Who is georg von trapp

For these acts, he was awarded several honors, among them the Military Order of Maria Theresa, the highest award given in the Austrian Navy. After the war, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was broken up and Austria became a land-locked nation with no need for a navy. In , his beloved wife Agathe died of scarlet fever. Having lost the two loves of his life, the navy and his wife, Georg von Trapp bought an estate in Salzburg, Austria and moved there with his seven children.

In , he hired Maria Kutschera from a nearby abbey as a tutor for his ailing daughter, also named Maria. In , Georg asked Maria to marry him. Maria had come to love all the children, but wasn't sure she loved Georg, but they married and Maria came to love him as much as he loved her. During the Depression of the thirties, von Trapp's bank failed and he lost most of his family's money. Georg was very depressed because he had no gainful employment. Maria took charge and arranged for the family to sing at various events to earn a livelihood.

And the rest, as they say, is Hollywood history. In the main, true, if embellished, dramatized and sanitized to make a ripping yarn more ripping. Georg despised the Nazis who pressed him to join the German Navy, but, unlike the movie, they did not flee to Switzerland across mountaintops to escape them. Instead, they simply boarded a train and left Austria for Italy. Since Italy had absorbed his hometown Zara into its own territory one of the spoils of war , the entire family was then considered Italian.

From there they went on a world-wide singing tour, including Scandinavia and the United States. Captain Georg von Trapp died in of lung cancer, attributed to breathing the poisonous air during his first command aboard the U Despite all the liberties taken with the facts, the family's main complaint is how Georg von Trapp was portrayed as cold and militaristic with his family.

He was a beloved father to them. I am a decanted of the von trap's my grandmother was marry trap. We were watching the Sound of Music on TV. My husband didn't know the history behind the movie. Thanks for this article. It was nice to read more about the Von Trapps then I already new. Its fascinating to know, its not just one country, the entire world knows Von Trapp family and they are greatly admired.

The legacy has to go on. Hope Von Trapp family great grand children are well to do now and keep the legacy of music? Thanks, Yvette. I think the backstory is as fascinating as the movie, but it's also very different.

Maybe a "prequel" could be made What an interesting hub. One doesn't always realize what's the real story is behind the movie. Dressage Husband, thanks for commenting. I enjoy the research as much as crafting an article out of all the bits of information I find. Just as important are finding public domain images-- all part of the research.

I love hearing the actual backstory to "true" movies. The details about U-boats was a very interesting sidenote. This is interesting as the true story has so much more to it than the fictional account turned out by Hollywood.

I really liked your presentation and great research! History doesn't have to be dry with dates and numbers. The trick is to slip them into the narrative without overwhelming the reader. Thank you for reading and commenting, favored. I wished the movie had touched more on his exploits, but I suppose a musical drama can't carry too much baggage. I remember wondering what a submariner would be doing in a land-locked country, but that was before I knew Austria had been drastically reduced to that status after World War 1.

An enjoyable yet informative article. Their first child, Rupert , [9] was born on 1 November , at Pola, Istria, while the couple was living at Pina Budicina On 3 September , Agatha von Trapp died of scarlet fever contracted from her daughter Agathe. About , Maria Franziska was recovering from an illness and was unable to go to school, so Trapp hired Maria Augusta Kutschera , from the nearby Nonnberg Abbey , as a tutor.

In , Trapp's money, inherited from his English first wife, was invested in a bank in England. Austria was under economic pressure from a hostile Germany, and Austrian banks were in a precarious position.

Trapp sought to help a friend in the banking business, Auguste Caroline Lammer — , so he withdrew most of his money from London and deposited it in an Austrian bank.

The bank failed, wiping out most of the family's substantial fortune. Faced with an impossible situation of little or no money and a husband incapable of providing for her or for the family, Maria von Trapp took charge and began to make arrangements for the family to sing at various events as a way of earning a livelihood. At about that time, a Catholic priest, Franz Wasner , around Maria's age, came to live with them and became the group's musical director.

Around , Lotte Lehmann heard the family sing, and she suggested they perform paid concerts. When the Austrian Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg heard them on the radio, he invited them to perform in Vienna.

According to Maria von Trapp's memoirs, Georg von Trapp found himself in a strange situation after the German take-over of Austria in He was offered a commission in the German Navy, a tempting proposition for a Captain without a navy, but decided to decline the offer, being opposed to Nazi ideology.

Knowing that he could not decline the offer without the threat of arrest, possibly for his entire family, Trapp decided to leave Austria. Some details of his escape with his family from Austria were changed in The Sound of Music. In the film, it was stated that he was threatened with death if he did not capitulate to the Nazis. In fact, the Captain had been born into what later became the Italian territory of Zara, so the family members were all Italian citizens, and were able to leave Austria for Italy by train in broad daylight, rather than by hiking over the mountains from Austria to Switzerland in the middle of the night.

From there, they traveled to Norway to begin the trip back to the United States in September After living for a short time in Merion, Pennsylvania, where they welcomed their youngest child, Johannes, the family settled in Stowe, Vermont, in They purchased a acre ha farm in and converted it into the Trapp Family Lodge. Collins turned to the Trapp family in the USA pleading for help for the Austrian people, having seen firsthand the residents of Salzburg suffer when he had arrived there with the famed 42nd Rainbow Division after World War II.

Military Wiki Explore. Popular pages. Raaen, Jr. Project maintenance. Register Don't have an account? Georg von Trapp. Edit source History Talk 0. There is no equivalent female form.

Retrieved 9 January March 28, , Morrisville, Vt. She recounted her experience as an orphan and novitiate in a Benedictine convent in Salzburg. As a governess, she won the hearts of the seven children of a widower, Freiherr Baron Georg von Trapp, a World War I submarine commander, and of the baron himself. She was married to Trapp in , and they had three children. In the mids the family began singing German and liturgical music under the tutelage of the Reverend Franz Wasner, who continued as their director.

In they made their first European tour as professional singers—the Trapp Family Choir. Retrieved 8 January ISBN Her siblings contracted the disease, and their mother nursed them.

They were married on January 10, , and lived in the Trapp villa in Pola, Austria. Their first child, Rupert Georg von Trapp, was born November 1, , National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved 5 January Georg was 25 years older than Maria and the match was not love at first sight. In reality such a journey would have brought them to directly into Germany, not Switzerland as in the film.

Salzburg does not border on Switzerland! Though they left Austria only a day before the borders were sealed, their actual departure lacked the drama contained in the film according to documents and interviews contained in the U. National Archives. We left by train in broad daylight, pretending nothing. The von Trapps traveled with their musical conductor, Rev. Franz Wasner, and secretary Martha Zochbauer. On film Wasner became the fictional Max Detweiler, who remained in Austria.

The real journey took the family first to Italy, where Georg attained citizenship due to his birthplace having become Italian territory in , then on to London before boarding a ship for America. During the early s they toured the U. There they opened a guest house , which is still owned and operated by descendants of the von Trapp family. After Clapton's 4-year-old son accidentally fell out of a window to his death, the musician turned his grief into the heart-wrenching ballad.