Dimitris Th. Tsatsos

He was born in Athens, the son of Themistoklis Tsatsos, a lawyer, Member of Parliament and brother of Konstantinos Tsatsos, and of Annita Alevra. He studied law and political science in Athens and Heidelberg, and at the age of just 27 was awarded a doctorate in law from the University of Athens.

From 1958 to 1964 he was a lecturer at the Faculty of Law in Heidelberg, and from 1964 to 1965 he worked as a researcher at the Max Planck Institute. In 1968, he was appointed lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the University of Bonn, where he also taught, and as a lecturer in constitutional law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Athens. Due to the Colonels’ Junta, he was unable to teach. In 1969, he was appointed professor at the Law School of the University of Thessaloniki, but again he was not permitted to teach. In 1970, he was appointed full professor at the University of Bonn, whilst in 1973 he was imprisoned by the dictatorship. In 1975, he was appointed full professor at the Law School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

With the fall of the dictatorship, he became Deputy Minister of Higher Education in the Government of National Unity and played a significant role in purging the education system of the dictatorship’s collaborators. In 1975, he was the opposition’s rapporteur for Greece’s new constitution. In 1974, he was elected Member of Parliament for Athens with the EDIK party, and in 1994 he was elected Member of the European Parliament with PASOK. During the period 1993–1994, he served as an unpaid adviser to the Prime Minister.

He passed away on 24 April 2010 in Athens.