Gavrilo Princip is the Bosnian student who shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914 — while possessed, in part, by one of the travelers of the Kosovo crossing.
| Type | Character |
| Born | 25 July 1894 |
| Died | 1918, of tuberculosis, in an Austrian cell |
| Spanish entry | Gavrilo Princip |
History
A member of Young Bosnia, Gavrilo believed killing the Austrian heir would restore something greater than a country. The date he chose, 28 June, was deliberate: the feast of the Serbian Saint Vitus and the date of the Kosovo crossing of 1389, on which the Black Hand sowed the act once every few centuries.
When the revolver fired, Gavrilo was no longer entirely himself. One of the companions of the group on the Kosovo crossing had reached him; the possession, fusion or capture changed who pulled the trigger. What walked down Franz-Josef Strasse was at once the historical Bosnian and the traveler.
No common record noted the doubling, and the historical Bosnian never recovered a name of his own in his public biography. The effect remained: one shot, a war, the Belle Époque cancelled and the 20th century opened.
Open questions
- The identity of the companion who took over his body is not fully recorded.