Alekos Panagoulis
Alexandros Panagoulis ( Greek Αλέξανδρος Παναγούλης or Alekos Panagoulis for short ; * July 2, 1939 in Glyfada ; † May 1, 1976 in Athens ) was a Greek politician, poet and resistance fighter.
Life
Alexandros Panagoulis was born in Glyfada near Athens as the second son of Athina and Vassilios Panagoulis, an officer in the Greek army . He had two brothers: Georgios was a victim of the military dictatorship, while Efstathios was active as a politician. Alekos graduated from the Faculty of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens (Metsovio Polytechnio).
He took an active part in the fight against the Greek military dictatorship (1967–1974). He became famous for an assassination attempt on the dictator Georgios Papadopoulos on August 13, 1968, but also for his indomitable demeanor during the torture he suffered in the ensuing captivity. After the restoration of democracy, he was elected Member of Parliament as a member of the Enosis Kendrou Center Union.
politics
Since his youth, Alexandros Panagoulis was inspired by democratic values. He joined the youth organization of the Center Union (Οργάνωση Νέων της Ένωσης Κέντρου, ONEK) under the leadership of Georgios Papandreou . This organization later became the so-called Greek Democratic Youth (Ελληνική Δημοκρατική Νεολαία, EDIN). After the restoration of parliamentary democracy, he became General Secretary of this organization (EDIN) on September 3, 1974.
Resistance to the dictatorship
Alexandros Panagoulis took an active part in the struggle for the restoration of democracy in Greece and against the "regime of the colonels". Because of his democratic convictions, he deserted his military service and founded the National Resistance Organization. In exile in Cyprus he worked on plans of action against the dictatorship. After returning to Greece, he carried out an attack on the dictator Papadopoulos on August 13 near Varkiza on the road to Sounion between Agia Marina and Saronis. The dictator was supposed to be killed by a bomb during his every Sunday drive in his car. The attempt failed. Papadopoulos had a mosaic of the Holy Mother of God attached to the rock at the site of the assassination. However, this mosaic picture was removed a few years later and has been lost since then.
Panagoulis was sentenced to death by a military tribunal on November 17, 1968 and then transported to Aegina for execution . After interventions and pressure from abroad, the execution was stopped and instead he was taken to the Bogiati military prison (SFB) on November 25th . His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment .
Alexandros Panagoulis refused to cooperate with the junta and was tortured physically and mentally. He managed to escape from Bogiati military prison on June 5, 1969. Shortly afterwards, after a denunciation, he was caught again and temporarily taken to the military prison in Goudi . In Bogiati he was then placed in solitary confinement, from which he tried several times to escape without success. In August 1973, after four and a half years in prison, he was released from prison as part of a general amnesty by the military regime. The Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci visited him in Glyfada shortly after his release, whereupon a relationship developed between them. Panagoulis then went to Florence in Italy to continue to resist the regime from there.
Restoration of democracy
After the restoration of democracy, Alexandros Panagoulis became a member of parliament in 1975 as a representative of the Center Union - New Forces (EK - ND) party. During this time he attacked many politicians who had worked openly or secretly with the military dictatorship. Because of differences of opinion with the leadership of his party, he resigned and remained an independent parliamentarian. Defense Minister Evangelos Averoff was one of the politicians whom he indicted despite political pressure .
Panagoulis died on the night of May 1, 1976 at the age of 36 in a traffic accident on Vouliagmeni Avenue (Athens), just days before the planned release of the dictatorship archives of the Military Police (ESA Archives) he owned . These archives, which were subsequently not disclosed, are said to contain information about the collaboration of important politicians with the Greek junta. There has been much speculation in the Greek press about the causes of the traffic accident seen as an attempt to forcibly silence his voice. It was not found out who was involved in the accident. His funeral turned into a demonstration in which several hundred thousand people took part.
Work as a poet
Alexandros Panagoulis was brutally tortured while in detention. Because of his will and conviction, he kept his demeanor and humor despite the strain. He is said to have written his poems on a wall or on small pieces of paper during his imprisonment; he is said to have often used his blood as ink. Few of his poems have been preserved. However, with the help of friends, he managed to smuggle some texts out of prison. Others he later wrote down from memory.
After his liberation he published a collection of poems under the title Vi scrivo da un carcere in Grecia (I write to you from a prison in Greece) with an introduction by the Italian film director and intellectual Pier Paolo Pasolini . He previously published several collections of poems in Greek, including The Color (I Bogia).
Poems
promise
Never take the tears that
you will see splash in our eyes as signs of despair. A promise, they are just a promise of fight
(Bogiati military prison, February 1972) - Vi scrivo da un carcere in Grecia , 1974
My address
A match as a pencil
on the floor blood as ink spilled on the
forgotten wrapping of the bandage as paper
But what should I write
Maybe I can only manage my address
The strange ink coagulates
I am writing to you in Greece from a prison
(Bogiati military prison, June 5, 1971 - after beating) - Vi scrivo da un carcere in Grecia , 1974.
legacy
The life and work of Alexandros Panagoulis attracted the interest of artists. The renowned composer Mikis Theodorakis , also persecuted by the junta , set some of his poems to music. In addition, the poetry and life of A. Panagoulis became an object of study for some researchers. This includes Un Uomo ( A Man ), written by his partner Oriana Fallaci .
For many Greeks, the attempt to “kill a tyrant” made Alexandros Panagoulis a symbol of freedom, democracy, human rights and political freedom.
The Greek state issued a postage stamp (1997) and a telephone card (1996) in his honor. Squares and stops were named after him, such as the Alexandros Panagoulis metro stop in Athens (2004). In 2012, a two-meter high statue of honor of Alexandros Panagoulis was erected in Dikaiosynis Square on Panepistimiou Street in Athens.
Movie
- Panagulis Vive (Panagoulis lives) (1980/81), screenplay: Giuseppe Ferrara, Piergiovanni Anchisi, Riccardo Iacona, Gianfrancesco Ramacci, in collaboration with Thanasis Valtinos, producer: Giuseppe Ferrara x pictures: Silvio Fraschetti, music: Dimitris Nikolaou x 35 mm cinema 16 mm TV output x length: 110 ', Part A (from D - incomplete), RAI, 1980.
- A rose is a rose is a rose. A murder is a murder is a murder. The Panagoulis case (1976), documentary by Ebbo Demant, length 45 ', first broadcast on ARD November 2, 1976.
Fonts
- Alexandros Panagoulis: Vi scrivo da un carcere in Grecia (I am writing to you from a prison in Greece), Rizzoli Milan 1974
- Alexandros Panagoulis: Altri seguiranno (And others will follow), Flaccovio Palermo 1990 (reprint)
- Alexandros Panagoulis: The Poems , Papazisi Athens
literature
- Oriana Fallaci: Un Uomo: Romanzo . Rizolli, Milan 1979 ( Ein Mann , Kindler, Munich 1980)
- Denis Langlois: Panagoulis, le sang de la Grèce . Maspéro, Paris 1969
- Constantinos Mardas: Alexandros Panagoulis - test performance of death . Athens 1997
Web links
- Literature by and about Alekos Panagoulis in the catalog of the German National Library
Individual evidence
- ↑ Your novel about Panagoulis: Ein Mann, KiWi Taschenbuch, Cologne 1997
- ↑ demotix.com: Unveiling the statue of Alekos Panagoulis ( Memento from June 7, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Kinolexikon ( Memento from March 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Panagoulis, Alekos |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Panagoulis, Alexandros; Παναγούλης, Αλέξανδρος (Greek) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Greek poet and politician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 2, 1939 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Glyfada, Athens |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 1, 1976 |
| Place of death | Athens |