who assassinated franz ferdinand and where

The kingdom of Serbia, though having one-tenth the size and population of the Habsburg empire, coveted its south Slavic provinces – Bosnia above all – as its rightful irredenta. Serb nationalism is the other set piece of supposed Balkan brutality. Even on the eve of his procession through Sarajevo, Franz Ferdinand was forcefully warned by Bosnian officials and men in his own entourage about the dangers of driving through the capital in an open air auto on a Serb national holiday. Franz Ferdinand himself was cautioned against going to Bosnia for military inspections in 1914, in light of the numerous assassination attempts in the region. When tensions calmed and the Habsburg kaiser defiantly visited his contested provinces in May 1910, an assassin stalked him in Sarajevo. Read more | The Habsburgs: the dynasty that wouldn’t die.

And after unilaterally annexing it in 1908, the Habsburg monarchy itself came exceedingly close to provoking that other Balkan power, the Russian empire, into a European war. To be sure, Sarajevo was not Vienna, though ever since assuming the administration of Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1878, Austria-Hungary had poured enormous resources into the region’s development. Nearly 80 years later, another scholar depicted the murder as a “random event in an Austro-Hungarian backwater”. Foremost, it had to happen in this “savage patch” of “civilised Europe,” wrote a historian in the 1930s, following a long and ongoing tradition of stereotyping the Balkans as dangerous and unruly, primitive, and war prone. 'Sophie dear, Sophie dear, don't die! Stay alive for our children.Contrary to popular depictions of hardened ‘terrorist-assassins’, these young Bosnians were total amateurs, who had recently learned to fire a gun or ignite a grenadeįrom its “violent” Balkan setting to the vastly bungled execution, Ferdinand’s political murder has been manipulated and fabricated, embroidered and mythologised. It is outrageous!' The Archduke interrupting the Mayor's speech at City Hall in Sarajevo 'What is the good of your speeches? I come to Sarajevo on a visit, and I get bombs thrown at me. Neither Emperor Franz Josef or the Kaiser saw fit to attend the funeral. The Archduke's role of Inspector General of the Austrian army had brought him to Sarajevo for the summer maneuvers. In the years to come, Sophie would not be allowed to ride in the same car with her husband during affairs of state.įate: The Archduke and his wife Sophie were assassinated in Sarajevo on 2 (their fourteenth wedding anniversary) by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip. They went through with the marriage against the Emperor's wishes but had to renounce rights of rank and succession for their children. Unfortunately the Emperor considered the Duchess a commoner and tried to convince Franz Ferdinand he was marrying beneath his station. His marriage to Countess Sophia von Chotkowa und Wognin, Duchess of Hohenburg in 1900 was called one of the world's great love affairs. His home life appears to have been surprisingly better. He lacked the two key elements for success in this social scene - charm and elegance. Shunned by the elite of Viennese society, he was also called 'the loneliest man in Vienna'. He has been referred to as a miser, a bigot, and a spoiled child. Personal: Much has been said about Franz Ferdinand and very little of it good. These politics were in direct conflict with those of the Serbian nationalists. This would put them on an equal footing with the Magyars and Germans living inside the Austro-Hungarian borders. One of these ideas was 'trialism' - the reorganization of the dual monarchy into a triple monarchy by giving the Slavs an equal voice in the empire. Now it was Franz Ferdinand that would be next in line for the Crown.Ĭonsidered more flexible in matters of military and domestic affairs than his uncle Emperor Franz Josef, he was a reformist with new ideas to be put into practice when he ascended to the Hapsburg throne. The second was the death of his father, Archduke Charles Louis, in 1896. The first was of the Emperor's son, Crown Prince Rudolph, who killed himself (and his sixteen year old mistress) in 1889. Third in line to the throne at one point, he became heir through two untimely deaths. Trenches on the Web - Bio: Archduke Franz Ferdinand

Who assassinated franz ferdinand and where