GAVRILO PRINCIP

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The following text is an excerpt from the column by historian Carl Savich: Gavrilo Princip and Patrick Pearse: Nationalism, Patriotism, and Rebellion: A Comparison

http://www.serbianna.com/columns/savich/028.shtml

The photos are from the Princip 1914 f.page

https://www.facebook.com/princip.gavrilo.1914

The assassination on June 28, 1914 by Gavrilo Princip (1894-1918) of Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Duchess Sophie precipitated World War I, the Great War, one of the largest global conflicts in history. The resulting conflict resulted in the deaths of 5 to 10 million soldiers and led to the overthrow of the Hohenzollern, Habsburg, Romanov, and Ottoman Empires/dynasties. But who was Gavrilo Princip? What was the reason behind the assassination?

The assassination in Sarajevo in 1914 did not occur spontaneously or sui generis but was the culmination and end result of a chain of events that began with the 1875 Bosnian insurrection or rebellion against Ottoman Turkey. Bosnian historian Vladimir Dedijer stated that 'this fateful murder', the assassination in Sarajevo, 'was itself the climax of many long generations of struggle by the Slavs of southern Europe against Austrian and Turkish tyranny.' Gavrilo Princip’s grandfather, Jovo Princip, his father, Petar Princip, and his uncle Ilija Princip, were part of the 1875 insurgency that began in the Grahovo Valley of Hercegovina.

Birth house of Gavrilo Princip.

His ancestors descended from Jovićević tribe from Grahovo in Montenegro in the early 18th century to the borders of Bosnia, Lika and Dalmatia, and settled in the village Obljaj near Bosnian Grahovo.

The major stronghold of the insurgents in Hercegovina, Crni Potoci (The Black Brook), was just outside the Princip house. The leader of the insurgency in the Grahovo Polje region of Hercegovina was the Serbian Orthodox priest Ilija Bilbija, who was from the same village as the Princip family and who later would christen and choose the name for Gavrilo Princip. The Princip family, originally known by the name Cheka, was a kmet or serf family living in Gornji Obljaj below the Dinara Mountain range that divides Bosnia and Dalmatia.

Parents оf Gavrilo Princip, Marija (Nana) and Petar (Pepo) Princip. Petar was a small and unobtrusive man with calm behavior and religious traditions. Marija came from a prominent family Mičić from the nearby village of Mali Obljaj, and she was a large and vigorous woman.

The village is in the Grahovo Polje region with the Korana river passing through it. Bosnia-Hercegovina was occupied and ruled by the Muslim Ottoman Turkish Empire for over 400 years. Beginning in 1463, Bosnia was invaded and conquered by the military forces of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. The Grahovo Valley became a military frontier zone, called the kapetanija. The matrolozi was an auxiliary military branch made up of Christian forces. In the 1700s, members of the Princip family were part of the matrolozi. The kmets of Bosnia-Hercegovina lived in a zadruga, or extended communal families who under the ciftlik system paid a tax that went to both the state and the feudal landlord. The feudal landlords also requested corvee, or unpaid labor, from the kmets. The kmets had to perform work on the landlords property. The tax burdens on the impoverished kmets resulted in a series of agrarian/peasant revolts in Bosnia-Hercegovina, in 1807, 1809, 1834, 1852-1853, 1857, and 1858. The Safer Decree of 1859 established the tax regimen for the kmets, who were reduced to tenants on the land: One tenth of their crops were to go to the state, while one third was to go to the feudal landlord, who had full, hereditary title to the property upon which the kmet worked. The kmet of Hercegovina enjoyed minimal/limited civil and human rights. Arthur Evans observed in 1875: 'The kmet lies … at the mercy of the Mahometan owner of the soil as if he were a slave…He is thus allowed to treat his kmet as a mere chattel; he uses a stick and strikes the kmet without pity, in a manner that no one else would use a beast.' The kmets paid a house tax, a land tax, a cattle tax (Porez), a hog tax (Donuzia), and a sheep and goat tax (Resmi Agnam). The 1875 insurrection began in Hercegovina due to a poor crop yield. Facing starvation and impoverishment, the kmets launched a rebellion that spread to Bosnia. In support of the Serbian revolt in Bosnia-Hercegovina, Serbia and Montenegro declared war on Ottoman Turkey. Turkey was militarily defeated following the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. At the 1878 Conference of Berlin, however, Bosnia-Hercegovina was transferred to the Austro-Hungarian Empire to administer and occupy. The rising expectations of the Serbian population were not realized. Expecting independence and self-determination, instead, one master was replaced by another. The lot of the kmet improved very little. The Austro-Hungarian Empire sought to maintain the status quo in Bosnia. Agrarian and political and social reforms were not forthcoming. Instead, Austria-Hungary sought to ensure its occupation and administration of Bosnia. This was the historical milieu for the assassination in Sarajevo in 1914.

Gavrilo Princip was born on July 25 (July 13 Old Style) in 1894 in Obljaj, in the Grahovo region of Bosnia-Hercegovina, the son of a postman, Petar, whom Princip referred to as 'a peasant, but engages in business.' Gavrilo Princip’s parents, Petar and Maria Nana nee Micic, had nine children, five sons and four daughters, six of whom died in infancy. Princip attended primary school in Grahovo where he excelled in his studies, especially in romantic and historic literature. A teacher at the school gave him a collection of Serbian heroic folk poetry.

Gavrilo as a boy with his father Petar.

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At thirteen, Princip planned on a military career and went to Sarajevo to study at the Military School. Instead, he wanted to pursue a business career so he enrolled in the Merchant’s School where he studied for three years. He was described as “reserved”, “quiet”, “sentimental”, “always earnest, with books, pictures”, “very fond of reading”, a “passionate reader”. Princip was described as having an “inferiority complex” because of his small build and lack of physical strength. Instead, Princip relied on books and literature and poetry. He read the romances and novels by Sir Walter Scott and Alexandre Dumas.

Gavrilo Princip, as a High school student in Sarajevo, sitting in the middle.

Following his third year, he left the Merchant’s School to attend the Tuzla gymnasium or High School. He admitted that he was an atheist and not very observant of religious customs but turned to romantic literature and epic poetry and political tracts instead. In a colloquy with Dr. Martin Pappenheim in 1916 during his imprisonment, Princip’s obsession with books and reading is described:

Solitary, always in libraries… Always a reader and always alone, not often engaging in debates… Read much in Sarajevo… Had a nice library, because he always was buying books…. Read many anarchistic, socialistic, nationalistic pamphlets, belles letters and everything… Bought books himself… Always accustomed to read…

Princip stated that 'books for me signify life.' He wanted to become a poet and wrote poetic verses.

In 1911, he joined the Young Bosnia Movement, a group made up of Serbs, Croats, and Bosnian Muslims, committed to achieving independence for Bosnia. Princip became politically active. In February, 1912, he took part in protest demonstrations against the Sarajevo authorities for which he was expelled. Following his expulsion, he went to Belgrade. While crossing the border, he kissed the soil of Serbia. In Belgrade, he sought to gain admission to the First Belgrade High School but failed the entrance exam. In 1912, Serbia was abuzz with mobilization for the First Balkan War. The members of Young Bosnia, Mlade Bosne, were volunteering to join the Serbian army. 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 Unification or Death, Ujedinjene 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 Tankosic. Tankosic, however, rejected Princip because “you are 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.” Princip thus wanted to take part in the major events of the time, the military campaign against Ottoman Turkey and the impending conflict with Austria-Hungary. Denied a role in the armed forces, he sought to find another way to strike a blow for Bosnian independence. Ironically, he would fire the first shot of the Great War, World War I.

The members of Young Bosnia, Trifko Grabež оn the left

and Gavrilo Princip on the right, with their friend Đura Šarac. Belgrade in 1912.

Princip and the members of Young Bosnia led ascetic lives, abstaining from tobacco, alcohol and sexual relations. They became committed, disciplined, hard-core militant revolutionaries. They had all resigned to give up their lives for the struggle to achieve independence and unification. They took the motto “unification or death” literally. After the assassination of the Archduke, they planned to commit suicide by taking cyanide caplets. The Young Bosnia Movement was committed to violence and revolution, not gradual, peaceful reform. Change would only come with violence, with action. Princip explained this difference as follows:

Our old generation was mostly conservative, but in the people as a whole there existed the wish for national liberation. The older generation was of a different opinion from the younger one as to how to bring it about… The older generation wanted to secure liberty from Austria in a legal way; we do not believe in such liberty.

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What was the driving and overriding motive that guided Princip? The Young Bosnia Movement was made up of all three major Slavic groups in Bosnia-Hercegovina: Orthodox Serbs, Roman Catholic Croats, and Bosnian Muslims, although Serbs were the largest group. Their goal was the unification of all the South Slavs into a single state, a state that would be independent and sovereign. There would be self-rule. Unification by whatever means necessary was the objective. Unification presupposed independence from Austria-Hungary and sovereignty. Gavrilo Princip and the members of Mlade Bosne saw their actions as advancing the goals of independence and unification, even if their own lives would be sacrificed in the struggle. Princip expressed this desire for self-sacrifice as follows:

There is no need to carry me to another prison. My life is already ebbing away. I suggest that you nail me to a cross and burn me alive. My flaming body will be a torch to light my people on their path to freedom.

Members of Young Bosnia in Vranje (Kingdom of Serbia) 1908

Unification was the goal of German and Italian nationalism in the 19th century which in turn was inspired by French unification and nationalism. Serbian and Irish nationalism followed the same pattern and historical dynamics. At his trial in 1915, Princip explained his motive: “We thought: unification, by whatever means.” But who or what were to be unified? Princip considered himself a “Yugoslav” first and a “Serbian” second. In its broadest and most general form, unification would consist of all the South Slavs. In its narrowest form, it would consist of the unification of only Serbs, consisting of an enlarged Serbia, termed “Greater Serbia” by Austria-Hungary. In essence, Young Bosnia represented the culmination of the Yugoslav idea, the unification of all the South Slavs into a single state, Yugoslavia. The reason Princip is “all but forgotten” today is because the “Yugoslav idea”, Yugoslavian unity, is discredited now. In 2002, the “third” Yugoslavia was officially dissolved and a “new” country was formed, Serbia and Montenegro. But in 1914, the Yugoslav idea was a major and guiding principle of Balkan nationalism. Princip explained his nationalist goals as follows:

I am a Yugoslav nationalist and I believe in the unification of all South Slavs in whatever form of state and that it be free of Austria…. The plan was to unite all South Slavs. It was understood that Serbia as the free part of the South Slavs had the moral duty to help with the unification, to be to the South Slavs as the Piedmont was to Italy.

At his trial, Princip stated that he and the other conspirators, such as Danilo Ilic, shared the same nationalist views of a united South Slav state, Yugoslavia. The prosecutor asked: “What kind of political opinions did Ilic have?” To which Princip replied: 'He was a nationalist like me. A Yugoslav…. That all the Yugoslavs had to be unified.'

The prosecutor asked Princip: 'How did you think to realize it?' Princip replied: 'By means of terror. That means in general to destroy from above, to do away with those who obstruct and do evil, who stand in the way of the idea of unification.

A second motive was revenge. Princip stated: 'Still another motive was revenge for all torments which Austria imposed upon the people.' Princip was quoted as saying that “revenge is bloody and sweet.” What did Princip seek to avenge? Bosnia-Hercegovina was occupied and “administered” by Austria-Hungary since 1878. In 1908, Austria annexed Bosnia outright. The Serbian Orthodox population of Bosnia was denied any civil, political, or human rights. The Austro-Hungarian governor of Bosnia, Oskar Potiorek, advocated a blatantly and virulently anti-Serbian policy and opposed any measures which would improve the lot or position of the Serbian population of Bosnia-Hercegovina. Princip was motivated by the grievances and suffering of the Bosnian Serb population. The prosecutor asked him: 'Of what do the sufferings of the people consist?'Princip replied: 'That they are completely impoverished; that they are treated like cattle. The peasant is impoverished. They destroy him completely. I am a villager’s son and I know how it is in the villages. Therefore I wanted to take revenge, and I am not sorry.'

Opposition to Austro-Hungarian occupation and administration in Bosnia was long-standing and widespread. Political assassination attempts were common. Princip himself was guided by the earlier assassination attempt by the Bosnian Bogdan Zerajic, who headed the secret society Sloboda (Liberty). Zerajic attempted to assassinate General Marijan Varesanin, committing suicide after the attempt. Zerajic became a detested scoundrel (referred to as “scum” by Varesanin himself) to the Austro-Hungarian officials but a hero and martyr and symbol of resistance to the Young Bosnia Movement. Viktor Ivasjuk, the Austro-Hungarian chief police investigator, to show his contempt, later used Zerajic’s skull as an inkpot. Zerajic set the example to Princip to follow. When the prosecutor asked Princip: “Do you know anything about Zerajic?” Princip replied: “He was my first model. At night I used to go to his grave and vow that I would do the same as he.” A cult developed around the legacy of Zerajic who stated “we must liberate ourselves or die” which had earlier been the motto of the 1875 insurrection. He was reported to have said before he died: “I leave my revenge to Serbdom”. He was buried in an unmarked grave. But his grave was discovered by the members of Young Bosnia and became a shrine for the Bosnian nationalist movement. Princip placed flowers and soil from “free Serbia” on his grave which he brought back from his first stay there. Before the assassination, Princip paid a final visit to Zerajic’s grave. In 1912 Princip had sworn an oath that he would avenge his death. So Princip saw his actions as a continuation or fulfillment of what had been set in motion earlier.

Čabrinović and Princip in front of court.

A cult of martyrdom and self-sacrifice was fostered around the assassination attempt of Zerajic. Vladimir Gacinovic, like Zerajic, a member of Liberty (Sloboda), wrote a series of articles, which appeared in the periodicals Zora and Pijemont, “To Those Who are Coming”, and “The Death of a Hero”, wherein he argued that “a new, bright ethic is being created, the ethic of dying for an idea, for freedom”. Gacinovic wrote: “We, the youngest, have to make a new history… Youth must prepare for sacrifices”. Zerajic was transformed into “the first martyr” and the “symbol” for the Young Bosnia Movement. Zerajic established the policy that political assassination could be used as a means to achieve independence. There were seven similar assassination attempts in Bosnia before 1914. The Zerajic legacy reinforced the idea that the assassination of a “tyrannical foreign ruler is one of the noblest aims in life.” This itself was echoing the Kosovo myth, central in Serbian history and in Serbian nationalism and religious history. The Kosovo myth/legend was crucial in understanding the assassination in Sarajevo, which took place on June 28, or Kosovo Day, Vidov Dan.

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The Kosovo myth was revived due to several factors. The 19th century was dominated by romanticism and nationalism which glorified heroism and emotion over reason. Serbian nationalism and literature thrived in this milieu. A symbiotic relationship resulted where each reinforced the other. Johann von Goethe, Alexander Pushkin, Walter Scott, Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, Adam Mickiewicz, and Lord George Byron, who read Bosnian Serb poetry with much enthusiasm, died in Greece as a volunteer against the Ottoman Turks, were all influenced by Serbian epic folklore on Kosovo, who then in their turn encouraged/influenced Vuk Karadzic and Petar Njegos to preserve the epic Kosovo folklore and songs and legends. Sir Walter Scott translated Serbian epic poetry on Kosovo into English, while Pushkin translated them into Russian, and Mickiewicz into Polish. In 1809 Napoleon Bonaparte created the Kingdom of Illyria consisting of Slovenia, Dalmatia and the Military Frontier, which revived the idea of South Slav unification/federation and represented the genesis of the Yugoslav idea. Influenced by Adam Czartoryski, Serbian Ilija Garasanin began devising plans for uniting Serbian-populated areas of the Balkans. Croatian Roman Catholic Bishop Josip Strossmayer was an advocate of South Slav unity as well and corresponded with Garasanin on the formation of a unified South Slav state. The Yugoslav idea, the unification of all South Slavs in a single state or federation, was developing and evolving.

Gavrilo Princip and the other assassins were tried in Sarajevo trial from 12th to 23 October, 1914. During the the trial court awarded them a lawyer Rudolf Cisler. He found that neither Austrian nor Hungarian parliament voted for the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which therefore is not legally become the territory of Austria-Hungary.

The Kosovo myth was revivified by the Balkan Wars of 1912-13 against the Ottoman Empire. The First Balkan War of 1912 resulted in the defeat of Ottoman Turkey by a combined coalition made up of Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Montenegro, and Greece. This event created the precedent of the South Slavs achieving independence on their own, without Great Power intervention, which gave an added stimulus to the Young Bosnia movement. Moreover, the First Balkan War saw the Serbian army retaking Kosovo after 500 years under Turkish occupation/rule. The First Balkan War created an unstoppable momentum shift and rejuvenated Balkan aspirations for independence, sovereignty, and self-rule.

There was a dichotomy in the Bosnian nationalist movement on whether to pursue a policy of “mass revolution” or one of violence or terror. Was change to be gradual, evolutionary, and peaceful or was it to be immediate, revolutionary, and violent? Was political reform and independence to be achieved by legal, peaceful means, or, on the contrary, at the end of a barrel of a gun? There was not unanimity or consensus on this issue in the Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian Muslim/Slovene nationalist movements. But the Young Bosnia Movement, influenced by anarchist writings of Pyotr Kropotkin, the Russian Narodnaya Volya (People’s Will), a populist revolutionary organization, Giusseppe Mazzini, the leader of the Italian unification/nationalist movement, who advocated political assassination as a means of achieving independence, Giovane Italia, the Young Italy Movement, and the Balkan Wars of 1912-13. Influenced and guided by these models and events, Young Bosnia chose the end of a barrel of a gun.

But Gavrilo Princip did not need to look far for an ideology of martyrdom or self-sacrifice. Central to Serbian national/religious/political life is the Kosovo ethos or myth. The Kosovo myth created the ethos of martyrdom and self-sacrifice to achieve freedom in Serbian history. But what was the Kosovo myth? At the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, Prince Lazar met the Ottoman Turkish forces under Sultan Murad I. During the battle a Serbian commander, Milos Obilic, was able to infiltrate the Turkish lines and was able to assassinate Murad by stabbing him with a knife in the stomach. Murad later died from his injuries. Both Prince Lazar and Obilic were executed by the Turks. Lazar and Milos Obilic were enshrined as heroic martyrs in Serbian history emphasizing the ideal of self-sacrifice for the nation, people, and church and martyrdom for liberty and freedom. The Kosovo myth became the unifying idea during the over 500 years of Ottoman Turkish occupation that preserved Serbian national consciousness and the Orthodox Church and that united Serbs as a people. The Kosovo myth was similar to the Cuchulainn myth in Irish national history and tradition. In both myths, self-sacrifice for the nation or people leads to a transcendence of death. Dedijer explained the role of Kosovo in Serbian history: “The Kosovo legend took on the meaning of a powerful ideology of rebellion against foreign rule.” British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans emphasized the enduring power of Kosovo: “The memory of Kosovo, one of the greatest battles of the world, decisive even in its indecisiveness, remained alive up to contemporary times.” American journalist John Reed also noted the power of the Kosovo myth. One of the conspirators in the assassination, Vaso Cubrilovic, explained the connection between Milos Obilic and Gavrilo Princip:

The Serbs carry on a hero cult, and today with the name of Milos Obilic they bracket that of Gavrilo Princip; the former stands for Serbian heroism in the tragedy of the Kosovo Field, the latter for Serbian heroism in the final liberation.

Gavrilo Princip’s assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the culmination of the Kosovo ethos of self-sacrifice and martyrdom on behalf of one’s people or nation. Gavrilo Princip was the modern-day Milos Obilic. Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the modern-day Sultan Murad I.

Vladimir Dedijer explained the Kosovo ethos of self-sacrifice in The Road to Sarajevo as follows:

No doubt in the social psychology of the South Slavs there have existed these elements of the mentality of persecuted groups, of martyrdom for a higher cause, as in the history of the Jews, the Irish and the Poles. This irrational motive can become a reality in the process of great political strife. A similar phenomenon was observed in the thinking and action of Padraic Pearse, a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and an outstanding member of the Irish Volunteers, who distinguished himself in the Dublin uprising in 1916. He urged the necessity of an uprising against all odds and against all military reasoning in order to emphasize the importance of self-sacrifice for the cause of Ireland. This irrational attitude produced a rational result in the fact that only a few years after Pearse’s execution, Ireland secured Home Rule.

Self-sacrifice and suicide as a redemptive act is common in Serbian, Irish, and Jewish history. In Judaism, martyrdom is defined in the Kiddush ha-Shem as follows: “that everything within man’s power should be done to glorify the name of God before the world.” In Judaism, martyrdom consists of a religious and a national component. A martyr commits suicide to both glorify God and to liberate his nation and people from occupation and political oppression. In the Kiddush ha-Shem, “every Israelite is enjoined to surrender his life rather than by public transgression of the Law to desecrate the name of God.” As Dedijer noted, Kosovo was to Serbian Orthodoxy and nationalism what the West or Wailing Wall of the demolished Beth Hamikdash temple in Jerusalem was to Judaism.

Disaffection and opposition to Austro-Hungarian occupation and rule in the Balkans was widespread and endemic. Czechs, Slovaks, Slovenes, Croats sought independence and self-rule themselves. In other words, the independence movements were not solely limited to Serbs. Many Bosnians shared the views and goals of Gavrilo Princip and the Mlade Bosne Movement. Bosnian Nobel Prize winner Ivo Andric, an advocate of Yugoslav unity himself, in his diary entry for June 8, 1912, in commenting on the attempted assassination of Governor Slavko Cuvaj by Luka Jukic, supported the policy of political assassination:

Today Jukic made an attempt on Cuvaj’s life….

Long live those who are dying on the pavements, expressing so well our common misfortune.

Ivo Andrić

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Gavrilo Princip was a product of the age. Mlada Bosna did not emerge spontaneously or sui generis but evolved and developed out of the 1875 insurgency in Hercegovina. Gavrilo Princip was the culmination of all that had gone before. He lived in an era when war was the prevailing ethos. The period before the Great War was an era obsessed with violence and with war, with a naïve conception of warfare which was quickly becoming anachronistic by the end of the nineteenth century. In From Sarajevo to Potsdam, A.J. P. Taylor characterized the age and the social milieu/mood/climate or civilization as follows: “European civilization is whatever most Europeans, as citizens, were doing at the time. In the period covered by this book, they were either making war or encountering economic problems. Therefore war and economics make up their civilization.” It was an age that believed that issues could be resolved at the end of a barrel of a gun.

Gavrilo Princip was tried in Sarajevo in 1915 and found guilty, but, because he was under the age of twenty, he could not be sentenced to death. Instead, Princip was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He died of tuberculosis on April 28, 1918 in the Theresienstadt prison in Austria.

Dungeon No. 1 in Terezín where Gavrilo Princip spend the rest of his life

since he was sentenced to 20 years of heavy jail.

After hid death they find hil last words engraved on the wall in his prison cell

Our shadows will be walking through Vienna, strolling through the court, frightening lords." -

The people of a small town in Northern Serbia, Tovarisevo decided not to wait for anyone to support - they've risen a monument dedicated to Gavrilo Princip and the heroes of WWI.

On the fotography you can see Emir Kusturica kissing the monument which he uncovered a moment before...

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Mural in Gavrilo Princip street in Belgrade

[Guest]

I missed this excellent thread. This from Centenary News

Mike

[Falloden]

Very informative.

[beograd]

Hi to all ,

For better understanding of the people on the territory would had been once became Yugoslavia it is good to read following books:

- Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, 1941. It is interesting to note that translated editions in communist Yugoslavia vere censored for the pages explaines serbian frustration by the austro-hungarian occupation and annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

- Charles J. Vopicka, Secrets of the Balkans, Chicago, 1921.

kind regards

Beograd

[Gareth Davies]

If you want to know more about Princip I strongly recommend Tim Butcher's book The Trigger.

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Gavrilo Princip: on Himself: By the team from the National Library of Serbia

After the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, Gavrilo Princip was put on trial with the other assassins; he was sentenced on 28 October 1914 to twenty years in prison, and was transferred to the military prison in Terezin on 2December 1914. Here, he was visited several times by Dr Martin Pappenheim. Pappenheim recorded his talks with Princip, which give new perspectives on our understanding of his personality.

These short, stilted notes were made in the period between February and June 1916, and cover Princip’s life story, the assassination, and his political and social ideals. They were translated from the original German by Dragan Purešić.

Princip Gavrilo, 19 February 1916, Prison.

From 5 December 1914, held here. Held in solitary confinement all of the time. Three days ago, his shackles were removed.

Father is a peasant, and is also in business. Father is a calm man, doesn’t drink; lives in Grahovo, Bosnia. No illness in the family.

Princip did five grades of school in Sarajevo, then three grades in Belgrade, but did not sit the final examination.

Was always healthy. Had no serious injuries until assassination.

No bedwetting. At school he walked in his sleep. Only lasted for one year. Never lost consciousness.

Always an excellent pupil up to fifth grade. Fell in love. Began to understand ideals, etc. Left school in Sarajevo in 1911.

Then took part in nationalist demonstrations against [Prime Minister of Hungary] Tisza. Was among pupils at the front of the demonstrations. Was treated badly by his professors.

Began to read a lot of anarchist, socialist, and nationalist pamphlets, as well as fiction Bought books himself; didn’t talk of these things: his Father was not interested in political matters.

He was seldom with other pupils, and was always alone. Always a still, sentimental, serious child.

As a child, not especially religious.

The year 1911 was critical. He went to Belgrade alone, telling no one. Father and brother refused to send money; it was agreed he should stay in Belgrade.

Father is 54, Mother is 45. He has two brothers: one 26, one 18. Six more died as children before the age of 10. He is the fourth child. Brothers are a school pupil and a merchant. Brothers are quite ordinary men.

His love for the girl remained, yet he never wrote to her. Said he met her in fourth grade; never kissed his love; and talked of it no more.

Studied as private pupil. Had no friends; alone, always in libraries.

He wanted to go to fight in the Balkan War, but considered too weak. Spent several months each year at his brother’s house near Sarajevo.

Passed eighth grade examination, but only in May 1914.

After the assassination, he had injuries on his head and back. He took potassium cyanide, but was weak, and vomited.

In solitary confinement: conditions are very bad. He is without books, has nothing to read, and allowed no communication. He is used to constant reading, and misses it most in prison. Sleeps at night for four hours at most. Dreams a lot. Says he has beautiful dreams of life, of love: says nothing horrible.

He thinks about everything, especially of the circumstances in his Fatherland. He has heard something about the War. He has heard ‘a tragic thing’, that Serbia is no more. His life is hard, Serbia is no more, says his people will have a rough time.

Says that World War was inevitable, and didn’t depend on that [assassination].

He was an idealistic man, and wanted to avenge his people. His motives were revenge and love. All of his youth he was in a revolutionary mood. Talks of the anarchist pamphlets that led him to assassination.

He thinks differently today; he thinks social revolution is possible throughout Europe, that things change. He doesn’t want to talk about it in front of the warden.

He is not ill-treated- everyone behaves correctly.

A month ago admitted to trying to commit suicide, he wanted to hang himself with a towel. It was stupid to have hope. He has a wound on the chest and arm. Says that ‘a life like mine is impossible’. Around noon, he could not eat, was in a bad mood, and suddenly had the idea to hang himself. Says he would do it, if he had a chance. He thinks of his parents and family- but hears nothing about them. Misses them dearly.

[Guest]

Thanks again for a very interesting thread.

Mike

[Jonathan Saunders]

Was just googling and came across a couple of newspaper links that may be of interest to readers of this thread.

The first gives an idea of how difficult it is to navigate the history from all sides:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/06/gavrilo-princip-hero-villain-first-world-war-balkan-history

The second I found of interest because I wondered recently is any of Princip's close relatives survived the war (and the next war) and here the facial likeness of his great-nephew, Miljkan Princip, is very evident.:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2578119/My-great-uncle-started-World-War-One-Grandson-man-assassinated-Franz-Ferdinand-caught-middle-diplomatic-row-Bosnia-plans-mark-centenary.html

I am about half way through Christoper Clark's Sleepwalkers and would highly recommend it to all.

Regards,

Jonathan S

[1st AIF]

Does anyone know the exact time the assassination took place? I'll be in Sarajevo on the 28th June.

Thanks in advance,

Len

[Guest]

Old thread here Len, there are probably others? Click

Mike

[1st AIF]

Thanks Mike. Still seems to be speculation only - about 10.45am.

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REPUBLIKA SRPSKA 1993 Medal for Bravery - Gavrilo Princip.
Gavrilo Princip medal is a two classes military decoration awarded for one or more brave deeds.
It can also be awarded to smaller units and individuals for expressed collective courage.

First (golden) class on a red triangular ribbon.

Second (silver) class on a tricolor triangular ribbon.

On the reverse, in cyrillic: For bravery - Republika Srpska 1993

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100 years after Gavrilo's shots in Sarajevo-young Serbs standing at the most famous location of the town.

[Martin Bennitt]

If you want to know more about Princip I strongly recommend Tim Butcher's book The Trigger.

Piece by Tim Butcher in this month's History Today:

http://www.historytoday.com/tim-butcher/sarajevos-elusive-assassin

Cheers Martin B

[seaJane]

Anyone catch the Gavrilo Princip piece on Radio 3 this afternoon?

[anthony osborne]

Great thread - thanks for posting.

Ant

[Don]

Ditto,

Fascinating thread

Thank you for postingit

G

[MAXMAGNUS]

Bosnian Croats burned Gavrilo's house in Obljaj during the Bosnian war.

The house has been renovated with money of local Serbs and opened to the public.

[MAXMAGNUS]

Gavrilo Princip in popular culture

Gavrilo Princip in Film and TV: A Filmography

http://serbianna.com/blogs/savich/archives/2392

December 31, 2013

Gavrilo Princip has been the subject of films and television movies not only in Yugoslavia, but internationally as well, in the century since the assassination in Sarajevo.

An early film portrayal of Gavrilo Princip was by German actor Carl Balhaus in the 1931 German movie 1914, die letzten Tage vor dem Weltbrand, 1914: The Last Days Before the War, released on January 20, 1931 in Germany. The film was also released in France, as 1914, fleurs meurtries, and in the U.S. in 1932. The movie was directed by Richard Oswald whose production company made the film. The film was distributed by the Capitol Film Exchange in the U.S. Carl Balhaus had appeared as a student in The Blue Angel in 1930 with Marlene Dietrich and Emil Jannings.

On right, Hubert Hilten as Gavrilo Princip in the 1955 Austrian film Sarajevo, or Um Thron und Liebe with Friedrich Domin on left as the Professor.

In 1955, he was portrayed by Hubert Hilten in the Austrian film Sarajevo, also known as Um Thron und Liebe, To Throne and Love, directed by Fritz Kortner and also featuring Klaus Kinski as Nedeljko Cabrinovic. The screenplay was by Robert Thoeren under the pseudonym Franz Werner. The film was released on October 17, 1955 in Austria. The film premiered in West Germany on September 14, 1955 and was shown on Danish television in 1964. The production company was Wiener Mundus-Film. The film was a dramatization of the twelve hours preceding the assassination on June 28, 1914.

He was portrayed by American actor Andrew Prine as Gavril Princip in the American television series Alcoa Premiere in Season 1, Episode 9, The End of a World, which aired on December 19, 1961. The director was Bernard Girard and the writer was David Karp. The series was hosted by Fred Astaire. The episode was a hour long dramatization of the assassination. The series was filmed in Revue Studios, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California and shown on ABC. The production company was Avasta Productions. Prine had also appeared in The Miracle Worker in 1962, Chisum in 1970, and Gettysburg in 1993.

Bosnian actor Predrag Finci as Gavrilo Princip in the 1968 Yugoslavian film Sarajevski atentat.

In 1968, he was played by Bosnian actor Predrag Finci in the Yugoslavian film Sarajevski atentat, The Sarajevo Assassination. The film was directed and written by Bosnian Fadil Hadzic. The film was produced by the Yugoslavian film studio Filmska Radna Zajednica (FRZ). The movie was shot on location in Sarajevo and was released in Serbo-Croat. The film was also released in Hungary in 1969 as A szarajevói merénylet. The movie is set during World War II in German-occupied Sarajevo.

The film begins with a German newsreel from April, 1941 showing the raising of the Nazi swastika flag on the Sarajevo city hall building after German troops have captured the city. German troops are also shown removing the 1930 Gavrilo Princip plaque at the location of the assassination. The plaque was sent to Adolf Hitler for his 52nd birthday on April 20. In the first scene, two Yugoslav guerrillas are shown fleeing from Waffen SS troops through the narrow and winding streets of Sarajevo. They are engaged in a shoot out with the pursuing German soldiers. One of the guerrillas is shot on the left shoulder. He runs into a building where he finds refuge in an apartment where a man and a woman hide him. The man had been a member of the Mlada Bosna, or Young Bosnia Movement. He shows the guerrilla a large framed photograph on the wall of the members of the Young Bosnia Movement. He recounts the events surrounding the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914 by Gavrilo Princip.

In 1972, he was played by Serbian actor Milan Mihailovic in a television dramatization Sarajevski atentat produced by Radiotelevizija Beograd (RTB). The film was directed by Arsenije Jovanovic and written by Radoslav Doric and Arsenije Jovanovic. The film was a dramatization of the assassination.

[MAXMAGNUS]

Bosnian actor Irfan Mensur as Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevski atentat (1975), The Sarajevo Assassination, released in the U.S. as The Day That Shook the World in 1977.

In 1975, Gavrilo Princip was portrayed by Bosnian actor Irfan Mensur in a feature film co-production by Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, West Germany, and Hungary. The film was directed and co-written by Veljko Bulajic and starred Christopher Plummer, Maximilian Schell, Florinda Bolkan, and Rados Bajic. The film was produced by the Czech Filmové Studio Barrandov in Prague, Jadran Film in Zagreb, Kinema Sarajevo, and Mundo Film. The film was released on October 31, 1975 in Yugoslavia. The film was also released internationally. In 1977, the film was released in the U.S. under the title The Day That Shook the World. The film presented the Yugoslavian perspective of the assassination as endorsed in Communist Yugoslavia under Josip Broz Tito. Princip was presented as a “national hero” of Yugoslavia who sought to free Bosnia-Hercegovina from foreign occupation and to unite the South Slavs into a single country.

In 1984, he was played by Rudi Wanka in the Austrian TV movie Weltuntergang, Doomsday or The End of the World. The setting is Sarajevo in 1914 following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie by Gavrilo Princip. The film was directed by Imo Moszkowicz and written by Milan Dor and Robert Muller. The Austrian examining magistrate Dr. Leo Pfeffer, played by Guenter Mack, oversees the investigation of the assassination that has wideranging stakes and repercussions with world war hanging in the balance. The film was shot in Austria by the production company Fernsehfilmproduktion Dr. Heinz Schneiderbauer and was also distributed in West Germany and the U.S.

Reuben Pillsbury as Gavrilo Princip in Gavre Princip - Himmel unter Steinen, also released as Death of a Schoolboy.

In 1990, he was played by Reuben Pillsbury as Gavre Princip in the film Gavre Princip – Himmel unter Steinen, Gavre Princip – A Sky Under Stones, which was also released under the title Death of a Schoolboy, directed by Peter Patzak and written by David Antony and Peter Patzak based on the 1974 novel The Death of a Schoolboy by Dutch author Hans Koning. The film was a German and Austrian co-production released in English. The film was released as Le ciel sous les pierres in France. The production companies were Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), Jadran Film, Lisa-Film, Neue Studio Film, and Roxy Film.

Sinolicka Trpkova as Sophia and Reuben Pillsbury as Gavrilo Princip in Gavre Princip – Himmel unter Steinen, or Death of a Schoolboy.

That same year a Yugoslavian film, Belle epoque ili Poslednji valcer u Sarajevu, was made that featured Gavrilo Princip as a character played by Bosnian actor Davor Dujmovic. Tihomir Stanic did the voice over as Princip. Dujmovic had also appeared in the Emir Kusturica films While Father Was Away on Business in 1985, The Time of the Gypsies in 1988, and Underground in 1995. The movie was directed by Nikola Stojanovic and written by Nebojsa Pajkic, Haris Prolic, and Nikola Stojanovic. The production company was Bosna Film. The movie was released on December 18, 1990 in Yugoslavia. The film was released as The Last Waltz in Sarajevo in the international, world-wide release in English. The film was also released in Serbia and the UK in 2007.

Bosnian actor Goran Kostic played Gavrilo Princip in the BBC series Days That Shook the World in 2003. The series also appeared on the History Channel and the Discovery Channel UK.

He was played by Bosnian-born actor Goran Kostic in the 2003 British one hour TV movie documentary series Days That Shook the World directed by Richard Bond and produced by Lion Television and the BBC. The episode also featured a segment covering April 30, 1945 entitled The Death of Adolf Hitler. The series was produced by David Bartlett and Stuart Elliott and originally aired on BBC Two on September 17, 2003. The British depiction was more negative, characterizing Gavrilo Princip and the other assassins as “state sponsored terrorists”. The episode was prefaced with the following narration: “The history of the twentieth century was defined by two global conflicts. The First World War began with a single bullet fired by a young Serb nationalist. World War II was only brought to a close when Adolf Hitler finally shot himself. Just two bullets less than thirty-one years apart gave birth to the modern world. This is a dramatization of events as they happened on two days that shook the world.”

In 2009, he was played by Milos Djuricic in the Serbian documentary film Kraljevina Srbija directed by Zdravko Sotra and written by Zdravko Sotra and Milovan Vitezovic. The film was produced by Kosutnjak Film.

In the 2009 Serbian film St. George Shoots the Dragon, Sveti Georgije ubiva azdahu, he was played by Dusko Mazalica. The film was directed by Srdjan Dragojevic and written by Dusan Kovacevic. The movie was co-produced by Serbia, Bosnia and Hercegovina, and Bulgaria. The production companies were Camera, Delirium, Radio Televizija Srbije (RTS), Yodi Movie Craftsman, and Zillion Films. The film was released in Greece by Seven Films.

As a participant, for good or ill, in one of the most cataclysmic events in world history, Gavrilo Princip will continue to be the subject of films and television movies. As historians and writers debate his role and influence in history, he will continue to be in the spotlight of world history.