Baron Von Giesl's Assassination Of Serbia

The people of Austria were rightfully upset in the summer of 1914. Archduke Franz Ferdinand had been shot and killed on June 28th, supposedly by a Serbian, and the Austrian government was livid. Three weeks after the assassination, on July 21st, Austria’s ambassador to Serbia, Baron von Giesl, wrote to foreign minister Leopold von Berchtold expressing that Serbia could no longer be avoided. Serbia had been seen as a threat long before the assassination, but now things seemed to have gotten out of hand. Giesl used his fears and beliefs to form an opinion that, in his opinion, should represent the entity of Austrian officials and influence the country to wage war on Serbia.

In his letter to Berchtold, Giesl expressed the desire of using the assassination as a “pretext to crush Serbia”. He stressed the importance of confronting Serbia when they least expect it, since Austria-Hungary is “now seen as powerless to Serbians”. Baron von Giesl is an imperial man, who potentially sees the threat of Serbia differently than the rest of Austria-Hungary. Giesl believes Serbia is attempting to fulfill the vision of the Great-Serbian Empire relatively soon and that Austria must prevent this from happening. Thanks to the assassination, fulfilling the vision of the Great Serbian Empire by crumbling the Austrian Empire would be

From Baron von Giesl’s point of view, the only way to make things turn in favor of Austria-Hungary was to attack Serbia while they were too busy putting Austria down. The letter that Giesl wrote to Berchtold provides an important look into what Austrian officials were thinking right before the start of World War I. Whether or not the assumption that Serbia was a threat that only war could eliminate was a widespread belief throughout Austria-Hungary, it ultimately led the Austrian officials to decide it was the correct