Mythical sandwich
I was much bemused by the episode with Gavrilo Princip having a sandwich before being interrupted, causing World War I [Mythchaser, FT349:23]. I have written a book on the outbreak of that war (published in Sweden in 2014) and faintly remember coming across that sandwich every now and then; though I have never given much thought to it, and happily didn’t include it in the book.
Because yes, it is a myth. In a 2011 article <www.smithsonianmag.com/history/gavrilo-principssandwich-79480741/> Mike Dash [erstwhile Gang of Fort member] debunks it as well as one could wish, showing that not only is it not true, but also not very likely, as sandwiches weren’t common street food in Sarajevo in 1914. Dash traces its origin to Twelve Fingers, a 2001 novel in Portuguese, and shows how it became widespread and, most interestingly, why it became widespread.
The idea that had he not taken that sandwich, WWI & WWII would never have happened isn’t true, with or without a sandwich. That he managed to kill Franz Ferdinand was actually quite unlikely: he was a bad shot, and a single bullet certainly doesn’t have to be lethal even when it hits home. And even with the Archduke alive, the political situation was such that war would have broken out in 1915, 1916 or perhaps even later; it was just waiting to happen.
Discussing the debunked myth of Princip’s sandwich, a friend pointed out an older similar micromyth: Princip’s coffee. “The driver stopped and backed laboriously on to the quay, close to the café in which sat Gavrilo Princip, sipping his coffee. He heard the grinding of gears. He looked up to see the Archduke in his car which had come to a halt not more than six feet away.” (Rupert Furneaux, Great Dramatic Stories of the Twentieth Century, Odhams 1966, p.46.) I don’t think this one ever took off. The idea of the would-be assassin scrambling out from the café is hard to swallow; the sandwich permits him to stand on the street outside, where all agree he stood when shooting the Archduke. Peter Olausson Gothenburg, Sweden