Nicolas Grunitzky
| Nicolas Grunitzky | |
|---|---|
 |
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| President of Togo | |
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In office 13 January 1963 – 13 January 1967 |
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| Preceded by | Emmanuel Bodjollé |
| Succeeded by | Kléber Dadjo |
| Prime Minister of Togo | |
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In office 12 September 1956 – 16 May 1958 |
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| Preceded by | none |
| Succeeded by | Sylvanus Olympio |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
April 5, 1913 Atakpamé, Togoland |
| Died | September 27, 1969 (aged 56) Paris, France |
| Nationality | Togolese |
| Political party | Togolese Party of Progress |
Nicolas Grunitzky (April 5, 1913 – September 27, 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 Sylvanus Olympio, Grunitzky was chosen by the military committee of coup leaders to be Togo's second President.
He was born in Atakpamé in 1913 to a German father (of Polish origin) and a Togolese mother (of Yoruba royalty). 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 September 12, 1956. The PTP and its northern ally, the Union of Chiefs and Peoples of the North, were defeated in elections held on May 16, 1958 by Sylvanus Olympio's Committee of Togolese Unity (CUT) and their nationalist allies Juvento, and Grunitzky subsequently went into exile.
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