Posted on 06/22/2004 10:07:58 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
BERLIN -- The Browning pistol that killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand and sparked the crisis leading to World War I has been discovered gathering dust in a Jesuit community house in Austria.
The weapon is going on display in the Vienna Museum of Military History in time for the 90th anniversary of the assassination of the heir to the Austrian empire and his wife, Sophie. Gavrilo Princip, a student from Belgrade, fired seven shots as they were driven through Sarajevo on June 28, 1914.
The shooting led to World War I, which by one estimate resulted in 8.5 million deaths.
For decades the murder weapon, serial number 19074, was in the possession of a community of Jesuits in Styria, southern Austria. They inherited it from a close friend of the archduke and his wife.
A Jesuit priest, Anton Puntigam, gave the couple the last rites and later made public his intention of opening a museum in memory of the archduke. But the chaos of the war foiled his plans.
On the priest's death in 1926, the objects were offered to the archduke's family, which declined to take them. They remained out of sight until recent publicity about the 90th anniversary.
Daily Telegraph
I think you are probably right. I am sure the book "John M Browning American Gunmaker" identified it as a model 1900 in .32acp.
Yes, Browning pistols are widely known for their political activism and their treacherous deeds. In fact, I think it was a Browning that ordered the Watergate break-in.
Back in the 20s, a German newspaper held a contest for the most sensational headline possible. Most entries dealt with the end of the world, the second coming of Christ, and things of that nature but the winner was "Arch-Duke Franz-Ferdinand Alive, World War Fought by Mistake!"
Presstitutes in the wire, fire for effect........ Stay Safe Slim !
It is interesting as a relic of history.
I doubt if anyone is venerating the gun, nor should anyone consider it evil.
Yep, that darned pistol just leapt off the table all by itself and sparked the deaths of millions. In the interest of saving "the children" from a such a similar fate, we'd better ban all those evil things.
Incredibly enough, I have one just like it. My late father used it in his espionage work (AFOSI) in W. Germany and North Africa in the early 1950s. He always said he liked it because it fit neatly under a suitjacket without betraying a tell-tale lump. It got held to more than one Polish Intelligence and Stasi agent's forehead . . .
BTW, it still shoots just fine. But I wouldn't trust its accuracy more than about 30 paces. Then again, I'm the worst pistol shot in the world.
Baloney. Germany wanted to go to war and used the assassination as a provocation.
Thanks for the ping. Evidently, you can get into a lot of trouble with a little old .32. (Hope Sarah Brady never thinks of making an ad based on Gavrilo Princip.)
You need to re-check the timelines. Germany did not mobilize until after Russia began to mobilize (which in turn was after Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.)
Inanimate objects are neither good nor bad. They are used by good or bad people. Most people who have a facination of firearms are impressed that they can be loaded and used hundreds of years if stored in a moderate environment.
The pistol killed 8.5 million people? Writer must be a gun-grabber. All this time I thought it was a person who pulled the trigger.
People with guns don't kill people. Guns kill people. Come on, the DU exit exam can't be that tough!
I disagree. The European powers had been on a collision course since at least the 1890's, and had been close to war on several occasions. WWI was going to happen. If Gavrilo Princip hadn't triggered it, someone or something else would have.
However, it was the violation of Belgium that brought Britain into the war against Germany and on the side of France...
France and Britain had long since gotten over Fashoda.
They were basically on the same side in subsequent crises.
German war planning assumed an invasion of Belgium as part of their basic war plan since the early 1900's, so that part was inevitable. In fact the original versions of the plan also called for marching through the Netherlands, which von Moltke took out of the plan later.
One problem with all of Europe was that their war plans were very rigid. They were all terrified of wasing a minute in their mobilizations.
The title threw me a little too...
It is an object of great historical interest. Do you not understand that?
BFD. A copycat name of "The Dead Kennedys"
OTOH, maybe "Franz" can come up with something somewhat recognizable.
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