The disgrace of Metaxas' law banning proselytism still in place at Greece /Το αίσχος του νόμου του Μεταξά για την απαγόρευση του προσηλυτισμού ακόμη σε ισχύ στην Ελλάδα

All of the above is, rather unfortunately, fully in line with Greece’s record in relation to the ECtHR on matters of religion. The Kokkinakis v. Greece (1993) case was the first in which the Court found a violation of religious freedom; this case was a watershed, opening the floodgates on what would evolve to be an incredibly powerful role played by the ECtHR in the domain of religious freedom across the 47 member states of the Council of Europe. Today nearly 20% of all religious freedoms violations are against a single state: Greece. The problems faced by Kokkinakis, a Jehovah’s Witness arrested over 60 times for proselytism, are now rarely experienced by religious minorities in Greece. But the fact that the Metaxas law banning proselytism is still in place, formally if not much used in practice, remains problematic. So too the Metaxas law on blasphemy, which is much more alive today (see the ‘Geron Pastitsios’ case, the closing down of Hyterion’s staging of Corpus Christi, and many more examples). And religious minority groups continue to face difficulties related to inequalities in their legal status as religious groups. One may hope that on such issues the Greek state will not be found in the future, again, offering too little too late and trailing behind developments at the ECtHR.

* Effie Fokas, Too little, too late for religious freedom in Greece?, Public Orthodoxy, May 10, 2018.

Η τραγική καρικατούρα & το ιστορικό αίσχος του «εγκλήματος» του προσηλυτισμού: Το εκτρωματικό απομεινάρι της βυζαντινίστικης συνεύρεσης του Καθεστώτος της 4ης Αυγούστου και της Εκκλησίας της Ελλάδος, που δεν τόλμησε να αγγίξει επί 75 χρόνια η εγχώρια νομολογία /The 75-years disgraceful dictatorial-religious orientingGreek law about proselytism

Νεολαία του Καθεστώτος Μεταξά /
Metaxa's regime youths

Προσηλυτισμός. Το Σύνταγμα ρητά προβλέπει ότι ο προσηλυτισμός απαγορεύεται (άρθ. 13 § 2 εδ. γ' Συντ.), υπέρ ή κατά οποιασδήποτε θρησκείας. Σύμφωνα με την ειδική ποινική νομοθεσία (άρθ. 4 § 2 Α.Ν. 1363/1938, όπως αντικαταστάθηκε με το άρθ. 2 Α.Ν. 1672/1939), προσηλυτισμός είναι η άμεση ή έμμεση προσπάθεια διεισδύσεως στη θρησκευτική συνείδηση του άλλου και με σκοπό τη μεταβολή της, 'ιδίως' όταν τούτο γίνεται με τη χρήση κάθε μορφής παροχών ή υποσχέσεων, με μέσα απατηλά ή με κατάχρηση της απειρίας ή εμπιστοσύνης του άλλου, ή με εκμετάλλευση της ανάγκης και της πνευματικής του αδυναμίας.

Ως προσηλυτισμός δεν μπορεί να θεωρηθεί η διάδοση των θρησκευτικών πεποιθήσεων με συναθροίσεις, κηρύγματα ή ιεραποστολή, ούτε η πώληση, αποστολή ή η απλή διανομή εντύπων και διαφημιστικών φυλλαδίων, εφόσον τα ανωτέρω δεν επιχειρούνται με τα πιο πάνω αθέμιτα μέσα.

Το έγκλημα του προσηλυτισμού τιμωρείται με φυλάκιση και χρηματική ποινή. Επιπλέον, επιβάλλονται ως παρεπόμενες κυρώσεις η αστυνομική επιτήρηση, αν ο δράστης είναι Έλληνας, και η απέλαση, εάν ο δράστης είναι αλλοδαπός. Για την στοιχειοθέτηση του εγκλήματος του προσηλυτισμού δεν απαιτείται να επιτεύχθηκε πράγματι ο επιδιωκόμενος σκοπός του δράστη ή να ήταν πρόσφορα τα μέσα που χρησιμοποιήθηκαν για την επίτευξη του εγκληματικού σκοπού (έγκλημα τυπικό).

* Κωνσταντίνος Γ. Παπαγεωργίου,
Εκκλησιαστικό δίκαιο: Θεωρία και νομολογία,
εκδ. Μπαρμπουνάκη, 2013,
σσ. 155-157.

Ο Ιωάννης Μεταξάς & η στρατοκρατική σχολική εκπαίδευση / Ioannis Metaxas & the militaristic school education

Αναγνωστικό Στ΄ Δημοτικού (1939), σ. 149.

Αναγνωστικό Στ΄ Δημοτικού (1939), σ. 88.

Ο ΟΡΚΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΣΤΡΑΤΙΩΤΗ

―Τὴν Κυριακή, παιδιά, εἶπε ὁ ἀρχηγὸς τῆς Νεολαίας τοῦ σχολείου μας, θὰ πᾶμε ὃλοι μαζὶ στὸ Στάδιο. Θὰ γίνη ἡ ὁρκωμοσία τῶν νεοσυλλέκτων στρατιωτῶν. Θὰ μαζευτοῦμε στὶς δύο στὸ σχολεῖο, γιὰ νὰ βρεθοῦμε νωρὶς στὸ Στάδιο.

῾Η χαρὰ τῶν παιδιῶν δὲν περιγράφεται. Ἀπὸ τὴ μία ἡ αὐλὴ τοῦ σχολείου ἄρχισε νὰ γεμίζη καὶ στὶς δύο ἤμαστε ὅλοι οι φαλαγγίτες στὴ γραμμὴ μὲ μικρὲς σημαιοῦλες στὰ χέρια μας.

Σὲ λίγο ὅλη ἡ γειτονιὰ ἀντηχοῦσε τὸ ρυθμικὸ βῆμα καὶ τὰ χαρμόσυνα τραγούδια μας. Στὸ δρόμο ἀπαντούσαμε κι άλλες ὁμάδες Νεολαίας. ῏Ηταν χαρὰ Θεοῦ τὸ χαιρέτισμα τῶν παιδιῶν μὲ τὶς σημαιοῦλες. ῞Ολος ὁ κόσμος καμάρωνε ἀπὸ τὰ μπαλκόνια καὶ τὰ παράθυρα καὶ χαιρετοῦσε μὲ σεβασμὸ τὴ σημαία μας. Κι ἕνας ὁλοκάθαρος ἀττικὸς οὐρανὸς μὲ τὸν ὁλόχρυσο ἥλιο του ὀμόρφαιναν ἀπὸ ψηλὰ τὴν ὡραία πομπή.

Στὸ προαύλιο τοῦ Σταδίου κόσμος καὶ στρατὸς πολύς. Χαιρετήσαμε μὲ σεβασμὸ τὸ μαρμάρινο ἄγαλμα τοῦ Ἀβέρωφ, ποὺ ὑψώνεται ἐκεῖ. Νιώσαμε ἕνα βαθὺ αἴσθημα εὐγνωμοσύνης γιὰ τὸ μεγάλο ᾽Ηπειρώτη, ποὺ μαζὶ μὲ τὶς ἄλλες εὐεργεσίες στὴν πατρίδα μᾶς χάρισε καὶ τὸ μοναδικὸ στὸν κόσμο ὁλομάρμαρο Στάδιο.

Ὅταν καθίσαμε στὴν ὀρισμένη κερκίδα εἴδαμε με ἄνεση τὸ ὡραῖο θέαμα, ποὺ ἁπλωνόταν μπροστά μας. Σὲ μιὰ χωριστὴ κερκίδα ξεχώριζαν οἱ ναῦτες μὲ τὴ μουσικὴ τοῦ θωρηκτοῦ «Ἀβέρωφ». Χιλιάδες κόσμος γέμιζε τὸν ἀπέραντο χῶρο τοῦ Σταδίου. Μέσα στὸ ὁλόασπρο χρῶμα του τὰ φορέματα τῶν θεατῶν ἔπαιρναν ἀκόμη ζωηρότερο χρῶμα κι ὅλο τὸ Στάδιο φαινόταν σὰ μιὰ τεράστια ἀνθοδέσμη.

Στὸν παμμέγιστο στίβο τοῦ Σταδίου οἱ χιλιάδες νεοσύλλεκτοι μὲ τὴν ὁμοιόχρωμη στολή τους ἔμοιαζαν μ’ ἕνα ὁλόπυκνο μελίσσι, καθισμένο στὸ κέντρο τῆς ἀνθοδέσμης. Καὶ σὰν κορνίζα στὴν πανέμορφη ζωγραφιὰ ὑψωνόταν ὁλόγυρα στὴν κορφὴ τοῦ Σταδίου μιὰ σειρὰ πυκνόφυλλων δέντρων. Ἀπέναντι ἁπλώνεται ὁλοπράσινος ὁ Βασιλικὸς Κῆπος μὲ τὸ κάτασπρο παλάτι στὸ βάθος του. Πιὸ κάτω δέ, τριγυρισμένο ἀπὸ ἄφθονη πρασινάδα, ξεχώριζε τὸ μαρμάρινο μέγαρο τοῦ Ζαππείου καὶ πέρα μακριὰ καμαρώναμε τὸ βράχο τῆς Ἀκροπόλεως.

῞Ενα δυνατὸ σάλπισμα μᾶς συνέφερε ἀπὸ τὴ βαθιὰ ἔκσταση τῆς ψυχῆς μας. ῎Αρχισαν νάρχωνται οἱ ἐπίσημοι Στρατηγοί, ναύαρχοι, ἀνώτεροι ὑπάλληλοι, ὁ Δήμαρχος μὲ τὸ Δημοτικὸ Συμβούλιο. Στὸ τέλος ἦρθε τὸ Ὑπουργικὸ Συμβούλιο καὶ σὲ λίγο ἔφτασε ἡ Α. Μ. ὁ Βασιλεύς.

῾Η μουσικὴ χαιρέτησε τὸν ἐρχομό τους· ὁ στρατὸς παρουσίασε ὅπλα καὶ ὁ λαὸς ἀνασηκώθηκε χαιρετῶντας τοὺς ἄρχοντές του.

Σὲ μιὰ μικρὴ ἐξέδρα, κοντὰ στὸ στίβο, ὁ Ἀρχιεπίσκοπος μ’ ὅλη τὴν ῾Ιερὰ Σύνοδο ἔψαλαν ἁγιασμό. Καὶ τώρα θὰ γινόταν ἡ ὁρκωμοσία.

Μιὰ ἀπέραντη σιγὴ ἁπλώθηκε σ’ ὅλο τὸ Στάδιο. ῞Ολος ὁ κόσμος ὂρθιος. Οἱ ἀξιωματικοὶ χαιρετοῦσαν στρατιωτικά. ῾Η Νεολαία, μὲ τὸ δικό της χαιρετισμό. ῞Ολες οἱ σημαῖες ἔγειραν λίγο στὴ γῆ. Εἴκοσι ἀεροπλάνα πετοῦσαν πάνω ἀπὸ τὸ Στάδιο.

Ὅλοι οἱ νεοσύλλεκτοι ὕψωσαν τὸ δεξί τους χέρι· ὁ Ἀρχιεπίσκοπος διάβαζε τὸν ὃρκο τοῦ στρατιώτη κι οἱ νεοσύλλεκτοι τὸν ἔλεγαν κι αὐτοί.

«῾Ορκίζομαι νὰ φυλάω πίστη στὴν Πατρίδα καὶ τὸ συνταγματικὸ Βασιλέα τῶν ῾Ελλήνων, ὑποταγὴ στοὺς νόμους καὶ τὰ ψηφίσματα τοῦ Κράτους, ὑπακοὴ στοὺς ἀνωτέρους μου· ὁρκίζομαι νὰ ὑπερασπίζω μὲ πίστη καὶ ἀφοσίωση, ως τὴν τελευταία σταλαγματιὰ τοῦ αἵματός μου τὶς Σημαῖες, νὰ μὴν τὶς ἐγκαταλείψω, μήτε ν’ ἀποχωριστῶ ποτὲ ἀπ’ αὐτές· ὁρκίζομαι νὰ φυλάω τοὺς στρατιωτικοὺς νόμους καὶ γενικὰ νὰ φέρωμαι σὰν καλὸς καὶ φιλότιμος στρατιώτης».

Μόλις τελείωσε ἡ τελετὴ τῆς ὁρκωμοσίας, ὁ στρατηγὸς Διοικητὴς ὅλου τοῦ στρατοῦ τῆς Ἀθήνας εἶπε στοὺς στρατιῶτες, αὐτὰ τὰ λόγια ἀπὸ τὴν ἐξέδρα τοῦ ἁγιασμοῦ:

Νεοσύλλεκτοι!

῞Ενα πατριωτικὸ χρέος σᾶς ἔκαμε ν’ ἀφήσετε τὰ σπίτια σας, ν’ ἀφήσετε τοὺς γονεῖς σας, τὸ χωριό σας, τὶς ἐργασίες σας καὶ νὰ φορέσετε τὴν τίμια στολὴ τοῦ στρατιώτη.

῞Ενα πατριωτικὸ χρέος σᾶς ἔκαμε ν’ ἀφήσετε τὴν ἥσυχη ζωὴ τοῦ τόπου σας καὶ ναρθῆτε στὴν πολυθόρυβη ζωὴ τοῦ στρατώνα.

῝Ενα πατριωτικὸ χρέος σᾶς ἔκαμε ν’ ἀφήσετε ὅλους τοὺς ἀγαπημένους σας καὶ νὰ ζητήσετε νέες γνωριμίες καὶ νέες φιλίες στοὺς ἄγνωστους ἕως τώρα συναδέλφους σας.

Νεοσύλλεκτοι!

Μὴν ἀφήσετε τὴν ψυχή σας νὰ πονῆ γιὰ τὸ χωρισμό σας ἀπὸ τὰ σπίτια σας.

Μὴν ἀφήσετε τὸ νοῦ σας νὰ τρέχη σ’ ἀγαπημένα πρόσωπα, σ’ ἀγαπημένους τόπους.

῾Η Πατρίδα σᾶς δέχεται ἐδῶ. Μιὰ νέα οἰκογένεια σᾶς ἀνοίγει τὴν ἀγκαλιά της. Νέους φίλους θὰ γνωρίσετε. Ὁ στρατώνας εἶναι δικό σας σπίτι.

Νεοσύλλεκτοι!

῞Ενα νέο ἔργο καὶ μιὰ νέα φροντίδα ἀνοίγεται μπροστά σας. Εἶναι φροντίδα κοινὴ γιὰ ὅλους τοὺς ῞Ελληνες. Εἶναι φροντίδα γιὰ σᾶς, γιὰ τοὺς δικούς σας, γιὰ μᾶς, γιὰ ὅλους μας.

῾Η στρατιωτικὴ ζωὴ δὲν εἶναι τόσο βαριά, ὅσο νομίζετε. Θὰ σᾶς ἀγαπήσωμε ὅλοι μὲ τὴν καρδιά μας, καὶ θὰ σᾶς βοηθήσωμε νὰ μὴ σᾶς ἀποφανῆ ἡ νέα ζωή. ᾽Εμεῖς οἱ ἀξιωματικοί σας θὰ εἴμαστε πάντα κοντά σας· Θὰ γίνωμε ἡ νέα σας οἰκογένεια.

Μαζὶ μὲ τὸν ὅρκο, ποὺ δώσατε σήμερα δῶστε μας καὶ τὴν καρδιά σας. ῎Ετσι, σὰν καλοὶ φίλοι, πιασμένοι χέρι χέρι, θὰ κάμωμε σύντομα τίμιο καὶ δυνατό τὸν ἐθνικὸ στρατό. Τὸ στρατό, ποὺ θὰ εἶναι τὸ καμάρι και ἡ ἐλπίδα τῆς μεγάλης πατρίδας. ῾Η δοξασμένη σημαία πάντα θὰ μᾶς προστατεύη· κι ὁ Θεὸς ἀπὸ ψηλὰ πάντα θὰ μᾶς εὐλογῆ.

Ζήτω, παιδιά, ἡ ἑλληνικὴ Πατρίδα!

Ζήτω ὁ βασιλεύς!

Ζήτω ὁ ἐθνικὸς στρατός!

Ὅλο τὸ Στάδιο ἀντήχησε ἀπὸ ἀτέλειωτες ζητωκραυγεύς. Γιὰ πολὺν καιρὸ θὰ νιώθωμε τὸν ἀντίλαλο τῆς γιορτῆς· Καὶ γιὰ πάντα θὰ θυμόμαστε τὰ ἁπλὰ καὶ ζωντανὰ λόγια τοῦ καλοῦ Στρατηγοῦ.

«Θέλομε τὴν Ἑλλάδα νὰ τὴν κυβερνᾶ μιὰ καρδιά ποὺ μονάχα γι’ αὐτὴν νὰ κτυπᾶ. Γιατὶ, μονάχα ἔτσι, ὅταν εἴμαστε ἕνας λαός ἐνιαῖος καὶ ἀδιαίρετος, ὅταν ὅλα τὰ ἄτομα, ποὺ ἀποτελοῦν αὐτὸ τὸ λαό εἶναι ἀλληλέγγυα μεταξύ τους, ὅταν ὁ καθένας αἰσθάνεται καὶ πιστεύη, ὅτι ἡ δυστυχία τοῦ ἄλλου εἶναι καὶ δυστυχία ἰδική του, τότε ἀποτελοῦμε πραγματικὰ ἑνα ῎Εθνος, ποὺ θὰ μπορέση ὄχι μόνον ν’ ἀναπτύξη τὴν ἐσωτερική του ζωὴ σὲ πολιτισμό, καὶ σὲ ἀκμὴ καὶ σὲ πρόοδο, ἀλλὰ θὰ μπορέσει ν’ ἀντιμετωπίσει ὀποιανδήποτε πίεση...»

Ι. ΜΕΤΑΞΑΣ

* Αναγνωστικό Γ΄ Δημοτικού,
Ελληνόπουλα: Αναγνωστικό για την τρίτη τάξη
του δημοτικού των μουσουλμανικών σχολείων,

Οργανισμός Εκδόσεως Σχολικών Βιβλίων,

εν Αθήναις 1939,

σσ. 72-76.

Ιωάννης Μεταξάς: Ένα από τα “παιδιά του Διαβόλου” /Ioannis Metaxas: Among ‘Devil's children’

ἐν τούτῳ φανερά ἐστιν
τὰ τέκνα τοῦ θεοῦ
καὶ τὰ τέκνα τοῦ διαβόλου:
πᾶς ὁ μὴ ποιῶν δικαιοσύνην
οὐκ ἔστιν ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ
καὶ ὁ μὴ ἀγαπῶν τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ.

—1 Ιωάννη/John 3:10.

Young members of the Greek National Youth Organization (EON)
hail in presence of Ioannis Metaxas /

Νεαρά μέλη της Εθνικής Οργάνωσης Νεολαίας (ΕΟΝ)
χαιρετούν ενώπιον του Ιωάννη Μεταξά

Consolation / Παρηγορία,
Vol./Τόμ. 20, No./Αρ. 509
(March 22, 1939 / 22 Μαρτίου 1939),
p./σ. 19.

Προπαγάνδα & ιδεολογία του καθεστώτος του δικτάτορα Ιωάννη Μεταξά / Propaganda & ideology in Dictator Ioannis Metaxas' regime

Propaganda and Ideology of the Fourth of August Regime

in the Context of Hitler's New European Order

On certain occasions, the propaganda used by the regime aped the methods of Mussolini and Hitler. Metaxas gave himself symbolic titles, such as 'First Worker' (Protos Ergatis) and 'First Peasant' (Protos Agrotis), founded the national youth organisation EON (Ethniki Organosis Neoleas) which resembled the Hitler Youth, and introduced the 'Roman salute'. However, observers inside and outside Greece agreed that Metaxas failed to generate genuinely popular support.

Moreover, these were not symbols of unity rooted in an original mass movement, and Metaxas's road to power was very different from both Hitler's and Mussolini's. The fact that the regime was not based on a mass movement indicates that it would be wrong to call the dictatorship 'fascist'. Moreover, the regime did not have any plans for territorial expansion: these had been buried in the wake of Greece's disastrous campaign in Asia Minor in 1920-22.

However, all such observations on the Metaxas dictatorship pertain to a regime in its early infancy. The fact that Metaxas obviously intended the regime to be a permanent one makes it necessary also to evaluate the institutions and symbols which Metaxas created in regard to their potential significance and meaning in a long-term context. Seen from this point of view, Metaxas was clearly attempting to transform the Greek mind, and create a generation of new and regenerated Greeks. These efforts were in line with the ones undertaken by Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin to create a 'new man'. The ideological content of Metaxas's reforms, however, had much in common with Fascism and Nazism, and can be seen as an attempt to reorient Greece in a direction which would also make it conform with the planned Axis 'New Order' in Europe.

The fight against communism was the area in which the shared ideological interests of the two regimes were most significant and successful for both parties. The oppression of political opponents, and in particular of the Communists, during the Metaxas regime was, in terms of determination and efficiency, without precedent in Greek history. In November 1936, on the initiative of the Gestapo and as the result of an inquiry from the German legation in Athens, Metaxas declared that he approved the Greek Security Police and the Gestapo joining forces to exchange information as a defence against 'Bolshevik agitation'. According to a German assessment, it was because of Metaxas that only a year after the establishment of his regime, communism lost its most important stronghold in the Near East. At the end of 1937, the British legation acquired an item of correspondence dated May the same year between Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, and Konstandinos Maniadakis, the Secretary of Security. This stated that Maniadakis accepted an invitation on behalf of the Greek police to participate in a congress about methods to fight communism. In this way German assistance also played a part in Metaxas's fight against internal enemies. It is notable that the British Foreign Office learned from sources in Germany that ten per cent of the value of the German arms trade to Greece went to Metaxas. The money was used for the establishment of Metaxas's party machinery and propaganda for the regime. The British legation in Athens did not doubt the validity of the information, and in their eyes the crucial question was whether Metaxas would finally manage to claim supremacy and thrust the King into the background.

During the initial phase of the dictatorship, Metaxas made it clear to the public that he did not hold anti-Semitic views. According to Kordt, this reverberated in the censored Greek press, which stressed that the Jews in Greece had the same status as any other citizen, and that anyone in Greece who entertained anti-Semitic feelings was a bad Greek. This stance was also noticed abroad. The Jewish Chronicle in London printed a short article in September 1937 which praised Metaxas for prohibiting the publishing of anti-Semitic writings. However, this public image contradicts the impression Goebbels gained from his talks with Metaxas in September 1936, which prompted him to characterise Metaxas as 'strongly anti-Semitic'. This conversation, of course, was private, and Metaxas might have attempted to please Goebbels by expressing such views. Nevertheless, it indicates that Metaxas found it opportune to convey the impression to Berlin that he held anti-Semitic views. The regime also made some groundwork in institutionalising overt and state-sponsored anti-Semitism, as well as uritermerischen ideology. Application for membership of the EON, established with an eye to creating a new stock of regenerated Greeks, required the individual to be a Greek Christian. No Jews, Muslims or other minorities were permitted. At its peak, the EON had more than one million members. The frequent, and massive, book-burnings organised by the state included works by personalities whom Nazi anti-Semites systematically identified as exponents of international Judaism, namely Stefan Zweig and Sigmund Freud.

Whether or not this state-sponsored anti-Semitism arose from heart-felt convictions, we should note that it does provide some evidence that Metaxas's Greece was a seriously race-conscious state that would form part of a future Axis-dominated New European Order. Moreover, in general the regime placed much emphasis on creating a national identity based on cultural and ethnic homogeneity. To this end, Turkish-speaking Muslims, Slavophones and Albanian-speaking minorities were forced to compromise their beliefs, and instruction of Greek became mandatory in minority schools. The regime also clamped down on the subculture of the refugees from Asia Minor, in regard to certain manifestations of their specific identity. This, in particular, found an expression in the rembetika tradition: certain songs were prohibited, while the police closed down clubs and even imprisoned performers on the grounds that they were politically or morally subversive.

The regime wanted to create a modern, and culturally heterogeneous, Greece in the image of classical Hellas and Byzantium, and introduced a cultural and national policy of integration. Metaxas ascribed paramount symbolic significance to a militaristic and oligarchic Sparta, and depicted Sparta as the first of three Greek civilisations. The two others were Byzantium, representing the Christian Orthodox ideal, and Metaxas's own regime, portrayed as 'the Third Greek Civilisation'. Metaxas believed that after 400 years of Turkish domination, Greek civilisation was totally obliterated, and he saw the ideal of classical Greece as a means to elevate twentieth-century Greece from its present level, as a 'bastard culture' of idle individuals, into a 'pure race' of disciplined and uncorrupted men and women working for the common cause of creating a 'new Greece'. It is notable that Metaxas did not see classical Greece merely as an ideal to be passively admired, but rather as a method for political action to modernise society and culture. This conception of Hellas probably stemmed from his admiration for German culture. His views to some extent resembled whose of Wilhelm von Humboldt, the architect of the German restoration after the Napoleonic Wars, who authorised the instruction of the classical Greek language and culture as a means of purging German culture and society from French influence and raising Germany to a higher level of civilisation. If one believed that the extraordinary achievements of modern Germany were the results of the Humboldtian reformation, then the high level of German culture and society would appear to be the result of the implementation of the ideals of ancient Greece. Or, to put it differently, of a process in which Germans were to become transformed into ancient Greeks; this is, perhaps, the key to understanding Metaxas's deep admiration for German culture.

German admiration for Greek antiquity and the Humboldtian credo, in turn, gave Greek-German relations an emotional quality, which did not exist in German relations with other countries in the region, but which was somewhat similar to the sentiments the National Socialists nurtured for the Nordic countries out of racial attachment to its peoples, whom they believed to be of an especially pure Aryan stock. According to the British minister to Greece, Sir Sidney Waterlow, the National Socialists saw an intellectual affinity between the ancient Greeks and the modern Germans, or, as he expressed it, between Perides and Hitler. Albert Speer noted that Hitler was primarily influenced by Greek architecture, and regarded Greek culture as an expression of the highest imaginable perfection. From the diaries of Goebbels it is possible to discern the feelings that were aroused in the German Minister of Propaganda during his first visit to Greece. In the following notes he describes how the dream of his youth came true in the airspace above Mount Olympus: 'There towers Mount Olympus and there Parnassus. It makes one warm. Old memories from my youth emerge. A dream comes true. The sun sets beautifully. Over eternal Greece'." On the second clay of his visit, Goebbels went to the Acropolis. The minister described it as the happiest morning of his life: 'Yesterday: one of the most beautiful and most significant mornings of my life. On the Acropolis. Only a few people. And I wandered about for hours in these noble places of Nordic art.'

It is interesting that Goebbels depicts Greek antiquity as a part of the pre-Christian Nordic world, a fact that reveals that he subscribed to the views of racial 'history' propagated by people like Guido von List, who believed that the Aryans originally stemmed form the North Pole but had spread to the Mediterranean and bred the race of the ancient Greeks." It was in this spirit that Goebbels wrote: 'My soul is filled with beauty. Blessed antiquity, which lived in eternal joy free from Christianity. An evening stroll through the town. This joyful highest life. This smell of happiness. How pleased the Fuehrer would be if he were here with us!' His joy at seeing the Acropolis again in 1939 inspired Goebbels further: 'On Acropolis. O, this shattering view! The cradle of Aryan culture.'

* Mogens Pelt,
"The Establishment and Development of the Metaxas Regime in the Context of Nazi Fascism, 1936-41"
["Η Εγκαθίδρυση και η Εξέλιξη του Καθεστώτος του Μεταξά στη Συνάφεια του Ναζιστικού Φασισμού του 1936-1941"],
Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions (2:3) 2001, Routledge,
pp./σσ. 157-161.
[ * ]

Το καθεστώς του δικτάτορα Ιωάννη Μεταξά & η Ορθόδοξη Εκκλησία της Ελλάδος /Dictator Ioannis Metaxas' regime & the Orthodox Church of Greece

 

* Ελένη Μαχαίρα,
Η Νεολαία της 4η Αυγούστου Φωτογραφές   *,
Ιστορικό Αρχείο Ελληνικής Νεολαίας/Γενική Γραμματεία Νέας Γενιάς,
Αθήνα 1987,
pp./σσ. 51-66, 86, 90, 91, 95.
[Ελληνικά/Greek, PDF]