Konstantinos Tsatsos

Konstantinos Tsatsos
President of Greece
In office 19 July 1975 – 10 May 1980
Prime Minister	Konstantinos Karamanlis
Preceded by	Michail Stasinopoulos
Succeeded by	Konstantinos Karamanlis
Personal details
Born	(1899-07-01)1 July 1899 Athens, Greece
Died	8 October 1987(1987-10-08) (aged 88) Athens, Greece
Political party	Liberal Party (Before 1955) National Radical Union (1955–1967) Independent (1967–1974) New Democracy (1974–1987)
Spouse(s)	Ioanna Seferiadou
Alma mater	University of Athens Heidelberg University

Konstantinos Tsatsos (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Τσάτσος; July 1, 1899 – October 8, 1987) was a revered Greek diplomat, professor of law, scholar and politician. He served as the second President of the Third Hellenic Republic from 1975 to 1980.

Life

He was born in Athens in 1899. After graduating from the Law School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in 1918 he joined the diplomatic corps. After completing his doctoral studies (1924-1928) in Heidelberg, Weimar Republic Germany, he returned to Greece where he became a professor of law in 1933. In 1940, he was arrested and exiled for opposing the 4th of August Regime under Prime Minister of Greece Ioannis Metaxas. During the Axis occupation of Greece during World War II, Tsatsos participated in the Greek Resistance and then he fled to the Middle East, where the exiled Greek government was seated.

After the end of World War II, in 1945 he returned to Greece and entered politics and became minister for the first time, serving as Interior Minister in the first cabinet of Vice Admiral Petros Voulgaris (8 April – 11 August 1945).^[1] In 1946, when he decided to participate more actively in the politics of Greece, he resigned from his post National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and then he became a member of the Liberal Party. After the formation of the National Radical Union by Constantine Karamanlis, in 1955 he became a member of the party and one of the closest colleagues of Karamanlis, although, ideologically, he was a centrist-liberal and not a conservative.

He served as a member of parliament and in various ministerial positions until the Greek military junta of 1967-1974. Under the first premiership of Karamanlis (1955-1963) he served for many years as Minister of Public Administration. After the Metapolitefsi in 1974, he was elected again as member of the Hellenic Parliament and became Minister for Culture. In 1975, he was elected President of the Republic by the parliament. He retired after serving his five-year term. He died in 1987 in Athens. He is buried in the First Cemetery. He was survived by his wife, Ioanna née Seferiádou, the sister of the Nobel laureate poet George Seferis.

Tsatsos as a scholar

Konstantinos Tsatsos served as professor of the philosophy of law from 1933 since 1946, when he entered politics.
Since 1962 he was a member of the Greek Academy. His vast writing work includes textbooks of legal theory, surveys on philosophy and history, as well as literary works, poems, essays and translations of ancient Greek and Roman classics. In 1974, he presided over the parliamentary commission that submitted the first draft of the new constitution.

Writings on legal theory

Ioanna Seferiádou, wife

• Der Begriff des positiven Rechts, Heidelberg: Weiss'sche Universitäts-Buchhandlung, 1928
• The Problem of the Interpretation of Law, Athens: Sakkoulas, 1978 (in Greek)
• The problem of the Sources of Law, Athens: Papadogiannis, 1941 (in Greek)
• Introduction to Legal Science, Athens: Papazisis, 1945 (in Greek)
• Studies on the Philosophy of Law, Athens: Ikarosa, 1960 (in Greek)
• "Society and the Law", in Archive of Philosophy and Positive Sciences (1935) (in Greek)
• "Le Droit et la société", in Droit, Morale, Moeurs, IIe Annuaire de l'Institut International de Philosophie du Droit et de Sociologie Juridique, Paris, 1936
• "Contract as Legal Rule", in volume for K. Triantafillopoulos, Athens, 1959 (in Greek)
• "Qu'est-ce-que la philosophie du droit?", in: Archives de Philosophie du Droit 7 (1962)

Surveys on history and philosophy (translations)

• The Social Philosophy of Ancient Greeks, Athens: Estia, 1962 (in Greek)
• Cicero, Athens: Estia, 1968 (in Greek)
• Demosthenes, Athens: Estia, 1975 (in Greek)

Essays

• The Greek Course, Athens: Estia, 1967
• Anathemas and meditations, 4 Volumes, Athens: Estia, 1983-1991 (in Greek)
• The Modern World, Athens: Editions of the Friends, 1992 (in Greek)

Literary writings

• Palamas, Athens: Estia, 1966 (in Greek)
• A Dialogue about poetry - A dialogue with Giorgos Seferis, Athens: Estia, 1975 (in Greek)

References

External links

• (Greek) Official Biography

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Heads of state of Greece
1st Republic (1827–1832)	Ioannis Kapodistrias Augustinos Kapodistrias Governing Councils
Monarchy (1832–1924)	Otto Regency Council George I Constantine I Alexander Pavlos Kountouriotis1 Queen Olga1 Constantine I George II Pavlos Kountouriotis1
2nd Republic (1924–1935)	Pavlos Kountouriotis Theodoros Pangalos2 Pavlos Kountouriotis Alexandros Zaimis
Monarchy (1935–1973)	Georgios Kondylis1 2 George II Archbishop Damaskinos1 George II Paul Constantine II3
Military Junta (1967–1974)	Georgios Zoitakis1 2 Georgios Papadopoulos1 2 Phaedon Gizikis2
3rd Republic (since 1974)4	Michail Stasinopoulos1 Konstantinos Tsatsos Constantine Karamanlis Ioannis Alevras1 Christos Sartzetakis Constantine Karamanlis Konstantinos Stephanopoulos Karolos Papoulias Prokopis Pavlopoulos
1 Regent or interim President 2 Heading or appointed by military regime 3 Fled Greece on 13 December 1967; de jure head of state until the abolition of the monarchy in 1973/74 4 The 1973–74 junta-proclaimed Republic is not officially recognised.