Franz Ferdinand: Der eigensinnige Thronfolger by Jean-Paul Bled (review)

With the hundredth anniversary of Franz Ferdinand’s assassination and the beginning of World War I in 2014, Bled’s study of this complicated historical figure has a certain timeliness. Several other such biographies have come out recently, each one promising to find new and more accurate ways to tell the story of the man, his image, and his assassination as the precipitating event of the war. This biography’s author, a professor of German and Austrian History at the Sorbonne, is clearly in his element, telling the broad, complicated story of Franz Ferdinand’s life and death against the backdrop of the increasingly complex and shifting alliances on the European continent from 1889 to 1914. The book’s jacket promises a tantalizing tale that addresses two aspects of Franz Ferdinand’s “hindered rule” (Friedrich Weissensteiner): first, the tense relationship with his uncle, Emperor Franz Joseph; they differed, for example, most strenuously, on the question of how to organize the monarchy and deal with Hungary (while coming out in unison against war in the years leading up to 1914). The second aspect Bled formulates with a question: “hätte der eigensinnige Franz Ferdinand im Falle einer Regentschaft den Lauf der Geschichte verändert?” (293). However, Bled recommends a cautious approach to this question, since it is the historian’s duty to work with the facts: “Es ist, wie es ist, und die Folgen, wäre es anders gewesen, stehen für immer auf einem unbeschriebenen Blatt” (297).

Franz Ferdinand’s story as heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire begins in 1889, the year of Crown Prince Rudolf’s suicide. For this reason, the first chapter of Bled’s biography sketches the domestic and foreign political situations of that moment. In this first chapter, Bled sheds light on many facets of political reality in Austria-Hungary: the dual monarchy, the multinational nature of the Empire, the Empire’s relationships to other nations and their shifting allegiances, and the vital questions of land control in the Balkans. Chapter 2 then goes back in time to review Franz Ferdinand’s childhood and path to adulthood. Prior to Rudolf’s suicide in January 1889, there had been little reason to think that Franz Ferdinand would one day inherit the throne. Bled emphasizes that he therefore did not receive the education and upbringing befitting a future ruler. Bled also traces back to this point the source of Franz Ferdinand’s personal flaws and famous “eigensinnige” personality (and hence the subtitle in the German translation). Chapter 3 begins with the time period followimg Rudolf’s suicide, a time of limbo, since Franz Ferdinand was not yet officially the heir and was also struggling with health issues. The title of chapter 4, “Der Bruch,” refers to the breach with Franz Joseph due to the latter’s treatment of his nephew’s intended, Sophie Chotek. Chapters 5 and 6 focus on the increasingly difficult foreign (with Russia and the Balkans) and domestic (with Hungary) situations as well as the increasingly disparate ways that the Emperor and his heir would deal with them. Chapter 7 gives the reader a glimpse into its subject’s private life with his wife, the ostracism they faced together, and their devotion to their children and each other, while chapter 8 describes Franz Ferdinand’s tense relationship with anything modern in art and architecture as well as the impact this stance had on some domestic political choices. Chapters 9 and 10 trace the increasingly tense situation in the Balkans after 1908 and the anti-war “wait and see” attitude adopted by both Franz Joseph and Franz Ferdinand, thus refuting the charges of warmongering that have been leveled against the latter. Chapter 11 reviews the fateful events in Sarajevo. Bled dedicates chapter 12 to the question of whether or not Franz Ferdinand would have been an instrument of significant change for the Habsburg monarchy.

Bled’s ability to weave together various strands of...