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.
Image text: La Domenica del Corriere5 – 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)
A Swiss postcard of 'The European War' in 1914. The Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary face enemies to the east, west, and south. Germany is fighting the war it tried to avoid, battling Russia to the east and France to the west. Germany had also hoped to avoid fighting England which came to the aid of neutral (and prostrate) Belgium, and straddles the Channel. Austria-Hungary also fights on two fronts, against Russia to the east and Serbia and Montenegro to the south. Italy, the third member of the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary, declared neutrality, and looks on. Other neutral nations include Spain, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania. Japan enters from the east to battle Germany. The German Fleet stays close to port in the North and Baltic Seas while a German Zeppelin targets England. The Austro-Hungarian Fleet keeps watch in the Adriatic. Turkey is not represented, and entered the war at the end of October, 1914; Italy in late May, 1915.
Image text: Der Europäische KriegThe European WarReverse:Kriegskarte No. 61. Verlag K. Essig, BaselKunstanstalt (Art Institute) Frobenius A.G. Basel
Socialists Karl Liebknecht and Lededur(?) struggle to restrain Imperial Germany from getting its slice of the world — Togo, Cameroon, East Africa, Southwest Africa — that other world powers carve up. France, Italy, the United States and Britain dig in.
Image text: Die Sozialdemokratie gegen Weltpolitikgegen Kolonien, gegen Heer und Flotte!Die Welt VerteilungSocial democracy against world politicsagainst colonies, against the army and navy!The world distributionReverse:The center is a true people's party! pusing no interest politics! fights for throne and altar!Map 2Germany has passed on the expansion of its economic territory, which means that Germany can abdicate its responsibility as a policy-making country, but also restrain itself economically, thereby putting the situation of the working population at risk. Therefore "comrade" Calwer rightly says: "Commercial stagnation (halt) can not improving the condition of the workers." Nevertheless social democracy shamelessly invites the direct betrayal of the Fatherland, threatening mass strikes and revolution, failing which Germany would be forced to defend his rights and honor with the weapon. The Center stands solidly for a global and colonial policy, so that Germany can have land opened up for its surplus population, and gain new markets and sources of supply for trade and industry.So vote for each of the Center's candidates and attend to his words.Das Zentrum ist eine wahre Volkspartei! betreibt keine Interessenpolitik! kämpft für Thron und AltarKarte 2Verzichtet Deutschland auf die Erweiterung seines Wirtschaftsgebietes, so heißt dies: Deutschland kann nicht nur als politisch maßgebendes Land abdanken, sondern es geht auch wirtschaftlich zurück, und damit ist gleichzeitig die Lage der Arbeiter-Bevölkerung bedroht. "Genosse" Calwer sagt daher richtig: "Gewerbliche Stagnation (Stillstand) läßt keine Hebung der Lage der Arbeiter zu". Trotzdem fordert die Sozialdemokratie in schamloser Weise direkten Vaterlands-Verrat; sie droht mit Massenstreik und Revolution, fails Deutschland gezwungen wäre, sein Recht und seiner Ehre mit der Waffe zu verteidigen. Das Zentrum tritt ein für eine solide Welt- un
Headstone of an unknown British soldier among those of French soldiers at the National Cemetery, Craonnelle, France. © 2014 by John M. Shea
Image text: A Soldier of the Great War
Map showing the territorial gains (darker shades) of Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece, primarily at the expense of Turkey, agreed in the Treaty of Bucharest following the Second Balkan War. Despite its gains, Bulgaria also lost territory to both Romania and Turkey.
Image text: The Balkan States According to the Treaty of Bucharest; Acquisitions of New Territory shown by darker shades
"Sopherl! Sopherl! Don't die! Live for my children." ((1), more)
"A man is down! He was under the wheels of a gun-carriage! A flash of a white face — a cry above the confusion — that was all; we still clattered along and the gun-carriage pressed forward without heed. Here, indeed, was the law of the primitive world, the survival of the fittest! To fall was to be crushed, abandoned, and to die, while the swollen tide of wheels and feet swept on and on in fitful, passionate fury, engulfing horse or human which impeded its passage. And ever the lazy, threatening drone of enemy planes sounded in our ears silenced only the quick, sharp bark of enemy shells at our heels." ((2), more)
"In Germany, anti-war feeling was growing. Deaths from starvation as a result of the Allied blockade was becoming a daily occurrence. In 1915 some 88,232 deaths had been attributed to the blockade. In 1916 the number rose to 121,114. There were food riots in more than 30 German cities. On June 28 a three-day protest strike began, in which 55,000 German workers took part. The one anti-war member of the Reichstag, Karl Liebknecht, was expelled from the Reichstag and sentenced to two years' hard labour for continuing to urge soldiers not to fight. Two months later his sentence was increased to four years." ((3), more)
"On June 28 fierce fighting broke out on the Aisne, where the British and Canadians made some small gains, and at Verdun, where the Germans overran a few French-held trenches.Two days earlier the first large contingent of American troops had arrived in France, 14,000 men, who disembarked at St Nazaire. But this was to have no effect at all on the battlefield. The men had first to train, and to be reinforced by colleagues, the next contingent of whom did not arrive for another three months." ((4), more)
"The man who had talked best sense to him in Salonika was Prince Regent Alexander, and on June 28 (Serbia's National Day and the fourth anniversary of the Sarajevo assassination) Franchet d'Esperey set out for the Serbian front in the special headquarters' train which had been fitted out by Sarrail two years previously and hardly used. With d'Esperey traveled the Voivode Mišić, the general whose men had stormed the Kajmakcalan and who was now to replace Bojović as Serbian chief of staff." ((5), more)
(1) Archduke Franz Ferdinand to his wife Sophie von Hohenberg after she collapsed on him. Single bullets had struck each of them, him in the neck, her in the groin. As blood came from the Archduke's mouth, Count Franz von Harrach, owner of the car in which the royal couple were shot, asked the Archduke, 'Is something hurting you?' Franz Ferdinand repeated, "It's nothing," six or seven times.
One Morning in Sarajevo: 28 June 1914 by David James Smith, page 193, copyright © David James Smith 2008, publisher: Phoenix, an Imprint of Orion Books, Ltd., publication date: 2009
(2) A late June 1915 excerpt from the diary of Frances Farmborough, and English nurse serving with the Russian Army. She and her unit were part of the great Russian retreat in 1915, driven back by the combined German and Austro-Hungarian Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive. Farmborough's unit sets up intermittently, then is driven on again, amidst refugees and units of the Russian army.
Nurse at the Russian Front, a Diary 1914-18 by Florence Farmborough, page 85, copyright © 1974 by Florence Farmborough, publisher: Constable and Company Limited, publication date: 1974
(3) Karl Liebknecht was a leader of the German Social Democratic Party, assassinated, along with Rosa Luxembourg, by right-wing thugs in 1919.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 256, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
(4) The Allied spring offensives of 1917 — the British Battle of Arras, the French Second Battle of the Aisne, the Italian Battles of Mt. Ortigara and Tenth Isonzo — had failed. Sick of the war, French soldiers mutinied in actions that affected nearly half the army. Since the March Revolution, the Russian front had been quiet, and it was not clear the army would rally for a planned offensive. The Americans who arrived in France in June were small in number, untrained, and with few weapons of their own. Their commander, General John Pershing, intended to prepare them for the spring offensives of 1918.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 341, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
(5) French General Louis Franchet d'Esperey was sent to the Salonica Front after being assigned blame for the stunning German advance of the Aisne (Blücher) Offensive in May, 1918. He followed Generals Guillaumat and Maurice Sarrail commanding an Allied line that included French, British, Italian, and Serbian troops. Salonika was the Allied base in Greece. Prince Regent Alexander was acting head of state and heir to the throne of Serbia. The assassination of Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914 was the act that led to the war in little more than a month. A Voivode is a Serbian Field Marshal.
The Gardeners of Salonika by Alan Palmer, page 187, copyright © 1965 by A. W. Palmer, publisher: Simon and Schuster, publication date: 1965
