Gavrilo Princip: Two Shots, 12 Million Dead

It must have seemed unimaginable in the sizzling hot summer of 1914, that the world would soon be plunged into war. That a single act  committed by a sickly, emaciated young man, in a place few people had ever heard of, would spark the most deadly and brutal conflict ever known to man. At the height of the conflict the young Serbian nationalist involved, Gavrilo Pincip, refused to be blamed for what had ensued. When he was accused of being the man who alone had caused such carnage, he replied, “If I had not done what I did the Germans would have found another excuse.”

Gavrilo Princip

Gavrilo Princip, was born in 1894, the actual date is uncertain, the son of a postman; a sickly child, he was a shy loner and a dreamer, and what he dreamed of was being a liberator of his country, and Serbian national hero. After attending school in Sarajevo and Tuzla, and faring badly, he moved to Belgrade where he failed his college entrance exams. With no future in the offing but determined to make his mark, upon the outbreak of the First Balkan War he volunteered for the Serbian Army, but despite special pleading he was turned down for being too physically weak. So instead, and desperate to prove himself, he joined the “Black Hand”, a secret society dedicated to securing the union of Bosnia-Herzegovina with Serbia.

The Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which a few years earlier had annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina, was due to visit Sarajevo on 28 July, 1914. Princip, whose fanaticism for the cause was undeniable, was one of three men selected by Dragutin Dimitrejevic, Head of both Serbian Military Intelligence and the Black Hand, to travel to Sarajevo and assassinate the Archduke. The others, less known to history, were Nedjelko Cabrinovic, a 19 year old student, and Trifko Grabez. The Serbian Prime Minister, Nikola Pasic, made aware of the mission and fearing the consequences for his country should it succeed, ordered that the men be arrested. The orders were ignored however, and Dimitrejevic fearing for his own position now provided the assassins with phials of cyanide to be taken regardless of the outcome of the mission. The assassination squad had now become a suicide squad.

Heir to the Imperial Throne

Archduke Franz Ferdinand, a notoriously brutal and unpopular man, arrived at Sarajevo Railway Station early on the morning of 28 June, 1914, accompanied by his pregnant wife, Sophie. They were greeted by the regional military commander, Oskar Piotorek, whose invitation it had been. The crowds had turned out in force to greet their illustrious visitor; among them were Princip and his comrades who had now been joined by four others so that seven potential assassins now lined the Archduke’s route through the city. The journey was slow and tortuous as the crowds thronged around the Archduke’s car. The many police present just seemed to make the situation worse and crowd control was near impossible.