Gun used to kill Franz Ferdinand is found in Viennese friary

[Roel R.]

The pistol used to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand has been uncovered in a Jesuit community, with the upcoming 90th anniversary of the shooting that sparked the First World War. The Browning pistol will be displayed at the Vienna Museum of Military History along with other items from the incident, such as the Graf and Stift imperial car and the archduke's tunic. The pistol had been kept in archives at a Jesuit community in Styria, Austria. The archduke, heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his wife Sophie were assassinated in Sarajevo by Serbian nationalist student Gavrilo Princip. On June 28th 1914 seven shots were fired at the couple and the captured Princip was sentenced to 20 years but died in hospital four years later. The Jesuit priest, Father Anton Puntigam, who performed the last rites on the archduke was given possession of the pistol as well as other artefacts, such as bombs and guns used by Princip’s accomplices. Father Puntigam intended to open a museum dedicated to Franz Ferdinand but the devastation of the war prevented this. When he died in 1926 the archduke’s family refused to take the objects and they were forgotten about. Viennese Ignaz Seipal Platz monastery found the pistol in their archives after they realised the anniversary of the assassination was imminent. The head of the Jesuits archive Father Thomas Neulinger stated: "We thought we could no longer carry the responsibility for their upkeep and decided to hand them to the military museum where they'll be expertly looked after and the public will have access to them.”
The Imperial War Museum in London is holding a special evening on the momentous assassination on June 23rd.

[Giel]

vind ik dom om dat nog te sparen , laat dat in die Jezuieten orde liggen zou ik zeggen!

[Peter]

Wel een aardigheidje om te weten: bij een bezoek aan Teresiënstadt kun je in het zgn Kleine Fort ( voormalige Gestapo-gevangenis ) ook de cel van Gavrilo Princip bezichtigen. Naar mijn weten is de inrichting orgineel. Ik was indertijd min of meer bij toeval in Teresiënstadt terecht gekomen omdat ik naar Praag ging op Citytour, en daar zat een bezoek aan Teresiënstadt bij die ik niet kon laten schieten! Bizar detail: het Grote Fort ( voormalig Ghetto ) is nog steeds bewoond! Teresiënstadt ( Tsjechische naam: Terezin ) was zoals jullie allen wel weten een modelkamp voor de "bevoorrechte" joden ( meervoudig gedecoreerde WO1 veteranen, beroemde joden etc. ) en het enige kamp waarin het Rode Kruis toegang had.