Xenophon Zolotas

  Xenophon Zolotas                                         ΞΕΝΟΦΩΝ ΖΟΛΩΤΑΣ

   Born 1904                                                                 Died 2004

 Plaza, Section A, Number 85

 

The ‘Professor’

Xenophon Zolotas was one of Greece’s great economists. Wealthy in his own right, he nonetheless decided to apply his impressive intellect in an effort to steer the economy of Greece onto a course that would lead to its economic success and better the lives of its people. He held the position of Director of the Bank of Greece for a record number of years and became world famous for his economic acumen. Out of all of the many titles bestowed upon him during his lifetime abroad and at home (including that of Prime Minister during a brief stint as caretaker in 1989-90), he preferred to be referred to as ‘professor’.

 

His Life

Xenophon was born in 1904 with a ‘golden’ spoon in his mouth. His father Efthimios Zolotas, was one of Greece’s most renowned goldsmiths. The shop he had inaugurated in 1895 on Aiolou Street (then the economic center of Athens) quickly became a magnet for the Athens elite. He hoped his son would follow in his footsteps and take over the business. But, encouraged by his mother Constantina, Xenophon opted for an academic career. 

At the age of 24, after studies in Athens, Leipzig and Paris he was offered the chair of Professor of Financial Law at the University of Thessaloniki.(1)

 

Academic life suited him. Even when Elefterios Venizelos tried to persuade him to become the general secretary of an Economic Council established to encourage the growth of the Greek economy, Zolotas chose not to abandon academia where he was quickly making his mark. As a Keynesian, he believed that the state had an obligation to intervene and compliment private initiative. He promoted the industrialization of Greece, maintaining that its future prosperity lay in industrial development and the increase of its exports.

 

He would serve as co-director of the Bank of Greece in 1944-5 immediately after the liberation of Athens and as its director from 1955 to 1967 (when he resigned because of the military dictatorship) and again as director from 1974 to 1981. He would also be made an honorary director of the bank for life because of his service. 

It is hard to know what is most impressive: his role as director of the Bank of Greece or that in 1960 he was a member of a select committee dubbed “the Four Wise Men” convened by the OEEC (Organization for European Economic Cooperation) to promote better cooperation and economic development. The famous four were: Bernard Clalpier from France Randolf Burgess from America, Sir Paul Gore-Booth from England, and Xenophon Zolotas from Greece.

                                                            

 It’s all Greek to Me! 

In the 1950s, Zolotas gave two notable speeches at the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. He wanted to highlight the debt the English language owed to the Greek language. He said,

“I always wished to address this assembly in Greek but I realized that it would all be Greek to all present in this room. I found out, however, that I could make my address in Greek which will still be English to everybody. With your permission Mr. Chairman I shall do it now, using with the exception of articles and prepositions only Greek words:” He began:

Kyrie, it is Zeus' anathema on our epoch for the dynamism of our economies and the heresy of our economic methods and policies that we should agonize between the Scylla of numismatic plethora and the Charybdis of economic anemia…etc.

 

While stilted, the point was made! His efforts were applauded to the extent that his speech made the front pages of the Washington Post and the New York Times.

Private Life

Xenofon  Zolotas was a cosmopolitan and lived well. A dinner party he hosted might include poached grouper, guinea fowl with mushrooms, chocolate soufflé, and wine from the Vati or Averoff vineyards. One assumes all this might be followed by an expensive cognac and hand-rolled Cuban cigars! In 1958, in the same spirit and flair, he married the beautiful Kalliroi (Lola) Ritsou an American of Greek descent and some twenty years younger. She would become a style setter in Athens, often appearing in gowns adorned with gold and jewels from the House of Zolotas. They lived in a splendid home on Dionysios Areopagitou with a wonderful view of the Acropolis.

Here Mrs. Zolotas poses wearing jewelry by the House of Zolotas. See www.Zolotas.gr

              The House of Zolotas was (and still is) popular with the rich and famous:

Liz Taylor, visiting Greece in 1958 for the premiere of Around the World in 80 Days, became an enthusiastic fan of both their classical and innovative designs.

An Economy of Extravagance

In the 1970s Zolotas, as Director of the Bank of Greece, became concerned about the route the Greek economy was taking. In 1977 he gave a speech to economic journalists entitled Consumption, Investment and Monetary Equilibrium (Κατανάλωσις, Επενδύσεις και Νομισματική Ισορροπία) in which he said,

The last years have indicated a tendency to overconsumption along with a parallel deceleration in investments especially in the field of manufacturing.

Instead of using savings to invest in industry and agriculture which contribute to an increase in productive potential and to national productivity, investment is allocated to residential housing where the contribution to the national productivity is limited… 

His Conclusion?  

We are advancing step by step into a wasteful economy which if we do not take measures to curb, we are not going to be able to lessen inflation and balance the budget.

 

Prophetic words…. Greeks continued to pour their savings into real estate at the expense of other investments. At least he did not live to see the final humiliation that these ‘tendencies’ had led the country into by 2008.

 Zolotas remained vigorous and active into his old age, insisting on swimming every day, even in winter. He died on June 11, 2004. His grave is tucked away on the far west of the Plaza, close to Section 14. The cross is a distinctive design from the House of Zolotas.

 

 The Map

Footnotes

(1) He held this post until 1968, when he resigned in protest when the military Junta came to power in 1967. He was a member of the Board of Directors of UNRRA in 1946 and held senior posts in the International Monetary Fund among others.

Alexandros Koryzis

   Alexandros Koryzis                                            ΑΛΕΧΑΝΔΡΟΣ ΚΟΡΙΖΗΣ

   Born 1885                                                            Died April 18, 1941

Plaza, Number 43

One of the great pleasures of this blog project for Filia and I has been coming across a disconcerting  (at least to us) story about persons buried in the First Cemetery and, by investigating, coming to understand how their story  fits into the rich mosaic that is modern Greece.

Alexandros Koryzis, a banker turned politician, was Greece’s Prime Minister for only 80 days before the dramatic events of April 1941 proved too much for him to handle.

 Just 12 days after Germany invaded Greece but before they actually reached Athens, Koryzis entered his study and shot himself twice- in the heart. 

His life:

Alexandros Koryzis came from the area of Poros -Troizan with the usual credentials: a political father and a forefather who had fought in the War of Independence.  After studying law, he joined the National Bank of Greece, and rose in the ranks. For a time he acted as a financial advisor to the governor of Smyrna when it briefly came under Greek influence before the 1922 Smyrna debacle. (1)

He was prominent, intelligent, debonair, and respected.

Like many Greek people in 1936, Koyzis welcomed the stability offered by the dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas and was tagged by him to be his Minister of Health and Welfare, a post he held for three years, until 1939. Metaxas’ plan for pensions and health care were extremely popular and Koryzis could take credit for some of that. Nonetheless, in 1939 he resigned and returned to banking, becoming the Governor of the National Bank.

Then, Metaxas died unexpectedly on January 29, 1941 at a critical and dangerous point in Greece’s history.  It took only hours for King George II to appoint Koryzis to fill the vacuum left by Metaxas’ death. (2)

 To call this moment in Greek history chaotic would be an understatement.  Any vestige   of parliamentary democracy had been in the deep freeze since 1936 and the Germans were gathering on the Greek-Bulgarian border to aid their Italian allies who had recently been so soundly defeated by the Greek army. The English were trying to decide how much help they should or could offer (10,000 allied army personnel were already in Greece) and Koryzis had to decide whether or not to accept any proffered help, whether to pull troops from the Albanian front to meet the German threat – or even whether the German threat was real! Unlike us, he did not know what was about to happen. (3)

It was a nightmare. Saying ‘no’ to the German juggernaut was quite a different proposition from saying no to the Italians in 1940 - although Koryzis finally did say ‘no’. but to no avail.  The Germans invaded.

Was it Suicide?

Perhaps suicide was a logical choice for an inexperienced leader under the pressure he was experiencing, but the circumstances surrounding this suicide have since raised questions. Foremost among them was how he had managed to shoot himself twice in the area of the heart. 

Secondly, there was no autopsy. 

Then there was a mysterious meeting between Koryzis and the king  earlier in the day that had not gone well at all. Apparently Koryzis left this meeting upset enough for the concerned king to send his son to his home to see how he was faring. The crown prince arrived just in time to hear the shots. 

What had happened during that meeting? Some historians believe that Koryzis had been told that day by the king of his decision to abandon Athens and move his government to either Cyprus or Crete. That would have been depressing enough. 

Another scenario has the king accusing Koryzis of fraternizing with a woman who was, at the time, having an affair with a spy from the German embassy. If true, it could have been construed as a traitorous act.  This theory has him being murdered as a liability. Farfetched, - but not entirely ridiculous because of those two shots. (4) 

His death was presented to the public as a heart attack –a diagnosis that must have appealed to the dark sense of humour of those in the know. 

The public announcement of his death

It would hardly have done to announce to the Greek people at this critical juncture that the leader who had vowed upon his inauguration to remain steadfast for his people had opted out days before German jackboots echoed on the pavements of Athens.

The aftermath of Koryzis’ suicide was horrible: the German occupation, the flight of erstwhile parliamentarians who after 5 years of dictatorship no longer had a core leadership or institution around which they could rally, and the flight of the king and his family just days later. All this, of course, left the people of Greece sailing into treacherous waters in a rudderless ship.

The Grave

Austere and serious, his name is etched on a marble plaque set before the façade of a classical Greek temple in an area reserved for Greek worthies.  Its serenity is the antithesis of both his death and the era he lived in.

The Map

Plaza, Number 43

Footnotes

(1) According to the provisions of the Treaty of Sevres (August 1920), Smyrna was to be administered by a local parliament and given the chance of a future plebiscite to say whether they wished to join Greece or remain in the Ottoman Empire. The treaty accepted Greek administration of the Smyrna enclave, although the area remained under Turkish sovereignty.

(2)  King George II deserves his own text but will not get it. He is buried at the Tatoi Palace with the rest of the Greek royal family. He and Metaxas were governing the country together during this critical period. Parliamentary democracy was deemed unnecessary.

(3)  A fascinating book by Robin Higham entitled Diary of a Disaster: British Aid to Greece 1940-41 highlights the uncertainty of leaders about what to do. If you Google it, you will find enough on line to understand just what Koryzis was facing when he took power. There is another intriguing aspect. These events occurred in 1941. The Enigma code had already been broken and it is possible that the British themselves knew exactly what the Germans were planning– but they could not come out and say so because the Germans would have realized that their code was broken. So many ironies.

(4) Greece is a country where conspiracy theories are given very free rein. For this one, see  www.anoixtoparathyro.gr/το-δεύτερο-όχι-ποιος-σκότωσε-τον-κορυζ/  Some have dismissed the suicide scenario pointing out that Koryzis was buried with Orthodox rites but this does not hold water. Orthodoxy is famous for its use of ‘economy’ – a stretching of the rules for the greater good and, calling Koryzis’ death a heart attack, was probably the greater good at that moment. In any case, the Church, to its credit, has had an admirable track record of translating suicide into temporary insanity and allowing an Orthodox ceremony.

A footnote to the footnotes:  A delightful square on Poros Island is today dedicated to Koryzis and his bust is its centerpiece.  Both can be found beside his island home which was donated by the family to house the town’s archaeological museum.  It's presence  reminds me of a passage in Pausanias  where he pointed out a shrine to Podares,  a Mantinean leader who had been defeated in a battle with Thebes. Greek history has had so many twists and turns, it seems that even defeated leaders can still be honored.

 

The square in Poros