468. The Murder of Franz Ferdinand: The Crime (Part 4)
2024-07-10 00:57:36
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The day was mild. A cloudless sky lay over the broad chestnut trees. It was a day made to be happy. The vacation days would soon set in for the people and children. And on this holiday, they anticipated the entire summer, with its fresh air, its lush green, and the forgetting of all daily cares.
I was sitting at some distance from the crowd in the park reading a book. Nevertheless, I was simultaneously aware of the wind in the trees, the chirping of the birds, and the music which was wafted toward me from the park. And so it was that I suddenly stopped reading. when the music broke off abruptly. I did not know what piece the band was playing.
I noticed only that the music had broken off. Instinctively, I looked up from my book. The crowd which strolled through the trees as a single light-moving mass also seemed to have undergone a change. It, too, had suddenly come to a halt. Something must have happened.
So that was Stefan Zweig in the world of yesterday, and he is describing the afternoon of Sunday, the 28th of June, 1914.
. He was reading in a park in Baden, just outside Vienna. And, of course, the something that has happened is the news arriving of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. And he posted this manuscript just before he committed suicide in 1942, at the height of the Second World War, the Nazi tyranny. And so he is writing about that moment as the great hinge in recent history, the moment that opens up the horrors not just of the trenches and the collapse of the Habsburg Empire, but also the coming of the Nazis and the seeming destruction of European civilization.
Dominic, the day that we are about to describe is a day that matters as much, perhaps, as any day in the whole course of history. Is that going too far? No, I don't think it's going too far at all, Tom.
Lots of people will say, of course, the First World War would have happened anyway, or a war would have happened anyway. Zweig, in his wonderful book, which gives a portrait of the world that was destroyed, the pre-1914 world. He obviously takes this moment in the park, as you said, as the dividing line between civilization and barbarism. And for people of his generation, of course, he's Jewish. It was.
Afterwards, nothing would be the same again. The world, the civilization, the common society of Central Europe was destroyed that afternoon.
I mean, there's also another great writer who's a citizen of the Habsburg Empire and Jewish, which is Franz Kafka. Yes. Great short story writer. And in his diary, there is no mention of it at all. And in a way that I find just as moving that he is carrying on his life.
He's not noticing it. Right. He's unaware. I mean, if he is aware, it's not important to him to note it down. But of course, that will overwhelm him just as much.
Whether you notice it or not, it makes no difference. It doesn't make any difference. Exactly. And I think you're absolutely right. It's a day that deserves real consideration.
So we should give it the detail it deserves. Even before Franz Ferdinand set foot in Sarajevo, the 28th of June was a special day. It's a special day for him and Sophie, his wife, who is, of course, also killed that day. It's the anniversary of the day on which he swore the oath of pronunciation, in which he basically gave up the throne for his future children and made this morganatic marriage with Sophie. It's not his wedding anniversary,
which some historians say it was, but it is an important date for him.
An incredibly important day. A really poignant day, actually, isn't it? It's the day of his humiliation, but it's also the day that made it impossible for him to have happiness with his wife. Yeah. But also for a lot of people in Sarajevo, it's a very important day because it's St.
Vitus' Day, Vidovdan, as they call it. It is the anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, when Serbia was overwhelmed by the Ottomans. On that day, a Serbian knight called Milos Obilic assassinated the sultan, Murad I. That moment becomes one of almost mystical significance to Serbs. It has significance, of course, to this day, Tom, which is why Kosovo is still such a live issue right now, in the 21st century.
Right. It's potentially incredibly.
inflammatory. Has anyone advised the Archduke that maybe it's not the best day to be driving in an open car through the streets of Sarajevo? People have discussed it. They have talked about.
it. They know that, for example, there's going to be a big service at the Orthodox Church in Sarajevo. There's always an annual remembrance service for Serbian patriots who fell at the St. Vitus' Day. This year, St.
Vitus' Day is a Sunday and a holiday, obviously. People aren't at work. There will be more people than ever before. The Austrians know this. The authorities know it, but the army maneuvers that he's coming to watch have been scheduled for a couple of days beforehand.
They can't be shifted. Plus, if it goes well, which they think it will, it's a great symbol of how settled and stable things are under the Habsburg Empire. The secret police, by the way, had said it's a bad idea. Of course, as we talked about last time, Franz Ferdinand is a very stubborn man. He has specifically said, I do not want to live under a glass jar.
I will not be followed by security all my life. I want to live freely and just take the risk and trust in God.
Yes. He's upholding the idea of the continuity and stability of the empire in Sarajevo. On that note, we should just mention that we are in a symbol of Habsburg civilization in Sarajevo, namely a Viennese cafe, the heart of the city, where we were for our last episode.
Tom, you've finished your cake.
I have finished my cake. I'm feeling a bit ill. I'm not going to lie. I feel stupidly wolfed the whole lot down. If you hear the steaming of coffee machines in the background, the chinking of plates, that's what's going on.
Franz Ferdinand is well aware that he may not get a universally ecstatic reception. On his journey down the coast, which we talked about at the end of the last episode, he has actually tried to learn some Serbo-Croat. He has learned some sentences. Actually, when he comes inland through Herzegovina and then into Bosnia proper, he smiles and he waves at people and he uses the phrases he's learned.
Like you, Dominic.
Just like me. The parallels are uncanny. He says to people, how do you do? I'm very pleased to be here. What a lovely day it is.
Actually, of course, a lot of people are really surprised that he's bothered. He is delighted by his reception. He was reportedly exhilarated by the time. on the 25th of June, he arrives in the spa town of Ilića, above where we are now in the hills. He arrives and there's a crowd there.
It's pouring with rain. He's in very good spirits. People are waving umbrellas and cheering. They're shouting Zivio, which is long life, may you live. He uses all his phrases again.
Like you.
Sophie is there. She's already arrived by train. They stay in the best hotel, probably the best hotel in Bosnia, frankly.
They've built him a private chapel, haven't they?
They have done. The Hotel Bosna had been built as a spa resort by the Austrians in Ilića. It has been refurbished. They have built him a special apartment.
You can go for a massage and have a mass.
Massage and a mass. Very nice. Everything happens for a good one. The next day is the first day of the military manoeuvres and that goes really, really well. They have 22,000 troops.
That's about half the total Austrian troop strength in Bosnia. It's raining, but it all goes really well. Franz Ferdinand has lightened the packs. He's given the orders, actually, that the backpacks of all the soldiers should be lighter than they otherwise would be, because he wants them to have a good time. That all goes well.
He's very impressed.
He's making great jokes.
There's a man lurking in the bushes who leaps out of the bushes holding what looks like a gun, and the bodyguards rush to intercept this bloke and Franz Ferdinand says, no, look at him. He's a photographer.
Let him shoot me. That's his job. He's a court photographer.
Everybody thinks, what a japester. What a great joker he is. At the end of the first day, he and Sophie do something very sweet, actually. They get a car and they make an impromptu visit. They drive down the hill into the city because she wants to go and buy a carpet.
She has heard about the bazaar. We've been walking through the bazaar quarter, which is probably pretty unchanged. I mean, obviously now it's full of souvenir shops, but there's mosques, there's an old caravanserai. It feels like a little bit of Turkey. And they had gone with no security and it had been great.
The crowds, people have rushed around them, been delighted to see them. People are very excited that the heir to the throne, his wife, have come. They'd had an absolutely brilliant time. The next day is the second day of the maneuvers, Saturday, the 27th of June. That day goes really well as well.
And Franz Ferdinand actually sends a telegram to the emperor. He says, my journey has been excellent. The reception is very gratifying and patriotic. The condition of the soldiers and their performance were outstanding and really beyond praise.
Because he's genuinely quite impressed, isn't he, by their performance?
He thinks, everybody says our army is terrible. Actually, they've done pretty well. Now, to be honest, Tom, when the First World War starts, the Austrians do not cover themselves with glory, no. But he says, you know, all is good. Tomorrow I'm going to go to Sarajevo.
In the evening, I'll come back. Everything's been great. I'll see you when I get back. And he has his words of commendation. You said in the previous podcast, he's regarded as a very rude man, which often he is.
But he has this read by every regimental commander in the language of each regiment to be read out to the soldiers. And they're delighted. The governor of Bosnia, General Potiorek, he is delighted. They have a banquet that evening. Strauss waltzes, fine wines, all of this stuff.
It's great.
It's everything that the Habsburg Empire should be at its best.
Now that evening, some people say, listen, this has been great. Let's not push our luck. One of his flunkies is a guy called Baron von Rumerskirch, says to him, why don't we just bin the rest of the trip? Go back to the coast. The dreadnought is still there.
Why don't you go up to Trieste with Sophie? You can have your wedding anniversary there on the 1st of July. It'll be brilliant. One reason, he says that is a Bosnian, Croat leader, Dr. Sunaric has been talking to Sophie the night before.
And Sophie had said, we've been to the bazaar and we had great fun. You know, everyone was really nice. They were really kind to us and there's no problems here at all. And Dr. Sunaric had said to Sophie, listen, I pray to God that you say that tomorrow evening, because I'm being really worried about it.
When I see you go safe and sound, a great burden will be lifted from me and all this. So when they have this conversation, the governor's adjutant, who's a guy called Lieutenant Colonel von Merizzi, we'll hear about him a little bit later. He says, what? You can't scrap the plan. You know, that would look really bad.
There are loads of Habsburg loyalists in the city who cannot wait to see you tomorrow. It would be insulting for the governor. Just go through the plan and there won't be any problems at all.
It'll be fine. It'll be fine. Nothing will happen.
As the historian Thomas Otte says, with that decision began the end of Austria-Hungary.
So it's the 28th of June. It's a Sunday.
Yes.
It's the anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo and it's the anniversary of Franz Ferdinand making the decision, renunciation, all that kind of thing. Yeah. And sun rises over the hills that surround Sarajevo.
Yeah.
And the Archduke and the Duchess are in their private chapel, aren't they? That's how they do.
They start the day with mass and then they go back to their apartment, to the room. Franz Ferdinand is practicing again, his phrases. He has a paragraph at the end of the speech he's going to give. He's going to go to the city hall and make a speech and he wants to end it with.
His phrases.
With his phrases, a little Serbo-Croat.
A double room with a shower. Three beers, please.
Exactly. Help, I've been mugged. Here is my travel insurance number.
Oh dear, my cart has fallen to its doom.
He's got this paragraph and he's going to end and he's practicing and practicing and practicing. When he's finished doing this, he comes out and Sophie says, I've had brilliant news. We've just had a message from Vienna. Max, their oldest son, who is, I think, about 11.. He's just had his exam results from the Schotten Academy and he's done really, really well.
It's all too poignant.
So they send Max a telegram then and there. Well done, son. We'll see you tomorrow. Can't wait to see you. We can celebrate properly.
So it is very sad time, actually, isn't it? So by then it's about nine o'clock. They're going to take the train. It's only going to be a 20 minute ride, or so. The train, a special court train.
So again, very like Kennedy going.
From Fort Worth to Dallas. Yeah. Exactly. Just a short hop. Almost unnecessarily short hop.
So they get the train down to the station in Sarajevo. Now, to remind people, Sarajevo runs from west to east along a sort of very narrow valley with a river in the middle, the Miliatska.
That river has been straightened out by Habsburg engineers.
It has indeed.
And there's a road running alongside it.
And the station is at the left hand end, so the west end. And they're going to be heading to the right, to the east. They're in all their finery. So anybody who has ever seen the photos will know what I'm talking about. The archduke is wearing this sort of sky blue military uniform, into which he's sort of been crammed, hasn't he?
Yes, stuffed.
Yeah, like a kind of sausage.
Yeah, absolutely. He's got a gold collar, very tight collar.
He's got his hat with his green ostrich feathers.
An absolutely magnificent hat with these green sort of feathers. I don't know if he'd shot the bird himself. I imagine not.
There are not many ostriches in Vienna, are there? No.
And Sophie is wearing all white. She has the most enormous hat, doesn't she? She's got a splendid hat with a white veil.
If you think Edwardian summer, what was it like in June 1914?
? That's the image that comes into my mind. Yeah. Shimmering upper-class woman in white dress.
Exactly. So. they get into their car. So the motorcade has six cars. It's often thought they're in the first car.
They are not. They're in, actually, depending which account you read, either the second or the third, I think it's pretty clear they're in the third. The first car is a car for plainclothes, detectives and police, some of whom have already been left behind in a kind of confusion. There's an air of slight confusion and shambles about this, which I think actually probably is standard and not very surprising. It's an age, you know, when communications are difficult.
Yeah, no one's got texts.
No, they can't text each other and say when they're setting off. So they have to leave some people behind. The second car has the mayor of Sarajevo, who is a Bosnian Muslim. He is called Fehim Efendi Cercic. He's got his fez on and his official sash.
And the chief of police, who is called Dr. Gerda. And then you've got the third car, the archduke car that you can see right to this day in the museum in Vienna, made by Griff and Stift. And this is flying the imperial flag, yellow and black, Habsburg flag. The chauffeur is a Czech.
He's called Leopold Sojka. And also with him in the front is the guy who owns the car, who is Count Franz Harak. I get the impression he's a kind of friend of Franz Ferdinand or a kind of general hanger-on in that kind of world. Then you have behind them in the jump seat, Governor Potiorek. Now regular listeners will know, there's only one context in which you ever mention a jump seat in a car.
And that is somebody is being assassinated in the back seat.
So in 1963, it was Governor John Connolly of Texas. And on this occasion, it is...
I mean, it's a lesson of history, isn't it? If you're a governor and you're going on an open motorcade through a city, don't sit in the jump seat.
Jump seat spells doom, Tom.
And on that note, did you see the number plate?
I didn't.
Of the car? Go on. So it's A111118.. Right. The war finished on the 11th of the 11th, 18..
What are the chances?
What are the chances?
It's all part of the conspiracy, right? Very eerie. Yeah. So then you've got the Archduke and Sophie in the back of this eerily number-plated car. So remember, there is very little security, and that is by design.
General Potiorek has given explicit instructions. The army must not enter the city. And they've been told...
Because it doesn't want to look like an occupying power.
No. If they enter the city, they'll be in the deepest of trouble. Police only. And there's only 120 police in Sarajevo. And we must keep security as light as possible so that people can see the royal couple.
So they set off. Then a bit, which has actually left out of most accounts...
But it's very touching.
They stop at the military barracks first. It has been raining, but the sun has come out and Sophie has this big parasol.
And he carries it for her, doesn't he?
He does.
So he's like her servitor, her knight.
And this is against all protocol. In all the court protocol, of course, remember, she was not allowed to be next to him. She had to be way behind him. On this occasion, they walk together to inspect the troops. He holds her parasol for her.
And as one of the writers, I can't remember which one it is, says, today, instead of denying her existence, he celebrated it. He exalted it. He, crown prince of the realm, was her servitor. He carried her parasol at the most public occasion. So it's quite a poignant...
So he had that moment of happiness.
Exactly. They get back in their cars. Cannons are now booming. in honour of the visit from the fortress above the city. They set off along the Apple Quay, along the river embankment.
So this is the broad road built by the engineers along the straightened river.
They are driving deliberately slowly because they want people to see them and because they want to see the city. They want to look. Sarajevo is famous within the Habsburg Empire. It has mosques. It has Catholic churches.
It has Orthodox churches. Virtually nowhere else...
Has this mix.
Has this mix. And they want to see it. So they're going very slowly along the river. There are quite big crowds. People are flying imperial flags in the windows.
There are shops have been told to put pictures of the Archduke up in the shops. There are lots of flowers. And, as far as we know, there is no reason to doubt it. The reaction is very warm. People are shouting, J'vieux!
Hurrah! Long live the Archduke! Great stuff!
Love it! It all seems to be going brilliantly. What could possibly go wrong?
Well, we said the cannons were booming. The cannons are booming, booming, booming. And then there's another boom that is not a cannon. And everybody is horrified.
Well, some of them think it's a kind of tire blowing, don't they? Or the engine backfiring or something like that.
And there's suddenly a sense of confusion for the people watching. Something is happening around the Archduke's car. Sophie is reaching to the back of her neck.
She's felt a kind of little sting like an insect or something has bitten her.
And suddenly people are running along the quayside. The Archduke's car stops. Count von Harach, who is in the front, jumps out. And what has happened is somebody has thrown a bomb. It has almost certainly hit the back of their car, hit the kind of canopy, which has been lowered, bounced off and exploded under the car behind them.
Now, in the car behind them was that guy, Lieutenant Colonel von Merizzi, who had said, you cannot cancel under any circumstances. He has been wounded. He has been hit in the head and blood is pouring out of his head. Sophie says, oh, it must have been a splinter or a bit of shrapnel or something that just nicked me on the back of my neck. Franz Ferdinand looks at the back of her neck.
It was just a little scratch. and, you know, the smoke from the car behind. And the amazing thing about this is a bomb has been thrown at them. It has hit the car behind them out of six cars. And Franz Ferdinand says, that fellow must have been mad.
Let's carry on.
So tremendous.
And this always amazes me throughout this whole story. A bomb has been thrown at them and it's gone off and hit the car behind. And one of the party has been injured and there was smoke and there was chaos. And he just says, well, we'll carry on with the day. That's not, you know, a lot of people, I mean, frankly, Tom, would you and I on a restless history tour if a bomb was thrown?
Oh, I'd be a gibbering wreck.
Would we continue?
No, I'd be an absolute gibbering wreck. I mean, I wouldn't have done it in the first place. I'm not going to lie.
If you heard that there was, there was possibility of bombing. Yeah, I would have said that's the difference.
But then I lacked, I lack a sense of duty.
Right. Well, anyway, they continue on. Count von Harach does not get into the front. He stands on the kind of running board of the car to shield the Archduke if there are more assassins. So they continue.
Now, there's somebody we have not mentioned at all who sees this happening or realizes that something has happened. And it's like Gavrilo. And that is Gavrilo Princip. So people may remember that we left him on the night before the assassination.
He's gone to the grave of this guy who had attempted to assassinate the governor. He'd had five shots, missed all of them. Yeah. And then shot himself. That's right.
And he's. he's a kind of great inspiration to Princip and to the other five assassins who are part of these these cells that are ready to do the assassination.
And they had agreed, we'll meet at the pastry shop tomorrow at eight. We'll split up and we'll take positions along the street. And this is exactly what they had done. So Gavrilo Princip had been waiting there in position since nine o'clock. He'd waited in the crowd.
He had his bomb in his pocket. He had his capsule of cyanide. He had his pistol. Just after 10 o'clock, he had heard the crowd cheering. He had heard the sound of the car engines.
He had seen in the distance the car advancing. Then he'd heard the bomb explosion. Like so many other people, he runs towards the scene. And actually, what he sees is the guy who was the blabbermouth. The guy he'd always doubted.
Yes. So the guy who was sending inappropriate postcards into the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Nedeljko Cabrinovic, he has thrown his bomb. Now, the first two people, the first two assassins, totally bottled it. Mohamed Mehmedbazic and Vaso Cabrinovic. They did nothing. And afterwards at the trial, they said, oh, the time wasn't quite right.
I actually didn't feel like, you know, they just flunked it.
I mean, it's a big deal, isn't it? Because basically, you may well be killing yourself.
Yeah, well, you are. But the plan is that you will kill yourself. Cabrinovic did throw his bomb. As we said, it hit the back of the car, exploded into the car behind. There are some accounts, there are some televised versions of which they actually catches it and throws it.
Like a kind of cricketer.
Like a cricketer. There's a brilliant Christopher Plummer film, which is like a slip fielder, kind of taking a catch or something. This did not happen, I think. I think what happened is it bounced off. But what had happened then was that Cabrinovic took his cyanide.
Well, no, he. And he jumped over. Yeah.
So a twin attempt to commit suicide. Yes. And they're both disastrous. Yes. Because actually, when I read about this, I thought I imagined the drop being quite extensive.
Into the river.
Into the river. But it's not, it's not very far. And the river is very shallow. Yeah, the river was very shallow. And the prospect of killing yourself by throwing yourself into the river is minimal.
Yeah. But he does have his cyanide, doesn't he? And he bites on that. Yeah. But the power has faded and it just kind of gives him a sore throat.
Yeah. Never put your trust in Serbian cyanide, Tom, is the lesson of this podcast, because the cyanide is degraded. It just basically burns his throat incredibly badly, but does not kill him.
OK, so a bit more than a sore throat. I'm being unfair.
He falls into this river, but doesn't. You know, he's up to his kind of his knees or something. Then he's sort of wading and trying to get out. Loads of men. Piling.
Drag him onto the bank. A barber almost has to be restrained from shooting him. You know, it's just general chaos and whatnot. And Princip, his initial reaction was, I will go and kill him. You know, I'll stop him talking.
And then he thinks he gets there and he thinks, that's mad, actually. You know, there's a huge crowd. I can't shoot him. And then he looks for his fellow assassins. And in the chaos, they've vanished.
They've all scarpered. They've all lost their nerve. And he alone is standing there. He's got his bomb. He's got his pistol.
And meanwhile, of course, in the distance, the archduke has driven off towards city hall. The archduke has said, let's continue the visit. So Princip is just standing there. He does not know what to do. He thinks, well.
It's all failed. It's failed.
But maybe the only thing I can hope is that, um, maybe they'll come back the same way. Maybe they'll come back. Yeah. And he goes, he crosses the road and he goes to the corner of a delicatessen run by a guy called Moritz Schiller. And there he just stands there at a loss, waiting, hoping against hope that he will get another chance.
And, uh, when we come back, we will find out if he does get that chance. But meanwhile, the archduke and Sophie are heading off towards the city hall and Dominic in the interval. I think that's where we should head. So we should leave our Viennese cafe and, um, go to the city hall and see what happened there when the archduke arrives.
Hello, welcome back to. The Rest is History. We are in Sarajevo and Dominic, we've now for the first time come out on the streets and on one side of us, we have the city hall of Sarajevo, uh, where, around 1015, on the morning of the 28th of June, 1914, the archduke called Motacade arrived. It's described in the notes that you've written up as a massive pseudo-Mauritian. monstrosity, and that is exactly what it is.
It's an extraordinary building. So it's got the kind of the color scheme that you get in the court of a mosque. It's got lots of kind of lattice work. It's got a few kind of Corinthian pillars as well. It's very, it's a very odd building, but definitely kind of Austro-Hungarian.
Yeah, absolutely got that kind of vibe. But what's amazing is that you look down on the, on the right-hand side, where we're sitting back into the bazaar, and you've got those two extraordinary domes of the mosques, um, that Arthur Evans described as, as, um, being a cause of wonder to peasants coming in from the Bosnian Hills and talking to Bosnian Hills. I mean, you can see them right in front of us, the extent to which Sarajevo is at the bottom of a great bowl. Um, and although we're not talking about the, um, the, the civil war in the nineties, I mean, it's kind of chilling to imagine guns up there and firing down, but we're looking at, um, another tragedy today. And, Dominic, that of course is, um, the shooting that starts effectively the first world war.
Yeah. In the first half, we heard about a bomb attack on the procession of cars, the Archduke and his wife have survived the attack. Uh, but obviously, I mean, it creates enormous sense of panic, doesn't it? And they arrive at the, the town hall, which is, it's part of the plan, but obviously the schedule is, you'd think, going to be rearranged, or is it? And, um, you'd think that the talks that are due to be given to, uh, the Archduke also are going to be slightly rewritten, but again, are they?
Very good questions, Tom. Just to give people a sense, Sarajevo is very small by the standards of European capitals. So, you know, we have walked pretty much the route that Franz Ferdinand and Sophie took. The entire route would probably take you, what, half an hour, 40 minutes, maybe, if you're walking quite slowly. So, as you say, yeah, they've, they've come up the road, which we're looking at to the right.
The motorcade has, has stopped, um, outside the city hall. So, outside this extraordinary sort of multicolored building, at the top of a, a sort of white marble staircase, there are all the big wigs.
Well, it's a very multicultural building, isn't it? Kind of hints of, of, of the classical Victorian architecture and Moorish. Yeah. And I suppose there's, there's a kind of quality of that in the dignitaries who are waiting to meet him, because you've got mullahs in turbans, you've got bishops, you've got rabbis, you've got kind of town functionaries in sashes. Yes.
Um, quite a melange.
It is a melange. Franz Ferdinand and Sophie get out of the car. So you were saying, you know, is the visit going to continue as planned? Apparently, yes. They, they've arrived where they're meant to be.
They get out of the car. Now, the mayor who was in the car ahead of them, Fehim Efendi Circic, he's wearing this costume that is very much a blend of East and West. So he's wearing a fez, but also a kind of tailcoat. Now he has heard a bang from behind. He's aware that something has gone wrong.
He doesn't know what it is, but he does know he's got to deliver the welcome speech.
He's got to deliver the welcome speech. He's obviously nervous. So he steps forward. He's described by Christopher Clarke in the Sleepwalkers as in a state of high agitation and perspiring heavily, and he's too nervous to change his speech. So he says, your Imperial and Royal Highness, our exalted Crown Prince, your Serene Highness, our Crown Prince's most esteemed wife, at this very happy moment, all our hearts, as you can see, are overflowing with happiness and gratitude.
And the Archduke, Franz Ferdinand, who's always a hot tempered man.
He loses it.
He says like, what?
I've just been attacked.
He says, what is so outrageous? He says, somebody's just thrown a bomb at us. What are you wittering about? Like, we're all happy. I mean, you can see why his cross, Tom, if we were doing one of our rest is history, live shows or tours or something and somebody threw a bomb at you.
And then I went on stage and said, thank you for this lovely.
reception. Yeah, I would be cross. I'd be upset.
So the Archduke, Franz Ferdinand.
But I love this moment because he's losing it. Yes, he's threatening a diplomatic incident. And then Sophie calms him down. And it's a wonderful demonstration of the role that she has played in his life.
Yeah, because she steps forward and whispers something in his ear. We don't know what it is. And he says, OK, very well, Mr. Mayor, continue with your speech. And the mayor very nervously gets through the rest of his speech.
It's expected that Franz Ferdinand will reply.
And of course, he's been practicing his Serbian, hasn't he?
He has. indeed. The text of his response was in the car behind. Somebody has followed and hasn't quite yet arrived with the speech. Finally, this bloke arrives.
The speech has got blood on it from the people wounded in the car, which has to be wiped off. And at first, Franz Ferdinand seems very agitated at the site of the speech. Once again, Sophie puts her finger on his arm, you know, calm down. And he's like, yeah, fine. He wipes the blood away.
And he actually is capable. Unlike the mayor, of improvising, he says, I consider that this welcome that you've given me is an expression of joy that that terrible attempt on our lives has been foiled. And everybody claps. Hooray, hooray.
And then comes the great moment where he delivers his Serbo-Croat preparation. Yes. And it's absolutely banger, isn't it?
Oh, it's brilliant.
Standing in this beautiful capital city, I assure you are Slav and Mohammedan citizens of our august emperor's continued interest in your well-being and of my own enduring friendship.
And everybody again claps and thinks, brilliant. And I think everybody at this point is genuinely thinking, do you know what? He is kind of scary with his hot temper. And his walrus. And his enormous ambiance.
And I hope he doesn't mistake me for a pheasant. But he and Sophie have shown the most unbelievable that their bomb has been thrown at them. The people behind them have been injured, and yet they are keeping it together and continuing with the visit. And now they continue with the rest of the plan. So Sophie goes upstairs, Tom, in that building to our left.
So that's the town hall.
The city hall. She goes upstairs and the wives of the Muslim dignitaries are going to meet her and they want to remove their veils. You see, they don't want to do that in public. They want to do it in private.
That's her role as the female representative of the empire.
Exactly. She goes upstairs and it is clear that the attack is weighing on her mind. The accounts we have of her is that she keeps mentioning to them her children and their family. She says of a little girl, she says, oh, look at her. She's at the same height as my Sophie back at home.
And then she says, oh, I can't wait to see our children. We have actually never left them for so long on their own and very soon we'll be reunited and I can't wait for it. Now, meanwhile, Franz Ferdinand, Sean of Sophie, is back to his old tricks, barking at people, making inappropriate, sarcastic banter. So he says to one of his aides, did you hear the bloke who threw that bomb tried to swallow cyanide? What a fool he is.
Doesn't he know that our criminal justice system is so lax, they'll probably give him a medal. And everybody kind of smiles weakly at this sort of daily express, daily telegraph banter. And then he says, maybe they'll have to give out lots of medals. Maybe when we drive back, we'll have some more cougarine coming our way. Cougarine is a Viennese dialect, word that means little bullets.
Maybe we'll have more. And again, lots of everyone again. Very good, sir. And then he actually turns to the governor, Oscar Potiorek, and he says, well, what do you think? Do you think people are going to shoot at me on the way back?
And Potiorek says, who is the guy who has said no security, it's going to be fine. Potiorek says, your Highness, I am sure this guy was an isolated lunatic. That said, I can't be certain. even the best security in the world, which I provided for you, cannot prevent more attacks. Maybe we should ditch the original plan.
Now, the original plan was to go back down that street that we're looking at, Tom, going along the river, the Apple Key, and to turn off to see the new museum, the first in the city that the Austrians had built.
Because I have to say, once you've seen the streets that stretch to the right of this main road, you'd think, I mean, that is a deathtrap. It's an absolute tangle.
Yeah. The Tangler Valley is around there. Exactly. The governor says, we'll go along the road, but we'll go straight back to the station. We won't turn off.
Go along the Apple Key, keep going, and the station is at the end, and we can get the train. And Franz Ferdinand says, fine, we'll do that. The one thing I do want to do, though, the man who was injured in the car behind, your adjutant, von Merizzi, I would really like to visit him in the hospital before we leave Sarajevo. The governor hesitates at that point. Like, I'm not sure that's a good idea.
And then Franz Ferdinand gets very cross, and he says, that man is my fellow officer. He is bleeding for me. You will have the goodness to understand that. You have the further goodness to order a second car to take my wife back to the hotel straight away.
But Sophie's not having that.
Sophie has come downstairs while he's been talking, and she hears him say that, and she says, no way. I will come with you. I am not going back to the hotel. I'm not going to be separated. I will stay by your side.
Franz Ferdinand says, fine, so be it. Of course, he's never going to argue with her. We don't need the other car.
And this is the thing, isn't it? They're coming out from the relative protection of the city hall, out into the sunlight, into the open street. And I'm guessing they're kind of thinking, is the description of the attacker as an isolated lunatic correct? Or was it part of a consortium of assassins? And if it was part of a consortium of assassins, then this will be their chance.
We'll be completely exposed. So it must have been an absolutely terrifying moment for them. And they come out onto the steps, and there is no-.
There's just a crowd cheering them and clapping them. He takes her hand. There's a very famous photo of them coming out. He takes her hand and helps her down the steps. The car, the same car, is sitting there waiting for them.
The Archduke gets in the car. Franz Ferdinand is on the left-hand side, the river side, if you like. Sophie sits next to him on the right. Governor Potiorek is in the jump seat. Ominous sign, Tom.
Count von Harach stands on the running board again. Now, of course, the attacker had come from the side nearest the river. Count von Harach stands on the running board on the side nearest the river, i.e. the left-hand side of the car. Had he stood on the other side of the car, this whole story might be very different.
But he's on the river side. They set off. They set off and they're going to go down this road in down the Apple Quay, all the way out of the city, outskirts of the city. They're going to visit the hospital and then they're going to go to the railway station and then home.
And there is another photo that is taken of them after they've left the city hall, going down this main road, approaching the Moritz Schiller Café, which is what, I guess, about five minutes walk from here, maybe 10, I mean, if that. And it is there that the shot heard around the world will ring out. And I think that we should finish off the coffee we've been having as we sit outside the city hall and go to that very place.
Let's go.
Right, so we've come to the Latin Bridge and Dominic, I mean, that took us less than five minutes. So I'm guessing a car, I mean, no time at all. They pull out of the city hall and in no time they are passing the Moritz Schiller Café and Delicatessen. It's now the museum, but back then it would have been adorned with window stencils, adverts for wine and cigarettes and all the other stuff that you buy in an Austro-Hungarian Delicatessen. And it has German wording, doesn't it?
And so that's made it a target for angry nationalists.
There was a big cutout on the day of a champagne bottle, a Hungarian champagne, and it was attached to the facade of the café, kind of in celebration. The car, as you said, Tom, it must have taken a minute, absolute maximum.
I mean, no matter how slowly they're going.
Yeah, they roll up the street. They're probably now the second car in the motorcade. Again, you'll hear different accounts. Now what's not clear, the instruction was definitely given. We're not going to turn off at this point.
We're going to keep on going towards the edge of the city to the hospital and the railway station. But there must have been some communication breakdown because nobody has told the driver of the lead car. He, at this point, right by the Delicatessen, goes to turn right on Latina Strasse.
And as he goes to turn right, he is going past not only the Delicatessen, but Gavrilo Princip, who is standing outside.
He has been waiting all this time.
So this wrong turning that they are making, they're making it past the one guy who is armed and ready to shoot.
Exactly. The first car turns right, and that's got the mayor in it and the chief of police. Behind them, Governor Potiorek sees it's turning right and he shouts out, stop, you're going the wrong way. You're going the wrong way. Now, there are different accounts, depending which book you read.
And to be honest with you, I haven't really got to the bottom of this. It's a rare thing where we confess total failure and powerlessness on the rest of its history. Some accounts say the cars stop and reverse. Others say the cars actually have no reverse gear at all.
Yes, I've read that.
So they have to be pushed back. What is certain is that Franz Ferdinand's car has actually followed. the first car, has turned to the right, has only just turned to the right, turned off the apple key, going down by what is now the museum.
And you were saying how Count Harak was on the side.
Nearest the river.
Nearest the river. So he is now on the side away from where Princip is standing.
Exactly. So, if you can picture the scene, there is Princip standing on the pavement. Then you have nothing between him and the car. For just that split second where the car has stopped, there is Sophie on the right, nearest to him. And then there is the Archduke, Franz Ferdinand, on the left.
And in that split second, Princip realizes he is maybe too close or it's too much of a rush to throw the bomb. So he reaches into his pocket. He takes out that Browning semi-automatic pistol. He levels it at the car and he fires two shots. Almost at once, the car begins to move.
The car pulls away. Princip can't see what has happened. As it's moving, the Archduke and Sophie are still sitting upright in the back of the car. He puts the pistol to his own head. It's part of the plan to kill himself.
The crowd are on him and someone grabs the pistol from his hand.
And they also pull the cyanide capsule out, don't they?
They do. He puts it into his mouth. But then a policeman hits him. The crowd are grabbing at him. He is being beaten up by the crowd and he can't finish the job and take his own life.
And then he's dragged away. And the photo that is right now, as we said in the very first episode, the photo that is on the wall just there facing us, of a man being dragged away, that is not Gavrilo Princip. Lots of people in the chaos are being dragged away because the police don't know what is going on.
And in the chaos, Princip can't see what happened after he's shot, except that his last glimpse would presumably have been that the Archduke and his wife are both sitting upright. And so therefore, he must have thought that he had missed or he'd failed. And this is what Count Potioro also thinks to begin with, isn't it? As they drive away, that everything's okay, that they're all right.
But probably the first four or five seconds after they've turned off, it seems like everything is okay. And then the account that we have, from which all other accounts derive.
So this is by Harak.
Harak, who's standing on the run board.
And he writes, As the car quickly reversed, a thin stream of blood spurted from his Highness's mouth onto my right cheek. As I was pulling out my handkerchief to wipe the blood away from his mouth, the Duchess cried out to him, For God's sake, what has happened to you? And at that, she slid off the seat and lay on the floor of the car with her face between his knees.
So I tell you, what's so moving about that. She has actually been hit in the abdomen herself. But what she says is not, I've been hit. She's thinking of him. What's happened to you?
Yeah, I find that really moving, actually.
Well, and likewise, the Archduke. Similarly, when he sees her lying at his feet, he says, Sofie, Sofie, Sofie, Sofie, don't die. Stay alive for our children. But she's, do you think, already dead. by this point?
I mean, she dies very quickly.
I think she's probably already dead or dying when the Archduke says that incredibly moving line, actually.
Yeah, and so continuing Harak's account. At that, I seized the Archduke by the collar of his uniform to stop his head dropping forward and asked him if he was in great pain. He answered me quite distinctly. It is nothing. His face began to twist somewhat, but he went on repeating six or seven times, ever more faintly as he gradually lost consciousness.
It's nothing, it's nothing, it's nothing. But it is something because he has been hit in the neck and it severed his jugular vein.
Tom, I mean, we were talking about this the other day, whether or not, you know, did he really say this? He has been brought up in that world of total duty and not giving anything away. You know, the rigid world of the Hapsburg court. I absolutely believe that he would say it is nothing, even if he's been hit, and it's the most agonizing pain. Because it's his training is to deny any, you know, trace of weakness, of human feeling.
But against that, you also have the sentiment that husband and wife delivers to each other. Which I guess, you know, by the rigid standards of the Hapsburg court, is a sign of weakness. But I mean, they, it has the absolute ring of truth, doesn't it? That they would each think about the other.
Yeah, that line, stay alive for our children. I mean, it's, it's so moving, actually. Yeah. So the car now turns off.
So that's a tram going past the memorial to the introduction of it by the Hapsburgs.
Yeah, the car turns off, comes across the river. It's the governor's mansion, the Konak. People immediately lift the two bodies out of the car. Their blood is all over the seat. Franz Ferdinand's valet, Count Morsi, was behind in the car.
He has run all the way across the river, across the bridge to the governor's mansion to catch up with him. He cuts his uniform open because the uniform is so tight.
Basically been sewn in.
Exactly. And there's blood pouring out of the uniform. They put him on a bed inside the governor's mansion and Morsi, the valet, says, do you have any message? Do you have anything to tell your children? But it's too late.
Franz Ferdinand, a moment later, he breathes his last. He dies. And pretty much at the moment that he is pronounced dead, the bells are ringing, 11 o'clock. So the whole business has taken less than two hours from the moment they got on the train to the moment of his death. It's been less than two hours.
They lie out their bodies in the banqueting hall of the governor's mansion and they start to gather flowers. Frederick Morton, in his book, Thunder at Twilight, says Franz Ferdinand and Sophie died as they had lived in unison. As we will see, there is a twist to that story.
There is, yeah.
And of course, the other thing is, they'd left three children whom no historian ever mentions, actually.
Their story, I mean, just to look ahead is remarkable. Yeah. So next week, we will get into what this means for Europe. Because, of course, the question really with which we began this series was, what was it about this assassination that made it different? You know, there have been lots of murders of royal figures, their wives as well.
But something about this is different. And next week, we will be exploring what it is that's different. But before we do that, and ending today's episode and this period that we've been in Sarajevo recording these past four episodes, should we just look and see, you know, what happens to the various participants in this story, both Princip, but also what happens to the bodies of Franz Ferdinand and Sophie? Because actually, there is one final awful twist.
There is indeed. So let's start with Princip. Princip, he did bite on the cyanide capsule, but the cyanide, as we know, was degraded and useless. He was beaten and kicked and dragged off to prison. He's there by about 11 o'clock.
He's covered in blood. He's bruised. He's being sick, vomiting from the poison, degraded as it is. His associates were rounded up pretty quickly. Only one of them got away, the Bosnian Muslim Mehmed Basic.
He escaped into Montenegro. The rest of them are rounded up within hours or days. They all confessed quite quickly, but they all told slightly different stories, probably reflecting their different understandings of the plot. The one thing that Princip always said to the Austro-Hungarian investigators was that he felt bad about Sophie.
Well, because he says, doesn't he, that he had paused fleetingly when he saw that she was in the car.
He said he had meant to shoot Franz Ferdinand and Potiorek, and he didn't mean to shoot her. Of course, not much consolation. The police in total rounded up 25 people. When the trial opened, it was here in Sarajevo on the 12th of October.
By which time the world was at war. Europe is in flames.
Princip at the trial never recanted. He'd obviously been caught red-handed. He was very upfront about his political motives. He explained precisely why he had wanted to kill Franz Ferdinand, because he was a threat to the ambition of a Serb-dominated Yugoslavia. He mentioned his reform plans and so on.
On the 28th of October, Princip was found guilty of murder and high treason, but Princip was 19 years old. He had not yet turned 20..
And there are kind of confusions, aren't there, with the various dating systems. And so the prosecution tried to prove that actually he's 20, but he isn't. So he can't be sentenced to death. And so they sentenced him instead to 20 years in prison under pretty brutal conditions. So he's to be denied food one day each month.
And on the anniversary of his crime, he's to be put into a cell without any light.
Yeah.
He has to wear shackles all the time. Yeah. And I think worst of all for him, because he's such a bookish boy.
Yeah.
He's denied anything to read.
Yeah. He's not actually a boy, though, is he, at this point. I mean, I've said it many times. The boys arrived in Sarajevo. He turns 20 shortly after the assassination.
He is a bad man, Tom. That's what he is. I don't feel sorry for him being denied anything to read. He had shot two people in cold blood. He died of tuberculosis in Theresienstadt prison.
So which will become a-.
Later a concentration camp. He died in April 1918.. It is said that on the wall of his cell, he had written, our ghosts will walk through Vienna and roam through the palace, frightening the lords. It's a great line. I actually, I'm sceptical.
Where does that come from?
So you often see it. I think it was written in accounts, when those accounts were compiled under Yugoslavia in the second, after the second world war, 1960s, when people started to compile kind of folk tales about Princip that turned him into a hero of Yugoslav nationalism.
Very like the murderer of the Ottoman Sultan.
That's part of a continuum. Exactly. Exactly. So. that's what happened to him.
Nothing good. He died before the end of the first world war. Franz Ferdinand and Sophie, their bodies were taken by train to the coast. And then, on that ship that the guy had suggested, they take up to Trieste, and then by train to Vienna. They arrived there on the 2nd of July, the day after their wedding anniversary.
Nobody from the dynasty was there to meet the funeral train. Except for one person, who we've actually talked about before on our podcast. This was the Archduke Karl, who would now become the new Crown Prince and would in due course succeed Franz Josef. So Karl, who's that, we talked about him with Eduard Habsburg. He's a very serious, dutiful, pious young man.
And he is there to meet his relative's body.
So he's Franz Ferdinand's cousin, right?
He is indeed. He is indeed. Franz Josef. the Emperor was shocked by the assassination, but he wasn't sad. His daughter, Valerie, recorded in her diary, I found Papa amazingly fresh.
He was shocked. When he spoke of the children, he had tears in his eyes, but he wasn't personally stricken. And when she said, oh, I think Karl will do very well as the new heir. He said very solemnly and emphatically, for me, it is a great worry, less. Right.
In other words, thank God, that guy's out of the equation. The funeral is unbelievable. They lay in state for four hours. Thousands of people turned up in Vienna, but at midday sharp, the doors were shut and they were turned away. The two coffins were side by side, but in death, as in life, Sophie was treated as a second-class citizen.
Her coffin was placed 20 inches lower than Franz Ferdinand.
She is being buried as a lady in waiting.
As a lady, yeah. Franz Ferdinand. on his coffin, it had the Archduke crown. It had helmets, swords, all of his medals. Hers, just a pair of gloves and a fan.
The marker of her status.
The marker of her status. The emperor didn't send a wreath. No Habsburg sent a wreath. I mean, President Wilson of America sent a wreath. Loads of ordinary people sent wreaths.
No one from the dynasty sent a wreath. The funeral takes place at four o'clock that day. The children were not allowed. The reason was because they were morganatic. They had been disbarred.
They are not Habsburgs. It is Habsburgs only. So the children are not allowed. The Kaiser, Franz Ferdinand's great friend.
He is coming out of this very well so far.
He really wanted to come. And he was told, as were all other royals and dignitaries, do not come. They were given two reasons. One, security is too tight, security problems. But two, the emperor's health is not great.
Actually, I think the real reason is that the Austrians.
are already debating what to do.
And they don't want other bigwigs there to muddy the waters while they get there.
Do you think there's ever been a British podcast series, or indeed any kind of series on the outbreak of the First World War, from which the Kaiser so far has come out so well? I think it's unlikely.
Yeah, I think it's very unlikely. The funeral service took less than 15 minutes. They rattled through it. The bodies were then locked away. And the bodies were then moved out of Vienna by train in the dead of night.
So, basically, to make sure there were no crowds and all of this. They were taken across the Danube at midnight to Franz Ferdinand's family seat, Archstetten, which is in the Wachau.
And so the whole reason for this is that in death, as in life, court protocol and the demands of hierarchy must prevail.
Exactly.
There's no relenting.
It's staggering, actually, how even in this, they will not give Franz Ferdinand Sophie an inch.
It puts the refusal to lower the flag over Buckingham Palace half-mast when Diana died into perspective.
It does indeed.
Has to be said.
Now, there's a twist. They were buried at Archstetten and they're still there. Sophie, because of her status, the children, as we said, are not Habsburgs. They are Hohenbergs. And in 1918 and 1919, when the empire collapsed and Austria became a republic, there was a Habsburg confiscation law.
The Habsburgs were kicked out and their property was taken. The very rules that had hidebound their parents in life, they benefited from at this point. Their property was not confiscated and they were exempt from the law. So, uniquely, Archstetten Castle is still in the family. So I looked this up, Tom.
It belongs to Princess Anita of Hohenberg, who is the great-granddaughter of Franz Ferdinand and Sophie. The tombs are still there today, and you can go and visit that castle right now if you wanted to.
And the two boys, I mean, they grow up in Austria through the 20s, into the 30s. And we've already mentioned Theresienstadt, which becomes a concentration camp. And after the Anschluss, they actually get put in a concentration camp, don't they? They go to Dachau. I think one of them's there for six months, one of them's for a bit longer than a year.
And they're put to cleaning toilets, which obviously causes much hilarity to their guards. But they come out of it very well. They're much liked.
Yeah. They're regarded as good chaps by the other prisoners.
And they survive it. They do indeed. They're released. They survived the war. And I think they die in the 50s, don't they?
Yeah. So that is the end of the Franz Ferdinand and Sophie story. Great friends of the rest of history, I think it's fair to say, Tom.
I think so. I'm surprised. I mean, I always had him down as a baddie.
Gavrilo Princip, on the other hand, not a man who I would welcome meeting in the afterlife.
He's very much, not a Sandbrook man.
Not a Sandbrook man at all.
It has to be said. But let's leave them in their unequal coffins. Because, Dominic, as they're being laid to rest, I think it is fair to say that the storm clouds of war are indeed gathering.
They are.
And our next episodes, we will be looking to explore this great issue. How is it that this assassination leads to such catastrophic consequences? And that will be the story we will be teasing out in our next series.
Okay. So on that bombshell, Auf Wiedersehen, everybody, and Dovergenia. Goodbye.
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