Dimitrios Vikelas

Dimitrios Vikelas

Portrait of Vikelas painted by Nikolaos Xydias Typaldos (1870)

Dimitrios Vikelas , ( Greek Δημήτριος Βικέλας , often transcribed Demetrios Vikelas , born February 15, 1835 in Ermoupolis , Syros ; † July 20, 1908 in Athens ) was a Greek businessman and man of letters. His work as the first President of the International Olympic Committee from 1894 to 1896 is significant .

Life

Vikelas came from a Greek merchant family. After just a few school years, he was introduced to his father's wholesale business. In addition, he had to learn French and English. At the age of 17 he was sent to London , where he worked as an accountant in the office of his two uncles . In his spare time he discovered his literary talent, wrote his own poems and made translations into the Greek language.

At the age of 22, Vikelas joined his uncles' company as a partner, thereby gaining a secure livelihood. In 1866 he married Kalliopi Geralopoulou, the daughter of a Greek wholesaler, who was 12 years older than Vikelas. The increasing deterioration of the general economic situation led him to dissolve the company in 1876. With the income he had an impressive fortune, which enabled him to live a comfortable life without gainful employment.

Vikelas, who had never completed a formal secondary education, was interested in many things and attended various events at London University during his time as a businessman. He had not lost his passion for literature either. He published a collection of his own poems and wrote articles for magazines dealing with a wide variety of topics. However, his priority was to improve the situation and reputation of his home country. At that time Greece was in danger of being played off by the mutual interests of different European powers, and the propaganda did not shrink from hostility towards Greece .

Serious mental illness in his wife made it necessary to move to Paris , where she received the necessary medical care. Here Vikelas found suitable conditions for the implementation of his inclinations and concerns. As a writer, he received great recognition for the translations of all of Shakespeare's important works into modern Greek . He published his own stories, which he personally translated into eleven languages. He also published small brochures, which resembled travelogues about his home country, and with which he attracted attention to Greek tourism. In 1879 Vikelas was appointed to the board of directors of the Society for the Promotion of Greek Studies in France . This activity, combined with frequent trips abroad, gave him the opportunity to improve Greece's image.

Vikela was also interested in popular education, a tendency that he shared with his later companion, Pierre de Coubertin . The ideas published in the diary of an educator made Vikelas a recognized personality in Greece. In 1887 he was appointed a member of the Greek Textbook Commission .

In January 1894, Pierre de Coubertin sent out invitations for a sports congress in Paris, which would later go down in history as the first Olympic congress . An invitation was sent to the Athens Panhellenic Gymnastics Club . Here they showed little interest in making the long journey to Paris. The Paris-based Vikelas were remembered to represent the association. Up until then, Vikelas had had little contact with sport, but saw this as an opportunity to do his homeland a service, even if it was only about a topic that was initially insignificant for Vikelas.

To his surprise, at the Paris congress, Vikelas was even given the chair of the commission dealing with the possibility of restoring the Olympic Games . During the congress, he proposed that Athens be the venue for the first Olympic Games . This convinced the majority of the commissioners and thus prevailed against the intention of Pierre de Coubertin to carry out the first games in 1900 in Paris.

In the International Olympic Committee nominated by de Coubertin and confirmed by Congress, Vikelas was to take over the presidency, this coincided with the initial statutes of the IOC, which provided that the President should come from the country in which the Olympic Games are taking place.

Vikelas' wife died in October 1894. He devoted himself to his new task with great sacrifice, although he also had to struggle with great resistance in his home country. The enormous costs meant an enormous effort for the small country, at times the government doubted whether it could bear the financial burden of games of this dimension. Vikelas' persuasiveness and perseverance led to the point that the decision for or against the Olympic Games became a matter of national importance, which even helped spark a government crisis in Greece. After the incumbent government finally resigned in January 1895 , the way was cleared for the supporters of the Olympic Games.

Vikelas left the organization and implementation of the Olympic Games in 1896 to a committee specially set up for this purpose. He himself traveled from Paris to Athens shortly before the start of the games, took over the management of various IOC meetings and watched the games as a spectator and guest of honor.

When, after the great success of the Games in Greece in 1896, the demand arose that the Olympic Games should always be held in Athens, it was Vikelas who proposed the compromise that the Games should be held alternately every two years in Athens and in another metropolis in the world. This compromise was only achieved once, in 1906 at the Olympic Intermediate Games in Athens.

In 1897 Vikelas saw his commitment to the Olympic movement as ended. The Olympic idea had established itself and at the same time he had done his homeland a service. He resigned from his membership in the IOC with the intention of devoting himself to other tasks in his fatherland, with which, now living in Athens, he came into much closer contact. He paid particular attention to education and training.

Vikelas received a number of honorary degrees and awards during his lifetime. The Scottish University of St. Andrews awarded him the title of Dr. jur. hc awarded, he received the Commander- in-Chief of the Royal Greek Order of Redeemer , was holder of the Danish Order of Dannebrog and was appointed officer of the French Legion of Honor .

Literary works (selection)

• Tales from the Aegean Islands ( Reclam's Universal Library 4795)
• Lukis Laras. A story from the Greek Wars of Independence ( Reclam's Universal Library 1968/1969)

literature

• Andreas Morbach: Dimítrios Vikélas. Patriotic writer and cosmopolitan: life and work of the first President of the International Olympic Committee. Ergon-Verlag 1998

Web links

• Biography at olympic.org ( Memento from February 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 95 kB)