Seite - 85 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

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-