Georgios Theotokis

Georgios Theotokis

Georgios Theotokis ( Greek Γεώργιος Θεοτόκης , * 1844 in Corfu ; † December 30, 1915 ^July / January 12,  1916 ^greg. In Athens ) was a Greek politician and prime minister .

Family, studies and work

Theotokis was the father of the future Prime Minister Ioannis Theotokis and the grandfather of the future Foreign Minister Spyros Theotokis . He was also related to the well-known Greek political family Rallis and, among other things, the maternal grandfather of the later Prime Minister Georgios Rallis .

After attending school, he studied law at the Ionian Academy , which he graduated with a diploma in 1861. He then continued his studies at the Faculty of Law at the Sorbonne in Paris . After returning to Corfu, he worked as a lawyer.

Political career

MP

Theotokis began his political career in 1879 when he was elected mayor of Corfu with 65 percent of the vote. In 1883 he was re-elected mayor, but in 1885 he renounced this office and was elected member of the National Assembly (Voulí ton Ellínon) for the party of Prime Minister Charilaos Trikoupis . Later he was from 1898 as the successor to Trikoupis chairman of the Liberal Party (Neoteristikon comma).

Statue of Georgios Theotokis in Corfu .

minister

On May 21, 1886, Prime Minister Trikoupis appointed him Minister of the Navy in his cabinet. In his tenure, which lasted until November 5, 1890, he modernized the Greek Navy by purchasing the modern frigates “ Spetses ”, “ Hydra ” and “ Psara ” and by improving training by establishing naval schools.

In the later cabinet of Trikoupis (June 1892 to May 1893 and November 1893 to January 1895) he was Minister for Church and Public Education. In this office he prepared a legislative initiative to modernize the school system, which failed because of the opposition to Theodoros Deligiannis .

At his death, Theotokis was Minister for National Economy in the cabinet of Prime Minister Stefanos Skouloudis.

Prime Minister

Theotokis later served four times as Prime Minister of Greece from April 14, 1899 to November 25, 1901, June 27, 1903 to July 11, 1903, December 19, 1903 to December 29, 1904 and December 21, 1905 to July 29, 1909. At the same time, he temporarily took over the offices of foreign, interior and war minister.

During his tenure, he implemented an army reform and continued the modernization of the navy that he had begun as Minister of the Navy .

In later years he advocated a moderate foreign policy as a member of parliament, particularly during the Balkan wars from 1912 to 1913.

literature

• Gunnar Hering: Theotokis, Georgios . In: Biographical Lexicon on the History of Southeast Europe . Volume 4. Munich 1981, p. 307 f.
• Γεώργιος Ράλλης: Γεώργιος Θεοτόκης. O πολιτικός του μέτρου. Ελληνική Ευρωεκδοτική, Αθήνα 1986, ISBN 960-241-017-5 .

Web links

• Biography ( Memento from April 12, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
• biography
• List of ministers of governments 1899–1924 ( Memento from May 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
• Political Developments between 1897 and 1909
• The Economic Policy of Georgios Theotokis

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Newspaper article of the newspaper Eleftheria of January 1, 1965. Greek historical calendar in January. (Available from the National Library of Greece; in Greek.)
2. ^ Spyros Theotokis . Munzinger Archive GmbH. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
3. ↑ General Secretariat of the Government of Greece (Geniki Grammatia tis Kyverniseos). The Ministers of the Skouloudis Cabinet 1915/1916 (in Greek). ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

predecessor	Office	successor
Alexandros Zaimis	Prime Minister of Greece 1899–1901	Alexandros Zaimis
Theodoros Deligiannis	Prime Minister of Greece 1903	Dimitrios Rallis
Dimitrios Rallis	Prime Minister of Greece 1903–1904	Theodoros Deligiannis
Dimitrios Rallis	Prime Minister of Greece 1905–1909	Dimitrios Rallis