Lajos Thallóczy was a Hungarian historian, a politician and diplomat, the head of the joint finance department of the Dual Monarchy, a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the president of the Hungarian Historical Society from 1913 to 1916 and a renowned albanologist. As a diplomat in Austria-Hungary he played a very significant role in the Balkans as he was considered an expert on the history of the region. He was one of the most important advisers to Gyula Andrássy and Béni Kállay in questions of Balkan policy and even to the emperor Franz Joseph and to the minister of the government. His academic work has produced respected results in the study of south Slavic countries and he is regarded as the founder of modern Hungarian researches of the Balkans.

Theodor Anton Max Ippen was an Albanologist and diplomat from Austria-Hungary. Ippen belonged to the group of Albanologists who published their works on Albania through the state-financed institutes of Austria-Hungary in order to create the Albanian national consciousness which he believed would be beneficial for Dual Monarchy. Ippen supported the establishment of an independent nation-state of Albanians. He served as diplomat in Shkoder, Pljevlja, Istanbul, Jerusalem, Athens and London where he advised ambassador of Austria-Hungary during London Conference which ended with signing of the London treaty and a decision to establish the Principality of Albania reached on 29 July 1913. During the period between 1921 and 1927, he was a member of the International Danube Commission.