Dragutin Dimitrijević
Dragutin T. Dimitrijević ( Serbian - Cyrillic Драгутин Т. Димитријевић * 5. jul. / 17th August 1876 greg. In Belgrade ; † 13 jul. / 26 June 1917 greg. In Salonica ), also known as "Apis" ( Апис), was a Serbian officer and a leading member of the nationalist-terrorist secret society " Black Hand ".
Life
Dimitrijević came from a Zinzarian family. Because of his corpulent stature and great energy, he was nicknamed Apis during school . He was accepted into the Belgrade Military Academy in 1892. In 1902 he became a captain. In 1903 Dimitrijević was instrumental in the overthrow and murder of the then Serbian king Aleksandar Obrenović and the queen. From 1906 to 1907 he studied German in Berlin. After a steep career in the Serbian army, he was involved in the founding of the nationalist organization "Ujedinjenje ili smrt" (union or death), also known as the Black Hand , in 1911 . The aim of this organization was to prepare the union of all Serbs in one state against Austria-Hungary . He was involved in the preparation of the two Balkan Wars in 1912 and 1913. In 1913 he became head of the Serbian military intelligence service, using "Apis" as his code name.
Dimitrijević was involved in the assassination attempt in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, in which the Austrian heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were shot. In view of the July crisis and the immediately following outbreak of the First World War , the incumbent Serbian Prime Minister Nikola Pašić decided to get rid of the leading members of the "Black Hand", which had been officially dissolved at that time. Dimitrijević and some of his co-conspirators were arrested and charged with plotting the assassination of Prince Regent Alexander Karadjordjević .
This was followed by a trial in the Allied occupied Thessaloniki , where the Serbian troops had evaded after 1915, before a Serbian military tribunal , the Apis and another eight of the eleven officers charged on 23 May July. / June 5, 1917 greg. sentenced to death for high treason . While most of those sentenced to death were pardoned by Alexander Karadjordjević and released after short prison terms , Apis, the artillery major Velimir Vulović and sergeant Radeta Malobabić died. They were born on June 13th . / June 26, 1917 greg. on the Mikra Field near Thessaloniki shot . During the shooting, Apis said, “Long live Greater Serbia ! Long live Yugoslavia ! ”.
The executed were initially buried at the shooting site. Today the city's airport is located there. The bones were discovered by chance in the early 1990s during construction work on the expansion of the airport and finally transferred to "Zeytinlik" ( Turkish olive grove), the Serbian part of the Thessaloniki military cemetery. Dimitrijević's remains are listed there under the number 5.746 as " NN ".
The verdict against Dimitrijević is considered politically motivated and is controversial. In 1953 it was revised by the Supreme Court of Serbia . All alleged conspirators were acquitted for lack of evidence (partial rehabilitation) because their participation in the coup attempt could not be proven. However, this happened during the communist era of Yugoslavia , when the judiciary had to be “partial” and support the state .
Apis' nephew, the historian Milan Živanović, strove for decades to get his uncle fully rehabilitated (“proven innocent”). Živanović's extensive research on Apis and the Thessaloniki Process is summarized in his dissertation.
literature
- Vladimir Dedijer : The Road to Sarajevo. Simon & Schuster, New York 1966, Chapter: “Serbia and Sarajevo” and “Colonel Apis and Germany” .
- E. Hösch, in: Mathias Bernath (Ed.): Biographical lexicon for the history of Southeast Europe. Volume 1: A - F (= Southeast European works. Vol. 75, 1). Oldenbourg, Munich 1974, ISBN 3-486-47961-X .
- David MacKenzie: Apis. The congenial conspirator. The Life of Colonel Dragutin T. Dimitrijević (= East European Monographs. No. 265). Columbia University Press, Boulder CO 1989, ISBN 0-88033-162-3 .
- David MacKenzie: The "Black Hand" on Trial. Salonika 1917 (= East European Monographs. No. 423). Columbia University Press, Boulder CO 1995, ISBN 0-88033-320-0 .
- David MacKenzie: The Exoneration of the "Black Hand" (= East European Monographs. No. 516). Columbia University Press, Boulder CO 1998, ISBN 0-88033-414-2 .
- Hans Uebersberger : The Saloniki process. German translation based on the original Serbian text checked by the Oriental Seminar in Berlin. Working Committee of German Associations, Berlin 1933.
- Milan Ž. Živanović: Pukovnik Apis. Solunski proces hiljadudevetsto sedamnaeste. Savremena administracija, Beograd 1955, (In Serbian, with an English summary: Colonel Apis. The Salonika Trial of 1917. ).
Web links
- Dusan T. Batakovic: The Balkan Piedmont Serbia and the Yugoslav Question. (Chapter The Black Hand and Great Serbia or Yugoslavia? ) Institute for Balkan Studies, Belgrade (first published in Dialogue No. 10, Paris 1994, pp. 25–73)
- Vlada Arsić: Solunski proces , Press magazine, November 16, 2007 (Serbian)
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Dimitrijević, Dragutin |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Dimitrijević, Dragutin T .; Apis; Димитријевић, Драгутин Т. (Serbian) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Serbian politician and officer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 17th August 1876 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Belgrade |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 26, 1917 |
| Place of death | Saloniki |