Regicide – Acts of Violence in the Danube Monarchy

After the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne, the warmongering parties of the state chancelleries legitimized the declaration of war against Serbia with a call for retribution for the act of “regicide.” With the exhibition “Königsmorde: Gewalttaten in der Donaumonarchie” (Regicide: Acts of Violence in the Danube Monarchy), GrazMuseum is now pursuing the question of the part that Austria played in fomenting the war. Taking center stage here are Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico, Crown Prince Rudolf, Empress Elisabeth, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and Minister President Karl Graf Stürgkh in their relations to Emperor Franz Joseph I and the monarchy. GrazMuseum is thus not only taking part in the 100th commemoration of the outbreak of the First World War, but also situating the events of the year 1914 in an epochal context. Against the backdrop of global political developments, that which proved to be the tragic fate of the downfall of the “House of Austria” turns out to be part of a tendency toward a heightened willingness to engage in resistance and violence in nineteenth and early twentieth-century society.