Georg von Trapp
Relevant Non-Istrians

[Text in red needs to be translated or edited - we invite your assistance!]

eorg Ritter von Trapp (April 4, 1880 - May 30, 1947) headed the famous Austrian singing family that has been semi-fictionalized and memorialized in the musical The Sound of Music. His exploits at sea in World War I earned him numerous decorations, including the honor of adding "von" to his name. He had many ties to Istria and Rijeka (Fiume).

Tombstone of August von Trapp in "K.u.K. Marinefriedhof" (Austrian Naval Cemetery), Pola, Istria. Source

Early Life and Naval Career

Georg von Trapp was born in Zara (now Zadar), Dalmatia, then part of Austria-Hungary (now Croatia) on April 4, 1880. His father, August Ritter von Trapp (1836-1884) a Commandant in the Austrian Navy, died when he Georg was four. He is buried in the Austrian Naval Cemetery in Pola (now Pula). In 1894, Georg followed his father's career into the Navy, entering the Naval Academy at Fiume (now Rijeka). He graduated four years later and completed two years of follow-up training voyages including a trip to Australia. In 1900 he was assigned to the armored cruiser Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia and was decorated for his performance during the Boxer Rebellion. In 1902, he passed the officer's examination.

Von Trapp, the younger, was fascinated by submarines and was determined to join the new and still very hazardous submarine service. In 1908 he seized the opportunity to be transferred to the newly-formed U-boot-Waffe. Von Trapp He went to Fiume where innovations were being made in submarine and torpedo technology at Whitehead and Co. Promoted to Lieutenant Commander, he was later offered command of one of the earliest submarines in the Imperial and Royal Navy, the SMU-6. It was at the christening of that U-boat in 1910 that he met Lady Agathe Whitehead (born in 1890), the granddaughter of Robert Whitehead, the inventor of the torpedo and manufacturer also of submarines, and it was Agathe who christened von Trapp's new U-boat. The two became acquainted at a ball, a case of "love at first sight", and had a high society wedding on March 1, 1912. (Their first child was already born!)

Von Trapp commanded the SMU-6 until 1913.

SMU-6 Specifications
Bauwerft	Whitehead AG, Fiume
Stapellauf	10Februar 1909
Übernahme	1 April 1910
Länge	32,1 Meter
Breite	4,2 Meter
Tiefgang	3,9 Meter
Deplacement	240 / 273 Tonnen
Antrieb	2 Benzinmotoren 2 E-Motoren
Geschwindigkeit	11 kn,getaucht 8,5 kn
PS	500 PS, getaucht 230 PS
Bewaffnung	2 * 45 cm Torpedorrohre
	1 * 7,5 cm SK L/30
Besatzung	19 Mann

It was said of Georg that he had two great loves in his life: the sea and Agathe. Sadly, though he proved himself to be a masterful sailor and a devoted husband, he was destined to lose both loves. Still, his years of marriage were happy ones, blessed with seven children: Rupert, Agathe (born in Pola), Maria, Werner, Hedwig, Johanna, and Martina. Both Georg and Agathe came from privileged families, and the von Trapps were able to live comfortably off the interest from Whitehead's inheritance. The family moved to Pola [when?] and built a “costly villa, overlooking the blue sea, and they were very happy”. When World War I broke out, all civilians had to leave Pola, and the young wife took the children to live in Austria proper.

World War I - Submarines in the Mediterranean

Lschlt Trapp auf dem Turm von SMU 5

At the beginning of 1915, the already famous SMU-21 (Kptlt. Otto Hersing) after refueling at the Adriatic Austrian port of Pola was sent to the Dardanelles to assist in Turkey's defence. Hersing, who had shown so dramatically the U-boats worth as a weapon with the sinking of HMS Pathfinder, again proved to be an extremely skilled commander with spectacular success: On May 25, 1915 SMU-21 sank the battleship HMS Triumph and two days later, the unfortunate British lost another battleship to Hersing, when he sank HMS Majestic. On June 5, 1915, the triumphant SMU-21 reached Constantinople harbour showing the false number U-51 to confuse the spies ashore. For his achievements, Hersing was awarded the Pour le mérite. Following this spectacular start of the campaign was an increased U-boat presence in the Mediterranean, with flotillas being built up at Constantinople, Pola and Cattaro.

They were assisted by the small but exquisite Austrian submarine force operating from Pola. On April 22, 1915, Kptlt. Trapp took command of SMU-5, a very early and primitive submarine, with a crew that was made up of men from all corners of the empire: Austrians, Magyars, Poles, Italians, Czechs and Croats.

The Austrians had already demonstrated their combat readiness when, on the night of April 26-27, 1915 at the mouth of the Adriatic (in the Strait of Otranto in the northern Ionian Sea), the SMU-5 hit the French armoured cruiser Léon Gambetta (12,500 tons) with two torpedoes. It was the first time that a submarine attacked while submerged at night. The French cruiser was sunk within 10 (or 20?) minutes, 684 (or 648?) of its crew of 821 (?) drowned, 137 (?) survived. French cruisers were then withdrawn from Otranto blockade. [note conflicting information + the numbers don't add up]

SMU-5 with Commander Georg Ritter von Trapp

Later, still at the helm of SMU-5, Captain von Trapp sank the Italian troop transport Principe Umberto which was carrying 2,000 Italian soldiers. On August 5, 1915, the SMU-5 very narrowly escaped its own destruction in a torpedo duel with the Italian submarine Nereide off the Adriatic island of Pelagosa. The Italians fired first but missed, and then a more carefully aimed Austrian torpedo hit its mark, sinking the Italian submarine with all of its crew.

On August 15, 1915, The SMU-5 captured the Greek steamship Celafonia off Durazzo. (The SMU-5 itself was mined and sunk on May 16-17, 1917, then salvaged on May 19-24. On June 28, it was raised (?) in the Fasana Channel off Pola.)

On October 14, 1915, von Trapp transferred to the SMU-14, formerly known at the French submarine Curie. Completed in 1913 the submarine was sunk by gunfire at Pola on Dec 20, 1914. Raised on Jan 31, 1915, it was renamed SMU-14 on Feb 7, 1915, and commissioned on June 1, 1915 to von Trapp. Lawrence Sondhaus (The Naval Policy of Austria-Hungary 1867-1918, Purdue Univ. Press, 1994) states on page 268: "Lieutenant Trapp received command of the new prize later in 1915, but from the start he lamented its engineering flaws, speculating that his grandmother could have designed a better submarine." Further work on her was necessary until Feb 1917.

During Aug 1917, under von Trapp, the SMU-14 claimed 24,800 tons including the Italian steamer Milazzo (11,480 tons), the largest merchant ship sunk by the Kriegsmarine. After the war the SMU-15 was returned to French Navy and on July 17, 1919 became Curie again. It was in service until 1929; b/u 1930.

German U-boats in Cattaro (now Kotor)

In May 1918, von Trapp he was promoted to Korvettenkapitän (Lieutenant Commander) by Emperor Franz Josef I and given command of the submarine base in the Gulf of Cattaro. His record, however, stood as the most successful Austrian submarine commander of World War I having completed 19 war patrols and sinking 12 cargo vessels, one French cruiser and one Italian submarine for a total of 58,494 tons of enemy shipping destroyed.

Agathe Whitehead and Georg von Trapp with five of their seven children (c. 1918?)

Although often forgotten compared to the larger German U-boat fleet, the small Austrian submarine force proved to be a true elite with an outstanding record: They conducted 79 torpedo attacks with a hit rate of above 90%.For his role in this Captain Georg von Trapp was awarded the rare and prestigious Knight's Cross of the Order of Maria Theresa.

At the end of the war though, SMU-14, along with the rest of Austria-Hungary's Navy, had to be handed over to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (created on December 1, 1918; replaced in 1929 by the Kingdom of Yugoslavia), and the Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Navy ceased to exist.

At the end of World War I, von Trapp's wartime record stood at 19 war patrols, 12 cargo vessels totalling 45,669 tons sunk, the French armored cruiser Leon Gambetta (12,600 tons) and the Italian submarine Nereide (225 tons). Among other lesser honors, he received a knighthood and the Knight's Cross of the Order of Maria Theresia. (His title is sometimes translated as "Baron," but Ritter is closer to the British "Sir.")

Decorations / Dekorationen:

Ritterkreuz Militär-Maria Theresien Orden; Promotion 21.4.1924
Ritterkreuz Leopold-Orden
Orden der eisernen Krone 3.Kl
Militärverdienstmedaille 3.Kl
Silberne Tapferkeitsmedaille für Offiziere
Bronzene signum laudis
Silberne Tapferkeitsmedaille 2.Kl
Karl Truppenkreuz
Militärverdienstkreuz 3.Kl
Jubiläums-Erinnerungsmedaille
Militär-Jubiläums Kreuz
Deutsches Eisernes Kreuz 1.Kl und 2.Kl
Russischen Stanislaus-Orden 3.Kl
Ottomanische Goldene Liakat Medaille

[Translate the following and remove any redundant text]:

Jahrgangsabzeichen Jahrgang ’Ritter von Trapp’. Jahrgangsabzeichen Jahrgang ’Ritter von Trapp’.

Das blaue Abzeichen ist golden umrandet darauf der Jahrgangsname, unmittelbar darunter befindet sich die Kaiserkrone und das Abzeichen der U-Bootwaffe der K.U.K. Kriegsmarine: Der mit dem Tau umschlungene Anker und die Buchstaben "U" und "B". den Abschluss bilden der Militär Maria Theresienorden und der Wahlspruch der Militärakademie: Treu bis in den Tod.

K.& k. Korvettenkapitän Georg Ritter von Trapp wurde am 4. April 1880 in Zadar geboren und starb am 30. Mai 1947 in Stowe-Vermount. Als k. & k. Linienschiffsleutnant und U-Bootkommandant wurde er für die Versenkung eines französischen Panzerkreuzers mit dem Militär-Maria-Theresien-Orden ausgezeichnet. Nach dem frühen Tod seiner ersten Gattin vermählte er sich ein zweites Mal, gründete mit seiner Gattin und den neun Kindern eine Gesangsgruppe und wurde damit legendär.]

[add images of his medal(s)]

Life between the world wars

When World War I broke out, all civilians had to leave Pola and von Trapp took his young wife and children and moved to Austria. Despite Ritter von Trapp's valor, Austria-Hungary was defeated in World War I and the empire collapsed. Stripped of its entire sea coast, Austria no longer required a Navy, and the Captain lost his profession.

This devastated von Trapp, a man who had thrived on his naval career. Further tragedy came in 1922, four years after the war, when an epidemic of scarlet fever killed his wife Agathe. Von Trapp was inconsolable. According to Johannes von Trapp, his father was as devastated by the end of his naval career as by the loss of his wife: "My father's life was the navy." explained Johannes, "He was uncomfortable doing anything else. He was simply lost."

He began raising his family alone. After the loss of their mother, the children had an endless parade of governesses. One would be hired for the older children, one for the younger, and one to run the household. But the children wanted to have just one governess.


Circa 1925, the family moved to this villa outside of Salzburg

When one of his daughters fell ill with the same scarlet [or rheumatic?] fever that had killed Agathe, he hired a novice from a local convent, Maria Augusta Kutschera, to nurse her.

Prior to Maria's arrival at the von Trapp home, the family had always shared a love of music They often sang three-part harmony lieder together, and had been introduced to madrigals and other complex music. Encouraged by the Captain, they sang all the time, and he often accompanied them on guitar, mandolin, and violin. Maria Kutschera, joined in the children's musical education, and with the help of Father Franz Wasner, a local priest who became the family's chaplain, she made their voices smoother and more sophisticated.

She and Georg were married on November 26,1927, and Maria would bear the Ritter three more children (two girls and one boy). The first child, Rosmarie, was born two years after their marriage.

When Captain von Trapp lost his fortune after the Austrian national bank folded in 1933, the children had to learn how to work, doing laundry and other household chores. They looked at their misfortune as an adventure, but their father was hit hard by the loss. At that point, he had nine children to support, and no money. When the von Trapps began to earn money by singing in public, the Captain faced another conundrum. For a man in his position, earning a living on stage was considered dèclassè. But they had little choice. As the head of the family, the Captain would come out and introduce the group after they had performed a few numbers, and then at the end of the show he would come back out and take a bow.

Maria, along with Father Wasner, a neighborhood Priest, brought a sophistication to the family's singing, but according to Johannes, the Captain's naval stature helped the family forge their careers. Even before they began singing the Captain was very well known, and his name lent a certain air of importance to their group. When they were performing in Austria, prior to World War II, most of the "children" were already young adults. As for the folk costumes they wore, Maria von Trapp mentiones in her autobiography that people returned to traditional wear after World War I because of a clothing shortage.

Summer Residence - the Erljof

The Erlhof was built around the year 1050. It is one of oldest settlements on Lake Zell am See. In the Salzburg archives, Erlhof is first mentioned in 1137. On November 8, 1151 the Burggraf Hartnid bequeathed the lake-side estate to the Monastery of St. Peter after the death of his beloved wife.

1648 1648 - Purchased by Christof Freiherr von Khuen – Belasy
1692 - Georg Dietrich Khuen – Belasy.
1712 - Vinzenz Auer.
1741 - Ruep Scheiber.
1782 - Johann Herzog.
1902 - Agathe Whitehead, née Grafin Breuner, inherits the estate. Rittmeister Georg von Trapp marries a Whitehead daughter and so came the famous von Trapp singing family to Thumersbach / Erlhof, where they maintained a summer holiday residence until 1935.
1974 - the estate has been owned by Hans Michel Piëch.
1976 - after extensive renovations, the Erlhof was rebuilt into a modern yet traditional country hotel.

Istrian Holiday

In Chapter 8 of Maria's book ("Uncle Peter and his Handbook"), she describes a trip taken by the von Trapp family, together with the Captain's cousin, Peter, and his family. They bicycled from Salzburg, through the Alps, and all the way to Pola. From the evidence given in the book, it seems to have been around 1931. She writes: "There were not many cars on the highways at that time, and the country through which we cycled was so unearthly beautiful -- we had a wonderful, wonderful time." They had sent the luggage ahead to Pola; she writes, "Pola, situated on the southernmost point of the Istrian peninsula, was the former Austrian Naval Base, which is now Italian, and the island (their destination) was a few miles offshore."

They made it to Pola in five days' time: "there, eating the most delicious fried fish and drinking the dark native wine, we sat together until deep into the night, telling of our adventures."

They set out for the island of Veruda: "The island had no pier; one had to wade ashore. ... Veruda is one of the many small islands off the shore of Istria and Dalmatia, which on one side emerges gently out of the sea, rises gradually up to about 150 or 200 feet, and ends abruptly on the other side in a steep cliff. In an hour one could walk around it. The sea had eaten deep into its shoreline, forming many little bays as big as a large room. One part of the island, about fifty acres, was covered with dense pine groves. The rest was fields and pastures. Franciscan Fathers had once owned this beautiful spot. On the highest point of the island the ruins of the church and the convent were still standing. The monks had planted a garden with medicinal herbs. Long after the Fathers had been driven out by Napoleon, the herbs had spread all over the land, and during the hot summer nights they exhaled the most wonderful fragrance, which one could smell for miles and miles out at sea: thyme and lavender, dill and sage, mint and sweet geranium and rosemary, and many more which we couldn't name. The old walls were overgrown with honeysuckle, wild roses, oleander, and laurel. A walk through this little paradise in the full moonlight was unearthly beautiful.

"Georg (the Captain) had known Veruda since his boyhood days. He had been born in Zara, half-way down the Dalmatian coast, into a family of an Austrian Navy officer. They had lived in Trieste awhile and, until 1918, in Pola. He also knew Signor Pauletta, who owned a hardware store in Pola before the war. Afterwards (Signor Pauletta) had acquired Veruda and retired there. He had fixed himself a couple of rooms in the old monastery, and there he lived now, as his island's only inhabitant, very contentedly on the fish he caught and vegetables he planted, needing next to no money. Very rarely he went "downtown", which meant Pola. He had invited us to camp on Veruda, and now - here we were."

When Signor Pauletta, who owned "a couple of pots and pans, a Sunday suit, and fishing tackle" saw the familes come ashore, laden with all sorts of modern and sophisticated camping gear and luggage, he clucked his tongue many times and said "Varra, varra!" which, Maria explains, means "What do you know about that!".

The chapter ends with her calling Veruda "that hidden pearl of the sea." [There is nothing in this book about their going to Lussin, though, as remembered from personal accounts by some of our Lussignani.]

Turning Points

When the economy crashed in 1932 (the European side of the Great Depression), the von Trapps lost most of their money. They began singing as a way to raise some money. They performance at the Salzburg Music Festival in 1935 (or 1936) won them first prize in a choral competition, and thus were invited to give concert tours throughout Europe: Frankrijk, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, Denmark, Sweden and Norway.

According to Hirsch's book, their musical touring life was abruptly halted when Hitler invaded Austria. The Captain brought his family together and said, "We are standing at the open grave of Austria." He asked them if they wanted to stay or to leave. Despite the hardships sure to face them, they had no moral choice but to depart. Although it was a terrible blow to leave their home and all their belongings behind, when they learned that Himmler himself had taken over their house, their grief was almost unbearable.

In 1938, Austria was annexed to Adolf Hitler’s German Empire - the Anschluss of 1938 - and unlike many Austrian aristocrats, the Von Trapps were horrified. Georg made no secret of his feelings; allegedly, the Gestapo ordered the von Trapps to display the Hakenkreuzflagge (swastika flag) for Hitler's visit to Salzburg, but Georg replied, "I can do a better job with one of my Persian carpets." [is this part of the movie fiction, or in Maria's book?] "Three times he refused the Nazis," said Renaud Doucet, the director of the Sound of Music show in Vienna. Twice he refused to become the commander of a U-boat, and command of a submarine base [check]. "I have sworn my oath of loyality to only one Emperor" was his answer, and von Trapp rejected the offer.

And then he refused to sing at Hitler's birthday party. With that third refusal, the family realised they had to get out. They took a train and crossed into Italy, and at midnight on the same day, Hitler closed the borders." The von Trapps later learned that Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Gestapo himself, had moved into the family home.

Maria was pregnant with Georg Ritter von Trapp's tenth child (her third) - Johannes, who is now president of the Trapp Family Lodge - when an offer to give a series of concerts in the United States provided their opportunity to escape. In June 1938, in order to avoid suspicion, the family appeared to be going on one of their frequent mountain hikes. Along with their musical conductor, Rev. Franz Wasner, and secretary, Martha Zochbauer, the family left Austria for Italy in June 1938. They left only with the packs on their backs.and by train (the local stop was directly behind their estate) they went through the Austrian Alps, crossing the border to Italy. With the Baron having dual Italian and Austrian citizenship, the von Trapps first stayed in Trieste then boarded a ship [from there?] to New York in the United States. [there are three different renditions of where the boarded ship, Genova included!]

-----------------------------------------Uncorroborated story:

When the von Trapp family fled Austria, they sold their villa to the "Missionaries of the Precious Blood" - a catholic community for men, which was founded in Italy, then spread to Austria and Germany, and today has missions in the United States and Brazil.

The Nazis had other plans. In 1939 the Villa von Trapp became the headquarters of the infamous Heinrich Himmler, Reichsführer and head of the SS storm troopers. More than any other member of the Third Reich, Himmler was responsible for Hitler's reign of terror inside Germany and its occupied territories. That's him, who was one of the " architects" of the "Final Solution," the Nazi program for exterminating the Jews.

Himmler's motives for choosing the Villa von Trapp are unclear. It was he, however, who built the white wall that now surrounds the property. A servant who worked in the villa before, during and after Himmler's time , lived to tell this story to its present owners: Himmler conscripted slave labour to build the wall, and then -- probably fearing security breaches -- had all of the labourers shot.

After the war, the American military commanders (who occupied the Salzburg region) returned the ownership of the property to the von Trapp family, who again transferred it in 1948 to the "Missionaries of the Precious Blood." The community today uses the building for provincial offices and as quarters for the Kolleg St. Josef, a facility for seminarians. The chapel, upstairs where the von Trapp children would have practiced their singing, boasts an impressive series of stained-glass windows depicting Christ's blood dissolving the cross.

----------------------------------------------------end

The von Trapp family arrived in the United States at New York in September of 1938 under six month visitors' visas, they had their first public American concert in New York's City Hall in December 1938. That Christmas concert brought the Trapp Family Singers national attention. Well received and reviewed, the singers performed for their audiences in traditional Austrian dress. A typical reaction to their performances was reported in the New York Times: "Their work was delightfully intimate, rhythmically secure, and, above all, expressive" (11 Dec. 1938). They then began a concert tour in Pennsylvania, and their son Johannes was born in Philadelphia in January 1939. The family traveled throughout the United States on concert tours for eight [?] months. Their US-visa expired after six months and the family was forced to leave the country. Thanks to concert invitations, however, they managed to get visas for Scandinavian countries. What began as singing engagements at weddings and birthday parties evolved to European tours to concert halls and palaces.

When World War II broke out in September 1939, their American manager sent them tickets for the next crossing, again on a visitor's visa, so that they could fulfill their contracts with him. Again accompanying the von Trapp family on their return voyage from Oslo, Norway, was Rev. Wasner, and Martha Zochbauer, as seen by the Ship's Manifest.

Under the direction of the priest, the singing turned into a profession and the family became known as "The Trapp Family Singers". In her book Maria, Maria von Trapp describes those early days. "Overnight we had become really poor; we had become refugees. A refugee not only has no country, he also has no rights. He is a displaced person. At times he feels like a parcel which has been mailed and is moved from place to place." But there were nine children and the tenth on the way. According to Maria, "The only thing we could do well together was sing, so we had to turn a hobby into a way of living."

Soon the Trapp Family Singers were on tour in the United States with a bus with "The Trapp Family Singers" painted on their only home during their first two years in the United States. In 1939 they discovered Stowe, Vermont. This tiny mountain hamlet reminded them of the home they left behind in Austria. They took their one thousand dollars in savings and purchased an old farmhouse on 600 acres [in 1941 or 2?], Maria named it Cor Unum meaning "One Heart".

The now famous family continued to tour the world for another 15 years but their home and hearts remained in Stowe. The family delighted in farm living. From cooking, gardening and maple sugaring to beekeeping and cross-country skiing, each found a fulfilling life on the farm.

After World War II, the Trapp family started a musical charity organization called "Trapp Family Austrian Relief Inc.". The family sent countless of parcels of food and clothing back to their homeland Austria.

Photo from: http://www.trappfamily.com/history.html

The Trapp Family Singers

The von Trapps struggled to establish themselves as a choral singing group in the United States. They sang mostly in German, had a repertoire of difficult classical music, and dressed like refugees (?). But Maria would not let them fail. She hired a top manager and a publicist. Before long, the family singing group became quite a phenomenon. First American, and then European, audiences were impressed by the group as they performed year after year. In New York the Trapp Family Singers holiday concerts became yearly traditions.

The group enjoyed widespread success as they sang, played instruments, and re-enacted their customs on stage. The family toured the United States, as well as Europe, even as the Western nations prepared for war. By 1940 the Trapp Family Singers consisted of Baron and Baroness von Trapp and their ten children (seven daughters and three sons).

Agathe Whitehead's children:

Rupert (1911-92) - A medical doctor until the mid-1980's, he died at the age of 80, leaving behind six children and ten grandchildren.
Agathe (1913 - ) - Born in Pola, lives near Baltimore, Maryland, where she is working in a kindergarten.
Maria (1914 - ) - Spent 27 years as a missionary in New Guinea, now lives in Stowe, Vermont.
Werner (1915 - ) - [same name as uncle] After leaving the family group to become a dairy farmer, he lives in Waitsfield, Vermont, had six children and thirteen grandchildren. His daughter, Elisabeth von Trapp (see also here), musician, was born in Vermont in 1955. Her concerts are an eclectic mixture of Gregorian chant, musical comedy, country and contemporary folk. In 2001 she secured permission to sing adaptations of Robert Frost's poetic work.
Hedwig (1917-72) - Worked at the lodge until her death.
Johanna (1919-94) - Married in 1948, she left the family group to return to Austria. She lived in Vienna and had six children.
Martina (1921-51 or 52?) - Sang with the group until she eloped in 1949 (?). She died in childbirth. [Some reports say she died the same year she married.].

Maria Krutschera's children:

Rosmarie (1929 - ) - Lives in Stowe, Vermont, where she is a companion for a 100-year-old woman [what year, and is this current?] who was a friend of her mother's. She has brought music back to the von Trapp Lodge by giving recorder lessons and by leading sing-alongs.
Eleonore "Lorli" (1931 - ) m. Campbell: She stopped singing in 1952, married in 1954, has seven children and ten grandchildren.
Johannes Georg (1939 - ) - A graduate of Dartmouth, has a master's degree in forestry from Yale, and is now president of the von Trapp Family Lodge, Inc. He has two children.

Because they traveled so much, the children basically had to put their personal lives on hold. Every time they made a stop during a tour, Maria made all of the family visit a nunnery. A strong figure, Maria would not hear of any of the children leaving the family to strike out on their own, even after some married and had families. She also seemed torn between what she thought. She felt that God wanted her to do what she felt to be most important - which caused her to lash out at her family.

On May 30th, 1947, Georg Ritter von Trapp passed away in Stowe, Vermont [or Boston]. He was buried in a meadow behind the family's lodge. Nearly forty years later, Maria Augusta likewise passed away in Vermont, and she rests next to her husband in what is now the family cemetery at the Lodge. Hedwig von Trapp (1917-1972), the fifth child of Georg and Agathe von Trapp, is also interred there.

The family breakdown

With the loss of their patriarch, the children - now nearly all adults - started to rebel. They were tired of living on the road, and they wanted to start families and settle down. Urged by a friend, Maria von Trapp decided to write a book about the adventurous life of the Trapp family, The Story of the Trapp Family which was published in 1949. Even as the family was suffering, Maria made them sound harmonious and heroic in her book as a way to help promote the group. To her surprise, the book was a success.

Even when the family was at the height of their popularity, Maria would not let them rest. The ten children toured up to eight months a year. During the summer they worked their Vermont farm and ran a music camp. They soon found out that this was not enough to support the whole family, so while they were away on tours they rented their home to skiers. (This was the begining of the von Trapp hotel business. The Trapp family first started welcoming guests to their 27-room lodge in the summer of 1950.)

Meanwhile, the isolation of a life on the road or on the farm, combined with constant work and Maria's volatile temper, took its toll. Rosmarie, Maria's eldest child, suffered a nervous breakdown and her mother sent her for electro-shock therapy. Another daughter, Martina, left the group to elope in 1949, and she died in childbirth [was it that same year or in 1951 or 1952?). Before long, Maria was forced to hire non-family members for the family singing group. They continued to perform as a family around the world until 1955 (or 56?) and touring as far away as Australia.

In 1957 (or 1956?), the Music Camp was closed and the Trapp Family Singers' twenty years of performing and touring together in over thirty countries came to an end. The children were getting married and following their own professional interests. Maria and three of the children, Maria, Rosemarie and Johannes, along with Father Wasner then traveled to the South Pacific to begin missionary work (what year?). They first went together to New Guinea. The two daughters, Maria and Rosemarie, became teachers and Johannes helped build two new schoolhouses and a church. Maria and Father Wasner were asked by the Archbishop to travel for a year throughout the islands to observe and report the needs of the people.

The German Films (1956 and 1958)

In 1956, Wolfgang Reinhardt (son of the famous stage director Max Reinhardt) made an offer of $10,000. By signing his offer, Maria unwillingly gave away all film rights (and the right to royalties). Not only did he make her believe she could not get any royalties from the German film - as she had meanwhile become a US citizen [insert] - but he even phoned a few weeks later asking her to accept $9,000 in cash at once. Maria needed the money and accepted.

[Check this out - another site says that she sold the book rights to a German company for $1500!* ]

The German film Die Trapp Familie" in 1956 and it´s sequel Die Trapp Familie in Amerika two years later became a big success not only in Germany but later also in Europe and South America.

It was Paramount Pictures that bought the film rights [from Maria or the German company? See above note] the same year (1956). After viewing the German film, Vincent Donahue, Broadway and television director, saw a perfect role for Mary Martin, a Broadway star he had worked with earlier in her famous role in Annie get your gun.

The Broadway Musical (1959)

The musical The Sound of Music won eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Book and Score.

The credits:

Mary Martin (Maria),
Theodore Bikel (Baron von Trapp)
Music by Richard Rodgers
Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse

This final collaboration between Rodgers & Hammerstein was destined to become the world's most beloved musical.

The story (very different from reality):

When a postulant proves too high-spirited for the religious life, she is dispatched to serve as governess for the seven children of a widowed naval Captain. Her growing rapport with the youngsters, coupled with her generosity of spirit, gradually captures the heart of the stern Captain, and they get married.
Upon returning from their honeymoon they discover that Austria has been invaded by the Nazis, who demand the Captain's immediate service in their navy. The family's narrow escape over the mountains to Switzerland on the eve of World War II provides one of the most thrilling and inspirational finales ever presented in the theatre.

In the meantime Paramount had dropped the option and no longer owned the film rights, so Donahue contacted Maria in New Guinea, where she was doing missionary work. She did not answer his letters because she was not at all interested in her book being performed on Broadway. But Richard Halliday, Mary Martin´s husband and producer, did not give up and finally persuaded Maria to see his wife in Annie Get Your Gun. Maria was impressed and changed her mind. Halliday made a deal with the German producers and shared the royalties with Maria.

Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote the music and acted as co-producers. The show had 1,443 performances, won six Tony Awards (one for Best Musical) and sold over 3 million albums. It was the filming of the story that, however, made The Sound of Music world famous, and so popular that today nearly every English speaking child is raised with its songs.

On March 12, 1998, a revival of the Broadway musical The Sound of Music opened at the Martin Beck Theater in New York. Rebecca Luker and Michael Siberry played the Georg and Maria "von Trapp and Susan H. Schulman directed.

The Hollywood Movie (1965)]

The first reviews of the film were extremely negative. The premiere party was like the wake of a funeral. But the initial slow business turned into a phenomenon as The Sound Of Music became the most successful film of all time in 1965, surpassing even Gone With The Wind (1939). The Hollywood Studios, including Fox, saw salvation in Musicals. Many such as Doctor Dolittle (1967) and On A Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970) lost millions of dollars. Bitter film executives who failed to cash in or who were fired because of being copycats blamed The Sound Of Music for ruining the movie business.

One person who had a great time was Maria von Trapp who made a brief cameo in the film. She loved how Hollywood changed things. So what if in real life the Von Trapps had no problem getting out of Austria and that their real problem had been getting past American immigration? Who cared if she had lashed out at her step-children when they wanted to quit their musical careers and had felt uncomfortable all living together out of a bus for eighteen years? And the best part was the handsome young actor they got to play the Captain. When she married Georg he was "old" (47 years is old!). The marriage had been more for security than for love. When introduced to Christopher Plummer who played the Baron, the former nun shocked him by greeting him with a big kiss on the lips. "My God, darling I wished my husband looked as good as you!"

Trapp Family Lodge

The chalet which the family turned into a lodge burned to the ground in 1980. The future loomed before them, and they immediately planned to rebuild. The new Trapp Family Lodge is built for the future with the flavor of the past. In 1983, thirty-three years after the Trapp family started welcoming guests to their 27-room lodge on 600 acres, they opened their doors to a new 93-room resort with the same old-world charm of the original lodge, but today sprawling on 2,700 mountainside acres.

Maria moved back to Vermont [when?] and managed the Trapp Family Lodge until her death in 1987. Her youngest son, Johannes Georg (1939 - ) now owns and operates the Lodge.

The present

The surviving six children returned to Salzburg October 31 through to November 7, 2000. A British film crew of "Tyne Tees Television" recorded a documentary about the cinema success and its stars. Songs such as "The Hills are Alive" were recorded again, and scenes at the original locations were played again. The documentary "After they were famous" reported on the life stories of the six former members of the Trapp Family Singers and on their experiences and impressions during the filming in Salzburg all those years ago as well as its effects on their lives.

Today, most of the surviving von Trapp family live down-to-earth lives in rural Vermont, except for Agathe (1913 - ) who lives near Baltimore, Maryland, where she is working in a kindergarten [and where is Eleonore?]. The fictionalized play and movie, The Sound of Music, continue to captivate audiences around the world. Apart frm the 1998 Broadway revival, every year some 500 to 600 high schools perform their versions the show. The von Trapps take pride not in The Sound of Music, but in their own music—music that they performed together as a family for almost twenty years.

There now is a new generation of singing von Trapps, The von Trapp Children: Melanie, Amanda, and Justin von Trapp (ages 8 to 15 in 2005). They are following the musical tradition of their grandfather, Werner von Trapp (1915 - ), the fourth of Georg von Trapp's children. The children sang to an audience of over 4,000 people in San Diego at Horizon Christian Fellowship, and are performing to enthusiastic audiences wherever they go. [See their website: www.vontrappchildren.com]

December 4, 1998: In Oostenrijkse klederdracht, en inmiddels bejaard, poseren de zes nog levende Von Trapp-kinderen voor de camera tijdens een ceremonie in New York. [Source]

Book by Geor von Trapp:

Georg von Trapp, Do ostatniego salutu banderze
cena: 30,00 zł
240 stron, format: 15x21,5 cm , oprawa twarda
Rok wydania: 2004
Wydawnictwo: Finna Oficyna Wydawnicza
ISBN: 83-89929-00-7 (9788389929006)

Description: To jedne z najciekawszych wspomnień dotyczących pierwszej wojny światowej na morzu. Autor oddaje w nich hołd zapomnianej już dziś flocie Austro-Węgier, która znikła z mórz świata wraz z klęską monarchii w pierwszej wojnie światowej.
Publisher: Finna, Year of edition: 204, Binding: Hardcover , Format: 15x21,5 cm, Language: polski, Number of pages: 240, ISBN: 83-89929-00-7, Category: Militaria.

Books by Maria Augusta Trapp:

The story of the Trapp Family Singers (Vom Kloster zum Welterfolg). Philadelphia, Lippincott 1949
Around the year with the Trapp family, Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1952, New York, Pantheon 1955
A family on wheels: further adventures of the Trapp family singers, co-written with Ruth T. Murdoch. Philadelphia, Lippincott, c1959.
Yesterday, Today and Forever: The Religious Life of a Remarkable Family. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1952
Maria. Carol Stream, Ill., Creation House [1972]
Let me tell you about my savior. Green Forest, AR : New Leaf Press, c2000

Books by others:

Agathe von Trapp, Agathe: Memories Before and After the Sound of Music,
William Anderson, The World of the von Trapp Family, Kyuryudo Publishing Company, Japan (Year?)
Candice F. Ransom, Maria Von Trapp: Beyond the Sound of Music, Trailblazer Biographies

See also:

Trapp Family Lodge (Stowe, Vermont)
K.u.K. Marinefriedhof (Austrian Naval Cemetery, Pula / Pola, Istria)

Sources:

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