The Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 led to the overthrow of the Ottoman Empire’s sovereignty over most of its European territories and the expansion of the borders of the Balkan states. Greece almost doubled its territory, from 63,211 to 120,308 square kilometers, and its population, from 2,631,912 to 4,718,221 inhabitants. Among Greece’s gains in the Balkan Wars was the capture of Thessaloniki, the largest city in Macedonia, an area inhabited by people of different nationalities and religions.
Having in mind the transformation of Thessaloniki into a national and cultural center for the New Countries, the regions that had just been incorporated into the Greek national body, the famous mathematician and professor at German universities Konstantinos Karatheodoris proposed the establishment of a university in the city. His idea could not be implemented in the following years due to the outbreak of the First World War. However, in 1920 there was a proposal to establish a Greek university in Smyrna, the administration of which was under Greece as a result of the decisions of the Treaty of Sevres (July 28/August 10, 1920). This idea was, of course, abandoned after the Asia Minor Catastrophe.
Alexandros Papanastasiou set as one of the goals of his short-lived, as it turned out, government (March-July 1924) “the educational organization of the northern provinces of the state, strengthening the teaching staff in every way and establishing appropriate practical schools, and secondly university in Thessaloniki”. After processes that lasted almost a year, on June 5, 1925, the 4th Constituent Assembly passed the founding law of the University of Thessaloniki (Law 3341), which was published in the Government Gazette a few weeks later, on June 22.
According to article 3 of Law 3341, “the University of Thessaloniki contains the following Schools: A) Theological, B) Philosophical, C) Legal and Economic Sciences, D) Physical and Mathematical Sciences and E) Medicine. Each School is represented by its Dean”.
A few days after the publication of the founding law of the University of Thessaloniki, Theodoros Pangalos launched a movement and established a dictatorship in Greece. Therefore, it was not possible to operate the university in the autumn of 1925. After several obstacles, the university started its operation in 1926 with Georgios Hatzidakis as its first president. On November 2, 1926, the first professors were sworn in: Giannis Apostolakis, Ioannis Vogiatzidis, Georgios Gratsiatos, Charalambos Theodoridis, Pantelis Kontogiannis, Stilpon Kyriakidis, Ioannis Papadopoulos, Nikolaos Pappadakis, Manolis Triantafyllidis and Chariton Charitonidis. One of the first professors to teach at the Department of History of the University of Thessaloniki was Michael Laskaris, who was the first holder of the historical chair of the History of the Peoples of the Hemos Peninsula, contributing to the development of Balkan studies in Greece.
In the first year, only the Philosophical School functioned, which was housed in Villa Allatini in the Depot area. However, as the building was intended for residence and not for an educational institution, despite its palatial dimensions, it became obvious that it would not be able to accommodate all the schools and services of the newly founded university. Soon, it was decided to house the Faculty of Philosophy and the Department of Forestry of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics for the academic year 1927-1928 in the historic building on Hamidieh Street (now National Defence), which until then was a military hospital. The building, the work of the Sicilian architect Vitaliano Pozelli, was built in 1888 and functioned until the liberation of the city in 1912 as the School of Public Administration of the Ottomans. After the completion of the necessary works, in the autumn of 1927 the University of Thessaloniki was established in the area where it is located to this day, outside the eastern walls of the city.
The emblem of the University of Thessaloniki was chosen to depict the patron saint of the city, Agios Dimitrios. In 1954, the institution was renamed Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Law 3108), following a proposal by the then rector Marinos Sigalas, who wanted to honor the great Macedonian philosopher.
Column editor: Myrto Katsigera, Vassilis Minakakis, Antigone-Despoina Poimenidou, Athanasios Syroplakis
