28 June – The death of a Habsburg that shattered the old world

On 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Duchess Sophie were assassinated in Sarajevo.

The common belief that Franz Ferdinand became heir presumptive to the Imperial throne after the suicide of Crown Prince Rudolf in 1889 is not entirely accurate. In fact, following that tragedy, Emperor Franz Joseph’s brother, Archduke Karl Ludwig, was next in line until his own death in 1896. Only then did his son, Franz Ferdinand, assume the position. However, his morganatic marriage to Sophie Countess Chotek meant that their children were excluded from the line of succession.

Franz Ferdinand himself was a controversial figure. His relative tolerance towards the various ethnic groups of the Empire earned him a liberal reputation, though not enough to satisfy nationalists. At the same time, his firm dynastic and centralist views, coupled with staunch Catholic conservatism, alienated many others. His assassination by a Serbian nationalist was deeply political.

The murder of Franz Ferdinand and Sophie is often cited as the spark that ignited the First World War. The deeper causes – surging nationalism, imperial rivalries, and German militarism that had led to an arms race – had long been in place. But this event was the direct trigger. Or, to put it figuratively: the final drop that made the glass overflow.