Hans Erich Thunmann, a Swedish historian, passed away in Sweden. He was one of the first albanologists and a professor at the University of Halle in Germany. Born in Sweden in 1746, his interactions with students and merchants from Eastern and Southeastern European countries, including Albanians, sparked his interest in studying the language and history of those regions. In his work “Untersuchungen über die Geschichte der östlichen europäischen Völker” (“Investigations into the history of the peoples of Eastern Europe,” Leipzig, 1774), which remains influential, Hans Thunmann made the first scientific attempt to explain the origin of the Albanians and their language. Drawing from historical evidence found in Greco-Latin and Byzantine sources, Thunmann concluded that the medieval Albanians were the indigenous successors of the ancient Illyrian population. Unlike the Daco-Thracian ancestors of the Romanians, the Illyrians were not Romanized, nor were they displaced by later populations. Thunmann provided a historical narrative of medieval Albanians as a unified ethno-cultural entity and a distinct political force based on Byzantine sources. As evidence of the Albanian language, Thunmann included in his work the dictionary of Teodor Kavalioti, given to him by Konstantin Xhehani, a knowledgeable man from Voskopoja whom he met in Halle. Despite the nascent state of Balkan studies at the time, Thunmann’s work helped establish a scientific foundation for understanding the formation of the Albanian people and their language.(In the photo: Cover of the work “Research on the history of the peoples of Eastern Europe”, Leipzig, 1774.)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 3 , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2009, page 2763.
Photo: © https://tiparituriromanesti.wordpress.com/2018/04/17/johann-thunmann-cercetari-asupra-istoriei-popoarelor-din-europa-de-rasarit-leipzig-1774/#jp-carousel-858
Graphic processing: AHCF
