page_title: Enver Hoxha
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Enver Hoxha / Early life
caption_attribution_description: House of Enver Hoxha in Gjirokaster (actually museum)
context_page_description: Enver Hoxha was an Albanian politician who served as the First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania, from 1941 until his death in 1985. He was also a member of Politburo of the Party of Labour of Albania, chairman of the Democratic Front of Albania, commander-in-chief of the armed forces from 1944 until his death. He served as the 22nd Prime Minister of Albania from 1944 to 1954 and at various times served as foreign minister and defence minister of People's Socialist Republic of Albania as well.
  Born in Gjirokastër in 1908, Hoxha became a teacher in grammar school in 1936. Following Italy's invasion of Albania, he joined the Party of Labour of Albania at its creation in 1941. Hoxha was elected First Secretary in March 1943 at the age of 34. Less than two years after the liberation of the country, the monarchy was abolished, King Zog was deposed, and Hoxha rose to power as the symbolic head of state of Albania.
context_section_description: Hoxha was born in Gjirokastër in southern Albania (then a part of the Ottoman Empire), the son of Halil Hoxha, a Muslim Tosk cloth merchant who travelled widely across Europe and the US, and Gjylihan (Gjylo) Hoxha née Çuçi.
  The Hoxha family was attached to the Bektashi Order. In 1916 his father brought him to seek the blessing of Baba Selim of the Zall Teqe.
  After elementary school, he followed his studies in the city senior high school "Liria". He started his studies at the Gjirokastër Lyceum in 1923. After the lyceum was closed, due to intervention of Eqrem Libohova Hoxha was awarded a state scholarship for the continuation of his studies in Korçë, at the French language Albanian National Lyceum until 1930.
  In 1930, Hoxha went to study at the University of Montpellier in France on a state scholarship for the faculty of natural science, but lost an Albanian state scholarship for neglecting his studies. He later went to Paris, where he presented himself to anti-Zogist immigrants as the brother-in-law of Bahri Omari.
  From 1935 to 1936, he was employed as a secretary at the Albanian consulate in Brussels. After returning to Albania, he worked as a contract teacher in the Gymnasium of Tirana. Hoxha taught French and morals in the Korça Liceum from 1937 to 1939 and also served as the caretaker of the school library.
  On 7 April 1939, Albania was invaded by Fascist Italy. The Italians established a puppet government, the Albanian Kingdom (1939–43), under Shefqet Vërlaci.  At the end of 1939, he was transferred to the Gjirokastra Gymnasium, but he soon returned to Tirana. He was helped by his best friend, Esat Dishnica, who introduced Hoxha to Dishnica's cousin Ibrahim Biçakçiu. Hoxha started to sleep in Biçakçiu's tobacco factory "Flora", and after a while Dishnica opened a shop with the same name, where Hoxha began working. He was a sympathizer of Korça's Communist Group.
caption: The house where Hoxha grew up in Gjirokastër
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