Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, occurred on 28 June 1914 in Sarajevo when they were mortally wounded by Gavrilo Princip. Princip was one of a group of six assassins (five Serbs and one Bosniak) coordinated by Danilo Ilić, a Bosnian Serb and a member of the Black Hand secret society. The political objective of the assassination was to break off Austria-Hungary's South Slav provinces so they could be combined into a Yugoslavia. The assassins' motives were consistent with the
Marijan Varešanin big encouragement to Gavrilo Princip. Princip visited Žerajić's grave where he promised to take a revenge, which he did by killing Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. Even though the assassination attempt was a failure, Varešanin started to think about his retirement. On 10 May 1911 his request for dismissal as governor was accepted and he was replaced by Oskar Potiorek. On 10 July 1911 he officially entered into a retirement after 45 years of service. Marijan Varešanin Marijan Varešanin von Varesch (1 February 1847 – 22 April 1917) was Governor of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1909