July 12, 2012 – The Austrian museums are proposing 100 objects in a large-scale publicity campaign. Some of them might attract especially those interested in history like this automobile in which heir to the throne Francis Ferdinand was shot in Sarajevo in 1914.
Three objects dominate the so-called Sarajevo-Travée in the Heeresgeschichtlichen Museum (Military History Museum) in Vienna, all of them attain to the immediate cause of World War I: The automobile in which heir to the throne Francis Ferdinand and his spouse were shot in Sarajevo, the blood-soaked uniform-jacket of the Archduke and the chaise-longue on which he died.
In this vehicle Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his spouse Sophie Duchess of Hohenberg were assassinated on June 28, 1914 in Sarajevo. Photo: Heeresgeschichtliches Museum / Militärhistorisches Institut Wien.
Count Francis Harrach had placed the vehicle at the Archduke’s disposal in order to observe the maneuvers in June 1914. It is an automobile made by Gräf & Stift, model Double Phaeton with six seats, 4.8 m long, 1.65 m broad and 1.95 m high (with car roof folded together). The engine no. 287 is an inline-four-engine with two cylinders cast in one block each with 28/32 hp.
The hole made by the bullet which killed Sophie Duchess of Hohenberg. Photo: Heeresgeschichtliches Museum / Militärhistorisches Institut Wien.
The automobile shows traces of the first attempted assassination with grenades as well as the hole on the right side caused by the bullet which killed Sophie Duchess of Hohenberg, the Archduke’s spouse and had been fired by 20 year old Bosnian student Gavrilo Princip.
A photograph of the couple immediately before the assassination. Photo: Heeresgeschichtliches Museum / Militärhistorisches Institut Wien.
Immediately after the assassination the car was handed over to the Emperor who decreed its transfer to the then Army Museum. Since then the car has been a part of the museum’s permanent exhibition. From time to time voices arouse that the automobile featured in films and events, but they are completely baseless.
You may see the automobile in the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum / Militärhistorisches Institut Wien, Arsenal, Objekt 1, 1030 Wien.
This is the website of the Heeresgeschichtlichen Museum / Militärhistorisches Institut Wien.
The BBC illustrates very well, as usually, the assassination at Sarajevo.