Alexandros Koryzis

Alexandros Koryzis, 1941

Alexandros Koryzis ( Albanian  Aleksandër Korizi , Greek Ἀλέξανδρος Κορυζής , also called Korizis or Korisis , * 1885 in Poros ; † April 18, 1941 in Athens ) was a Greek politician and briefly Prime Minister of his country.

Family, studies and professional career

His father Georgios Koryzis was mayor of Poros and also a member of the National Assembly (Voulí ton Ellínon) . On his mother's side, he was the nephew of the former Prime Minister Alexandros Koumoundouros .

After attending school, he studied law at the University of Athens from 1901 to 1905 and also worked at the Bank Ethnikí Trápeza tis Elládos , of which he became vice director in 1928. When in 1929 agricultural finance was separated from the bank, Koryzis accepted the post as director of ATEbank .

Koryzis was also the author of several economics writings.

Political career

minister

On August 6, 1936, dictator Ioannis Metaxas appointed him Minister for Hygiene and State Welfare in his cabinet. He held this office until January 29, 1941.

Prime Minister 1941

After Metaxas' death on January 29, 1941, he was commissioned by King George II as his successor to form a government. During his tenure he was foreign minister and war minister at the same time.

In this office he leaned on 6 April 1941, the demand of the German Reich from which British troops to refer the country. On the same day the German Wehrmacht began the Balkan campaign against Yugoslavia and Greece. Within ten days the Greek resistance was broken and the country was occupied.

In a crisis meeting on April 18, 1941, there were differences of opinion between the king and him about the further policy of the now almost completely occupied country. On the afternoon of the same day, he allegedly shot himself in his private study, just as Crown Prince Paul was talking to his wife at the front door. However, in order not to endanger the political stability of the country during the impending transfer of power to the Wehrmacht, his death was initially portrayed in the media as a heart attack. His successor Emmanouil Tsouderos only held office for two days in Greece and then followed into exile with the cabinet of King George II.

The later official announcement that the right-hander Alexandros Koryzis had committed suicide has been questioned several times because the weapon was found in the left hand of his corpse and was fired twice.

Web links

• biography
• Election results 1920–1936 ( Memento from February 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
• List of ministers of governments 1924–1946 ( Memento of December 20, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
• Newspaper article about Alexandros Koryzis in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

predecessor	Office	successor
Ioannis Metaxas	Prime Minister of Greece 1941	Emmanouil Tsouderos