Event Title
1A2: A Tale of Two Princips: Contested Memory and National Identity in the Former Yugoslavia
Start Date
29-9-2018 9:00 AM
End Date
29-9-2018 10:00 AM
Description
The name of Archduke Franz Ferdinand is widely known to students of history around the world. His assassination in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, was the spark which lit the fuse of the Great War. While the heir to the Hapsburg throne is widely remembered, his assassin has been largely forgotten by history. Not, however, in the former Yugoslavia. There, Gavrilo Princip has been and remains an important and contested symbol. This is aptly illustrated by the bronze plaque commemorating the spot near the Latin Bridge where the Archduke and his wife were fatally shot. For decades it read: "From this place on 28 June 1914 Gavrilo Princip, through his gunshot, expressed people's protest against tyranny and centuries-long desire of our peoples for freedom." Placed during the Tito era when Sarajevo was part of Yugoslavia, the plaque celebrated Princip as a hero of the people, a young Slav who sacrificed himself to liberate his people from the tyranny of the Austro-Hungarian empire. However, by the summer of 2014, when the world commemorated the 100th anniversary of the event, the text on the plaque had changed: “From this place on 28 June 1914, Gavrilo Princip assassinated the Heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sofia.” Between these two iterations of public memorial, much happened in the region to demote Princip from hero to assassin. The second world war united the region under Tito as the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and with his passing a bloody ethnic conflict tore it apart again in the 1990s. While that conflict has ended, the conflict over collective memory—the meaning of the shared, contested past—remains an active and critical feature of the tense relationships between Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Croatia. We argue that while Princip may be little remembered outside of the region, he continues to play an important role in the shifting narratives of national identity which have attended the break up of Yugoslavia. We argue that attending to how, when, and where Princip is commemorated, and the manner in which he is made to serve as a symbol, can offer important insights into the relationship between collective memory and national identity in the region.
1A2: A Tale of Two Princips: Contested Memory and National Identity in the Former Yugoslavia
The name of Archduke Franz Ferdinand is widely known to students of history around the world. His assassination in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, was the spark which lit the fuse of the Great War. While the heir to the Hapsburg throne is widely remembered, his assassin has been largely forgotten by history. Not, however, in the former Yugoslavia. There, Gavrilo Princip has been and remains an important and contested symbol. This is aptly illustrated by the bronze plaque commemorating the spot near the Latin Bridge where the Archduke and his wife were fatally shot. For decades it read: "From this place on 28 June 1914 Gavrilo Princip, through his gunshot, expressed people's protest against tyranny and centuries-long desire of our peoples for freedom." Placed during the Tito era when Sarajevo was part of Yugoslavia, the plaque celebrated Princip as a hero of the people, a young Slav who sacrificed himself to liberate his people from the tyranny of the Austro-Hungarian empire. However, by the summer of 2014, when the world commemorated the 100th anniversary of the event, the text on the plaque had changed: “From this place on 28 June 1914, Gavrilo Princip assassinated the Heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sofia.” Between these two iterations of public memorial, much happened in the region to demote Princip from hero to assassin. The second world war united the region under Tito as the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and with his passing a bloody ethnic conflict tore it apart again in the 1990s. While that conflict has ended, the conflict over collective memory—the meaning of the shared, contested past—remains an active and critical feature of the tense relationships between Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Croatia. We argue that while Princip may be little remembered outside of the region, he continues to play an important role in the shifting narratives of national identity which have attended the break up of Yugoslavia. We argue that attending to how, when, and where Princip is commemorated, and the manner in which he is made to serve as a symbol, can offer important insights into the relationship between collective memory and national identity in the region.