June 28th, 1914 – Assassination of Franz Ferdinand

Today on June 28th, 1914 chaos happen in Sarajevo and mark a tragic day of the assassination of Archduke of Austria-Hungary, Franz Ferdinand, and his beloved wife Sophie, Duchess Von Hohenberg. Sadly, not only did this loss leave three children, Maximilian, Prince of Hohenberg, Prince Ernst of Hohenberg, Princess Sophie of Hohenberg, orphaned but as well took the life of the three unborn siblings as Sophie was with child at the time of her death.

The Archduke and his wife had gone to Sarajevo to for a visit and to get to know the town and the people there; the thing is that he and his wife were not very well liked in that area for their views. They had gotten to the town early and did lots of sightseeing yesterday and felt it was safe enough to do the event. There was some speculation to do it or not as there have been many accidents in the last few weeks with other diplomats and other political figures, there was not much security in the event. It turned out that they were right when they were driving a member of the terrorist group, The Black Hands threw a boom to the car. It bounces off the car and hit some men, but the Archduke and Sophie were fine. Instead of leaving, the Archduke diced he wanted to visit the men who were hurt by the boom at the hospital.

In the commotion of everything the driver took the wrong route and had to stop to be able to reverse the car to get back on the right track. Unfortunately, they stopped right in front of the assassin, another member of the Black Hand, 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip. According to witness, he was eating a sandwich as he saw the car drive up he walked up to the vehicle shooting twice in point black rang, it killed Sofie immediately and then shortly after being shot the Archduke as well. It has been reported that his last words were “Sophie, Sophie! Don’t die! Live for our children!”. Princip tried to commit suicide by drinking poison and jumping into the river but the authorities were able to fish him out, the poison did not work.

So, marks the tragic day of the death of the Archduke, many think this could have been all prevented if Sophie and Franz had listened and not gone today or if there was better security in the event but what has been done has been done. The Austro- Hungarian are enrage and the government is now trying to get permission from Serbia to enter their country and fined everyone responsible for the death of the archduke including the Black Hand.

References:

Whatever happened to… The Archduke’s Children?