Nedeljko Čabrinović not enough to pay for rent and food, let alone books, which, for Čabrinović, were "the only sign of life." In the meantime, he met Gavrilo Princip, and joined the Black Hand in 1912. Two years later, Dragutin Dimitrijević leader of the Black Hand, ordered Čabrinović, Gavrilo Princip and five other conspirators to assassinate Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand, giving them each a gun and two bombs. On Sunday, 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg were assassinated in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip during a visit that had been announced two months prior.
Otto Merz in an official motorcade in which the Archduke Franz Ferdinand toured Sarajevo, and may have witnessed the assassination of the Archduke by Gavrilo Princip. According to the story told later, Merz reacted quickly to the gunshots. One of the first to reach Franz Ferdinand, he lifted the rather stout Archduke from his seat and carried him to a nearby house. However, that day there were "two" attempts on Franz Ferdinand's life; in the first one, Nedeljko Čabrinović threw a bomb with a 10-second fuse at the archduke's car; the driver accelerated when he saw something thrown at them, and the