AN ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT ON ARCHDUKE JOSIP FERDINAND?

An episode of the Gorizia cultural struggle in 1912

Abstract

This article presents newspaper reports on an alleged assassination attempt on a member of the Habsburg imperial family, which took place in Posočje in 1912. A local man from Ročinj and a priest from the neighboring village of Srednje were involved in the incident. The priest’s involvement sparked interest in the liberal press and detailed coverage, which quickly moved away from the attempted attack. There was a fierce controversy with the Catholic press and the inclusion of the event in the cultural struggle that strongly marked the political space of Gorizia in the years before the First World War. The reporting of the event therefore included several elements that turned out to have no real basis and were intended to smear the political opponent.