2023-09-10 13:11:31
The anarchist Luigi Lucheni hated the aristocrats. He was determined to go down in history through a murderous act. The Empress of Austria was his accidental victim.
Wien.
In the days before the assassination attempt, the Empress made her infamous hour-long forced marches high above Lake Geneva. Later she treated herself to a visit to her banker friend Rothschild and bought a jukebox in Geneva. Then tragedy struck.
The anarchist Luigi Lucheni pounced on the 60-year-old on the shore of the lake and rammed a file into her chest. An hour later, Empress Elisabeth of Austria was declared dead. 125 years ago, Sisi’s death on September 10 shocked the world. “A punitive military expedition against Switzerland was even considered in the emperor’s entourage, but Franz Joseph ruled it out,” says Swiss author and historian Michael van Orsouw.
Sisi met a violent death in one of her favorite countries. Orsouw said the empress had sought refuge in Switzerland nine times, sometimes for weeks or months. The nature-loving health fanatic has often found the peace or solace she longed for in Switzerland. The early death of her first daughter, the suicide of her son Rudolf – Sisi’s life was overshadowed by severe strokes of fate. Because she was partly to blame for the death of her daughter Sophie when she was only two years old, she convinced the nuns of a Swiss monastery in 1859 to include her in their “Eternal Adoration,” says Orsouw. This step became the starting point for many further visits by the travel-loving monarch.
The Empress traveled without police protection
According to Orsouw, she was well aware that she had chosen one of the most dangerous countries in Europe for celebrities. The region around Lake Geneva in particular was a veritable nest for anarchists. “Nevertheless, she refused any form of police protection,” says the author. This was also due to the fact that Sisi almost always traveled incognito under the pseudonyms “Countess von Hohenembs” or “Madame de Tolna”. Although practically everyone knew who was behind it and the newspapers reported it often, the cover made an official report unnecessary. “Not only Sisi, but also the mayors were often happy not to have to attend or give receptions,” says Orsouw, who recently published a book about Sisi’s stays in Switzerland.
Lucheni also learned from the newspaper that the Empress was in Geneva. The Italian actually wanted to kill the Prince of Orleans and go down in history as an “anarchist of action” – and not just of words. But the nobleman had already left and Sisi was the even more famous victim. The Empress is said to have interpreted some perceptions as an omen for the near end. “The flirtation with death was definitely part of her identity,” says Orsouw about the last years of the highly educated and capricious woman’s life.
The 25-year-old unskilled worker Lucheni was caught immediately after the crime and basked in his macabre fame. In his own words, he wanted to be sentenced to death, but the death penalty had already been abolished in the canton of Geneva. His request to stand trial in another canton was rejected. Lucheni ended his life imprisonment by committing suicide in 1910.
The assassin’s brain
In 1910 there was great curiosity as to whether an anarchist’s brain differs from the brain of law-abiding people. However, a corresponding examination did not reveal any abnormalities at the time, says Eduard Winter from the pathological-anatomical collection of the Natural History Museum (NHM) in Vienna. The head of Lucheni came to Austria very discreetly from Switzerland in 1985.
“It was never exhibited, but was stored in a jar on a shelf next to heads with skin diseases,” Winter said. When a newspaper reported about it at the turn of the millennium, a hotelier and a group called “Lucheni’s Comrades” immediately expressed interest. In order to nip the sensation in the bud, the head was cremated and buried in the anatomy graves of the Vienna Central Cemetery, says Winter.
According to Orsouw, Sisi’s last journey home in 1898 was a special spectacle in several respects. The train with the coffin stopped in almost every canton capital. Notables and tens of thousands of ordinary citizens wept for the dead empress. “This deference and the almost monarchical demeanor are very remarkable for a democratic Switzerland,” says the author. The assassination attempt had a lasting consequence. The bitter experience of inadequate international police cooperation led to the founding of Interpol’s predecessor organization that same year, says Orsouw. (dpa)
#assassination #attempt #Empress #Sisi #years #Free #press