The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie von Hohenberg was the cover story of La Domenica del Corriere for the week July 5 through 12, 1914. The assassin, Gavrilo Princip, said he aimed, turned away, and fired, and was not targeting the Countess. The illustrator may have positioned her standing to make sense of the two wounds: the Archduke was shot through the throat, his wife through the groin. Illustration by Alberto Beltrame.
The cover story includes a picture of the deceased with their three children. A second photograph shows the new heir to the throne, Karl, holding his son, captioned "I due futuri Imperatori d'Austria" — the two future Emperors of Austria. Karl became emperor when Franz Joseph died in 1916. His son never did, as the Empire had dissolved by the time his father died.

La Domenica del Corriere

5 – 12, 1914.



L'assassinio a Serajevo dell'arciduca Francesco Ferdinando erede del trono d'Austria, e di sua moglie.



(Disegno di A. Beltrame)



The assassination in Sarajevo of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, and his wife.



(Drawing by A. Beltrame)

Other views: Front, Interior

Friday, July 3, 1914

"When the dear departed was still on his bier it was important not to introduce any discordant note into a solemn hour. But now our patriotic duty and the mood not only of Vienna and Austria but of the entire monarchy compel us to discuss why, according to the original arrangements, the funeral was to be so startlingly simple, and so insulting to the feelings of a grieving people. . . .

To quote the words of one of the highest generals of our army, the funeral was . . . no different than one that would have been arranged for a six year old child."

Quotation Context

Commentary from the conservative newspaper Reichspost about the funeral arrangements for Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie von Hohenberg.

Because of Countess Sophie's lower station — she was not a member of a European ruling family — Emperor Franz Joseph and the Austrian court disapproved of their marriage, which was morganatic. Disapproval continued after their death. Because they had insisted on being buried together, they were not buried in the imperial crypt in Vienna. They were not given an imperial funeral, and heads of state were invited to, then uninvited from, the funeral. The couple lay in state briefly in the Hofburg chapel in Vienna the morning of July 3 before the noon closing of the doors and baring of the public.

Their coffins were moved to and from Vienna at night, and their funeral processions were impromptu. Their remains lie in their castle in Artstettin, Austria.

Source

Sarajevo: The Story of a Political Murder by Joachim Remak, page 175, copyright © 1959 by Joachim Remak, publisher: Criterion Books, Inc., publication date: 1959

Tags

1914-07-03, funeral, Franz Ferdinand