Nicolas Grunitzky
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Nicolas Grunitzky (Script error: No such module "IPA".; 5 April 1913 – 27 September 1969) was the second president of Togo and its third head of state. He was President from 1963 to 1967. Grunitzky was Prime Minister of Togo from 1956 to 1958 under the French Colonial loi cadre system, which created a limited "national" government in their colonial possessions. He was elected Prime Minister of Togo —still under French administration— in 1956. Following the 1963 coup which killed his nationalist political rival and brother-in-law Sylvanus Olympio, Grunitzky was chosen by the military committee of coup leaders to be Togo's second President.[1]
Biography
He was born in Atakpamé in 1913 to a German father and a Togolese mother (of Ghanaian royalty).[2][3] He studied civil engineering at the ESTP in Paris and was a public administrator before leaving to form his own company. He was the secretary-general of the Togolese Party of Progress and was elected into the Togolese Representative Assembly in 1951. Grunitzky also served in the French National Assembly from 1951 to 1958, winning elections in 1951 and 1956. Supported by France, he became the Prime Minister of the Republic of Togo on 12 September 1956. The PTP and its northern ally, the Union of Chiefs and Peoples of the North, were defeated in elections held on 16 May 1958 by Sylvanus Olympio's Committee of Togolese Unity (CUT) and their nationalist allies Juvento, and Grunitzky subsequently went into exile.
The CUT/JUVENTO government declared Togo's independence on 27 April 1960, and Olympio (Grunitzky's chief political rival and brother-in-law) was elected the first president of independent Togo. Following a coup d'état in 1963 that ended with the assassination of President Olympio, Grunitzky was appointed president by the "Insurrection Committee" headed by Emmanuel Bodjollé. This was the first military coup in Western Africa following independence, and was organized by a group of soldiers under the direction of Sergeant Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadema. Grunitzky attempted to unify the country by including several political parties in his government. He was, however, toppled in a bloodless military coup led by now-Lt. Col Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadema and was exiled to Paris.
He was injured in a car accident in Côte d'Ivoire, and died from complications in a hospital in Paris in 1969.
References
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- Nicolas GRUNITZKY (1913–1969) Base de données des députés français depuis 1789 assemblee-nationale.fr (Biography at French National Assembly)
- Bridgette Kasuka. Prominent African Leaders Since Independence. Bankole Kamara Taylor (2012) Template:ISBN
- Frédéric Joël Aivo. Le président de la république en Afrique noire francophone: genèse, mutations et avenir de la fonction. L'Harmattan (2007) Template:ISBN
- GAYIBOR Nicoué. Histoire des Togolais. Des origines aux années 1960 (Tome 4 : Le refus de l'ordre colonial). KARTHALA Editions (2011) Template:ISBN
External links
- Pages with script errors
- 1913 births
- 1969 deaths
- People from Plateaux Region, Togo
- People of French West Africa
- Togolese people of Polish descent
- Togolese people of German descent
- Yoruba royalty
- Yoruba politicians
- Prime ministers of Togo
- Defence ministers of Togo
- Presidents of Togo
- Deputies of the 2nd National Assembly of the French Fourth Republic
- Deputies of the 3rd National Assembly of the French Fourth Republic
- Members of Parliament for French West Africa
- Leaders ousted by a coup
- Road incident deaths in France
- 20th-century Togolese politicians