1

Portrayal of “the assassination of Sarajevo” (1)

a. If you have a look at the images of the assassination in the magazine GEO-EPOCHE (2004) and compare these to image sources of DAMALS (2004) and G/Geschichte (2007), you will certainly recognise that all of them are using the same pictures. How could you explain this? Debate with your neighbour and speculate.

Amongst other things, this is because of the limited number of contemporary images sources.

b. Research of the images of the assassination provided by the Internet:
Europeana: http://www.europeana.eu/portal/usingeuropeana_search.html
Wiki commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Hint: Use the place of the assassination and the respective year as key word.

In the Internet you will also find the images of the German magazines alongside other images (site of the assassination) used for postcards.

2

Portrayal of “the assassination of Sarajevo” (2)

Read the respective caption and try to answer the following questions with the use of the magazine GEO-EPOCHE (2004):

a. According to the caption in GEO-EPOCHE, which aspect of the assassination is portrayed?

GEO-EPOCHE, p. 25: “The assassination of archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife by the student Princip”
GEO-EPOCHE, p. 26: “The heir to the throne and his wife, leaving the city hall of Sarajevo”
GEO-EPOCHE, p. 27: "Policemen arrest the assassin, but it is too late”

b. Choose the images, which feature the assassination directly. Which technique has been used to produce it? Speculate why this technique had been chosen.

It is a draft of newspaper cartoonist Felix Schwormstädt (1870-1938), which shows the assassination directly and was published by the “Leipziger Illustrierten Zeitung”. In the beginning of the 20^th century, photography was a pretty slow media, in other words, it was not made for impulse recordings. If photographers take action, they can portray scenes planned beforehand, like leaving the city hall (GEO-EPOCHE, p. 26). However, as soon as there is a change in action, like the journey of the heirs to the throne, just before the deadly assassination, there was no chance of taking a photo, as nobody had been placed at the spot.
In addition, very few people had a camera. There is no photo of the assassination, thus people trust the contemporary press cartoon. But even if there had been a snapshot of the assassination, there was also the problem of the newspapers not yet being able to print photos. This is why such rather fanciful drafts were widespread in daily newspapers.

c. Compare the picture of the heir of the photo to the one of the press drawing (GEO-EPOCHE p.25 and 26) and take notes of the differences. Additionally, you can compare them to the photo, printed in the Swedish magazine Populär Historia (2008) on page 27.

The clothes of Franz Ferdinand differ. He is e.g. wearing a Tschako of the field forces on the draft and his dress uniform with headgear on the photo.

d. Find possible reasons, why the drawer illustrates the hat of Franz Ferdinand in a different way, from the photo, showing him on his way from the city hall to the car.

Assumption 1: The drawing could be correct. Franz Ferdinand could have changed his hat.
Assumption 2: The drawing could be simply historically false and Franz Ferdinand is still wearing the green-feathered headgear. The “false hat” could have appeared due to the fact that the illustrator had not been on the scene, thus had not seen the assassination.

As there is no source, we cannot decide which assumption is true and which is false.

Do you think we can rely on the drawing being a source of the assassination? State your thoughts!

3

Critical Media Analysis: Captions of the photograph of “the arrest of the assassin of Sarajevo”

One picture of the assassination of Sarajevo shown most often is the photograph of “the arrest of the assassin”. In the following, we will question whether the presentation of the picture in the magazines is reliable or not.

a. Have a close look at the photograph GEO-EOCHE (2004), p. 27 and try to picture what you see in this photograph! Also pay attention to the information which the photograph cannot give you.¹

In the picture, you find several men, some wearing uniforms and sabres, some wearing traditional costumes, with a Fez-hat. It is pretty crowded. As the picture is partly blurred, especially on the left picture edge, one might get the impression that the picture is a snapshot of the turmoil, while the photographer was on the move. On the right picture edge, a man in a dark suit is lead away along a wall by two men. You become conscious that the photograph does not inform you about the names of the people or their role during the assassination and many other important things.

b. Compare the photo´s captions of the German magazine GEO-EPOCHE (2004), p.27 and G/Geschichte (2007) to those of the magazines History Review (2011) (p.15) and BBC History Magazine (2012) (p.20) as well as the Swedish magazine Populär Historia (2008) (p.26). What do you recognise?

GEO-EPOCHE (2004) as well as G/Geschichte (2007): Arrest of the assassin Gavrilo Princip.
History Review (2011): Arrest of the assassin Princip.
Populär Historia (2008): Arrest of the assassin admitting the man pictured could be Princip
The BBC History Magazine (2012) is the only one writing that the police are arresting a suspect. They don´t talk about Princip. In an additional caption, it is stated that policemen try to deter Muslims, trying to attack the suspect. Furthermore, the magazine adds the fact that the Muslims are the minority among the minorities in Bosnia-Herzegovina who have been most loyal to the Habsburgs.

c. Today, there is proof that the picture portrays a certain Ferdinand (Ferdo) Behr, a man who was under suspicion of supporting Princip. Demonstrably, this man had nothing to do with the assassination. Check your textbook: Do you find this picture in there? What is the caption?

As this photograph is one of the most widespread ones, it is very likely to be found in textbooks.

d. Why do you think is there still the false caption although people are aware of this fact?

Magazines and textbooks get their pictures often from photo agencies. If these agencies describe the picture falsely, these mistakes, e.g. false captions, can easily remain during further processing.

¹ Primary or natural subject matter of Panofskys' analysing of images