Luigi Lucheni (1873-1909) and Elizabeth (Sissi) of Austria, 10 September 1898

Empress Elisabeth (Sissi) of Austria-Hungary rejected being surrounded by bodyguards. She was stabbed before boarding a boat on Lake Geneva. Die Reichswehr gave up-to-the-minute reports on the offender, Luigi Lucheni, when he was arrested: 'he followed without protest, even sang a song and stated for instance: 'I certainly hit the right place, I must have killed her. In the guardroom he said that he was a jobless anarchist, an enemy of the rich, not of the workers.' Later on the assassin appealed to the right to not incriminate himself. According to Lombroso, the Italian anarchist suffered from 'a great deal of degenerative symptoms that are typical for both epileptics and criminals.' By contrast, Lucheni was convinced that people are not born as criminals, but made criminal by the conditions of life. He wrote this down in his prison cell, where he worked on his memoirs. But he did not carry through his 'History of an abandoned child at the end of the 19th century, told by himself'. In 1909 Lucheni committed suicide in his cell.

Periodicals

Állam nélkül (Anarchija) : az idealisztikus anarkisták közlönye. Budapest, 1897-1898 - IISG signatuur ZDK 22317
Ohne Staat : Organ der idealistischen Anarchisten / red.: E.H. Schmitt. Budapest 1897-1899 - IISG signatuur Microfiche 2490
Die Wage : Wiener Wochenschrift für Politik, Volkswirtschaft, Literatur und Kunst, 1898 - IISG signatuur ZK 1477

Archives

Ugo Fedeli inv.nr. 903: file on Lucheni
Max Nettlau inv.nr. 3194: file on Lucheni

References

Mémoires de l'assassin de Sissi : histoire d'un enfant abandonné à la fin du XIX siècle racontée par lui-même, préc. et suivi de L'histoire de l'assassin d' Élisabeth, dite Sissi, impératrice d'Autriche et reine de Hongrie / Luigi Lucheni ; Santo Cappon. Paris 1998 - 1998/4863