Page - 91 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

The July Crisis 91 tion. The war could perhaps have been triggered and unleashed for another reason, but here one really does have to rein in one’s imagination and reconsider only the specific event that led to its outbreak. On Monday 29 June 1914, which was a public holiday, as mentioned above, attempts were still being made to recall every decision-maker of any importance back to his post. The protocol procedures had to be decided, which then led to the over-hasty and in many respects unworthy farewell to the murdered couple in Vienna and the low-key burial in Artstetten in Lower Austria. For a short period, the whole process seemed to be conducted at an extremely hectic pace. Yet the haste only applied to the treatment of the dead. On 29 June, Emperor Franz Joseph returned to Vienna. A week later, the heir to the throne and his wife were due to be buried. If proper preparations had been made, it is likely that all important heads of state and heads of government of Europe, as well as several from overseas, would have been able to attend. Hardly anyone, least of all the monarchs, would have failed to accept an invitation to Vienna if they had been made aware of the fact that the murder was an attack on the monarchic principle, or at least as something that could happen to anyone in a position of power, or who represented it. Kaiser Wilhelm II, for example, had already travelled post-haste from Kiel to Berlin, and wanted to attend the funeral in Vienna with his brother, Prince Heinrich. However, after receiving a telegram from Vienna, the German Kaiser was suddenly found to be suffering from lumbago, and shortly afterwards, it was announced that Prince Heinrich would not attend either.187 The rumours began to fly  – and with good reason. The fact that no such gathering of leaders was called was an early indication that no event of this nature would be permitted to impose or to hinder the decisions that had to be taken. These measures were therefore not, as has occasionally been postulated, sim- ply a product of scheming by the Lord Chamberlain, Prince Alfred von Montenuovo, which resulted in the excessive haste of the burial in a ceremony that hardly fulfilled the requirements specified by protocol. Ultimately, he was only empowered to fulfil the wishes of the Emperor. The Foreign Ministry was also at fault, since it wanted neither the Tsar nor the British King nor the French President to set foot in Vienna.188 While the bodies of the couple were brought to Trieste (Triest) with the flagship of the Impe- rial and Royal Navy, the battleship Viribus Unitis, and from there transferred to Vienna by train, at the Ballhausplatz (Austro-Hungarian Imperial Chancellery), there was al- ready talk of war with Serbia. In a letter to the principle of the Military Chancellery of the murdered heir to the throne, Colonel Alexander Brosch von Aarenau, one young employee of Berchtold, Baron Leopold Andrian-Werburg, wrote that ‘very valuable fruit for the Monarchy should ripen’ from the blood of Franz Ferdinand.189 However, Berchtold and the Emperor did agree that it would not be possible simply to attack Serbia, as General Conrad had wanted. It would be far preferable to agree on the proce- dure with Germany, although the Emperor was clear that Serbia should be treated with