Luigi Lucheni was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 anarchist who assassinated

Assassination

To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...

 the Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n Empress, Elisabeth of Bavaria

Elisabeth of Bavaria

Elisabeth of Austria was the spouse of Franz Joseph I, and therefore both Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary. She also held the titles of Queen of Bohemia and Croatia, among others...

 (commonly referred to as Sisi), in 1898. Lucheni believed in propaganda of the deed

Propaganda of the deed

Propaganda of the deed is a concept that refers to specific political actions meant to be exemplary to others...

, a philosophy advocating spreading beliefs through violent direct action

Direct action

Direct action is activity undertaken by individuals, groups, or governments to achieve political, economic, or social goals outside of normal social/political channels. This can include nonviolent and violent activities which target persons, groups, or property deemed offensive to the direct action...

.

Life

Born in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 to an Italian mother and raised in an orphanage, he worked odd jobs before being drafted in the Italian Army

Italian Army

The Italian Army is the ground defence force of the Italian Armed Forces. It is all-volunteer force of active-duty personnel, numbering 108,355 in 2010. Its best-known combat vehicles are the Dardo infantry fighting vehicle, the Centauro tank destroyer and the Ariete tank, and among its aircraft...

 for three and a half years. After a successful stay in the military, he emigrated

Emigration

Emigration is the act of leaving one's country or region to settle in another. It is the same as immigration but from the perspective of the country of origin. Human movement before the establishment of political boundaries or within one state is termed migration. There are many reasons why people...

 to Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

. During his life in Switzerland, he developed his anarchistic ideas.

Lucheni sought to kill a member of what he felt was an elite

Elite

Elite refers to an exceptional or privileged group that wields considerable power within its sphere of influence...

 and oppressive

Oppression

Oppression is the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner. It can also be defined as an act or instance of oppressing, the state of being oppressed, and the feeling of being heavily burdened, mentally or physically, by troubles, adverse conditions, and...

 upper class

Upper class

In social science, the "upper class" is the group of people at the top of a social hierarchy. Members of an upper class may have great power over the allocation of resources and governmental policy in their area.- Historical meaning :...

, and he did not care which member of it he killed. In his diary, Lucheni penned, "How I would like to kill someone but it must be someone important so it gets in the papers."
At first Lucheni decided that he would kill Philippe, Duke of Orleans, but because of the Duke's change of itinerary and the discovery of another royal being in town, he later settled for taking the life of Elisabeth.

Given her rebellious nature, Elisabeth often refused the aid of police and bodyguard

Bodyguard

A bodyguard is a type of security operative or government agent who protects a person—usually a famous, wealthy, or politically important figure—from assault, kidnapping, assassination, stalking, loss of confidential information, terrorist attack or other threats.Most important public figures such...

s and she was adored by the populace in general. While the Empress and her Lady in Waiting

Lady in Waiting

Lady in Waiting is the 2nd album by American southern rock band Outlaws, released in 1976. -Track listing:#"Breaker-Breaker" – 2:59#"South Carolina" – 3:05#"Ain't So Bad" – 3:48...

 were boarding a steamship to Montreux on September 10, 1898 in Geneva

Geneva

Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

, Lucheni ran over to the former and slammed his body against hers, penetrating her chest with a sharp needle file (which is now part of the Vienna Sisi Museum's exhibition). Not realising she was hurt because of her extremely tight corset and wanting to board as quickly as possible, Elisabeth got to her feet straightaway and walked onto the ship, where she later collapsed and died.

At his trial, Lucheni openly admitted to his crime, and at the age of 25, was sentenced to life in prison

Prison

A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...

. After his memoirs were confiscated by prison guards, he was found hanged in his cell by his belt on October 19, 1910, apparently a suicide

Suicide

Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

.

Lucheni's assassination of Elisabeth gave rise to the International Conference of Rome for the Social Defense Against Anarchists

International Conference of Rome for the Social Defense Against Anarchists

The International Conference of Rome for the Social Defense Against Anarchists was held between November 24 and December 21, 1898 following the assassination of Empress Elisabeth of Austria by Luigi Lucheni on the promenade of Lake Geneva on September 10, 1898. Fifty-four delegates attended from 21...

 held from November 24 to December 21, 1898. This conference agreed on a definition of anarchism as "any act that used violent means to destroy the organization of society".

Lucheni made hatred of Italians even stronger in Austria than it had become after the loss of the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia

Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia

The Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia was created at the Congress of Vienna, which recognised the House of Habsburg's rights to Lombardy and Venetia after the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed by Napoleon in 1805, had collapsed...

, the failed assassination of The Emperor and Empress of Austria in Trieste, and Italian irredentism towards parts of Austria-Hungary such as Trentino and Friuli

Friuli

Friuli is an area of northeastern Italy with its own particular cultural and historical identity. It comprises the major part of the autonomous region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, i.e. the province of Udine, Pordenone, Gorizia, excluding Trieste...

.

In popular culture

Luigi Lucheni is a prominent character in the Michael Kunze/Sylvester Levay

Sylvester Levay

Sylvester Levay is a Hungarian composer. He was born 16 May 1945 in Subotica , in the North Bačka District of Vojvodina, Yugoslavia ; his name is pronounced in English similarly to "lave-ah-ee."...

 musical Elisabeth

Elisabeth (musical)

Elisabeth is a Viennese, German-language musical commissioned by the Vereinigte Bühnen Wien , with book/lyrics by Michael Kunze and music by Sylvester Levay. It portrays the life and death of the Empress consort of Austria, Elisabeth of Bavaria, wife of Emperor Franz Joseph I...

, where he serves as a bitter, sarcastic narrator of the events of Elisabeth's life and in the end becomes her executioner. He does his best to turn the audience against the Empress, but ultimately it is left to the viewer to decide about Elisabeth's character. He is also referenced in Polish writer Bruno Schulz

Bruno Schulz

Bruno Schulz was a Polish writer, fine artist, literary critic and art teacher born to Jewish parents, and regarded as one of the great Polish-language prose stylists of the 20th century. Schulz was born in Drohobycz, in the province of Galicia then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and spent...

's book Street of Crocodiles in the chapter entitled Treatise On Tailors' Dummies: Continuation.