The Most Significant Car?

A few years ago we visited a museum in Vienna where we saw what I consider the world's most significant car. Forget the Ferraris, Cadillacs, Bentleys or Bugattis: it's a fairly obscure make called a Gräf & Stift.

And its significance? One hundred years ago (28 June 1914) while travelling in it, Archduke Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Duchess Sophie were assassinated by Gavrilo Princip, a South Slav nationalist opposed to Austrian rule. (A note marks a bullet hole). The killings precipitated the chain of events leading to the idiocy of World War 1, the death of many millions, and arguably much of the course of history since that date.

In this centenary year of the start of WW1, while listening to the daily news, I find myself wondering whether the human race has learned anything over the past century.

Posted in a suitably sombre mood. Image somewhat edited and texture applied. View on black and pause......