Kingdom of Albania
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Mbretëria Shqiptare 1928–1939 1943–1944 Regno albanese 1939–1943 Kingdom of Albania |
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Motto : "Atdheu mbi te gjitha" ( Albanian for "fatherland above all") |
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| Constitution |
Basic statute of the Kingdom of Albania 1928–1939 1943–1944 Basic statute of the Kingdom of Albania 1939–1943 |
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| Official language |
Albanian Italian (1939-1943) |
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| Capital | Tirana | ||||
| Form of government |
Kingdom (de jure) Protectorate of Italy 1939–1943 (de facto) Protectorate of the German Empire 1943–1944 (de facto) |
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| Form of government |
Constitutional monarchy (de jure) one-party system (de facto) |
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| Head of state |
King Zogu I. (1928–1939) King Viktor Emanuel III. of Italy (1939–1943) High Councilor (1943–1944) |
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| Head of government | prime minister | ||||
| surface | 28,748 km² (1930) | ||||
| Residents | 1,003,097 (1930) 1,070,003 (1939) |
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| currency |
Albanian Lek Italian Lira (1941–1943) |
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| founding |
September 1, 1928 (Zogus proclaimed King of the Albanians) |
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| resolution |
April 17, 1939 Personal union with Italy October 20, 1943 End of the status of 1939 and German occupation April 25, 1944 Second Congress of the National Liberation Front |
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| National anthem |
Himni i Flamurit Marcia Reale (1939–1943) |
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The Kingdom of Albania ( Albanian Mbretëria Shqiptare , Italian Regno albanese , literally Albanian Kingdom ) existed from September 1, 1928 to 1944. From April 7, 1939 to 1943, the Kingdom of Albania was united in personal union with the Kingdom of Italy and was after the surrender Italy occupied by German troops from 1943 to 1944.
founding
When Albania became independent from the Ottoman Empire as a result of the First Balkan War , it was established as a principality , which existed until 1925. The first parliamentary elections were held in February and March 1921, followed by several unstable governments with no influence. In December 1924, Ahmet Zogu put himself to power with Yugoslav help, whereupon he handed over the Sveti Naum monastery on Lake Ohrid to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia , which is now part of Macedonia . On January 15, 1925, Ahmet Zogu had the principality converted to the Republic of Albania by parliament and he was elected President on January 31, 1925 . The republic existed until September 1, 1928, when Ahmet Zogu abolished the republic and crowned himself King of the Albanians . This should represent a restoration of the rule of the Albanian national hero Skanderbeg from the 15th century.
development
Zogu ended the close ties to its northern neighbor Yugoslavia and started looking for creditors for his government. However , it met with little interest from the major European powers and Italy saw it as an opportunity to expand its influence to Albania and the rest of the Balkans . Italy gained control of the economy and raw materials of Albania through the conclusion of two Tirana Pacts on November 27, 1926 and November 22, 1927, which in turn became more and more dependent on Italy and in the end could no longer make any domestic political decision without the consent of Italy.
resolution
Benito Mussolini had plans to expand in the Balkans since taking office; since May 1938 he had concrete plans to invade Albania. After the annexation of Austria, he saw the danger that Hitler wanted to expand in south-eastern Europe . Hitler staged the Anschluss of Austria on March 12, 1938 and had Czechoslovakia occupied on March 15, 1939 (" smashing the rest of Czechia "). Hitler had not informed Mussolini that the rest of the Czech Republic had been broken up (although the two had met in person two days earlier); According to a diary of Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano , Mussolini was clearly angry about this.
Victor Emmanuel III saw Mussolini's expansion plan in the Balkans as too high a risk and criticized him. Nonetheless, Mussolini issued an ultimatum to Zogu on March 25, 1939, and when Zogu refused to place Albania under even greater dependence on Italy, Italian troops invaded Albania on April 7, 1939 and occupied the country five months before the outbreak of World War II . King Zogu fled to Greece with his wife Geraldine von Apponyi and their son Leka Zogu . On April 12, 1939, the Albanian parliament voted for union with Italy. Albania was converted into an Italian protectorate and Victor Emanuel III. in personal union and installed a fascist government under Shefqet Vërlaci . On December 3, 1941, Shefqet Vërlaci was released and replaced by Mustafa Kruja .
When Italy signed the Cassibile armistice with the Allies on September 3, 1943 , Germany occupied Albania until the end of the Second World War.
Aftermath
After the Germans were expelled by the Red Army in 1945 and the Second World War ended, communists took power in the country and installed a Stalinist government.
Zogu never renounced the throne, but did not return to Albania either. Zogu was refused entry and had to spend the rest of his life in exile in Greece and then in Paris , where he died in 1961. There his son took the title Leka I. King of the Albanians in the same year and returned to Albania in 1993, where he announced the annexation of Albanian territories and a referendum on the future form of government. However, the Albanians decided to keep the republic, which Leka did not recognize.
See also
literature
- Peter Bartl: Albania. From the Middle Ages to the present. Verlag Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 1995, ISBN 3-7917-1451-1 .
- Johannes Faensen: The Albanian National Movement . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1980, ISBN 3-447-02120-9 ( Balkanological Publications 4).
- Duncan Heaton-Armstrong : The six month kingdom. Albania 1914. Tauris, London et al. 2005, ISBN 1-85043-761-0 .
- Thomas Kacza: Between Feudalism and Stalinism. Albanian history of the 19th and 20th centuries. Verlag Trafo, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-89626-611-8 .
- Hans-Joachim Pernack: Problems of the economic development of Albania. Studies of the economic and socio-economic change process from 1912/13 to the present. Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft, Munich 1972, ( Südosteuropa-Studien 18, ISSN 0081-9166 ).
- Owen Pearson: Albania in the Twentieth Century, A History: Volume I. Albania and King Zog, Independence, Republic ab Monarchy 1908–1939. Tauris Publishers, New York 2004, ISBN 1-84511-013-7 ( limited preview on Google books).
- Hanns Dieter Schanderl: The Albania policy of Austria-Hungary and Italy 1877-1908 . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1971, ISBN 3-447-01355-9 ( Albanian Research 9), (also: Diss. Univ. Munich).
- Michael Schmidt-Neke: Development and expansion of the royal dictatorship in Albania (1912–1939). Formation of government, mode of rule and power elite in a young Balkan state. Oldenbourg, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-486-54321-0 ( Southeast European Works 84).
- Stavro Skendi: The Albanian National Awakening. 1878-1912. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ 1967.
- Giovanni Zamboni: Mussolini's Policy of Expansion in the Balkans. Italy's Albania policy from the 1st to the 2nd Tirana Pact in the context of the Italian-Yugoslav conflict of interests and the Italian “imperial” aspirations in Southeast Europe. Buske, Hamburg 1970 ( Hamburg historical studies 2, ISSN 0072-9558 ), (also: Diss., Univ. Hamburg).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Milčo Balevski: Balkanskite politički priliki i diplomatskite bitki za manastirot Sveti Naum . Skopje 1984.
- ↑ Hubert Neuwirth: Resistance and Collaboration in Albania 1939–1944 . Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 978-3-447-05783-7 , pp. 26 ( online ).
- ^ Winston Churchill: The Second World War (Six Volume Boxed Set) . Mariner Books, Boston 1986, ISBN 0-395-41685-X , pp. 314 ( online ).
- ^ A b David T. Zabecki: World War II in Europe: an encyclopedia . Garland Pub, New York 1999, ISBN 0-8240-7029-1 , pp. 1353 ( online ).
- ^ Owen Pearson: Albania in the Twentieth Century, A History: Volume II: Albania in Occupation and War, 1939-45 . IB Tauris, London 2006, ISBN 1-84511-104-4 , pp. 167 ( online ).
- ↑ Leka I wants to save Albania as monarch. Berliner Zeitung, April 14, 1997, accessed on January 9, 2010 .
- ↑ "I am the King of Albania". Berliner Zeitung, July 5, 1997, accessed on January 9, 2010 .