Love, Two Deaths, A World War: Shots In Sarajevo Doomed An Era
Posted: November 20, 2000  Why did Franz Ferdinand go to
Sarajevo on June 28, 1914?  His uncle, Franz Josef, head of the
Austro-Hungarian empire, thought it was a bad idea. The mayor of
Sarajevo and the head of the Bosnian army said: Stay home.  He
was crazy to go. His uncle's empire ruled Yugoslavia, where
unrest was stroked on by the terrorist group terrifyingly
nicknamed The Black Hand. June 28 was Vidovdan, celebration of
the Turkish defeat of the Serbs at the Field of Blackbirds in
1386. Serbs celebrate that pulverizing defeat as an emblem of
their defiant persistence. And Franz Ferdinand, heir-apparent to
the empire, wants to visit Sarajevo on that day? Don't do it! I
want to yell. Turn back! You and your wife will be murdered.
Country will back country in mad alliance, domino will follow
domino, and soon the skull and the rat and the rainwater in
trenches across the face of Europe.  I'll tell you why he went,
why, in effect, he risked plun