Memorable World History/Authors

Baron Franz Nopsca

Baron Franz Nopcsa von Felső-Szilvás (also Baron Nopcsa von Felső-Szilvás, Baron Nopcsa, Ferenc Nopcsa, báró felsőszilvási Nopcsa Ferenc, Baron Franz Nopcsa, and Franz Baron Nopcsa) (May 3, 1877 – April 25, 1933) was a Austro-Hungarian-born aristocrat, adventurer, scholar, geologist, paleontologist and albanologist. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of paleobiology, and first described the theory of insular dwarfism. He was also a specialist on Albanian studies and completed the first geological map of northern Albania.

Life

Nopcsa was born in 1877 in Săcel (Szacsal), Transylvania, which at that time was part of Austria-Hungary, to the Nopcsa aristocratic family of magyarised Romanian origin. In 1895 Nopcsa's younger sister Ilona discovered dinosaur bones at the family estate at Szentpéterfalva in Săcel. He shared the bones with Professor Eduard Suess, who encouraged him to study them. This led to Nopcsa's enrollment at the University of Vienna, where he started studying geology in 1897. He advanced quickly in his studies; he gave his first academic lecture in 1899 at the age of twenty-two. He acquired a PhD in geology in 1903 from the university by geologically mapping the area surrounding the family estate.

On 20 November 1906 Nopcsa met the then eighteen-year-old Bajazid Elmaz Doda in Bucharest and hired him as his secretary. Nopcsa later recounted this meeting in his memoir:

"[H]e has been the only person who has truly loved me and in whom I had full confidence, never doubting for a moment that he would misuse my trust."

In addition to Mesozoic reptiles, Nopcsa's interests included nationhood for Albania, then a mere province of the Turkish-Balkan Ottoman Empire, but aspiring to independence. He was one of the few outsiders who ventured into the mountainous areas in the north of Albania. He soon learned the Albanian dialects and customs. Eventually, he had good relations with the leaders of the nationalist Albanian resistance against the Turks who occupied the region. Nopcsa gave passionate speeches and smuggled in weapons.

In 1907 on one of his expeditions into the Albanian mountains, he was held hostage by the bandit Mustafa Lita, together with Bajazid Doda. Lita demanded ten thousand Turkish pounds for his release. In his memoirs Nopcsa described his elaborate plan to get out of this situation, which involved being taken to Prizren as a spy. He was eventually rescued by Doda's father, who had brought 'ten armed retainers'.

In 1912 the Balkan states joined forces to drive out the Turks. This was successful, but the newly liberated states were immediately plunged into internal conflicts. During these Balkan Wars, Nopcsa acted as a spy for Austria-Hungary. Out of these conflicts, Albania arose as an independent state, which needed a king. Nopcsa volunteered, suggesting he would use the money he would gain from marrying a rich American girl to fund the war efforts, however, to no avail.

Later, during the First World War, Nopcsa again acted as a spy for Austria-Hungary. He also led a group of Albanian wartime volunteers. However, with the defeat of Austria-Hungary at the end of the war, Nopcsa's native Transylvania was ceded to Romania. As a consequence, the Baron of Felső-Szilvás lost his estates and other possessions in 1920. Compelled to find paid employment, he landed a job as the head of the Hungarian Geological Institute in 1925.

But Nopcsa's tenure in the Geological Institute was short-lived; he soon became bored of the sedentary job. He went to Europe on a motorcycle journey together with his long-standing Albanian secretary and lover Bajazid Elmaz Doda to study fossils. He later returned to Vienna where he ran into financial difficulties again and was distracted in his work. To cover his debts, he sold his fossil collection to the Natural History Museum in London. Nopcsa struggled with illness, to the extent that he had to give a lecture in a wheelchair in 1928. Soon Nopcsa became depressed. Finally, in 1933, he fatally shot first his partner, Bayazid Elmas Doda, after having laced his tea with sleeping powder. He then wrote a suicide note, where he states the reason for his actions a nervous breakdown, and shot himself. He was cremated at Feuerhalle Simmering in Vienna, and his ashes buried there (Section 3, Ring 3, Group 8, No. 44). In his suicide note, he describes his reasons for killing his lover: