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Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

1910s in Sarajevo1910s mass shootings in Europe1914 in Austria-Hungary1914 in Bosnia and Herzegovina1914 murders in Europe
Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of AustriaAustria-Hungary in World War IAustria-Hungary–Serbia relationsAustro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and HerzegovinaBlack Hand (Serbia)Causes of World War IDeaths by person in Bosnia and HerzegovinaEspionage scandals and incidentsHistory of Austria-HungaryHistory of SarajevoImprovised explosive device bombings in EuropeJune 1914 eventsTerrorist incidents in Bosnia and HerzegovinaTerrorist incidents in the 1910sWikipedia indefinitely semi-protected pagesYoung Bosnia
DC 1914 27 d Sarajevo cropped
DC 1914 27 d Sarajevo cropped

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was one of the key events that led to World War I. Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were assassinated on 28 June 1914 by Bosnian Serb student Gavrilo Princip. They were shot at close range while being driven through Sarajevo, the provincial capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, formally annexed by Austria-Hungary in 1908. Princip was part of a group of six Bosnian assassins together with Muhamed Mehmedbašić, Vaso Čubrilović, Nedeljko Čabrinović, Cvjetko Popović and Trifko Grabež coordinated by Danilo Ilić; all but one were Bosnian Serbs and members of a student revolutionary group that later became known as Young Bosnia. The political objective of the assassination was to free Bosnia and Herzegovina of Austria-Hungarian rule and establish a common South Slav ("Yugoslav") state. The assassination precipitated the July Crisis which led to Austria-Hungary declaring war on Serbia and the start of World War I. The assassination team was helped by the Black Hand, a Serbian secret nationalist group; support came from Dragutin Dimitrijević, chief of the military intelligence section of the Serbian general staff, as well as from Major Vojislav Tankosić and Rade Malobabić, a Serbian intelligence agent. Tankosić provided bombs and pistols to the assassins and trained them in their use. The assassins were given access to the same clandestine network of safe-houses and agents that Malobabić used for the infiltration of weapons and operatives into Austria-Hungary. The assassins and key members of the clandestine network were tried in Sarajevo in October 1914. In total twenty-five people were indicted. All six assassins, except Mehmedbašić, were under twenty at the time of the assassination; while the group was dominated by Bosnian Serbs, four of the indictees were Bosnian Croats, and all of them were Austro-Hungarian citizens, none from Serbia. Princip was found guilty of murder and high treason; too young to be executed, he was sentenced to twenty years in jail, while the four other attackers also received jail terms. Five of the older prisoners were sentenced to be hanged. Black Hand members were arrested and tried before a Serbian court in Salonika in 1917 on fabricated charges of high treason; the Black Hand was disbanded and three of its leaders were executed. Much of what is known about the assassinations comes from these two trials and related records. Princip's legacy was re-evaluated following the breakup of Yugoslavia, and public opinion of him in the successor states is largely divided along ethnic lines.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Zelenih beretki, Sarajevo MZ "Baščaršija" (Stari Grad Municipality)

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Muzej Sarajevo 1878-1918

Zelenih beretki 1
71000 Sarajevo, MZ "Baščaršija" (Stari Grad Municipality)
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina
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JU Muzej Sarajeva

call+38733533288

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muzejsarajeva.ba

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Monument to Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo
Monument to Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo

The Atonement Monument was unveiled in the city of Sarajevo on June 28, 1917. The monument commemorated the assassination attempt in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, in which Gavrilo Princip assassinated the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Franz Ferdinand , and was located in the immediate vicinity of the Latin Bridge . After the war, the monument was dismantled. Parts of the monument were housed in the Sarajevo City Museum until the 1970s. Since 2014, there have been discussions about reconstructing the monument. According to plans by Jenő Bory , the twelve-meter-high structure was made of Silesian granite. The memorial consisted of two columns visible from afar. The base bore a bronze plaque on which a portrait of the murdered heir to the throne and the Austro-Hungarian coat of arms were inscribed. A stone bench was erected opposite. The altar of the memorial was blown up. The bench still exists today. Since 2014, a two-meter-high glass plate depicting the atonement monument has been located at the site of the memorial. The glass plate contains the following inscription: Memorial to the victims of the assassination attempt in Sarajevo, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg. Unveiled on June 28, 1917 and removed in 1919. Architect: Jenő Bory. Bory developed further plans for a large cathedral that would seat 4,000 people. The building, consisting of several complexes, was to include a church and a youth center. The plans, drawn up in 1917, could not be realized. Before the construction of the atonement monument, a stone plaque with the inscription in Bosnian was placed at the site: "28.VI.1914 The heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife, Duchess Sophie Hohenberg, suffered martyrdom at the hands of murderers at this intersection." In 1930, a stone plaque in Serbo-Croatian was installed with the inscription " At this historic place, Gavrilo Princip brought freedom on 15/28 Vidovdan." This stone plaque was presented to Hitler as war booty after the Balkan campaign on his 52nd birthday . After the war, the plaque was handed over to a representative of the Yugoslav Military Commission on 6 November 1946. Since then, the plaque has disappeared.