Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
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On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg were shot to death in Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, by Gavrilo Princip, a member of Young Bosnia, a group aiming at the unification of the South Slavs. The event sparked the outbreak of World War I. (See: Causes of World War I).
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[edit] Background
Under the 1878 Treaty of Berlin, Austria-Hungary received the mandate to occupy and administer the Ottoman provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina while the Ottoman Empire retained official sovereignty. This arrangement led to a number of arcane and internecine political and territorial disputes over several decades, involving Russia, Austria, Bosnia, and Serbia. The labyrinthine and Machiavellian diplomatic plots and conspiracies involving these territories over the years engendered hostility amongst the indigenous populations, breeding resentment which eventually led a fringe political group, the Black Hand, to plot Franz Ferdinand's assassination.
In late June 1914, Franz Ferdinand visited Bosnia in order to observe military maneuvers and to open a museum in Sarajevo. June 28th was the 14th anniverary of the Morganatic Oath, where Franz Ferdinand was given permission by Emperor Franz Joseph to marry his love, Sophie Chotek (a Slav born too far beneath his station), in exchange for Franz Ferdinand's oath that the children from this union would never ascend the throne. Sophie Chotek was happy to accompany her husband to Bosnia and celebrate their anniversary far from the Vienna court where she was treated poorly.
Franz Ferdinand was widely believed to be an advocate of trialism, under which Austria-Hungary would be reorganized by combining the Slavic lands within the Austro-Hungarian empire into a third crown. A Slavic kingdom could have been a bulwark against Serb irredentism and Franz Ferdinand was therefore perceived as a threat by those same irredentists. Princip stated to the court that preventing Franz Ferdinand's planned reforms was one of his motivations.
The day of the assassination, June 28, is June 15 in the Julian calendar, the feast of St. Vitus. In Serbia, it is called Vidovdan and commemorates the 1389 Battle of Kosovo against the Ottomans at which the Sultan was assassinated in his tent by a Serb; it is an occasion for Serbian patriotic observances.
[edit] The assassination
Note: The exact course of events was never firmly established, mostly due to inconsistent stories of witnesses.
On the morning of June 28, six conspirators, with six bombs and four revolvers divided amongst them, lined Sarajevo's Apel Quai. Some of the conspirators had also been given doses of cyanide with which to commit suicide so as not to reveal secrets should they be captured. A seventh conspirator, Danilo Ilić, was in what could be described as an organizational role and unarmed. They awaited Franz Ferdinand's motorcade.
At approximately 10:00AM, Franz Ferdinand, his wife and their party left the Philipovic army camp, where he had undertaken a brief review of the troops. The motorcade consisted of seven cars:
- In the first car: the chief detective of Sarajevo and three local police officers.
- In the second car: Sarajevo's Mayor, Fehim Efendi Curcic; Sarajevo's Commissioner of Police, Dr. Edmund Gerde.
- In the third car: Franz Ferdinand; his wife Sophie; Bosnia's Governor General Oskar Potiorek; Franz Ferdinand's bodyguard Lieutenant Colonel Count Franz von Harrach.
- In the fourth car: the head of Franz Ferdinand's military chancery, Baron Carl von Rumerskirch; Sophie's lady-in-waiting Countess Wilma Lanyus von Wellenberg; Potiorek's chief adjutant, Lieutenant Colonel Erich Edler von Merizzi; Lieutenant Colonel Count Alexander Boos-Waldeck.
- In the fifth car: Adolf Egger, Director of the Fiat Factory in Vienna; Major Paul Höger; Colonel Karl Bardolff; Dr. Ferdinand Fischer.
- In the sixth car: Baron Andreas von Morsey; Captain Pilz; other members of Franz Ferdinand's staff and Bosnian officials.
- In the seventh car: Major Erich Ritter von Hüttenbrenner; Count Josef zu Erbach-Fürstenau; Lieutenant Robert Grein.
At 10:15 the motorcade passed the first assassin, Mehmed Mehmedbašić. Danilo Ilić had placed him in front of the garden of the Mostar Cafe and armed him with a bomb.[1] Mehmedbašić failed to act. Ilić placed Vaso Čubrilović next to Mehmedbašić arming him with a revolver and a bomb. He too failed to act. Further along the route, Ilić placed Nedeljko Čabrinović on the opposite side of the street near the Miljacka River arming him with a bomb. As Franz Ferdinand's car approached, Čabrinović threw his bomb striking its folded back roof. The bomb bounced off and into the street. Its timed detonator caused it to explode under the next car, putting that car out of action and wounding a total of 20 people according to Reuters.[2]. Čabrinović swallowed his cyanide pill and jumped into the Miljacka. The procession sped away towards the Town Hall, and the scene turned to chaos. Police dragged Čabrinović out of the river, and he was severely beaten by the crowd before being taken into custody. His cyanide pill was either old or of too weak a dosage and had not worked. The river was also only four inches deep and failed to drown him. Cvjetko Popović, Gavrilo Princip and Trifun Grabež failed or were unable to act as the motorcade sped away.
Arriving at the Town Hall for a scheduled reception, Franz Ferdinand showed understandable signs of stress, interrupting a prepared speech of welcome by Mayor Curcic to protest "we come here and people throw bombs at us." He then became calm and the remainder of the reception passed tensely but without incident. Officials and members of the Archduke's party discussed how to guard against another assassination attempt without coming to any coherent conclusion. A suggestion that the troops outside the city be brought in to line the streets was reportedly rejected because they did not have their parade uniforms with them on manoeuvres. Security was accordingly left to the small Sarajevo police force. The only obvious measure taken was for one of Franz Ferdinand's military aides to take up a protective position on the left hand running board of his car. This is confirmed by photographs of the scene outside the Town Hall.
After the reception at the Town Hall, Franz Ferdinand decided to go to the hospital and visit the wounded victims of Čabrinović's bomb. Meanwhile, Gavrilo Princip had gone to a nearby food shop, either having given up or assuming that the bomb attack had been successful. Emerging, he saw Franz Ferdinand's open car reversing after having taken a wrong turn as it drove past, near the Latin Bridge. The driver, Franz Urban, had not been advised of the change in plan and had continued on a route that would take the Archduke and his party directly out of the city. Pushing forward to the right hand side of the car, Princip twice fired a Belgian made Fabrique Nationale M 1910 semi-automatic pistol in 7.65×17 mm (.32 ACP) caliber (serial number 19074). According to Albertini, "The first bullet wounded the Archduke in the jugular vein, the second inflicted an abdominal wound on the Duchess."[3] Princip later claimed that his intention was to kill Governor General Potiorek, not Sophie.
Both victims remained seated upright, but dying while being driven to the Governor's residence for medical treatment. Franz Ferdinand's last words, moments after being shot, were reported by von Harrach as "Sophie dear, don't die! Stay alive for our children!" ("Sopherl! Sopherl! Sterbe nicht! Bleibe am Leben für unsere Kinder!“)
Princip tried to kill himself, first by ingesting the cyanide, and then with his gun, but he vomited the apparently ineffective poison, and the gun was wrestled from his hand by onlookers before he had a chance to fire another shot.
Anti-Serb rioting broke out in Sarajevo in the hours following the assassination until order was restored by the military.
[edit] Alternative account
Borijove Jevtic, one of the leaders of Narodna Odbrana (a.k.a. Black Hand), tells his account of the assassination. This account can be found at http://net.lib.byu.edu/~rdh7/wwi/1914/ferddead.html. A clipping from a newspaper was secretly mailed from terrorists in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, to comrades in Belgrade. The newspaper clipping told of Archduke Franz Ferdinand's upcoming visit to Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia. There were twenty-two conspirators spaced five hundred yards apart along the route the Archduke would take. Each one were armed and ready. The first few along the route were unable to succeed but Gabrinovic, the compositor, had a chance. He threw the grenade towards the car. This did not harm the Archduke or his wife. The motor car sped away towards the Town Hall. After the reception, General Potiorek persuaded the Archduke to leave the city. They took the shortest route which the road had a sharp turn in it that would slow that the car would have to slow down for. This is where Gavrilo Princip made his move. He drew out his automatic pistol and shot twice. The first bullet hit Sophie, the Archduke's wife, in the abdomen. The second shot hit the Archduke in the chest. Princip went to prison and after a while, Princip was to be moved to another prison. Princip made the following comment before the switch of prisons. Princip said, "There is no need to carry me to another prison. My life is already ebbing away. I suggest that you nail me to a cross and burn me alive. My flaming body will be a torch to light my people on their path to freedom."
[edit] The Assassins on Their Way
In late 1913, Danilo Ilić came to the Serbian listening post at Užice to speak to the officer in charge, Serbian Colonel C. A. Popović, a captain at the time. Ilić recommended an end to the period of revolutionary organization building and a move to direct action against Austria-Hungary. Popović passed Danilo Ilić on to Belgrade to discuss this matter with Chief of Serbian Military Intelligence Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijević, known more commonly as Apis.[4] There are no reports as to what took place between Ilić and Apis, but soon after their meeting, Apis’ right hand man, Major Vojislav Tankosić, called a Serbian irredentist planning meeting in Toulouse, France.[5] During this January 1914 meeting, various possible Austro-Hungarian targets for assassination were discussed including Franz Ferdinand, but ultimately, at this meeting, it was decided only to dispatch Mohamed Mehmedbašić to Sarajevo, to kill the Austrian Governor of Bosnia, Oskar Potiorek.
Mehmedbašić was delayed. Before he made an attempt on Potiorek, Ilić summoned him to Mostar. Ilić informed him that Belgrade had scrapped the mission to kill the governor in favor of the murder of Franz Ferdinand, and that Mehmbedbašić should stand by for the new operation.[6] (Apis confessed to the Serbian Court that he ordered the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in his position as head of the Intelligence Department.[7])Ilić recruited the Serbian youths Vaso Čubrilović and Cvjetko Popović shortly after Easter (April 19, 1914), for the assassination as evidenced by the testimony of Ilić, Čubrilović, and Popović at the Sarajevo trial.[8] Three Bosnian Serb youths living in Belgrade, Gavrilo Princip,[9] Trifun Grabež,[10] and Nedjelko Čabrinović[11] testified at the Sarajevo trial that at about the same time, (a little after Easter) they were eager to carry out an assassination and approached Milan Ciganović and through him Major Tankosić and reached an agreement to transport arms to Sarajevo and participate in the assassination.
At trial, the three youths from Belgrade testified that Tankosić, directly and through Ciganović, not only provided six hand grenades, four Browning Automatic Pistols and ammunition, but also money,[12] suicide pills,[13] training,[14] a special map with the location of gendarmes marked,[15] knowledge of contacts on a special channel used to infiltrate agents and arms into Austria-Hungary,[16] and a small card authorizing the use of that special channel.[17] Major Tankosić confirmed to the historian Luciano Magrini that he provided the bombs and revolvers and was responsible for the terrorists’ training, and that he initiated the idea of the suicide pills.[18]
The three terrorists left Belgrade on May 28 and traveled to Šabac and handed the small card to Captain Popović of the Serbian Border Guard. Popović, in turn, provided them with a letter to Captain Prvanović and sent them on to Loznica, a small border town.[19] When they reached Loznica, Captain Prvanović summoned three of his revenue sergeants to discuss the best way to cross the border undetected. Sergeant Grbić accepted the task and led Princip and Grabež with the weapons to Isaković’s Island, a small island in the middle of the Drina River that separated Serbia from Austria-Hungary, and then handed off the two terrorists and their weapons to the agents of the Serbian Narodna Obrana for transport into Austria-Hungarian territory and from safe-house to safe-house.[20] (Čabrinović crossed at another point without weapons.)
The terrorists and weapons were passed from agent to agent until they arrived in Tuzla where the terrorists left their weapons in the hands of the Narodna Obrana agent Miško Jovanović.[21] The agents reported their activities to the Narodna Obrana President, Boža Milanović, who in turn reported to the then caretaker Prime Minister Nikola Pašić.[22] The report adds the name of a new military conspirator, Major Kosta Todorović, apparently the immediate superior of Captains Popović and Prvanović. Pašić’s handwritten notes from the briefing (estimated by Dedijer to have taken place on June 5) included the nickname of one of the assassins ("Trifko" Grabez) and also the name of Major Tankosić.[23] The Austrians later captured the report, Pašić’s handwritten notes, and additional corroborating documents.[24] From Tuzla, Grabež and Čabrinović went on to their parents’ homes to lie low until Franz Ferdinand’s arrival. Princip stayed at Ilić’s mother’s house and there met Ilić. After meeting Princip, Ilić went to Tuzla to bring the weapons to Sarajevo. Miško Jovanović hid the weapons in a large box of sugar and the two went separately by train to Doboj where Jovanovic handed off the box to Ilić.[25] Ilić brought the weapons back to his mother’s house on June 15 and kept them in a suitcase under a sofa.[26] Ilić began handing out the weapons on June 27.
[edit] Consequences
The murder of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and his wife produced widespread shock across Europe, and there was initially much sympathy for the Austrian position. The Austrian government saw this as a chance to settle the perceived threat from Serbia once and for all.
After conducting a criminal investigation, verifying that Germany would honor its military alliance, and persuading the skeptical Hungarian Count Tisza, Austria-Hungary issued a formal letter to the government of Serbia. The letter reminded Serbia of its commitment to respect the Great Powers' decision regarding Bosnia-Herzegovina, and to maintain good neighborly relations with Austria Hungary. The letter also contained specific demands aimed at destroying the funding and operation of terrorist organizations which arguably had led to the Sarajevo outrage.
This letter became known as the July Ultimatum, and Austria-Hungary stated that if Serbia did not accept all of the demands in total within 48 hours that it would withdraw its ambassador from Serbia. After receiving a telegram of support from Russia, Serbia mobilized its army and responded to the letter by accepting points #8 and #10 in entirety and partially accepting, finessing, disingenuously answering or politely rejecting elements of the preamble and enumerated demands #1-7 and #9. The shortcomings of Serbia's response were published by Austria-Hungary and can be seen beginning on page 364 of Origins of the War, Vol. 2 by Albertini, with the Austrian complaints placed side-by-side against Serbia's response. Austria-Hungary responded by breaking diplomatic relations.
Serbian reservists being transported on tramp steamers on the Danube, apparently accidentally, crossed on to the Austro-Hungarian side of the river at Temes-Kubin and Austro-Hungarian soldiers fired into the air to warn them off. This incident was blown out of proportion and Austria-Hungary then declared war and mobilized its army on July 28, 1914. Under the Secret Treaty of 1892 Russia and France were obligated to mobilize their armies if any of the "Triple Alliance" mobilized and soon all the Great Powers except Italy had chosen sides and gone to war.
Those of the conspirators who were under the age of 20 at the time of the assassination were sentenced to prison rather than execution. Three, including Danilo Ilić, were hanged. Čabrinović and Princip died of tuberculosis in prison. Some minor conspirators were acquitted.
It could be argued that this assassination set in train most of the major events of the 20th century, with its reverberations lingering into the 21st. The Treaty of Versailles at the end of the First World War is generally linked to the rise of Adolf Hitler and World War II. It also led to the Russian Revolution, which helped lead to the Cold War. This, in turn, led to many of the major political developments of the twentieth century, such as the fall of the colonial empires and the rise of the United States and the USSR to super-power status.
However, if the assassination had not occurred, it is very possible that a general European war would still have erupted, triggered by another event at another time. The alliances noted above and the existence of vast and complex mobilization plans that were almost impossible to reverse once put in motion made war on a huge scale increasingly likely from the beginning of the twentieth century.
[edit] Relics
The bullet fired by Gavrilo Princip, sometimes referred to as "the bullet that started World War I", is stored as a museum exhibit in the Konopiště Castle near the town of Benešov, Czech Republic.
Princip's weapon itself, along with the large car that the Archduke was riding in, his bloodstained light blue uniform and plumed cocked hat, and the chaise longue on which he was placed while being attended to by physicians, are kept as a permanent exhibit in the Museum of Military History, Vienna, Austria.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Dedijer, Vladimir. The Road to Sarajevo, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1966, pg 313
- ^ Dedijer, Vladimir. The Road to Sarajevo, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1966, pg 493, Chapter XIV footnote 21
- ^ Albertini, Luigi. Origins of the War of 1914, Oxford University Press, London, 1953, pg 37
- ^ Albertini, Luigi. Origins of the War of 1914, Oxford University Press, London, 1953, Vol II, pp 27-28, 79
- ^ Albertini, Luigi. Origins of the War of 1914, Oxford University Press, London, 1953, Vol II pg. 76-77
- ^ Albertini, Luigi. Origins of the War of 1914, Oxford University Press, London, 1953, Vol II pp 78-79 (please note the date error, 25 July should read 25 June)
- ^ Dedijer, Vladimir. The Road to Sarajevo, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1966, p 398
- ^ Owings, W.A. Dolph. The Sarajevo Trial, Documentary Publications, Chapel Hill, NC, 1984, pp 117-118, 129-130, 131, 140, 142
- ^ Owings, W.A. Dolph. The Sarajevo Trial, Documentary Publications, Chapel Hill, NC, 1984, pp 58-59
- ^ Owings, W.A. Dolph. The Sarajevo Trial, Documentary Publications, Chapel Hill, NC, 1984, pp 93-94
- ^ Owings, W.A. Dolph. The Sarajevo Trial, Documentary Publications, Chapel Hill, NC, 1984, pp 26-27, 27-28, 30
- ^ Owings, W.A. Dolph. The Sarajevo Trial, Documentary Publications, Chapel Hill, NC, 1984, pg 59
- ^ Owings, W.A. Dolph. The Sarajevo Trial, Documentary Publications, Chapel Hill, NC, 1984, pp 41, 46
- ^ Owings, W.A. Dolph. The Sarajevo Trial, Documentary Publications, Chapel Hill, NC, 1984, pp 93-94
- ^ Owings, W.A. Dolph. The Sarajevo Trial, Documentary Publications, Chapel Hill, NC, 1984, pp 109-110
- ^ Owings, W.A. Dolph. The Sarajevo Trial, Documentary Publications, Chapel Hill, NC, 1984, pg 106
- ^ Owings, W.A. Dolph. The Sarajevo Trial, Documentary Publications, Chapel Hill, NC, 1984, pp 40, 59
- ^ Magrini, Luciano. Il Dramma Di Seraievo, Athena Press, Milan, Italy, 1929 pp 94-95
- ^ Owings, W.A. Dolph. The Sarajevo Trial, Documentary Publications, Chapel Hill, NC, 1984, pp 36-38
- ^ Owings, W.A. Dolph. The Sarajevo Trial, Documentary Publications, Chapel Hill, NC, 1984, pg 59
- ^ Owings, W.A. Dolph. The Sarajevo Trial, Documentary Publications, Chapel Hill, NC, 1984, pp 61-64
- ^ Dedijer, Vladimir. The Road to Sarajevo, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1966, pp 388-89
- ^ Dedijer, Vladimir. The Road to Sarajevo, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1966, pg 503
- ^ Dedijer, Vladimir. The Road to Sarajevo, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1966, pp 390, 505
- ^ Owings, W.A. Dolph. The Sarajevo Trial, Documentary Publications, Chapel Hill, NC, 1984, pp 185-186
- ^ Owings, W.A. Dolph. The Sarajevo Trial, Documentary Publications, Chapel Hill, NC, 1984, pp 118-119
[edit] Further reading
- Albertini, Luigi. Origins of the War of 1914, Oxford University Press, London, 1953
- Dedijer, Vladimir. The Road to Sarajevo, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1966
- de Schelking, Eugene. Recollections of a Russian Diplomat, The Suicide of Monarchies, McMillan Co, New York, 1918
- Fay, Sidney Bradshaw: Origins of the Great War. New York 1928
- MacKenzie, David. Black Hand' On Trial: Salonika 1917, Eastern European Monographs, 1995
- Magrini, Luciano. Il Dramma Di Seraievo. Origini e responsabilita della guerra europa, Milan, 1929
- Owings, W.A. Dolph. The Sarajevo Trial, Documentary Publications, Chapel Hill, NC, 1984
- Ponting, Clive. Thirteen Days, Chatto & Windus, London, 2002.
- Treusch, Wolf Sören. Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand und seine Gemahlin werden in Sarajevo ermordet, DLF, Berlin, 2004
