Assassination attempt on Emperor Franz Joseph I in 1853
Painting by Johann Reiner (also Johann Joseph Rainer) ( Wien Museum )
The unsuccessful assassination attempt on Emperor Franz Joseph I on February 18, 1853 is one of the most famous failed murder attempts in the history of Austria .
The assassination
The attempt on the then young emperor was carried out by János Libényi , a Hungarian apprentice tailor . He was a former hussar in Vienna and tried to murder Franz Joseph I with a kitchen knife. The emperor was walking on the Kärntnertor bastion in Vienna on the day of the assassination when János Libényi pounced on him. The thrust was largely repulsed by the adjutant, Count O'Donnell . The Austrian emperor suffered a wound below the back of the head, the assassin was struck down with a saber by the adjutant . The rushing butcher Josef Ettenreich helped him with this. János Libényi was arrested, sentenced to death and eight days later, on 26 February 1853 at the spinner on the cross (not as often wrongly adopted at the Simmeringer Haide ) by the train executed .
The possible motive for the attempted murder of Emperor Franz Joseph I has not yet been clearly clarified. National Hungarian motives that were supposed to bring about the overthrow of Austrian rule are considered likely .
aftermath
The two lifeguards of Emperor Franz Joseph I, Count O'Donnell and Josef Ettenreich, were both immortalized on the Heldenberg . The butcher Ettenreich was also ennobled . Franz Joseph's brother, Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian , who later became Emperor of Mexico , appealed for donations after the assassination attempt “in gratitude for His Majesty's salvation” in order to build a new church in Vienna. The church was to be built as a votive gift (thanksgiving gift) from the peoples of the monarchy for the salvation of Franz Joseph. 300,000 citizens responded to the appeal for donations. The Votive Church in Vienna was finally consecrated on April 24, 1879 .
After the unsuccessful assassination attempt, Johann Strauss (son) composed the Emperor Franz Joseph I Rescue Jubelmarsch (Op. 126), in whose trio the Austrian imperial anthem was incorporated.
Soon after the unsuccessful assassination attempt, a song about the tailor János Libényi, known to this day, was written .
- On the Simmeringer Had ', it turned to Schneider,
- He's all right, why does he prick so badly.
- On the Simmeringer Had ', it turned to Schneider,
- with the needle with the eye, with the thread and the scissors.
- On the Simmeringer Had ', it turned to Schneider,
- let it all be a lesson, he never lives anymore.
- And people stop, the wind stops already
- If he went like this, Schneider was more durt.
literature
- Alessandro Volpi: L'attentato del diciotto Febrajo mille ottocento cinquantatre contro la preziosa vita di SMIRA: Francesco Giuseppe I. Imperatore d'Austria . Padua 1853; Digitized version of the Bavarian State Library [1]
Web links
- Editions digitized by the Austrian National Library : Daily overview of February 19, 1853 (online at ANNO ).
- Report on the execution of Libényi in the proclamation. In: Wiener Zeitung , February 27, 1853, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).