A true story of Leopold Lojka
My name is Leopold Lojka, and in case you’ve never heard of me, I was the chauffeur of the car carrying Archduke Franz Ferdinand on the fateful day when he was shot in Sarajevo in 1914.
I met the Archduke when I was about 28, on his trip to Sarajevo on 28th June 1914 – I was his chauffeur. Shortly after departing, our car was attacked by a young Bosnian, who threw a grenade. Thankfully, I swerved out the way, but the car behind (which was carrying several dignitaries), wasn’t as lucky. Several of them were injured, as well as many of the spectators on the street.
After he had given a speech at the Town Hall (which I listened to intently), he was due to open the city museum. However, he decided to instead visit those in hospital who had been injured by the bomb. I instantly agreed when he asked me to drive there, but quickly realised I had no clue when the hospital was. I had never been here before and had only memorised the route we were meant to take.
The car in front of us seemed to know where to go, so we followed close behind them. When they turned right onto a side street, I followed without hesitation. However, we soon received orders to turn around, as they seemed to know as little about the route as I did.
Whilst I was attempting to reverse through the packed street, there was a sudden commotion from the crowd. I heard a deafening sound, and the Archduke slumped forward in his seat, dead. There was a scream, which I assumed was from his wife, and then another shot.
Actually, I did OK out of it all. I was later awarded 400,000 crowns by Austro-Hungarian Emperor Charles I, which I used to buy an inn at Brno in Czechoslovakia. There I became an innkeeper, and would often show off the bloodstained braces of Franz Ferdinand and a piece of Sophie’s golden bracelet.
But despite my personal success, if I could go back, I wouldn’t take that wrong turn – think of all the things I could have avoided.
There wouldn’t have been World War 1 – that would have been 16 million lives saved, and another 21 million who wouldn’t have been injured.
Germany wouldn’t have lost (as there was no war in the first place) and been forced into economic problems, so Hitler wouldn’t have gained popularity and WWII wouldn’t have happened. Another 60 million lives would have been saved from that. Just think – 60 million people able to live a full life if I had just turned left. Who could they have been and what might they have achieved?
The Soviet Union and the United States would not have become superpowers, and we would have been saved all kinds of conflicts and the rise in huge global companies. We probably wouldn’t have nuclear weapons. Without invasions, would Al Qaeda have ever existed?
Instead, each country could have worked on their economies. Germany would have been very successful and from them, all kinds of scientific discoveries might have been made. Could we have had a cure for cancer? Perhaps flu pandemics would never happen?!
But, even though a lot of good things would have happened, they would still be many bad things – just different ones.
The world might be a scary place dominated by huge, undemocratic empires (like the Ottoman, or the Austro-Hungarian). You might have grown up under an oppressive regime, and think how different your life would be then. What about the suffragette movement – would women have ever got the vote if they hadn’t had to take men’s jobs during wars?
And what about minority rights? Would poorer people have had access to education and the empowerment to demand equality? And don’t forget that military spending led to life-saving developments in medicine – such as penicillin and antibiotics, which we rely on today.
Also, military spending was the reason that computers were developed, leading to the invention of the internet, without which we wouldn’t be able to gain advanced knowledge through research. The need to create aircraft during the wars also led to the evolution of safe air travel, without which we’d be pretty stuck for holidays.
And without a space race between the US and Russia, we might never have visited the moon or put satellites into orbit…
…so we wouldn’t have Sat-Nav…
…so we’d all still be turning up the wrong street and putting lives at risk all over again.
Leo T 