Prodromos Bodosakis-Athanasiadis

Prodromos Bodosakis-Athanasiadis   (businessman, spook, deep politician)
Born	1891 Poros, Ottoman Empire
Died	1979 (Age 87)
Nationality	Greek
Greek self-made businessman with top politicians in his pocket

Bodossaki Athanassiades was a Greek businessman. He was one of the most important and fascinating figures in 20^th century Greek industrial history. With cash connections to several top politicians, he created an immense industrial empire with weapons factories, mines and plants in diverse branches of industry in the 1930s. At first close to Germany, he was recruited by the American OSS during WW2, before siphoning off a good chunk of the US Marshall aid after the war.

Ottoman Riches

Athanasiadis was from a poor ethnic Greek family in Asia Minor in the Ottoman Empire. Traditionally ethnic Greeks dominated commerce in the empire. At the age of ten he went to find his fortune in Adana , and by the age of seventeen he had become one of the important economic agents of the region, with commercial activity first in Mersin and later in Constantinople. During WW1 he makes extensive business contacts with the Ottoman Empire's German allies. In the first few years after WW1, he makes business of the French forces in the area.

It was now Bodosakis began his life-long attempt to profile himself as a benefactor for the Greeks of the nation state -and in this way to enter the hall of fame of benefactors to Greek national cause. In other words, Bodosakis was beginning to invest in cultural capital in order give credentials to his profile as a supporter of the Greek cause.

Second fortune in Greece

After the eviction of the Greeks from Asia Minor in 1923, he moved to Greece, at the instigation of PM Eleftherios Venizelos, of whom he was a political supporter, bringing with him his already huge fortune. He established some kind of a personal relation with Emil Georg von Stauss, the director of Deutsche Bank

In the difficult conditions of the ruined Greece after WW1, he loses his property, speculating against the Pound Sterling. But his future as business man was rescued by one of his old military acquaintances, General Pangalos, who took over power by a coup d’état in 1925 - and offered Bodosakis a concession on the automatic telephones in Greece while at the same time he put pressure on the most important bank in Greece to open a credit for Bodosakis. His luck smiles again: he soon owns chemical industries, glassworks, shipping, alcohol, mining and quarrying and ammunition, and covered 35% of the country's industrial potential.

The Man behind the Strongman

Bodosakis and general Metaxas were introduced in early 1934 by Emmanouel Tsouderos, then Governor of the Bank of Greece. The two met at the offices of the Greek telephone company and discussed the possibility of Bodosakis employing Metaxas’ son-in-law, Georgios Mantzoufas. Shortly thereafter, Mantzoufas was effectively employed by Bodosakis.

In 1935, Bodosakis began to back financially general Metaxas’ political career. The latter came to power in August 1936, supported by the well off, who looked towards Metaxas as the best man to "impose order" on Greece. When Metaxas was installed as dictator, he allegedly asked Bodosakis how he could repay him for his support, and Bodosakis in turn asked for the government’s backing to expand his weapons empire.

Bodosakis requested that the government appoint him as managing director of the State-owned Greek Powder and Cartridge Company (GPCC), one of the biggest producer of ammunition, explosives and weaponry in the country. Metaxas agreed.

Here Bodosakis’ German networks proved important once more. They took an international dimension when in 1935 Bodosakis signed an agreement with the German armament firm Rheinmetall-Borsig which was close to Göring. In this way,the Germans managed to break the monopoly of France steel industry in South-eastern Europe which had been guaranteed by an international cartel agreement.

Later in 1935, Bodosakis went to Paris and secured a contract to supply five million cartridges for the 7 mm calibre rifles needed by the Spanish Republic. These contracts marked the beginning of a trade relationship that played a significant role in the Spanish conflict (selling to both the Republican government and - to much larger extent - to Franco's Nationalist rebels) and resulted in arms sales becoming Greece’s largest industry and the country’s second largest export, following tobacco, in the late 1930s.

Spain was not the only market for the GPCC; in fact the company also sold to Chiang Kai-shek’s forces in the Chinese Civil War, to Palestine in the Arab Revolt (1936-39), and to Turkey. Bodosakis was quickly labeled as the new ‘Basil Zaharoff’ by Greek and foreign newspapers because of his involvement in the arms trade.

A "thoroughly disreputable character"

In the 1930s, he was the most prominent and important link between German and Greek industry, because his firm is mostly built on German know--how and technology. But with the German invasion of Greece in 1941, Bodosakis leaves the country, via Egypt, then South Africa, where he tries to build a munitions factory, to the United States, taking as much as possible of his fortune with him. In the US, he quickly excites suspicion in the government. A 1942 report from the director of Naval Intelligence, titled "Greek American Fascism", referred to Bodosakis as a "thoroughly disreputable character, by some considered the most dangerous of all the Greeks."

Office of Strategic Services

By late 1942 he once more managed to translate his networks and know-how into a valuable political currency. He was recruited by OSS. Agent Amoss told Colonel William J. Donovan, the head of the OSS, the following: ‘The sinister Greek Magnate Bodosakis, now in this country, is an intimate of Admiral Canarius [i.e. Abwehr chief Wilhelm Canaris. Bodosakis (who is not an informant in this case) has convinced me that he should be used by our Organization to contact and pervert Canarius and several Nazi and Pro-Nazi leaders in Rumania, Bulgaria and Spain'.

Bodosakis kept in touch with the Greek government-in-exile as well as Greek Liberal and military circles in Egypt. He had a number of leading Greek military men and politicians on his payroll, including future Greek Prime Minister Admiral Peter Voulgaris and General Nikolaos Plastiras.

Shortly after his arrival back in Egypt, the British, who regarded Greece as their elusive sphere of influence, had him arrested. After his release, he stayed in Lebanon before he returned to Greece.

A hand in the reconstruction money jar

In 1942, Bodosakis wrote a study of post-war Greek reconstruction, concentrating on agriculture and industry. He expected mutually beneficial US assistance and collaboration to be forthcoming. Given Greece's strategic position, it could serve as a possible base for US extension into the Balkans and the Middle East.

After the war, he remained a person of considerable influence. He was involved in a number of industries, mainly exports, and soon had more than 15,000 employees. He had close connections to the UNRRA, the principal international institution responsible for aid to Greece before the Truman doctrine in 1947. When the UNRRA closed in 1947, Mr. Maben, an American, was hired by Bodosakis. Soon Maben functioned as Bodosakis' liaison with American advisors and companies in Greece.

The Marshall Aid Program for Greece ran out of money before the development programme for Greece had been completed. So in 1953 Bodosakis vistied Dr. Reinhardt, Director General at the West-German Ministry of Economic Affairs. At the top of his agenda was increased German-Greek economic relations. Bodosakis complained that US economic aid had not been used properly, blaming US meddling in every detail.

Last years

But from 1955 onwards he began to meet resistance from a younger generation of politicians headed by Konstantin Karamanlis. He also met competition from an emerging layer of industrialists who responded the possibilities of an emerging Greek home market and new sources of outlet beyond the borders. At the same time,the organization of Greek industrialists began to play a more prominent role compared to individual industrialists. It did not mean that Bodosakis was without influence but that an éra during which he wielded extraordinary powers was over.

In 1972, Bodossaki Athanassiades started the Bodossaki Athanassiades Foundation. His nephew, the director of the foundation, Alexander J. Athanassiades was shot dead on 1 March 1988, aged 58, by "terrorists" while driving to his office in Athens. "The Athens police said a Communist terrorist organization, November 17th, claimed responsibility for his death."

 

Event Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Bilderberg/1965	2 April 1965	4 April 1965	Italy Villa d'Este	The 14th Bilderberg meeting, held in Italy

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