Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

 

What is the good of your speeches? I come to Sarajevo on a visit, and I get bombs thrown at me. It is outrageous.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

 

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife Sophie on June 28, 1914, started a series of diplomatic events that were instrumental in provoking World War I.

Franz Ferdinand, the eldest son of Carl Ludwig, was born in 1863. He had a difficult childhood that was plagued with illness, and his family never really expected him to survive into adulthood. However, Ferdinand was much stronger than his family had anticipated, and by his 13th birthday, his ill health was just a distant memory. He joined the Austro-Hungarian army in 1883 and proved his worth by working his way up from Captain to General in a relatively short period of time.

Ferdinand first met Sophie von Chotkovato in Prague in 1888, and it was here, at a dance, that the couple fell in love. Although Sophie was descended from a noble Bohemian family, she was not considered to be an elligible partner for the future Archduke. Ideally, a suitable marriage partner needed to be a direct descendant of the House of Hapsburg or from one of the ruling dynasties of Europe. However, Ferdinand insisted that he would marry no other woman, and to avoid undermining the stability of the monarchy, Emperor Franz Josef offered him a solution. He told Ferdinand that he would be allowed to marry Sophie as long as it was stipulated that her descendants would not be allowed to succeed to the throne. He was also informed that his wife would not be allowed to accompany him in the royal carriage, or even sit beside him in the royal box.

The wedding went ahead even though the only members of Ferdinand’s family to attend were his stepmother, Maria Theresia, and her two daughters. Despite this rocky start, the marriage was a success and they had three children – Sophie, Maximilian and Ernst.

In 1896 at the age of 51, Franz Ferdinand became heir to the throne following the death of his father. In the years leading up to his reign, Ferdinand’s relations with Kaiser Wilhelm and the other Archdukes was at times hostile. However, the bitterness eventually subsided and Ferdinand started to take a more serious role in the activities of the government. His first major appointment was as Inspector of the Army, which made him realize the Kaiser’s army was in poor shape, thus giving him the chance to reshape it. He promoted naval expansion and modernized the military, and he soon became a popular man with the armed forces. His reputation spread, and Franz Ferdinand was invited to Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to make an inspection of the Austro-Hungarian troops there.

 

The Black Hands and the Events Leading Up to the Assassination

 

Both Bosnia and Hertzegovina were provinces just south of Austria, which, up until 1878, had been governed by the Turks. The disposition of land lost by the Turks during their disastrous war with Russia was settled in 1878 with the Treaty of Berlin. Bosnia was now populated primarily by three groups – Croats (Roman Catholics), ethnic Serbs and Muslims. Many of the Bosnian-Serbs had a strong desire to unite their lands with that of their Serb associates across the river, a desire which was shared by many of the people in Serbia. In October 1908, Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina directly into the Austro-Hungarian empire, removing any hopes that Turkey might have of reclaiming their territories. The Serbs were not happy about this takeover, and through this unrest a secret society was formed called the Black Hand (Ujedinjenje ili Smrt) in Belgrade. They undertook the work of an older sect called The People’s Defence (Narodna Odbrana), which included anti-Austrian propaganda within Serbia, sabotage, espionage and political murders. The society included many people of high ranking, including government officials, professional people and army officers.

When the Black Hand heard that the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was due to visit Sarajevo in June of 1914, they made plans to assassinate him. To add fuel to the fire, Ferdinand had supported a strong stance against Serbia during the Balkan Wars. The Black Hand appointed three of their members, who were trained and equipped for their forthcoming assignment. They were the three young Bosnians Gavrilo Princip, Nedjelko Cabrinovic and Trifko Grabez.

The movements of the Black Hand were well known to the Serbian government as they had members among their midst, but when Prime Minister Pasic heard of the plot to kill the Archduke he realized that he had a major dilemma. If he did nothing and they succeeded in their mission, the implications of the secret society and the Serbian government would be obvious, and it could even lead to war with Austria. However, if he were to warn the Austrians of the plot he would be seen as a traitor by his own people. Pasic made a weak attempt at having the assassins intercepted at the border, but when that failed he decided to try and warn Austria in a diplomatic way that would not expose the Black Hand.

The Serbian Minister to Vienna, Jovan Jovanovic, was given the job of warning the Austrians, and he told the Austrian Minister of Finance, Dr Leon von Bilinski, that it would be a good idea to convince the Archduke not to visit Sarajevo. However, Bilinski either did not understand or decided to take no action on the matter, and the visit was to go ahead.

Meanwhile the three trainees had made their way back to Sarajevo accompanied by a fourth man, Danilo Ilic. He had joined the group of his own choice and had brought three other recruits along with him. Between them they had four Serbian army pistols and six bombs, which had been supplied from Serbian army arsenals.

 

The visit to Sarajevo

 

Franz Ferdinand decided to accept the invitation to inspect the troops in Sarajevo, as it had been a long time since a prominent official from Hapsburg had made such a visit. As the trip coincided with this 14th wedding anniversary, he decided to take his wife Sophie along with him. Although at home she was not allowed to ride in the same carriage as her husband, the same rule did not apply in cities such as Sarajevo, and so she was able to share her husband’s car. Franz Ferdinand certainly knew that the visit could be a little dangerous, but his security was quite minimal as he felt restricted with the presence of security men round him all the time. Another reason was that he didn’t want a cordon between himself and the crowd as he wanted to be able to greet them properly and, for the most part, Ferdinand was received warmly by the Bosnian people.

Sunday, June 28, 1914, was a bright and sunny morning, and at around 10.00 a.m. the party left Philipovic military camp, following Ferdinand’s inspection of the troops. The motorcade itself consisted of six cars, and they were heading towards the City Hall for a reception being hosted by the Major of Sarajevo. The Archduke, his wife and General Potiorek travelled in an open Viennese sports car along the chosen route, a wide avenue called Appel Quay. The Archduke requested that the car be driven slowly so that he could look at his surroundings and greet the crowds waiting to see him. Crowds had lined the avenue and were cheering the royal couple, but little did they know that among the crowd were seven young assassins who had all taken up their appointed positions along the route.

As the procession reached the central police station, a tall young man, Cabrinovic, hurled a hand grenade directly at the open-top car. The grenade bounced off the folded roof of the Archduke’s car and landed in the street, exploding underneath the car that was following them. It wounded several officers and about 20 people in the crowd. The driver of the Archduke’s car started to accelerate away to reach the relative safety of the town hall. However, Franz Ferdinand ordered his driver to stop as he wanted to see who had been injured in the attack. The imperial car was now a sitting target, and it was then that they noticed Sophie’s neck had been grazed – apart from that she appeared unhurt.

The Archduke was now in an outraged mood, and on arriving at the town hall confronted the Mayor, claiming that the whole situation was outrageous. The Mayor was perplexed as he was completely unaware of what had taken place. After he had calmed down Franz Ferdinand asked to be taken to see one of the officers who had been wounded by the grenade, and who had been taken to the local military hospital. The prearranged visit to a local museum would then proceed as planned. Sophie, who had not originally intended to visit the museum, insisted that she now accompany her husband on the remainder of his tour.

Once again the cars set out along Appel Quay, but this time at speed. However, neither the driver of Franz Ferdinand’s car nor the Mayor’s had been informed of the change of plan. When the first car turned right at the corner of Appel Quay and Franz Josef Street and the second car followed, General Potiorek shouted angrily to the driver of the third car that he was making a mistake. The driver braked sharply and came to a halt, at which point a young Bosnian man, Gavrilo Princip, seized the opportunity and took out a revolver. A policeman desperately tried to grab the gun out of the young man’s hand, but he was struck by someone nearby in the crowd. Princip stepped out from the crowd and only a few paces away from the stationary car, fired twice at the occupants. The first bullet struck the Archduke in the jugular vein, and the second entered his wife’s abdomen. Sophie sank to the floor with her face between her husband’s knees. The Archduke’s last words were, ‘Sophie, Sophie, don’t die. Stay alive for the children’, before he passed into unconsciousness. The car shot off at speed towards Governor Potiorek’s official residence, but they were too badly injured and were dead before arrival.

Although Franz Ferdinand was not popular in Vienna, little did anyone know that his death would raise issues of such far-reaching significance – four years of bloodshed and the death of millions. The murders of Franz Ferdinand and Sophie brought Austro-Serbian tensions to a head. Trouble had been brewing between Serbia and Austria for many years, and this was the final straw.

Investigations into the assassinations at Sarajevo, turned to the Serbian secret society headed by ‘Apis’, a somewhat shadowy figure who was head of the Serbian military intelligence.

The reasons behind the double assassinations will never really be known, but extreme Serbian nationalists regarded Franz Ferdinand with fear because he favoured concessions to the South Slav minority on Austro-Hungary. The Black Hand thought that these concessions might not be advantageous to Serbia’s position and therefore decided the Archduke should be eliminated. Vienna knew that it would be a long time before there would be any conclusive proof of the assassins and decided to act based on the mass of circumstantial evidence available to them.

As Vienna took a hard line against Serbia, the other powers in Europe started to take sides. The original squabble between Vienna and Serbia grew out of all proportion and within 30 days of the death of Franz Ferdinand and Sophie there was a World War!

What has been said is that Princip and the Black Hand secret society assassinated the one person in the Hapsburg family who was concerned with the future of Austria-Hungary. Archduke Franz Ferdinand, using the Dual Monarchy, made every effort during his reign to create a more peaceful affiliation between the different nationalities of the world.