Gavrilo Princip und das Attentat von Sarajevo

·1 hr 16 min·5 clips

A wrong turn places Franz Ferdinand's car three meters from Gavrilo Princip, who fires the two shots that change history.

The episode begins with host Ralf Grabuschnig introducing the topic as one of history's most influential murders. He explains this is a collaborative episode with two guests: Franziska, who will cover the murder plot and the backgrounds of Franz Ferdinand and Gavrilo Princip, and Christo, who will discuss the myth-making around Princip in Yugoslav and Serbian history. Ralf himself will handle the broader geopolitical context. The narrative first sets the stage in early 20th-century Europe, describing a continent of great powers—Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, France, and Britain—locked in a tense balance. It explains that Germany, under Kaiser Wilhelm II, was on a confrontational course, while Austria-Hungary was a declining power focusing on the Balkans as its last sphere of influence. The episode then zooms into the Balkan region, detailing its turbulent history of breaking away from the Ottoman Empire. It highlights Austria-Hungary's annexation of Bosnia in 1908, which angered Serbia, which had its own expansionist 'Greater Serbia' ambitions. Against this backdrop, the life of Gavrilo Princip is explored. Born in 1894 to poor Bosnian Serb farmers, he was a sickly child who survived tuberculosis. He moved to Sarajevo for school, where he was influenced by the revolutionary group 'Mlada Bosna' (Young Bosnia), which sought to liberate South Slavs from Austro-Hungarian rule. After being expelled from school for anti-Habsburger protests, he walked to Belgrade, where he further radicalized and came into contact with the secret society 'Crna Ruka' (Black Hand). Upon learning of Franz Ferdinand's planned visit to Sarajevo in June 1914, Princip and his co-conspirators obtained weapons and trained. The assassination attempt on June 28 (Vidovdan) is described in detail: a first attacker throws a bomb that misses; Princip later gets a point-blank opportunity due to a wrong turn by the Archduke's driver and fires two fatal shots. The aftermath covers the arrests, the trial where Princip declared himself a 'Yugoslav nationalist' using terror to remove an evil, and his imprisonment in Theresienstadt, where he died of bone tuberculosis in 1918. The episode analyzes the immediate political consequences: Austria-Hungary issued a deliberately unacceptable ultimatum to Serbia, leading to the outbreak of World War I. The hosts debate the common simplification that Princip 'caused' the war, arguing instead that European powers were already primed for conflict. Christo discusses the modern legacy of Princip, noting he is celebrated as a Serbian hero by some and vilified by others, despite his actual anarchist, anti-imperialist ideology. The episode also touches on a macabre connection to WWII, where Nazis gave Hitler a stone from the assassination site as a trophy. The episode concludes with a 'Deja-Klugschiss' segment where Ralf shares listener feedback on a previous episode about Taiwan, featuring personal perspectives on the threat of a Chinese invasion.

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Deja-vu Geschichte