When News of the Assassination Reached Vienna

The Emperor and Archduke at a 1913 Ceremony

Manfried Rauchensteiner

28 June 1914 was a Sunday. Time and again, attempts have been made to capture the mood of that day far away from Sarajevo, and particularly in Vienna. It was a sleepy Sunday, but in contrast to today, when only a few people in positions of influence are likely to be found in Vienna on their day of rest, in 1914, there was a large number in the city—politicians, officials and members of the military alike. Only the Emperor and his household had already left for the royal holiday residence in Bad Ischl. On top of this, the following day, June was a public holiday, offering the prospect of two days of early summer relaxation. However, shortly after midday, the peace was suddenly broken. Telegrams and telephone calls buzzed across the Monarchy. In fact, it was astonishing how quickly news of the murder of the heir to the throne and his wife was disseminated, reaching one person here and another there. Nobody was left unmoved. Shock, helplessness, anger and verbal aggression were expressed. Joyous reactions were also reported. Count Ottokar Czernin, the envoy in Bucharest at the time who would later become Foreign Minister, noted in his memoirs that in Vienna and Budapest, expressions of joy outweighed those of sorrow. 

Josef Redlich whose diary is one of the most important sources for this period, since it has the advantage of being authentic rather than having been written  subsequently, noted the oft quoted words  : ‘In the city [Vienna], there is no  atmosphere of mourning  ; in the Prater and out here where we are in Grinzing, there has been music playing everywhere on both days [i.e. 28 and 29 June].’  Joy was also reported in Hungary. And why should individuals here or there not have experienced a pleasant shock on hearing the news  ? The heir to the throne had certainly not only made friends. Quite the opposite  ! Hans Schlitter, the Director of the State Archives, who had been very close to the Archduke, noted in his diary  : ‘When one looks back at the catastrophe with a philosophical calm, one could conclude that as a result of the satanic act, Austria has been saved from greater catastrophes and that a difficult problem has been resolved at a stroke. But this can never be proven.’  

The diplomat Emerich Csáky, who at that time was posted in Bucharest, made a simple assessment  : Franz Ferdinand may have had ‘supporters, although they were very limited in number, but friends he had none. Instead, his enemies were all the greater in number  ; in Hungary, he was literally hated.’  For this reason, no attempt was made in Hungary to hide the fact that the murder triggered a sense of relief. The aristocracy went one step further, arranging the requiem for Franz Ferdinand on the very same day as the grand wedding celebrations by members of the Szápáry and Esterházy families. No member of the upper aristocracy and top echelons of society wanted to miss the opportunity to attend the wedding, unless there was an express reason for staying away.  

Ultimately, the tables were turned, and the Viennese court was subjected to a barrage of criticism for rendering it impossible for the Hungarian nobility to pay its last respects to Franz Ferdinand. A lengthier interpellation on the matter was even made by Count Gyula Andrassy in the Hungarian Reichstag (Imperial Diet), demanding clarification from Prime Minister Tisza regarding the events leading to the assassination and its immediate consequences. Crocodile tears were shed.

The Archduke at Military Maneuvers the Day Before His Death

Rumours began to spread, soon catching up with verified information  : the assassin was the son of Crown Prince Rudolf, who had killed Franz Ferdinand because he believed he had murdered his father  ; the Freemasons were mentioned, as well as the German ‘secret service’, the Hungarian prime minister Count Tisza, who was in league with ‘Apis’, the Russian General Staff, etc.

However, the predominant reaction was shock and a desire for revenge. The fact that the Archduke was a symbol, and that a hope had been destroyed, which was by all means intact, that the Habsburg Monarchy would have the opportunity to shake off the rigidity of the late Franz Joseph years, provoked a sense of outrage and gave cause for hatred. For those in authority, it became clear almost straight away that the trail led to Belgrade, and that accountability and atonement must be demanded from Serbia. Conrad von Hötzendorf, who until   June had accompanied the heir to the throne before departing for Sremski Karlovci, where he received news of the murder, expressed a view that was widely held  : "The murder in Sarajevo was the last link in a long chain. It was not the work of an individual fanatic, but the result of a well-organized attack ; it was a declaration of war by Serbia on Austria-Hungary. It can only be answered by war." 

No mention was made of the fact that Conrad would have known how far-reaching the effects of the murder of Franz Ferdinand would be. No mention that Austria-Hungary suddenly had no prospects. No further reference to the fact that a re-organisation at state level could have reshaped the Monarchy from its foundations upwards and made it viable. 

At a single stroke, everything that Franz Ferdinand had planned and prepared with the aim of reforming the Empire was no longer of interest. And the fact that in the shorter or longer term, this would have brought about an end to dualism was also in effect considered irrelevant. After all, the alternative to reform of the Empire was collapse. No mention was made of the plan to seek an understanding with Russia. Suddenly, the "secondary rule" by the Archduke, which had been the subject of repeated criticism, also no longer existed.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were
laid out on 28 June 1914 in the official residence
of the governor of Sarajevo.

 

The murder in Sarajevo strengthened the position of the Emperor. Not that this was what Franz Joseph had wanted, since it had been clear to him, too, that  reparations must be made for the transition to his successor. Yet now, suddenly, the entire  structure, so laboriously assembled, had become obsolete. The words ascribed to Franz Joseph on hearing of the double murder in Sarajevo are  : "A superior power has restored that order which I unfortunately was unable to maintain." In this context, they took on a stark double meaning. As it quickly transpired, Franz Joseph was not of a mind to experiment with "secondary rule" a second time. The next in line, Archduke Karl Franz Josef, who automatically adopted the mantle of heir to the throne, was neither to take over the Military Chancellery run by his murdered uncle, nor inherit control of the staff of civilian advisors that Franz Ferdinand had sought. Now, there could also be no mention of the fact that Conrad von Hötzendorf had been due to be replaced half a year later .

The Chief of the General Staff was the man who in terms of military matters had the fullest confidence of the Emperor, and who had the final say. He would also certainly be needed in the very near future. Domestic policy experiments were frowned upon, and not only that  : the new heir to the throne was initially to be involved as little as possible and be given the role of observer at best. Just how thoroughly this was put into practice already became evident during the weeks that followed. This was by no means due to negligence, but was entirely deliberate  : Emperor Franz Joseph was making one more attempt at a neo-absolutist about-turn. The hidden reality behind this apparent fierce determination and show of power was a terrible dilemma  : at the top of the Habsburg Empire, a huge power vacuum began to spread—slowly, but surely.

Even after the news of the murder in Sarajevo had lost its novelty, and attention had turned to the new heir to the throne and above all the position taken by Austria immediately following the assassination, a certain degree of international goodwill could still be felt. It is also certainly not incorrect, as has been repeatedly remarked, to say that the community of European states would initially have fully understood any immediate action taken by Austria against Serbia. However, these simple sentiments, which were founded on a sense of solidarity, were not to be held for long.

Excerpted from: The First World War and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy