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The Assassination 85
Another aspect was unequivocally clarified by Würthle, for which he also provided suf-
ficient proof : it did not matter who came to Sarajevo. In principle, any visitor travelling
from Vienna of any degree of prominence was to be the target of an attack at the next
possible opportunity. It also did notmatter on which date they came. Only in the sub-
sequent interpretation of events and, above all, in assessments of the particularly deter-
mined and symbolic nature of the act, was it emphasised that the visit by the heir to the
throne was the sole reason for the formation of the group of assassins, and that the date
chosen, 28 June, or ‘Vidovdan’ (St. Vitus’ Day), the day on which a Serbian-Albanian
army had been beaten by the Ottomans in the battle on the Kosovo Polje in 1389 and
the Turkish Sultan Murad I was murdered by the Serbian knight Miloš Obilić, would
have been a particular provocation. However, it is likely that these notions were just
as contrived as others that arose in connection with the double murder. One thing is
certain : The conspirators had been inspired by a whole series of murders and attempted
murders, most of all not by the murder of Sultan Murad, but by the more recent at-
tempted assassination by Bogdan Žerajić of the former Austro-Hungarian Governor of
Bosnia Marijan Varešanin in 1910. In Bosnia, the ‘Vidovdan’ was not a public holiday,
and the large majority of the Bosnian population, Catholic Croats and Muslims, would
certainly have had no reason to join in the chorus of Serbian nationalists. The assassins
themselves also only mentioned St. Vitus’ Day in passing, if at all. In the official record
of the event, they claimed that they would have attempted an assassination on any date.
Also, they had already been planning the murder since March 1914, in other words,
since the newspapers had begun reporting that the heir to the throne might visit Bos-
nia, without giving a specific date.173 In the end, the dates for the visit were arranged
to coincide with the manoeuvres by the XVI Imperial and Royal Corps, and whether
or not they were conducted depended solely on the level of training of the troops, the
weather conditions and the acceptance of the exercise. The visit to Sarajevo was sched-
uled to take place following completion of the manoeuvre. This was a Sunday and – by
coincidence – St. Vitus’ Day.
Last of all, there were moments that occurred during the sequence of events that
made the assassination appear to be ordained by fate to an even greater degree. The ma-
noeuvres were conducted to the full satisfaction of the Archduke. Potiorek had proven
his worth, and could now hope for promotion. If Conrad, the Chief of the General Staff,
were to be released from his duties as Franz Ferdinand wished, then Potiorek was the
most serious contender for the post. The most important purpose of the visit had there-
fore been fulfilled. While Franz Ferdinand observed the manoeuvres, his wife, Duchess
Sophie von Hohenberg, travelled several times to nearby Sarajevo from her temporary
residence in Ilidža, opened an orphanage and took a tour of the city. It would, therefore,
not have been absolutely necessary to visit the Bosnian capital. Indeed, Franz Ferdi-
nand hesitated one last time before coming to Sarajevo. However, the lieutenant colo-
THE FIRST WORLD WAR
and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918
- Titel
- THE FIRST WORLD WAR
- Untertitel
- and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918
- Autor
- Manfried Rauchensteiner
- Verlag
- Böhlau Verlag
- Ort
- Wien
- Datum
- 2014
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-3-205-79588-9
- Abmessungen
- 17.0 x 24.0 cm
- Seiten
- 1192
- Kategorien
- Geschichte Vor 1918
Inhaltsverzeichnis
- 1 On the Eve 11
- 2 Two Million Men for the War 49
- 3 Bloody Sundays 81
- 4 Unleashing the War 117
- 5 ‘Thank God, this is the Great War!’ 157
- 6 Adjusting to a Longer War 197
- 7 The End of the Euphoria 239
- 8 The First Winter of the War 283
- 9 Under Surveillance 317
- 10 ‘The King of Italy has declared war on Me’ 355
- 11 The Third Front 383
- 12 Factory War and Domestic Front, 1915 413
- 13 Summer Battle and ‘Autumn Swine’ 441
- 14 War Aims and Central Europe 469
- 15 South Tyrol : The End of an Illusion (I) 497
- 16 Lutsk :The End of an Illusion (II) 521
- 17 How is a War Financed ? 555
- 18 The Nameless 583
- 19 The Death of the Old Emperor 607
- 20 Emperor Karl 641
- 21 The Writing on the Wall 657
- 22 The Consequences of the Russian February Revolution 691
- 23 Summer 1917 713
- 24 Kerensky Offensive and Peace Efforts 743
- 25 The Pyrrhic Victory : The Breakthrough Battle of Flitsch-Tolmein 769
- 26 Camps 803
- 27 Peace Feelers in the Shadow of Brest-Litovsk 845
- 28 The Inner Front 869
- 29 The June Battle in Veneto 895
- 30 An Empire Resigns 927
- 31 The Twilight Empire 955
- 32 The War becomes History 983
- Epilogue 1011
- Afterword 1013
- Acknowledgements and Dedication 1019
- Notes 1023
- Selected Printed Sources and Literature 1115
- Index of People and Places 1155