Franz von Harrach

Franz von Harrach

Franz Maria Alfred Graf von Harrach (born July 26, 1870 in Traunkirchen am Traunsee , Upper Austria , † May 14, 1937 in Iglau , Czechoslovakia ) was k. u. k. Chamberlain , adjutant of the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Este during his trip to Bosnia in 1914 and eyewitness to the assassination attempt in Sarajevo .

Origin and youth

Franz Maria Alfred von Harrach was a son of Alfred Karl Graf von Harrach (born October 9, 1831 in Prague; † November 19, 1883) and his wife Princess Anna von Lobkowicz (1847–1934), who had owned Janowitz as a large landowner since 1867 and was the founder of the Alfredhütte, on whose territory there is a steelworks, wire drawing, foundry, machine factory and breweries in Janowitz and Römerstadt (Rymarov) in Moravia ; and a grandson of Franz Ernst von Harrach (born December 13, 1799, † February 26, 1884 in Nice ), a major industrialist in the Römerstadt district, who completed the renovation of Prugg Castle on the Leitha , which his father had begun .

Heir to Alfred Karl Graf von Harrach's glassworks in Janowitz, today a district of Rymarov in the Czech Republic , was his son Otto Johann Graf von Harrach (born February 10, 1863 in Prague; † September 10, 1935 in Königgrätz), from 1910 to 1918 member of the manor house in Vienna. His younger brother Count Franz von Harrach (1870–1937), the last male bearer of the name of the Imperial Counts of Harrach, became heir to the Velké Meziříčí (Meseritsch) castle in the Bohemian-Moravian Heights in 1883 .

During the imperial maneuver in September 1909, the headquarters of the maneuver control was housed in Meseritsch. In addition to Emperor Franz Joseph I , the German Emperor Wilhelm II and the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Este, who had moved into logis, took part in the maneuver . A trusting relationship developed between Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Franz Maria Alfred Graf von Harrach. So it came about that Harrach declared the heir to the throne as his adjutant in June 1914. u. k. Accompanied military maneuvers to Bosnia.

Eyewitness to the Sarajevo attack

→ Main article : Assassination attempt in Sarajevo

Harrach's double phaeton (28/32 hp) from Gräf & Stift

On Sunday, June 28, 1914, Harrach, as a member of the Voluntary Automobile Corps, provided Franz Ferdinand with his six-seater double Phaeton (28/32 hp) made by Graef & Stift (with the Viennese license plate A-III-118) for the ride through Sarajevo available. The planned route led from the “defensive camp” of the Austro-Hungarian army on the outskirts of the city to the town hall and from there to the Konak of Sarajevo , the seat of the governor of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

On a photograph that is kept in the Austrian National Library and in the book by the Yugoslav politician and historian Vladimir Dedijer (1914–1990): Sarajevo 1914 (Prosvata Belgrade, 1st edition 1966), the participants of the trip are before the Departure to the town hall in Sarajevo to see: Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie Chotek von Chotkowa , Duchess von Hohenberg on the seats in the back of the car, in front of them, on a folding seat , the governor Oskar Potiorek and the adjutant Franz von Harrach. In front of them sat the chauffeur Leopold Lojka and the court chamber rifle clamp Gustav Schneiberg, who was wearing a gala uniform.

On the way to the town hall along the Appel quay, the embankment of the Miljacka River, Nedeljko Čabrinović, a member of the Narodna Odbrana and Mlada Bosna movement , which was under the influence of the Serbian secret organization Black Hand , perpetrated one at 10:26 a.m. Litter bomb a first attack on the heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand and his wife. The bomb missed its target, probably because of the quick-witted reaction of the chauffeur Leopold Lojka, who accelerated the car when he saw the bomb fly through the air towards him; also due to a reflex reaction of Franz Ferdinand, who deflected the bomb with his left arm, so that it first fell onto the pulled-down roof of the car and then rolled onto the street. It exploded under the following vehicle, injuring two car occupants, Lieutenant Colonel Erich von Merizzi, Wing Adjutant of the Chief of State, and Count Alexander von Boos zu Waldeck and Montfort, and making the vehicle unusable as a result of the explosion. Archduke Franz Ferdinand had his car stopped and Franz von Harrach checked on the injured. After this report was made to him, Merizzi, who was injured in the head by a fragment of a bomb, was taken to the Sarajevo garrison hospital. As the Neue Freie Presse reported on June 29, 1914, Franz Ferdinand is said to have reacted to the Čabrinović attack with the following words: “That was some madman. Gentlemen, let's continue with the program. "

The journey to the town hall was continued, Schneiberg standing on the step on the left side of the car to "cover up" Franz Ferdinand. Later, in recognition of his behavior, as an exception (because it was not in line with his rank), he received the Silver Cross of Merit with a crown and a gift of money, about which there is a record in the HHStA Oberststallmeisteramt (Zl. 928/1914), which particularly emphasizes his life-threatening commitment. Friedrich Würthle was informed of this fact by the son of the same name of Gustav Schneiberg. After a short stay in Sarajevo's town hall, Franz Ferdinand, his wife Sophie Chotek von Chotkowa, Potiorek, Lojka and Harrach got into the car again to drive from the town hall along the Appel quay to the Sarajevo garrison hospital. This time Harrach stood on the left footboard of the car, facing the promenade, in order to form a protective shield for the Archduke with his body. However, this safety measure could not prevent Gavrilo Princip , also a member of Mlada Bosna , from carrying out the second, successful attack a few minutes later on the Schillerecke at the level of the Latin bridge from the "uncovered" right side.

After the assassination, Franz von Harrach passed on to posterity the - presumed - last words of Franz Ferdinand in a letter. He kept the batiste handkerchief with which he had wiped Franz Ferdinand's blood from his lips. It is said to be on display today in the Velké Meziříčí Castle in the Czech Republic, where visitors to the museum can see “the first blood spilled in World War I”. In this letter of July 3, 1914, which Franz von Harrach sent to his wife Alice, he described the course of the attacks from his point of view. The letter was put up for auction on July 2, 2014 in the Palais Dorotheum in Vienna .

The judicial investigation and the process after the attack

In a trial that took place in the months after June 1914 against six assassins and their helpers in Sarajevo, Franz von Harrach was a witness for the prosecution with an affidavit . Harrach and the other people in the company of the heir to the throne were not personally interrogated by the examining magistrate Leon Pfeffer. He only asked Count Alexander von Boos about Waldeck, who was no longer present at Princip's successful, second assassination attempt, and the chauffeurs Leopold Lojka, Karl Divjak and Max Thiel. The occupants and the chauffeurs of the first two cars of the crown prince couple's motorcade, who were close to the action, were also not questioned. It is unknown who the people who left Sarajevo on the night of June 28-29 were and who questioned them. The affidavit of Franz Graf von Harrach and some other witnesses was made in writing. No interrogator is indicated in these interrogation records.

It is unclear who questioned Governor Oskar Potiorek. His interrogation protocol from June 28th has not been countersigned. The historian Friedrich Würthle grants this protocol the character of a dictation rather than a questioning by a court person. He sees the purpose of this secrecy in concealing Potiorek's fateful role in the choice of the route through Sarajevo, because he had not passed the change of route to the chauffeur Leopold Lojka, which led to confusion at the Schillereck and the execution of the fatal shots.

For Harrach's testimony records, see footnote.

Aftermath of the process

In the village of Velké Meziříčí in the castle of the same name, the hereditary seat of Franz Count von Harrach, a regional museum is now housed, which was built in the village of Meziříčí near the castle, where it was housed in the town hall. The museum's historical, ethnographic and scientific collections were expanded to include the castle's own furniture after 1948, during the time of Czechoslovakia, when the museum was moved to the castle. For years in Vienna there was a dispute over the ownership claims to Franz von Harrach's famous automobile, in which the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy and his wife died in 1914. His descendants had to leave it to the Army History Museum in Vienna, where it can still be viewed today.

Marriages and offspring

Franz Maria Alfred Graf von Harrach was married three times:

• First marriage (married in Vienna on May 29, 1895) with Gabriele Countess von Khevenhüller -Metsch (born November 15, 1874 in Fronsburg [Lower Austria]; † September 12, 1896 in Baden near Vienna);
• Second marriage (married in Vienna on June 30, 1902) with Sarah Princess zu Hohenlohe -Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst (* December 4, 1880 in Ságh; † June 10, 1908 in Groß Meseritsch);
• Third marriage (married in Seefeld on February 1, 1910) with Alice Countess zu Hardegg on Glatz and Machlande (* July 10, 1879 in Groß-Harraß; † February 10, 1962 in Aschach).

Harrach in the media reception of the attack

In Fritz Kortner's film “Sarajewo. Around Throne and Love ”(1955), Count Harrach is played by Hans Unterkircher. Count Harrach can be seen on some photos from the day of the attack as well as on some woodcuts by the artist Hans Fronius from 1987 about the events of the attack.

literature

• Vladimir Dedijer: Sarajevo 1914. Prosveta, Belgrade, 1st edition 1966. (Text and personal names: Serbian language )
• Albert Mousset: L'attentat de Sarajevo. Payot, Paris 1930.
• Christian Ortner , Thomas Ilming: The Sarajevo Car. The most historic oldtimer in the world , Verlag Edition Winkler-Hermaden, Vienna 2014, ISBN 978-3-9503611-4-8 .
• William A. Dolph Owings: The Sarajevo Trial. Documentary Publications (Florida State University), Vols. 1 and 2, edited u. a. by WAOwings, Chapel Hill NC 1984, ISBN 0-89712-122-8 .
• Heribert Sturm : Biographical lexicon on the history of the Bohemian countries. Published on behalf of the Collegium Carolinum (Institute) , Volume 1, R. Oldenbourg Verlag Munich Vienna 1979, ISBN 3-486-49491-0 , p. 538 Harrach, Grafen und Großindustrielle, name bearer 9)
• Friedrich Würthle: The trail leads to Belgrade. The background to the drama of Sarajevo Moldan, Vienna Munich Zurich 1975, ISBN 3-217-00539-2 .
• Friedrich Würthle: Documents on the Sarajevo Trial. Austrian State Archives, Vienna 1978 (communications from the Austrian State Archives, supplementary volume 9).

Web links

• Family tree of the Harrach family

References and comments

1. ↑ Sopherl, Sopherl don't die to me . In: FAZ of May 2, 2014, p. 11
2. ↑ Police officer Maksimović, Mayor Fehim Ćurčić and government commissioner Dr. Gerde.
3. ^ So First Lieutenant Robert Grein, Andreas von Morsey , Karl Freiherr von Rumerskirch, Countess Wilma Lanjus, Colonel Dr. Carl Bardolff, Josef Graf zu Erbach-Fürstenau, Major Paul Höger, First Lieutenant Adolf Egger and Major Erich Ritter von Hüttenbrenner.
4. ↑ Würthle: Documents, p. 45.
5. ↑ That. Ibid.
6. ↑ Protocol 1:

   “The minutes recorded with the G r a f e n H a r r a c h

   (The protocol is written in German and Judge Naumowicz translates it into Croatian. He says that he only wants to translate it according to its main content, as it mainly corresponds to the Sr. Excellency of the country chief Potiorek. He starts the translation, then Senate President von Curinaldi takes the document and translates it.)

   Count Harrach expressly states that he clearly heard a shot in the first attempt before the bomb fell. He also says that before the second assassination attempt he stood on the running board of the automobile on the side of the quay when driving from the town hall to cover the blissful illustrious couple with his body in case a bullet was shot from the bank.

   (During the reading of these transcripts, the whole room was alerted. With the exception of Princip, the defendants hang their heads; Čabrinović tugs nervously at his beard.)

   When we came to the bend in the road leading to Franz-Josef-Strasse, shots were fired, but from the opposite side where I was not standing. A short time later the Duchess fell on his (the Archduke's) lap and he leaned over to her. I stood close to them and heard him tell her (the President reads in a trembling voice and with tears in his eyes): 'Sopherl, Sopherl, don't die, stay alive for our children!'

   (There is great emotion in the hall. The President can no longer read. He throws the act to Judge Naumowicz, who intercepts him, but cannot find his way for the moment. There is grave silence in the hall for a few moments until one calms down This spectacle was very shocking to the accused, yes, even Princip bowed his head and closed his eyes.)

   I immediately turned to Sr. k. u. k. Your Highness and asked him if anything hurt him, and he replied in a weak voice: 'It is nothing! There is nothing!' Then he passed out.

   President: I will suspend the session for five minutes.

   During the break, defense attorney Dr. Feldbauer to Princip and asks him whether this harrowing spectacle in the hall had made no impression on him during the reading of the minutes recorded with Count Harrach. Princip answers with a violent gesture: 'Do you think I am an animal and have no feelings?' "

   - Pharos / Kohler: The trial of the assassins in Sarajevo, Berlin 1918, pp. 158–159