Gavrilo Princip
Gavrilo Princip (Serbian Cyrillic: Гаврило Принцип, IPA: [gaʋ'ri:lɔ 'prinʦip]; Germanized: Gabriel Fürst; 25 July 1894 – 28 April 1918) was a Bosnian-born ethnic Serbian[1] nationalist with links to terrorist groups, one known as the Black Hand.
Life
Some sources state, Princip was baptised on the day of his birth, St. Gabriel's day, into a devout Serbian Orthodox family. Other sources state, he was a Jew[2] and a Freemason.[3] He described himself as an atheist during his trial.[4] He assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, and his consort, in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. The event was the catalyst for the Austria-Hungarian ultimatum and action against Serbia that later led to World War I. At his trial, Princip stated:
- "I am a nationalist, aiming for the unification of all south Slavs, and I do not care what form of state, but it must be freed from Austria."
Princip was sentenced to twenty years in prison, the maximum for his age, and was imprisoned in the Theresienstadt fortress in Bohemia.
Death
Princip died on 28 April 1918 from tuberculosis. In the years immediately after the war, his reputation in the Balkans, if not elsewhere, stood high – he was a Yugoslav hero in the 1920s and 1930s, and a useful one, for Tito’s post-1945 communist regime. For Winston Churchill, Princip was the worst terrorist who ever lived.[5]
See also
Sources
- The Austrian Red Book April 1915, published by the American Association for International Conciliation, New York, part of series vi of "Documents Regarding the European War". This is a very thorough book dealing with all aspects of the assassination in minute detail.
External links
References
- ↑ The Archduke and the Assassin, by L. Cassels, London, 1984, p.75, where it give's Princips biographical details.
- ↑ Heinrich Kanner: Der Krieg. Politische Monatsschrift, 1928, p. 188
- ↑ Terence A. Smart: The Truth about Germany and the World Wars, Barnes & Noble Press, 2nd Edition, 2018, p. 63
- ↑ Josef Kohler: Der Prozess gegen die Attentäter von Sarajewo, 1918, p. 42
- ↑ Made in the Balkans: the man blamed for starting the first World War
