One
of the drawcards for me visiting Sarajevo was the history of this region – as well
as an interesting emerging young art scene. Most
people will know of the terrible 4 year siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s – more on
that sad event in a later blog – but the city was host to another international drama 76 years
earlier – and it is this event that interested me today … So off I head
with research in hand to the Museum Sarajevo on the banks of the Miljacka River that runs through the city.
And
the story unfolds … Between 1878 and 1918, Bosnia-Herzegovina was part of the
Austro-Hungarian empire and ruling over this vast empire was Emperor Franz
Joseph 1 ( … if interested you can refer back to my blog posts from Vienna and
Budapest for a bit more info … ). Towards the latter part of that period,
tensions with neighbouring nationalistic Serbia ( who had already annexed
Montenegro and Kosovo and now were laying claim to Bosnia ) were getting rather hot.
On
the morning of 28 June 1914 Franz Ferdinand and his wife ( who were celebrating
their wedding anniversary on that day ) were driven in an open-top car through the
streets of Sarajevo to a civic reception at the City Hall, when the
assassination plotters sprang into action. There were actually at least seven
of the group strategically positioned along the car's route, but most either froze and were unable to carry out their attack
or they were incompetent and
they failed to take any action as the car drove past them.
At 10:10 am, however, Franz Ferdinand's car approached a
corner where one of the patriots, Nedeljko Cabrinovic was standing. Cabrinovic
threw his bomb at the car. Sadly for him though, and many other people, the
bomb bounced off the folded-back convertible cover into the street. The bomb's
timed detonator caused it to explode under the next car in the procession
leaving a deep crater in the road and wounding 16 people.
Seeing his lot was up, Cabrinovic swallowed a cyanide pill
and jumped into the Miljacka river. This suicide attempt failed for two
reasons. The first was that the cyanide only induced vomiting. The second was
that the river at that spot was only 6-inches deep due to the dry summer.
The police dragged the hapless Cabrinovic
out of the river and he was promptly beaten by the crowd before being taken
into custody. Franz Ferdinand and Sofia continued at great speed on their way
to the City Hall where he complained, perhaps not surprisingly, about the
welcome he had received.
Following the reception, plans for the return journey were then changed, although the
driver of the royal car forgot and followed the original route. When he was
reminded of his wrong turning, the driver stopped the car, reversed back, the reversing
car stalled just
in front of another one of the plotters, 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip. Seizing
the moment he drew his pistol and fired two shots at the car. He did not miss. The first hit Franz Ferdinand in the neck,
the other hit Sofia. Both died minutes later.
The Royal motorcade seconds before the fateful shots were fired ...
Princip was prevented from shooting
himself by a sharp-witted bystander and eventually stood trial. The assassins were
all arrested – some were later executed, but Princip was too young for the
death penalty and was thus sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment. He was
incarcerated at the Theresienstadt prison ( which later gained even more
notoriety as a Nazi concentration camp ) under harsh conditions – from which he
died less than four years later from tuberculosis.
If the driver had not been reminded
and continued on his way, Princip would not have killed Franz Ferdinand and
events might have been very different. As it was, the assassination sparked off what
was to become the First World War: when the Austro-Hungarians got wind of
Serbian Military Intelligence involvement in the assassination plot, this was
used as the reason to declare war on Serbia. Alliances between various countries
meant that soon much of Europe was plunged into the extensive bloodletting that
the "Great War" of 1914 to 1918 turned into. Thus young Gavrilo
Princip can be said to have shaped the course of history in the 20th century –
although it is quite likely that war would have broken out anyway, given the
political tensions and military mobilizations of the time.
the same spot today ...
Given the momentous events caused by the assassination I was
expecting to be able to find the place quite easily. My research led me to the
Latin Bridge and the Museum Sarajevo, so I went looking around for a giant neon sign pointing
to the exact spot. There wasn’t anything obvious. After hunting around I discovered
a small plaque on the wall of the Museum indicating this was the place
where it had happened. Talk about understated.
The
Museum Sarajevo is quite tiny small minute wee - just one l-shaped room … with only about a quarter of
the space dedicated to the assassination … I was able to photograph some of the
photographs from the event on display and the rest of my research has taken me
to several web sites …
The
way the Sarajevo events of 1914, and the roles of Gavrilo Princip and Franz
Ferdinand, were commemorated afterwards bears witness to the changeability of
attitudes towards and classifications of important historical events: first a
pompously large monument/shrine to the Archduke was erected – while Princip was
obviously denounced as nothing but a murderer. The Austro-Hungarian
monument/shrine was later removed under Serbian/Croatian rule after World War
One. Instead, the memory of the assassins was now celebrated and a memorial
plaque erected that almost praised them – and the Latin Bridge was renamed
after Princip. In other words, he was now rather regarded as a national hero
( and Franz Ferdinand as a member of the former imperialist oppressors ).
... not too sure about the likeness ...
