Zog I (born Ahmed Muhtar Bey Zogolli; 8 October 1895 – 9 April 1961) was an Albanian statesman and aristocrat who served as the leader of Albania from 1922 to 1939. At age 27, he first served as Albania's youngest ever Prime Minister (1922–1924), then as president (1925–1928), and finally as King (1928–1939).
Born to an aristocratic beylik family in Ottoman Albania, Zogolli was active in Albanian politics from a young age and fought on the side of Austria-Hungary during the First World War. In 1922, he adopted the name Ahmed Zogu. He held various ministerial posts in the Albanian government before being driven into exile in June 1924, but returned later in the year with Yugoslav and White Russian military support and was subsequently elected prime minister. Zogu was elected president in January 1925 and vested with dictatorial powers, with which he enacted major domestic reforms, suppressed civil liberties, and struck an alliance with Benito Mussolini's Fascist Italy. In September 1928, Albania was proclaimed a monarchy and he acceded to the throne as Zog I, King of the Albanians. He married Geraldine Apponyi de Nagy-Appony in 1938, and their only child, Leka, was born a year later.
