Alexandros Papagos

Alexandros Papagos ( Greek Ἀλέξανδρος Παπάγος ; * December 9, 1883 in Athens ; † October 4, 1955 ibid) was a Greek field marshal and politician.

Alexandros Papagos in the House of Art, Museum Munich, 1954

Papagos received training at the Military Academy of Brussels and the Cavalry School of Ypres . He served in the Greek army during the Balkan Wars and World War I , but was discharged from the army in 1917 for his support for King Constantine I. Recalled when Constantine returned in 1920, he was dismissed by the Republic in 1923. This was followed by a renewed call-up as major general and corps commander in 1927. As chief of staff of the army, he played an essential role in the overthrow of the Second Hellenic Republic in October 1935, the return of King George II and the establishment of the Metaxas dictatorship, in which he became war minister . As early as 1934 he was a negotiator in the drafting of several treaties between Greece and other European nations.

During the Second World War , Papagos, appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Greek Armed Forces on October 28, 1940, managed to repel the large-scale Italian attack launched on the same day from Albania with the help of flexible mountain troops and little British air support and to launch a successful counter-offensive, which itself extended to almost a third of Albania . When Greece first fought against German troops in March 1941, Papagos supported this strategic decision, although at the same time he estimated the military chances against Germany to be extremely low.

When the Germans reached Greek territory, captured the Metaxas Line and conquered Thessaloniki , Papagos allowed the surrender of the cut off fortress troops on April 10, 1941, but wanted to continue the fight with the remaining units. Their commanders, however, independently concluded an armistice with the Axis powers. Papagos then accepted the new circumstances and tried to secure a safe withdrawal of the remaining British troops. He himself turned down the British offer to go to Crete with them. In July 1943, the former army chief was arrested and deported to the Dachau concentration camp . In April 1945 he and other prominent inmates of the Dachau concentration camp were transported to Niederdorf (South Tyrol) , where the prisoners were freed by soldiers of the Wehrmacht after the SS guards had given up (see Liberation of the SS hostages in South Tyrol ). He then fought the communist partisans again as Commander in Chief in the Greek Civil War with considerable American support . The war ended in 1949 with the final defeat of the communists, for which Papagos was appointed Greece's first field marshal .

In 1951 he quit after disputes with the king to found a new conservative party, the "Greek Collection" (Ελληνικός Συναγερμός), with which he won the 1952 elections with a large majority. He was Prime Minister of Greece from November 19, 1952 until his death on October 4, 1955 . A comprehensive reconstruction program and a currency reform in 1953 fell during his reign. In foreign policy, his reign was despite a 1954 closed tripartite alliance with Yugoslavia and Turkey from Cyprus conflict determined and deteriorating relations with Turkey.

Web links

Commons : Alexandros Papagos  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Alexandros Papagos in the catalog of the German National Library
• Newspaper article about Alexandros Papagos in the press kit of the 20th century of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Peter Koblank: The Liberation of Special Prisoners and Kinship Prisoners in South Tyrol , online edition Mythos Elser 2006

predecessor	Office	successor
Dimitrios Kiousopoulos	Prime Minister of Greece 1952–1955	Konstantinos Karamanlis