The original and previously published route had planned to turn onto Franz Joseph Street and drive through the narrow roads of the bazaar district. After giving a speech and dealing with some political business, he asked to visit General Oskar Potiorek, who was being treated in the hospital before Franz and Sophie left Sarajevo.ĭue to the earlier terrorist attempt, the motorcade decided to change its route and would leave the city via Appel Quay. The first attack can best be described as a mess and a failure.įranz Ferdinand and his wife were headed to the city hall of Sarajevo to meet with the mayor and several other dignitaries. Several people, including the governor, were injured in the attack, but nobody died. In that second car was General Oskar Potiorek, the governor of Bosnia.
#Archduke franz ferdinand of austria ww1 driver#
The driver was able to speed up and move away from the explosive, and after the device bounced off the back of the car, it hit the vehicle following behind. The Archduke and his wife seated in the back of the car, hours before their assassination (Jaroslav Brunner-Dvořák / Public Domain) 6 (or 7, the number varies) Bosnian Serb students who were said to have ties to the nationalist group known as the Black Hand saw the published motorcade route and spread themselves out through the route. The Archduke was able to use a private vehicle borrowed from Count Franz von Harrach of the Austrian army transport corps.Įven though the risk of terrorist attacks was thought to be incredibly high, minimal security actions were taken to protect the couple. The reason why such an important military and political figure was not traveling in a military car was because the Austrian army had a restricted budget in 1914. Their official travel route was made public long before Franz Ferdinand arrived in Bosnia. On that day Archduke Franz and his wife Sophie travelled in a Gräf & Stift open-topped touring car throughout the city of Sarajevo. Vitus’ Day was seen as an insult to Serbian nationalists. The national and religious holiday is a significant event for Serbian national identity. A wrong turn fatefully crossed the paths of the Archduke of Austria-Hungary and a Bosnian Serb student who assassinated Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie. This could have all been avoided if the car carrying the Archduke hadn’t made a wrong turn. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the event that led to the declaration of war. While the exact number of victims who died or were injured during WWI is unknown, everyone knows what started the war. It is estimated that around 9 million soldiers died in combat, an additional 23 million soldiers were wounded, 5 million civilians died, and an unknown number of victims also perished in the many genocides in the Ottoman Empire and the 1918 influenza pandemic. The war spanned across Europe, the Pacific, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Most of Europe was fighting along with the Russian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the United States. WWI is still considered to be one of the deadliest conflicts in history. World War I, or the “Great War,” was one of the first global conflicts that began in 1914 and ended in 1918.
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