of the First World War, among which it is worth mentioning the excellent work of the engineer Karl Shtajnmec.
Based on the scientific works of von Hahn, Heinrich Kieperet later published a map of Albania in Berlin in 1867, which became known as very accurate. Especially during the First World War and later, Germans and Austrians worked together to present the geographical terrain of Albania in cartography, based on the most accurate measurements possible. In this aspect, that is, with measurements on the ground, the contribution of Colonel von Mylius was especially distinguished, followed also by the Berlin geographer, Herbert Louis.
Valuable works to be taken as an example in the sector of statistics about Albania were also published by the geographer Franz Zajner. The geological developments on Albanian soil were studied by H. Vetter and Ernst Novak, a work which was then documented in a special map from 1928.
GERMANS AND THE HISTORY OF ALBANIA
German interest in the history of Albania also began relatively early. Thus, Philip Fallmerayer (1790-1861), undertook research on the history of Albania, where he focused on the period of the Middle Ages; meanwhile, G. Zippel dealt with antiquity, and with the time of Skanderbeg in particular, the contribution of Julius Pisko was distinguished. Georg Veith studied in Albania the influence and remains of the Roman period from the time of Caesar.
Meanwhile, archaeological studies in Albania were undertaken first and foremost by Austrian scientists, such as Carl Patsch, Theodor von Ippen, C. Prashniker, and A. Shober, whose works were based on research that had cost a lot of time and on the descriptions of their frequent trips to Albania.
OUR FLORA WAS STUDIED BY GERMAN BIOLOGISTS
Precisely, as the founder of the scientific treatment of Albania and the Albanians, we cannot fail to mention the contribution of the biologist August Griesbach, who in 1841, published a book with detailed information on Albanian flora and nature.
LITERATURE AND PUBLICISM ABOUT ALBANIA
In addition to scientific activity, there was also an eager literary and journalistic activity, where the focus was precisely on the Albanians and their country.
A great influence on the image of Albania for the Germans has been given especially by Karl May with his work “Travel to the Land of the Albanians” (Durch das Land der Skipetaren), which in fact conveys a fabricated and stylized image about the Albanians and Albania, which in fact has often encountered the opposition of critics.
But he, as a good scholar and connoisseur of his work emphasizes, had the main merit in making the notion of “Albanian” known throughout the Western European, northern, and wider literary, academic, and cultural world.
In comparison to him, a more professional and realistic contribution was given, on the contrary, by the baroness from Munich, von Godin, who, due to her numerous trips to Albania, brought in a detailed and realistic way valuable descriptions of the people, the country, and the language of the “sons of the eagle.”
During the First World War, German interest in Albania multiplied, and as early as 1913, Egon Ervin Kish published his work “Eilige Balkanfaht” (“Quick Trip through the Balkans”), which is still considered today the most realistic and profound reportage ever done about Albania.
Ten years after the First World War (1927-1928), there were two other German-speaking authors who published literary works and reportages about Albania: the Austrian Adolf Bernatzik and Joseph Roth. At this time, we could freely talk about a so-called “Albanian-German cooperation.”
POLITICAL INTEREST IN THE ALBANIANS
Austria, in 1615, had declared a protectorate over Albanian Catholics, and this role was first and foremost testified in the founding and support of confessional schools, where for the first time Albanian was also taught (meanwhile, of course, German was also taught), in the northern areas of the country. It should be emphasized that in no other area of the country was this thing allowed by the Turks.
Meanwhile, moving through time and passing to the period of the leadership (in fact, very respected, but also debated in Germany), of the Chancellor of the Reich, Otto von Bismarck, it seems that German interest in Albania was very pale and thus he himself also negatively influenced the determination of its fate in those difficult moments for the Albanians at the end of the 19th century.
After the constitution of the Albanian state in 1912, the number of Albanians who went to study in Germany experienced a gradual increase, and this development was even very little interrupted during the First World War. After the end of the First World War, Albania was looking for necessary economic assistance.
In fact, the Germans state, it was Italy that often gave it a considerable economic aid, but against the latter, Albania always maintained a sense of distrust because of its colonial ambitions. Thus, it was first and foremost the contribution of Germany that could be more significant in this regard.
Meanwhile, from the materials published in German magazines and newspapers of the time, it emerges that; “support for agriculture, the provision of a minimal level of infrastructure and a road network for a country, which until then was very backward, as well as the work for the determination and exploitation of the country’s mineral resources, were the fields where the Germans were most distinguished.”
They, says Wolf Oschlies in a comment of his in a study published in 1987, took on these tasks and carried them out successfully. They had to compete with other rivals with whom Albania had started to cooperate, undergoing a new era of economic and political liberalism, where all the potent European states and beyond were thus invited to contribute and compete.
ZOG CALLED ON THE GERMANS FOR HELP WITH OIL
Meanwhile, we encounter a fact perhaps unknown to the general public, when the contribution of German geologists whom Zog called to discover oil resources, first in 1921, is highly valued, performing this work successfully and sometimes their work did not bring only success in the economic aspect, but also in the scientific one, as for example, in the drafting of accurate geological scientific maps.
In the German press meanwhile, in the period between the two world wars, a certain “Professor N” was often mentioned, who in this regard is believed to have realized almost mythical projects. And in this case, it is believed that it could have been only about Franz Baron Nopca, who over 12 years gained fame, as a perfect geologist and geographer, who conveyed a lot about Albania of that time to Europe.
GERMANS, PENETRATION INTO THE ALBANIAN ECONOMY
In a word: we can say that in Albania, the Germans had significantly penetrated, and this was seen to be applied especially in the economic plan, starting from the lighting of the streets of Tirana (by the well-known firm “Siemens-Schuckert”) to the founding of Albanian civil aviation (with the lines offered by the well-known German company “Aero Lloyd”) in 1925, leaving concrete traces of German activity in Albania.
Skipping a period, which in the relations between the two countries is often passed over in silence, namely that during the Second World War (although for many reasons it fully deserves special attention), it is worth moving to another stage, focusing directly on the period that came after and see what time reserved after the new political, economic, and ideological realities for both (and even starting from now on, for all three) countries.
TIRANA – EAST BERLIN AND BONN
Each in their own way, both German states were more than convinced that Albania was the most isolated, most stubborn, most backward, and at the same time also the most independent country in Europe (it seems that this conclusion of the Germans refers in fact precisely to the late 70s and 80s, since Albania had already left behind even its close ties with China and was now moving with its own forces).
At first, it seemed that it was the German Democratic Republic that was better positioned in relations with the Albanians, now in a new era, in their clear ideological positioning, on one side of the iron curtain that fell over Europe after the Second World War.
Thus, on December 2, 1949, just eight weeks after the founding of the German Democratic Republic, they established diplomatic relations at the envoy level, which were turned into embassies only when the Assembly of the (at that time) People’s Republic of Albania, on March 18, 1955, declared that “the state of war with Germany” had ended. / Memorie.al
To be continued in the next issue
