Princip

One noteworthy replacement occurred involving Gavrilo Princip, who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austo-Hungarian empire, and his wife, Sofie. Not only were the surrounding street names removed, but also historical markers and temporarily the Princip museum. Even the former Princip Bridge, where Gavrila Princip stood in 1914 when he fired the shots, was stripped of its title and is now known as Latin Bridge. Princip and his assassination planners gained reputations as a national heroes following the incident, credited as “the flashpoint that ignited World War I,” (Robinson et al.). That is, until the disintegration of Yugoslavia, when the separate factions came to be at odds. Thereafter, the memory of the man who assassinated the Archduke would be transformed to that of Princip as a criminal terrorist. All traces of his existence were removed from the area, and mention of his actions is considered taboo by many. Why the swift change from status as a national hero to criminal? In renaming streets, “simultaneous processes of de-commemoration and a new commemoration,” (Light) manipulate the memory in the present. As struggles arose between ethnic groups for control and power over the area, one influential act was to bury the past and portray a new image. “Politicians want to forget Princip because he was a Serb,” (DeVoss) and so they created a new face for Gavrila Princip Street in order to remove him from the urban landscape and the minds of the community.

Take this account from “Sarajevo: A Walker’s Guide” created for the 1984 olympic games:
“Princip’s ‘crime’ is still misunderstood. He believed he was committing the just act of tyrranicide. He and his fellow conspirators - schoolboys, young workers, and intellectuals - were not hooligans but studious, poetry-loving idealists from whom alien rule, the misery of the masses and the age-long dismemberment of their race were a personal anguish,” (Tribe).

A snapshot of Sarajevo from above, including a view of the Latin Bridge.