Konstantinos D. Tsatsos ( el, Κωνσταντίνος Τσάτσος; July 1, 1899 – October 8, 1987) was a Greek diplomat, professor of law, scholar and politician. He served as the

second The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...

President of the Third Hellenic Republic from 1975 to 1980.

Life

He was born in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

in 1899. After graduating from the Law School of the

National and Kapodistrian University of Athens The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA; el, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών, ''Ethnikó ke Kapodistriakó Panepistímio Athinón''), usually referred to simply as the Univers ...

in 1918 he joined the diplomatic corps. After completing his doctoral studies (1924–1928) in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is al ...

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, he returned to Greece where he became a professor of law in 1933. In 1940, he was arrested and exiled for opposing the

4th of August Regime The 4th of August Regime ( el, Καθεστώς της 4ης Αυγούστου, Kathestós tis tetártis Avgoústou), commonly also known as the Metaxas regime (, ''Kathestós Metaxá''), was a totalitarian regime under the leadership of Gener ...

under

Prime Minister of Greece The prime minister of the Hellenic Republic ( el, Πρωθυπουργός της Ελληνικής Δημοκρατίας, Prothypourgós tis Ellinikís Dimokratías), colloquially referred to as the prime minister of Greece ( el, Πρωθυ� ...

Ioannis Metaxas Ioannis Metaxas (; el, Ιωάννης Μεταξάς; 12th April 187129th January 1941) was a Greek military officer and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Greece from 1936 until his death in 1941. He governed constitutionally for t ...

. During the Axis occupation of Greece during World War II, Tsatsos participated in the Greek Resistance and then he fled to the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

, where the exiled Greek government was seated. After the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, in 1945 he returned to Greece and entered politics and became minister for the first time, serving as

Interior Minister An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

in the first cabinet of Vice Admiral

Petros Voulgaris Petros Voulgaris ( el, Πέτρος Βούλγαρης, 13 September 1883 – 26 November 1957) was a Greek Admiral who served briefly as Prime Minister of Greece in 1945. He was famous for his role in suppressing the 1944 Greek naval mutiny and re ...

(8 April – 11 August 1945). In 1946, when he decided to participate more actively in the

politics of Greece Greece is a parliamentary representative democratic republic, where the President of Greece is the head of state and the Prime Minister of Greece is the head of government within a multi-party system. Legislative power is vested in both the gov ...

, he resigned from his post

and then he became a member of the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

. After the formation of the

National Radical Union The National Radical Union ( el, Ἐθνικὴ Ῥιζοσπαστικὴ Ἕνωσις (ΕΡΕ), ''Ethnikī́ Rizospastikī́ Énōsis'' (ERE)) was a Greek political party formed in 1956 by Konstantinos Karamanlis, mostly out of the Greek Rall ...

Constantine Karamanlis Konstantinos G. Karamanlis ( el, Κωνσταντίνος Γ. Καραμανλής, ; 8 March 1907 – 23 April 1998), commonly anglicised to Constantine Karamanlis or just Caramanlis, was a four-time prime minister and twice as the president of ...

, in 1955 he became a member of the party and one of the closest colleagues of Karamanlis, although, ideologically, he was a centrist-liberal and not a conservative. He served as a member of parliament and in various ministerial positions until the

Greek military junta of 1967–1974 The Greek junta or Regime of the Colonels, . Also known within Greece as just the Junta ( el, η Χούντα, i Choúnta, links=no, ), the Dictatorship ( el, η Δικτατορία, i Diktatoría, links=no, ) or the Seven Years ( el, η Ε ...

. Under the first premiership of Karamanlis (1955–1963) he served for many years as Minister of Public Administration. After the

Metapolitefsi The Metapolitefsi ( el, Μεταπολίτευση, , " regime change") was a period in modern Greek history from the fall of the Ioaniddes military junta of 1973–74 to the transition period shortly after the 1974 legislative elections. The m ...

in 1974, he was elected again as a member of the

Hellenic Parliament The Hellenic Parliament ( el, Ελληνικό Κοινοβούλιο, Elliniko Kinovoulio; formally titled el, Βουλή των Ελλήνων, Voulí ton Ellínon, Boule (ancient Greece), Boule of the Greeks, Hellenes, label=none), also kno ...

and became

Minister for Culture A culture minister or a heritage minister is a common cabinet position in governments. The culture minister is typically responsible for cultural policy, which often includes arts policy (direct and indirect support to artists and arts organizat ...

. In 1975, he was elected President of the Republic by the parliament. He retired after serving his five-year term. He died in 1987 in Athens. He is buried in the First Cemetery. He was survived by his wife, Ioanna ''née'' Seferiádou, the sister of the

Nobel laureate The Nobel Prizes ( sv, Nobelpriset, no, Nobelprisen) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make out ...

poet

George Seferis Giorgos or George Seferis (; gr, Γιώργος Σεφέρης ), the pen name of Georgios Seferiades (Γεώργιος Σεφεριάδης; March 13 – September 20, 1971), was a Greek poet and diplomat. He was one of the most important G ...

who died in 2000.

Tsatsos as a scholar

Konstantinos Tsatsos served as professor of the philosophy of law from 1933 until 1946 when he entered politics.
Since 1962 he was a member of the Academy of Athens. His vast writing work includes textbooks of legal theory, surveys on philosophy and history, as well as literary works, poems, essays and translations of ancient Greek and Roman classics. In 1974, he presided over the parliamentary commission that submitted the first draft of the new

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...

Writings on legal theory

* ''Der Begriff des positiven Rechts'', Heidelberg: Weiss'sche Universitäts-Buchhandlung, 1928 * ''The Problem of the Interpretation of Law'', Athens: Sakkoulas, 1978 (in Greek) * ''The problem of the Sources of Law'', Athens: Papadogiannis, 1941 (in Greek) * ''Introduction to Legal Science'', Athens: Papazisis, 1945 (in Greek) * ''Studies on the Philosophy of Law'', Athens: Ikarosa, 1960 (in Greek) * "Society and the Law", in ''Archive of Philosophy and Positive Sciences'' (1935) (in Greek) * "Le Droit et la société", in ''Droit, Morale, Moeurs, IIe Annuaire de l'Institut International de Philosophie du Droit et de Sociologie Juridique'', Paris, 1936 * "Contract as Legal Rule", in volume for K. Triantafillopoulos, Athens, 1959 (in Greek) * "Qu'est-ce-que la philosophie du droit?", in: Archives de Philosophie du Droit 7 (1962)

Surveys on history and philosophy (translations)

* ''The Social Philosophy of Ancient Greeks'', Athens: Estia, 1962 (in Greek) * ''Cicero'', Athens: Estia, 1968 (in Greek) * ''Demosthenes'', Athens: Estia, 1975 (in Greek)

Essays

* ''The Greek Course'', Athens: Estia, 1967 * ''Anathemas and meditations'', 4 Volumes, Athens: Estia, 1983–1991 (in Greek) * ''The Modern World'', Athens: Editions of the Friends, 1992 (in Greek)

Literary writings

* ''Palamas'', Athens: Estia, 1966 (in Greek) * ''A Dialogue about poetry - A dialogue with Giorgos Seferis'', Athens: Estia, 1975 (in Greek)

References

External links

*
Official Biography
, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Tsatsos, Konstantinos 1899 births 1987 deaths 20th-century Greek philosophers 20th-century presidents of Greece Burials at the First Cemetery of Athens Culture ministers Deaths from cancer in Greece Greek educators Greek MPs 1956–1958 Greek political writers Health ministers of Greece Justice ministers of Greece Liberal Party (Greece) politicians Members of the Academy of Athens (modern) Ministers of National Education and Religious Affairs of Greece Ministers of the Interior of Greece Ministers of Tourism of Greece National and Kapodistrian University of Athens faculty National Radical Union politicians New Democracy (Greece) politicians Diplomats from Athens Presidents of Greece Culture ministers of Greece Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Politicians from Athens