The Bungled Assassination that led to World War I

Much of the following text is excerpted from published sources.

Archduke Francis Ferdinand was the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. He was traveling with his wife, Sophie, to Sarajevo on June 28, 1914 to inspect the imperial armed forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina, former Ottoman territories in the turbulent Balkan region that were annexed by Austria-Hungary in 1908. This infuriated the Serbian nationalists who believed they should become part of the newly independent and ambitious Serbian nation.

He was to ride in an open motorcade through the streets of Sarajevo. The motorcade route was going to be very public and ceremonious. There were many dignitaries who rode in the motorcade in other cars. The public were lined along the streets in anticipation.

The Black Hand Secret Society: Their political objective to the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand was to break off Austria-Hungary's South Slav provinces so they could be combined into a Yugoslavia. Archduke Ferdinand wanted to reign over a unified region. The Black Hand Secret Society’s conspiracy to assassinate Archduke Ferdinand was organized by Chief of Serbian Military Intelligence Dragmutin Ditramajevic. There were no less than 7 assassins lining the motorcade route coordinated by Danilo Ilić, a Bosnian Serb. He traveled the route by foot just prior to the arrival of Archduke Ferdinand to insure that his co-conspirators and assassins were positioned perfectly and that instructions were clear.

The local military commander, General Michael von Appel, proposed that troops line the intended route but was told that this would offend the loyal citizenry. Protection for the visiting party was accordingly left to the Sarajevo police, of whom only about 60 were on duty on the Sunday of the assassination.

The motorcade passed the first assassin, Mehmedbašić. Danilo Ilić had placed him in front of the garden of the Mostar Cafe and armed him with a bomb. Mehmedbašić failed to act. Ilić had placed Vaso Čubrilović next to Mehmedbašić, arming him with a pistol and a bomb. He too failed to act. Further along the route, Ilić had placed Nedeljko Čabrinović on the opposite side of the street near the Miljacka River, arming him with a bomb. Cabrinovic would not fail to act.

At 10:10 am Ferdinand's car approached and Čabrinović threw his bomb. 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, putting that car out of action, wounding 16–20 people.

As instructed, Čabrinović swallowed his cyanide pill and jumped into the Miljacka River nearby. Čabrinović's suicide attempt failed, as the old cyanide only induced vomiting, and the Miljacka was only 13 cm deep due to the hot, dry summer. Police dragged Čabrinović out of the river, and he was severely beaten by the crowd before being taken into custody.

The procession sped away towards the Town Hall leaving the disabled car behind. Assassination conspirators Cvjetko Popović, Gavrilo Princip, and Trifun Grabež all failed to act as the motorcade passed their positions on the motorcade route at high speed.

So far, the motorcade had passed (6) of the would be assassins on the designated route. Two of the assassins lost their nerve, (1) assassin was inaccurate at throwing his bomb and it bounced off Ferndinand’s car. He was now being pummeled by an angry mob after he had fled to a river the depth of a birdbath after ingesting ineffective cyanide that only made him vomit. And, (3) of the assassins had no chance to act due to the speed of the motorcade following the bomb explosion.

Arriving at the Town Hall for a scheduled reception, Franz Ferdinand showed understandable signs of stress, interrupting a prepared speech of welcome by Mayor Fehim Curčić to protest: "Mr. Mayor, I came here on a visit and I am greeted with bombs. It is outrageous. Franz Ferdinand had to wait as his own speech, still wet with blood from being in the damaged car, was brought to him. To the prepared text he added a few remarks about the day's events thanking the people of Sarajevo for their ovations "as I see in them an expression of their joy at the failure of the attempt at assassination. Officials and members of the Archduke's party discussed what to do next.

With some reservations and nervousness Archduke Ferdinand and his wife continued on with their scheduled itinerary following the reception at the Town Hall.

Count Harrach took up a position on the left-hand running board of Franz Ferdinand's car to protect the Archduke from any assault from the river side of the street. At 10:45 a.m, Franz Ferdinand and Sophie got back into the motorcade, once again in the third car. In order to ensure the safety of the couple, General Oskar Potiorek decided that the imperial motorcade should travel straight along the Appel Quay so that they could avoid the crowded city center. However, Potiorek failed to communicate his decision to the drivers. As a result, the Archduke's driver, Leopold Lojka, took a right turn at the Latin Bridge just as did the two drivers ahead of him. According to the historian Joachim Remak, the reason for this is that Potiorek's aide Eric(h) von Merrizzi was in the hospital, and was therefore unable to give Lojka the information about the change in plans and the driving route. The Sarajevo Chief of Police Edmund Gerde, who had earlier repeatedly warned Potiorek of insufficient security precautions for the imperial visit, was asked by one of the Archduke's aides to tell the drivers of the new route, but in the confusion and tensions of the moment, he neglected to do so.

After learning that the first assassination attempt had been unsuccessful, one of the team of assassins, 19 year old Gavrilo Princip thought about a position to best assassinate the Archduke on his return journey, and decided to move to a position in front of a nearby food shop (Schiller's delicatessen), near the Latin Bridge. At this point, the first and second cars of the Archduke's motorcade suddenly turned right into a side street, leaving the Appel Quay. When the Archduke’s driver followed their route, Governor Potiorek, who was sharing the third vehicle with the Imperial couple, called out to the driver to stop as he was going the wrong way. The driver applied the brakes and reversing stalled the engine close to where Princip was standing. The assassin stepped up to the footboard of the car, and shot Franz Ferdinand and Sophie at point‐blank range using a Belgian-made Fabrique Nationale model 1910 .380 caliber pistol. According to Albertini, "the first bullet wounded the Archduke in the jugular vein, the second inflicted an abdominal wound on the Duchess. Princip tried to shoot himself (why not?), but was immediately seized and arrested. At his sentencing, Princip stated that his intention had been to kill Governor Potiorek, rather than Sophie.

After being shot, Sophie immediately fell unconscious and collapsed onto Franz Ferdinand’s legs. The Archduke, too, lost consciousness while being driven to the Governor's residence for medical treatment. As reported by Count Harrach, Franz Ferdinand's last words were "Sophie, Sophie! Don't die! Live for our children!" followed by six or seven utterances of "It is nothing," in response to Harrach's inquiry as to Franz Ferdinand's injury. These utterances were followed by a violent choking sound caused by hemorrhage. The imperial couple were dead by 11:30 a.m on 28 June 1914; Sophie was dead on arrival at the Governor's residence, and Franz Ferdinand died 10 minutes later.

Archduke Ferdinand’s death sparked a series of ultimatums from Austria Hungary that went unmet by Serbia and a war declaration ensued. It was presumptuously titled "the War to end all Wars".

(3) of the assassins who were caught were executed though not the two who unsuccessfully tried to execute themselves. Princip, the actual assassin, only served 20 years as per local law due to his age. Seven of the other co-conspirators were sentenced to various jail sentences.

There were some mild similarities with the conspiracy surrounding the Lincoln assassination. Those conspirators had planned for the assassinations of Lincoln, Secretary of War William Henry Seward, and the Vice President to all be killed on the same night by (3) different assassins/conspirators. The man designated to kill the Vice President lost his nerve and failed to act. The man assigned to kill Seward, broke into his house and found him sleeping in his bedroom where he proceeded to beat and stab Seward repeatedly, leaving him for dead. Seward, however, made a miraculous recovery though scarred for life. John Wilkes Boothe had no shortage of “nerve” and we know how that ended.

The U.S. entered the War in 1917 on the side of Serbia, France, and Great Britain. Some wondered why the U.S. entered the War at all. One of two main reasons was because Germany, fighting on behalf of Austria Hungary, had contacted the German embassy in Mexico City for the expressed purpose of making a deal with Mexico that promised Mexico the return of lands ceded to the U.S. in 1848 following the Mexican-American War in exchange for Mexico’s helping Germany defeat the Americans.

Food for thought....