the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, as it happened

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First World War centenary: the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, as it happened - Telegraph
7/31/14, 8:53 PM
First World War centenary: the assassination of Franz
Ferdinand, as it happened
Our journey starts with an extremely promising omen. Here our car burns, and
down there they will throw bombs at us.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand comments wryly on the fact that his journey
to Bosnia in June 1914 begins with his car overheating
The Archduke: Franz Ferdinand, the bumptious, little-loved 51-year-old nephew of
the ailing Emperor Franz Joseph, was heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian
throne. In 1913 he was made inspector general of the armed forces of AustriaHungary; it was this role that took him to Bosnia in June 1914, to inspect the army’s
summer manoeuvres.
The Duchess: Franz Ferdinand married Countess Sophie Chotek for love, for which
both paid a price. She was from a Czech noble family but was deemed unfit to be a
Habsburg bride; she had been a lady-in-waiting to Archduchess Isabella, whose sister
Franz Ferdinand was expected to marry. Their marriage was morganatic, meaning
their children were excluded from the line of succession. Although she was made
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Duchess of Hohenberg in 1909, the slights were constant at functions such as
imperial banquets, where she had to enter the room last.
[Sophie] could never share [Franz Ferdinand’s] rank ... could never share his
splendours, could never even sit by his side on any public occasion. There was one
loophole ... his wife could enjoy the recognition of his rank when he was acting in a
military capacity. Hence, he decided, in 1914, to inspect the army in Bosnia. There,
at its capital Sarajevo, the Archduke and his wife could ride in an open carriage side
by side ... Thus, for love, did the Archduke go to his death.
AJP Taylor
The family: Three much-loved children, aged
between 10 and 12 – Princess Sophie von Hohenberg
(1901-1990), Maximilian, Duke of Hohenberg (19021962), Prince Ernst von Hohenberg (1904-1954);
there was also a stillborn son (d. 1908). On the
morning of his death, the Archduke sent a telegram to
his children, congratulating Max on his recent exams.
The empire: 11 nationalities lived under the dual
monarchy of Austria-Hungary, with as many
grievances – 50 million people across modern-day
Austria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary,
Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, parts of Poland and
northern Italy. Bosnia-Herzegovina was the most
recent addition, having been annexed in 1908. Franz Ferdinand had opposed the
annexation, not from any love for the southern Slavs, but as a pointless provocation of
them and of Russia.
The grievance: The formal independence of Serbia had been recognised at the
Congress of Berlin in 1878. Bosnian Serbs dreamt of joining it in a Greater Serbia.
While Franz Ferdinand had no personal liking for the Serbs, he was not hostile to
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them: in fact he was thought to be a ‘federalist’ who supported giving more autonomy
to Slavic lands. This alarmed the Serbs, who foresaw the creation of a third crown in
the Austro-Hungarian empire with Zagreb the possible capital – if that happened the
chances of creating Greater Serbia would vanish.
The targeting of the Archduke thus exemplified one abiding strand in the logic of
terrorist movements, namely that reformers and moderates are more to be feared
than outright enemies and hardliners.
Christopher Clark
The martyr: Bogdan Žerajić, a 22-year-old Serb medical student from Herzegovina,
resolved to kill Emperor Franz Joseph at the opening of a new parliament in Sarajevo
in June 1910. In the event, he fired at Marijan Varešanin, the governor of the
province, missed, then killed himself with his final bullet. Vladimir Gaćinović, a
driving force behind the liberation movement Mlada Bosna – Young Bosnia – wrote a
pamphlet celebrating Žerajić and made a hero of him; his grave became a shrine.
Among those inspired by his memory was Gavrilo Princip.
I often spent whole nights there, thinking about our situation, about our miserable
conditions... and so it was that I resolved to carry out the assassination.
Gavrilo Princip, the eventual assassin, explains at his trial how he was
drawn to Žerajić’s grave
The Black Hand: The annexation of 1908 helped radicalise Serb nationalist groups.
On March 3 1911, in a Belgrade apartment, Ujedinjenje ili smrt! – Union or Death! –
was formed, the secret society that came to be known as the ‘Black Hand’.
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Gen Potiorek and Dragutin Dimitrijevic - 'Apis'
The plot: Just as they were intended to be, the details of the plot are difficult to nail
down. The prime mover was Dragutin Dimitrijević, nicknamed ‘Apis’ (after the
Egyptian bull god), 36-year-old head of Serbian military intelligence. In May 1903, he
had led Serbian officers in overthrowing King Alexander I and his wife Queen Draga,
who were murdered. The conspirators installed Peter I as the new king. Apis was
present at the founding meeting of the Black Hand in 1911, as was his co-conspirator
from 1903, Vojislav Tankosić, who was one of the handlers of the Sarajevo assassins.
Meanwhile Gaćinović, who had joined the Black Hand in 1912, instigated a plot to kill
Gen Oscar Potiorek, governor of Bosnia-Herzegovina, in January 1914, but the wouldbe assassins' nerve failed. Planning now focused on the Archduke's visit to Sarajevo
on June 28, rumours of which had circulated as early as autumn 1913.
The assassins: The three principal recruits were radicalised in the cafes of Belgrade
by the Black Hand.
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Trifko Grabež, Nedeljko Čabrinović and Gavrilo Princip
Trifko Grabež, 19, the son of an Orthodox priest in Pale, came to the city for his
schooling.
Nedeljko Čabrinović, 19, who had left school at 14, went to Belgrade and found
work with a printer.
Gavrilo Princip, 19, left Sarajevo in May 1912 for Belgrade after being expelled from
school (where he had been with Grabež). He volunteered to join Serbian guerrillas
fighting Ottoman Turks in the First Balkan War but was rejected as too weak and
sickly. Princip’s interest extended beyond merely the Serb cause to the freedom of all
southern Slavs.
I am a Yugoslav nationalist, aiming for the unification of all Yugoslavs, and I do not
care what form of state, but it must be free from Austria.
Gavrilo Princip at his trial
Milan Ciganović, a Black Hand member and employee of Serbian state railways, was
their handler; he reported to Tankosić who in turn reported to Apis. On May 27,
Tankosić gave Princip and Čabrinović four Browning pistols and six small grenadesized bombs from the Serbian State Arsenal, as well as cyanide powder with which to
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kill themselves after the assassination. Čabrinović was smuggled into Bosnia on May
30, Princip and Grabež followed on May 31.
The pistols used by the assassins, now in a museum in Vienna
They were joined in Sarajevo by a four-man cell recruited by Danilo Ilić, a Black
Hand member aged 23. He had trained as a schoolteacher, and worked in Sarajevo as
a proof-reader and the editor of a local paper. His recruits were:
Muhamed Mehmedbašić, 28, a Muslim carpenter from Herzegovina, who had
been involved in the botched plan to kill Potiorek earlier in the year.
Cvjetko Popović, 18, was a school pupil in Sarajevo (he died in the city in 1980)
Vaso Čubrilović, 17, was also at school in Sarajevo and a member of Mlada Bosna,
Young Bosnia.
The warnings: Serbian prime minister Nikola Pašić knew of the plot. If he did
nothing and it succeeded, the Black Hand’s close relationship to the government
would almost certainly be exposed; but an overt warning to Austria-Hungary would
mark him as a traitor to many Serbs. So a veiled warning was sent to Vienna, via Dr
Leon von Bilinski. the Austrian minister of finance, who was told that if Franz
Ferdinand were to go to Sarajevo, ‘Some young Serb might put a live rather than a
blank cartridge in his gun and fire it’. Bilinski rather missed the point: ‘Let us hope
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nothing does happen,’ he replied cheerfully.
The fateful day: Sunday June 28 1914 was St Vitus’s Day, the anniversary of the
Battle of Kosovo on the ‘Field of Blackbirds’ in 1389, in which the Ottomans
annihilated the Serbs. It remained a day of profound significance to all Serb
nationalists.
It was also the 14th wedding anniversary of Franz Ferdinand and Sophie, a reminder
of the day on which he had had to sign the Oath of Renunciation confirming that their
children could not succeed to the imperial throne.
The day before had been cold and wet but the morning of June 28 was sunny. The
couple had been staying outside Sarajevo at Ilidze for three days. So relaxed were they
that they had come into Sarajevo two days before for a shopping trip, during which
they were shadowed by Princip.
You are wrong after all... Everywhere we have gone here, we have been treated with
so much friendliness – and by every last Serb, too – with so much cordiality and
warmth that we are very happy about it
The Duchess to Dr Josip Sunaric, Bosnian Croat leader, the night before
the assassination
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The Archduke and the Countess arrive in Sarajevo by train
The couple were to drive in the second of a six-car motorcade from the railway station
along the river to the City Hall. Danic and the six other would-be assassins were
stationed along the route.
The car: a 32-horsepower, four-cylinder, open-topped Double Phaeton built in 1910
by the Viennese firm of Gräf & Sift. The numberplate was A III 118 – in which those
who believe such things can see a portent of the eventual Armistice date in 1918.
The Archduke's car is now in a museum in Vienna
Franz Ferdinand and Sophie travelled with Gen Oscar Potiorek, the governor of
Bosnia. Next to the driver in the front was Count Franz von Harrach, in charge of
their security.
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The royal party in the car
He wore: the dress uniform of a cavalry general – blue tunic, gold collar with three
silver stars, black trousers with red stripe and a helmet with green peacock feathers.
She wore: white hat and veil, a long white silk dress with red and white fabric roses
tucked into a red sash, and an ermine stole on her shoulders.
The first attempt: Mehmedbašić was the first of the young assassination team to be
passed by the motorcade. As the Archduke’s car neared, he was about to throw his
bomb but panicked.
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Čabrinović, who was standing by river, was the first to act. He primed his bomb and
threw it. The driver saw it coming and accelerated. It exploded beneath the car
travelling behind the Archduke’s, the third in the motorcade, injuring several officers.
A small splinter cut Sophie’s cheek.
Čabrinović swallowed his cyanide powder and jumped into the shallow waters of the
river Miljacka. The poison didn’t work and he was arrested.
Come on, that fellow is clearly insane, let us proceed with our programme.
Franz Ferdinand reacts to the bomb
The remaining assassins lost their nerve. By the time the motorcade passed Princip it
was moving too fast for him to shoot. Knowing that the party would return from City
Hall later, he moved across to the right-hand side of Franz Joseph Street.
I didn’t pull out the revolver because I saw that the Duchess was there. I felt sorry
for her
Vaso Čubrilović
The pause: At City Hall, the mayor of Sarajevo, Fehim Effendi Curcic, who had been
in the first car, began a nervous speech of welcome. Franz Ferdinand interrupted,
furiously: ‘I come here as your guest and you people greet me with bombs!’
The mayor was allowed to continue, then the Archduke spoke, the paper he held
bearing the bloodstains of one of the officers in the third car. Having gathered
himself, he praised the cheers of the people of Sarajevo, which he took to be an
expression of relief at the failure of the assassination.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-one/10930863/First-W…entenary-the-assassination-of-Franz-Ferdinand-as-it-happened.html
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The couple leave City Hall
The change of plan: The motorcade was to have returned along Appel Quay and
turned right into Franz Joseph Street, heading for the National Museum. But now the
museum visit was cancelled; the route would be straight back back down Appel Quay.
Franz Ferdinand wanted to visit Potiorek’s wounded adjutant in hospital. Originally,
Sophie was to have gone to the governor’s palace while her husband went to the
museum, but now she said she wished to accompany him.
No one told the drivers of the change of plan, so when the lead car in the motorcade
turned right into Franz Joseph Street, the Archduke’s driver followed. Potiorek yelled
that this was the wrong the way. The car was stopped and – without a reverse gear –
it had to be pushed backwards.
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The finale: Princip had been standing outside
Moritz Schiller’s cafe on Franz Joseph Street. Now he
ran forward, his pistol drawn. He paused on seeing
the Duchess but fired twice at point-blank range.
Whether he was lucky or whether his firearms
training in Belgrade had paid off, both bullets hit their
targets. The first went through the door of the car and
hit Sophie in the abdomen; the second hit Franz
Ferdinand in the neck. Harrach, aware of the
continuing threat, had been travelling on the running
board. Now he saw the Duchess slump across her
husband, surely aware that both were dying, and
heard the Archduke’s beseeching words to her:
Sopherl! Sopherl! Sterbe nicht! Bleibe am Leben für unsere Kinde! – Sophie, Sophie,
don’t die, stay alive for our children!
As Princip prepared to kill himself his gun was knocked from his hands, as well as his
packet of cyanide, as the crowd swarmed around him, kicking and punching; he was
saved from probable death by his arrest.
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Čabrinović arrested. Above, Princip after his capture
Franz Ferdinand and Sophie were rushed to the Konak palace. Shortly after 11am
both were dead.
Franz Ferdinand and Sophie lying in state
The reaction:
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The next morning, The Daily Telegraph
began its leading article: 'A dark cloud of
Fate seems to overhang the fortunes of the
House of Habsburg... The circumstances
are so peculiar that it is very difficult to
understand the reasons for the crime or the
exact motives of the murderer... His death
is, we believe, a serious loss to Europe at
large, as well as to Austria-Hungary
herself... At a period when the world suffers
from a lack of great personalities, the death
of a man so strong and self-reliant as the
Archduke Franz Ferdinand is a real
disaster, of which it is difficult to
overestimate the importance.'
The paper reported that news of the deaths
was relayed to the aged emperor Franz
Joseph at Ischl. 'I am spared nothing,' he is
said to have murmured on hearing of the assassinations.
George V and Queen Mary were told the news by telegram from the British embassy
in Vienna. They expressed their deep distress by return telegram. It was announced
that the English Court would go into mourning for a week and a State Ball was
cancelled.
Kaiser Wilhelm II was in Kiel inspecting German and British warships after the
reopening of the canal. It was reported that at 5pm all the ships in the harbour
hoisted the Austro-Hungarian flag at half mast, including the British warships.
Among German newspapers, the Berliner Tageblatt anticipated that 'the already
sufficiently tense relationships of Austria-Hungary will undoubtedly be aggravated,
even if no great Serbian conspiracy is demonstrable, and only Austrian subjects of
Serbian nationality participated in the crime'.
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In France, the Journal des Debats recognised
that the Archduke's death was 'a European
event of the highest political importance. The
character of the late Archduke, the intentions
that were ascribed to him, and his political
and religious tendencies, caused it to be
generally believed that his accession to power
in the Dual Monarchy would be the signal of
far-reaching changes'.
Follow Telegraph stories of the
unfolding crisis from 1914 day by day
on Twitter – @TeleArchive
Read the paper of 100 years ago at
telegraph.co.uk/ww1archive
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the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, as it happened

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