4/21/2015 First World War centenary: the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, as it happened - Telegraph First World War centenary: the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, as it happened On Sunday June 28 1914 in Sarajevo, Gavrilo Princip fired the shot that killed the Archduke and started the train of events that led to global war. Here is a step by step account of how the dramatic day unfolded The Daily Telegraph, June 29 1914 By Richard Preston 8:19PM BST 27 Jun 2014 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, little­loved 51­year­old nephew of the ailing Emperor Franz Joseph, was heir presumptive to the Austro­Hungarian 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 lady­in­waiting to Archduchess Isabella, whose sister Franz Ferdinand was expected to marry. Their marriage was morganatic, meaning their children were excluded from the line of http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-one/10930863/First-World-War-centenary-the-assassination-of-Franz-Ferdinand-as-it-happened.html 1/12 4/21/2015 First World War centenary: the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, as it happened - Telegraph succession. Although she was made 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 much­loved children, aged between 10 and 12 – Princess Sophie von Hohenberg (1901­1990), Maximilian, Duke of Hohenberg (1902­1962), Prince Ernst von Hohenberg (1904­1954); 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 Austria­Hungary, with as many grievances – 50 million people across modern­day Austria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia­Herzegovina, parts of Poland and northern Italy. Bosnia­Herzegovina 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 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 Austro­Hungarian 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 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-one/10930863/First-World-War-centenary-the-assassination-of-Franz-Ferdinand-as-it-happened.html 2/12 4/21/2015 First World War centenary: the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, as it happened - Telegraph enemies and hardliners. Christopher Clark The martyr: Bogdan Žerajić, a 22­year­old 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’. 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), 36­year­ old head of Serbian military intelligence. In May 1903, he had led Serbian officers in overthrowing http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-one/10930863/First-World-War-centenary-the-assassination-of-Franz-Ferdinand-as-it-happened.html 3/12 4/21/2015 First World War centenary: the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, as it happened - Telegraph 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 co­conspirator 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 Bosnia­Herzegovina, 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. 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 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-one/10930863/First-World-War-centenary-the-assassination-of-Franz-Ferdinand-as-it-happened.html 4/12 4/21/2015 First World War centenary: the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, as it happened - Telegraph 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 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 four­man cell recruited by Danilo Ilić, a Black Hand member aged 23. He had trained as a schoolteacher, and worked in Sarajevo as a proof­reader 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 Austria­Hungary 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 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-one/10930863/First-World-War-centenary-the-assassination-of-Franz-Ferdinand-as-it-happened.html 5/12 4/21/2015 First World War centenary: the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, as it happened - Telegraph 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 nothing does happen,’ he replied cheerfully.