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The “Sound of Music” Connection
Maria von Trapp and the Trapp Family Singers
“We are standing at the open grave of Austria.”
- Georg von Trapp in 1938
The Maria von Trapp Story
Maria Augusta Kutschera, the lady who started it all, was born in Austria on January 26, 1905. Precisely where in Austria she came into the world is difficult to say, as her birth occurred on a moving train. Maria's mother, Augusta, gave birth to her daughter before the train had reached its destination, Vienna.
Maria was only two years old when her mother died of pneumonia and her father left her with relatives to be raised. Her upbringing was cold and devoid of any religious education. So it is somewhat ironic that she later ended up as a teacher (not a novitiate) at the Nonnberg Abbey in Salzburg. It was the Abbey that sent her to take care of one of Georg von Trapp's daughters, who was ill. In 1927 she married retired naval captain Georg von Trapp. The Captain already had seven children from his previous marriage, and Maria added three more. (If you're familiar with “The Sound of Music,” you've already noticed a few descrepancies between the real-life story and the musical.) With the failure of the Austrian national bank in the early 1930s, the previously well-to-do Captain lost his fortune. The children were musically talented and to earn money the family performed at festivals, on the radio, and on tour.
When Hitler brought Austria into the Third Reich in 1938 and Georg von Trapp was called back to naval duty, the family decided to leave Austria. They travelled over the Alps into neighboring Italy (not Switzerland, as in the movie), before making their way to England and then on to the United States. In the US the Trapp Family Singers had success on tour, earning a living that way until 1956.
After the von Trapps gave up touring, they settled in Vermont, where they built an Austrian-style hotel, the Trapp Family Lodge. Georg von Trapp, who died in 1947, is buried on the family property in Vermont. When his wife Maria died in 1987 at the age of 82, she was also laid to rest beside her husband. The lodge burned down in 1980, but was rebuilt and is still a going concern today. That business and a Montana ranch are run by Maria's youngest son, Johannes, the only one of her children born in America.
N E X T > Rodgers and Hammerstein
More “Sound of Music”
Introduction
SOM 1: The Directors
SOM 2: Maria von Trapp
SOM 3: Rodgers and Hammerstein
SOM 4: Shooting Locations
SOM 5: Links
A "Sound of Music" Sampler
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