Oliver Jens Schmitt

Oliver Jens Schmitt (born 15 February 1973 in Basel) is a professor of South-East European history at Vienna University since 2005. He is a member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.His book Skanderbeg. Der neue Alexander auf dem Balkan, a critical biography of George Castrioti-Skanderbeg, caused a hot debate in Albania. A Swiss national daily newspaper Tages-Anzeiger published Schmitt's interview given to Enver Robelli in Tirana on 25 February 2009, in which it is emphasized that Schmitt claims that Skanderbeg's mother Voisava was Serbian, a member of the Branković family and that the Kastrioti surname probably is derived from Greek word kastron (fort). He was accused of committing sacrilege and sullying the Albanian national honor. Ardian Klosi, who translated his book from German to Albanian, was accused of treason.Brigadier General of the Albanian Armed Forces and Internal Affairs Minister of Albania, Sandër Lleshaj, in response wrote a book criticizing the work of Schmitt, addressing chronological, structural and logical errors mainly dealing with the topic of medieval warfare. Schmitt, in response to critics, said that he had never claimed Skanderbeg was Serbian and furthermore states that he considers him to have been an Albanian.