Gavrilo Princip
Gavrilo Princip (
Serbian Cyrillic:
"аврило Принцип) (
July 25,
1894 –
April 28,
1918) was a
Bosnian
Serb, committed to the independence of
Southern Slavic peoples from Austria-Hungary, who assassinated
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife
Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg in
Sarajevo on
June 28,
1914. The event, known as the
assassination in Sarajevo, prompted the
Austrian action against
Serbia that led to
World War I.
Princip was born in the village of
Obljaj, near
Bosansko Grahovo,
Bosnia and Herzegovina. His parents, Petar and Marija
Nana Mičić, had nine children, five sons and four daughters, six of whom died in infancy. His health was poor. From an early age, he suffered from
tuberculosis, which was his eventual cause of death in 1918, and was also one of the reasons he let himself kill Archduke Ferdinand in the first place.
Most historians agree that Princip was a member of the
Young Bosnia (
Млада Босна/Mlada Bosna), but there are some who contend that he was actually a member of the
Black Hand (
Црна рука/Crna ruka) (or at the very least trained by the group). The Young Bosnia movement was a group made up of Serbs, Croats, and Bosnians, committed to the independence of the South Slavic peoples from Austria-Hungary.
In February 1912, he took part in protest demonstrations against the Sarajevo authorities for which he was expelled from school. Following his expulsion, he went to
Belgrade. While crossing the border, he made a point of kissing the soil of Serbia. In Belgrade, he sought to gain admission to the First Belgrade
Gymnasium but failed the entrance exam.
In 1912, Serbia was abuzz with mobilization for the
First Balkan War. Princip planned to join the
komite, irregular Serbian guerrilla forces under Serbian Major
Vojislav Tankosic which had fought in
Macedonia against Ottoman units. Tankosic was a member of the central committee of the secret society Unification or Death (
Ujedinjenje ili Smrt). Princip, however, was rejected by the komite in Belgrade because of his small physical stature. He then went to
Prokuplje in Southern Serbia where he sought a personal interview with Tankosić. Tankosić, however, rejected Princip for being "too small and too weak." He was determined to compensate for his lack of physical stature and the underestimation of his abilities that he was subjected to. Dedijer argued that his rejection was "one of the primary personal motives which pushed him to do something exceptionally brave in order to prove to others that he was their equal."
Background
On
June 28,
1914 Gavrilo Princip participated in the
assassination in Sarajevo. General
Oskar Potiorek, Governor of the Austrian provinces of
Bosnia-Herzegovina had invited
Franz Ferdinand and
Countess Sophie to watch his troops on maneuvers. Ferdinand knew that the visit would be dangerous, knowing his uncle,
Emperor Franz Josef, had been the subject of an assassination attempt by the Black Hand in 1911.
 |
This photo was at one time believed to show Princip's arrest. It was later confirmed it actually depicts the arrest of a German passerby who tried to save Princip from being lynched. |
Timeline
Just before 10 o'clock on Sunday, the royal couple arrived in
Sarajevo by train. In the front car was
Fehim Čurčić, the
Mayor of Sarajevo and Dr. Gerde, the city's
Commissioner of Police. Ferdinand and Sophie were in the second car with Oskar Potiorek and
Count von Harrach. The car's top was rolled back in order to allow the crowds a good view of its occupants.
The seven members of the group lined the route. They were spaced out along the Appel Quay, each one had been instructed to try and kill Ferdinand when the royal car reached his position. The first conspirator on the route to see the royal car was Muhamed Mehmedbašić. Standing by the Austro-Hungarian Bank, Mehmedbašić lost his nerve and allowed the car pass without taking action. Mehmedbašić later said that a policeman was standing behind him and feared he would be arrested before he had a chance to throw his bomb.
At 10:15 A.M., when the six car procession passed the central police station, nineteen year old
Nedeljko Čabrinović hurled a
hand grenade at the archduke's car. The driver accelerated when he saw the object flying towards him and the bomb exploded under the wheel of the next car. Two of the occupants, Eric von Merizzi and Count Boos-Waldeck were seriously wounded. About a dozen spectators were also hit by bomb splinters.
After Čabrinović's bomb missed the Archduke's car, five other conspirators, including Princip, failed to get an opportunity to attack because of the heavy crowds and the high speed of the Archdukes' car. To avoid capture, Čabrinović swallowed a
cyanide pill and jumped into the nearby river, but was hauled out and detained by police. It was beginning to look like the assassination would fail.
However, Ferdinand decided to go to the hospital and visit the victims of Čabrinović's failed bombing attempt. In order to avoid the city centre, General Oskar Potiorek decided that the royal car should travel straight along the Appel Quay to the Sarajevo Hospital. However, Potiorek forgot to inform the driver,
Franz Urban, about this decision. On the way to the hospital, Urban took a right turn into Gebet Street.
Princip had gone into Moritz Schiller's cafe for a sandwich, having apparently given up, when he spotted Ferdinand's car as it drove past, having taken the wrong turn. After realizing the mistake, the driver put his foot on the brake, and began to back up. In doing so he moved slowly past the waiting Princip. Princip stepped forward, drew his pistol, and at a distance of about five feet, fired several times into the car. Franz Ferdinand was hit in the neck and Sophie in the
abdomen. Sophie, who was later found to be with child at the time of her death, died instantly. Ferdinand, who in disbelief of her death insisted that she wake up, fainted within five minutes and died soon after.
Capture and imprisonment
Princip tried to kill himself first by ingesting
cyanide, and then with his pistol, but he vomited the poison (which
Čabrinović had also done, leading the police to believe the group had been deceived and bought a much weaker poison), and the pistol was wrestled from his hand before he had a chance to fire another shot. Having been too young at the time of the assassination (19) to face the death penalty, Princip received the maximum sentence of twenty years in prison, where he was held in harsh conditions worsened by the war. He died of
tuberculosis on
April 28,
1918 at
Theresienstadt. At the time of his death Princip weighed around 40 kilograms (88 pounds).
Other information
The pistol used by Princip was a
Fabrique Nationale M 1910 semi-automatic pistol in 7.65×17 mm (
.32 ACP) caliber. It was recently found and recovered in the home of the Italian Copei family, and is now in display at the
Museum of Military History, Vienna, Austria. The second bullet fired by Princip, killing Ferdinand, is stored as a museum exhibit in the
Konopiště Castle near the town of
Benešov,
Czech Republic.
Scottish rock band
Franz Ferdinand, in fact named after the archduke, wrote a song about the shooting of their namesake titled "All For You, Sophia". The lyrics include the following lines: "Bang, bang Gavrilo Princip/Bang, bang shoot me Gavrilo/Bang, bang, the first six are for you/Bang, bang, the seventh is for me... Europe's going to weep."
