Where was Tesla from? Is Nikola Tesla Albanian?
Confusion about Tesla’s Origin for Over 100 Years:
The New York Times once printed that the genius inventor was “a young Austro-Hungarian” (July 9, 1891) and because Tesla’s religion was described as “Greek Orthodox” in the first biography, readers might wonder if Tesla was Greek (John O’Neill).
With time, the facts have become clear.
CNN, MSNBC, FOX, and PBS have published recent articles about the forgotten inventor, who can best be described as Serbian-American. Tesla was a first-generation immigrant who lived half of his life in the United States after becoming a citizen.
Trust in mainstream media is at an all-time low, but when FOX and CNN agree on something, it’s worth noting:
CNN, 2019: Nikola Tesla Inventions that Should have Made the Inventor Famous… by Lauren Kent
FOX, 2023: On this Day in History…Nikola Tesla…
by Christine Rousselle
NBC News, 2014: Nikola Tesla vs Thomas Edison: Who was the Better Inventor? by Tia Ghose
But Wasn’t Tesla Born in Croatia?
There has long been tragic friction between neighboring Serbia and Croatia, and more words of wisdom from Tesla proclaim “We are all one.”
(Source of quote: The Problem of Increasing Human Energy by Nikola Tesla).
When Tesla was alive, he was interviewed countless times in American newspapers and magazines. One profile by Arthur Brisbane in 1894 details Tesla’s Serbian heritage as one of the main themes of the interview. In an 1898 interview Tesla was asked directly about his nationality, to which he replied:
“I am Serbian—not from the Kingdom of Serbia, but from the outskirts. Near Montenegro…"
—Nikola Tesla
Source:
The Criterion (Magazine), November 19, 1898
Tesla Talks and Confirms His Astounding Story;
An Interview of Nikola Tesla by H.W. Phillips
An Ancient Region:
The land north of Greece fell under the Roman Empire and then the Byzantine Empire. This land was such an essential part of ancient Rome, that dozens of emperors were born and lived here.
This became the kingdom of Serbia in the late medieval period. Medieval Serbia touched virtually all land immediately north of Greece, and was the most influential power of the region for over a hundred years before succumbing to Ottoman conquest for a long stretch of time.
When Tesla was born in the small village of Smiljan in 1856, this was land that fell at the edges between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the still-present Ottomans, and had been left unsettled by the Hungarians. Serbian people gathered along this narrow fringe in the aftermath of centuries of brutal wars and subjection by the Ottomans.
At this time, Croatia did not exist as an independent state, and it would not become one until much later in 1941 and then again in 1991. Croatia’s origins as a distinct culture point to their own medieval kingdom, smaller but pre-dating the Medieval Serbian Kingdom. Linguists from the region, however, will walk a political tightrope when they carefully explain that Croatian and Serbian are separate dialects of the same shared language.
Austria, Hungary, and Slovenia all laid claim to land that is now Croatia in a tug of war as the Ottomans waned and the Yugoslav state then emerged. Now, in the aftermath of bitter Yugoslav Wars, a distinct Croatian culture is here to stay.
All this creates the paradoxical situation that it is both accurate and inaccurate to say that “Tesla was born in Croatia." So while we forgive our Croatian friends for claiming him, we should not forget to ask Tesla for his answer:
Source:
The Criterion; November 19, 1898
Tesla Talks and Confirms His Astounding Story;
An Interview of Nikola Tesla by H.W. Phillips
Montenegro and Serbia share a long history of political and cultural heritage.
Here a pre-2006 map of the Balkan region reflects coastal Montenegro as still part of the former Yugoslav Union, at this time also known as the Union of Serbia and Montenegro, or still simply Yugoslavia.
This was not the only time Tesla spoke about his Serbian heratage.
Story continued further down page…
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Ellis Oswalt is an American writer and producer in New York City, and the author of Tesla’s Words. He has been used as a source by the Australian Associated Press to help determine the validity of fake Tesla quotes going viral online. Tap here to find out more.
Continued:
After the New York Times called Tesla a “young Austro-Hungarian” in 1891, the newspaper later shifted to describe him as Serbian in a 1974 article titled Yugoslav Honors for Nike Tesla (April 14, 1974, Page 12).
In the 1920s and 30s, Tesla did his part to encourage unity in the newly formed state of Yugoslavia. In telegram communications with Croat political leader Vladko Maček, Tesla supposedly said:
“I am equally proud of my Serb origin and my Croat homeland.”
(A full transcript of the telegram could not be found to share here, and the communication was most likely not in English.)
An elderly Tesla was visited by King Peter II of Yugoslavia in 1942, the final year of Tesla’s life. According to King Peter’s 1954 memoirs, A King’s Heritage, Tesla urged him to stay focused in preserving the Yugoslav state, instructing the King: “I am proud to be a Serbian and a Yugoslav… Preserve the unity of all Yugoslavs—the Serbs, the Croats, and Slovenes.”
Was Nikola Tesla’s Mother Albanian?
Internet sources sometimes claim that Tesla’s mother was Croatian or Albanian, and this is usually accompanied by a photo of a boy who is not Nikola Tesla. We can let Tesla himself put these rumors to rest—In a private letter sent to journalist George Mungas who was writing an article about Tesla’s ethnic background in 1921, Tesla said:
“Of course you know that I am Serbian, coming from the oldest stock inasmuch as my mother’s name can be traced almost as far back as any other in our race.”
Both sides of Tesla’s family were clergy of the Serbian Orthodox faith, as Tesla himself was in line to be a priest, a fate he escaped after begging his father to study engineering according to Tesla’s memoirs.
An image often said to be a young Tesla in Albanian clothing (left). When compared to a genuine photo of Nikola Tesla (right) the shape of the ear is notably different, among other features.
Tap image to read an interview with Ellis Oswalt by Serbian news Red Portal:
"A startling peek into the mind of a true genius."
—Kirkus Reviews
5/5 stars
"TESLA’S WORDS is a short book… yet readers will learn as much about Tesla from this as they might from a scholarly 600-page biography."
—IndieReader
”…Reading of this book was a spiritual experience.”
—Dr. Vujo Knezevic
Neurosurgeon;
Tesla Forum of Western Australia
“Tesla in his own words. Great read by Ellis Oswalt.”
—John Nosta
WHO Roster of Experts; Google Health Advisory Board;
former Chief Creative Officer & Chief Strategic Officer of Ogilvy CommonHealth
Kansas City Journal-Post; September 10, 1933
Tremendous New Power Soon to Be Unleashed; An Interview by Carol Bird.
Experiments with Alternating Currents of Very High Frequency, and their Methods of Artificial Illumination; May 20, 1891
A Speech for the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, Columbia University; By Nikola Tesla
Electrical Experimenter; Feb, 1919
My Inventions: Part I; by Nikola Tesla