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Georg von Trapp

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Georg von Trapp
Born(1880-04-04)4 April 1880
Zara, Kingdom of Dalmatia, Austria-Hungary (Zadar, Croatia)
Died30 May 1947(1947-05-30) (aged 67)
Stowe, Vermont, U.S.
Resting placeTrapp Family Cemetery, Trapp Family Lodge, Stowe, Vermont
NationalityAustrian; Italian
Spouses
​
​
(m. 1911; died 1922)​
​
​
(m. 1927)​
Children10, including Agathe, Maria Franziska, and Johannes
Military career
AllegianceAustria-Hungary
Service / branchAustro-Hungarian Navy
Years of service1898–1918
RankKorvettenkapitän (lieutenant-commander)
Commands
  • SM U-6 (July 1910 – July 1913)
  • Torpedo Boat 52 (1913–1914)
  • SM U-5 (April–October 1915)
  • SM U-14 (October 1915 – May 1918)
  • Submarine base commander at Cattaro (May–November 1918)
Battles / warsBoxer Rebellion
World War I
AwardsKnight's Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa (1924)
On duty aboard SM U-5

Georg Ludwig Ritter von Trapp[a][3][4] (4 April 1880 – 30 May 1947) was an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Navy who became the patriarch of the Trapp Family Singers.

Trapp was the most successful Austro-Hungarian submarine commander of World War I,[b] sinking 11 Allied merchant ships totaling 47,653 GRT and two Allied warships displacing 12,641 tons.[5] Trapp's accomplishments during World War I earned him numerous decorations, including the Military Order of Maria Theresa.

His first wife Agathe Whitehead died of scarlet fever in 1922, leaving behind seven children. Trapp hired Maria Augusta Kutschera to tutor one of his daughters and married her in 1927. He lost most of his wealth in the Great Depression, so the family turned to singing as a way of earning a livelihood. Trapp declined a commission in the German Navy after the Anschluss and emigrated with his family to the United States.[1]

After his death in 1947, the family home in Stowe, Vermont, became the Trapp Family Lodge.[6] Maria von Trapp's 1949 memoir The Story of the Trapp Family Singers was adapted into the West German film The Trapp Family (1956), which served as the basis for the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music (1959) and the film adaptation directed by Robert Wise (1965).

Early life

[edit]

Georg Ludwig Ritter von Trapp was born in Zara, Dalmatia, then a Crown Land of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (present-day Zadar, Croatia). His father, Fregattenkapitän August Johann[7] Trapp, was a naval officer who had been elevated to the Austrian nobility as Ritter von Trapp when he was awarded the Order of the Iron Crown Third Class. Both his sons inherited this hereditary title of Ritter (Knight). August Ritter von Trapp died in 1884, when Georg was four.[8]

Trapp's mother was Hedwig Wepler. His older sister was the Austrian artist Hede von Trapp, and his brother Werner died in 1915 during World War I.[8]

[edit]

In 1894, aged fourteen, Trapp followed in his father's footsteps and joined the Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Navy, entering the naval academy at Fiume (now Rijeka).[8] As part of their required education, all naval cadets were taught to play a musical instrument; Georg von Trapp selected the violin.[3] He graduated four years later and completed two years of follow-on training voyages, including one to Australia, as a cadet aboard the sail training corvette SMS Saida II.[3] On the voyage home, he visited the Holy Land, where he met a Franciscan friar who took him on a tour of all the Biblical sites he wanted to see. Among other things, Trapp bought seven bottles of water from the Jordan River which were later used to baptize his first seven children.[8]

In 1900, he was assigned to the protected cruiser SMS Zenta and was decorated for his performance during the Boxer Rebellion in China, in which he participated in the assault on the Taku Forts.[3] In 1902, he passed the final officer's examination, and was commissioned a Fregattenleutnant (frigate lieutenant, equivalent to sub-lieutenant) in May 1903.[3] He was fascinated by submarines, and in 1908 seized the opportunity to transfer to the navy's newly formed submarine arm, or U-boot-Waffe, receiving promotion to Linienschiffsleutnant (ship-of-the-line lieutenant, or lieutenant) that November.[3] In 1910 he was given command of the newly constructed SM U-6.[9] He commanded U-6 until 1913.[10]

World War I

[edit]

On 17 April 1915, Trapp took command of SM U-5. He conducted nine combat patrols in U-5, and sank two enemy warships. One was the French armored cruiser Léon Gambetta, sunk at 39°30′N 18°15′E / 39.500°N 18.250°E / 39.500; 18.250 on 27 April 1915, 25 kilometres (13 nautical miles; 16 miles) south of Cape Santa Maria di Leuca. In hunting and sinking Gambetta, Trapp achieved a notable success as commander of the first-ever underwater nighttime (and only the second) submarine attack on a vessel in the Adriatic.[3] Just over three months later, he sank the Italian submarine Nereide at 42°23′N 16°16′E / 42.383°N 16.267°E / 42.383; 16.267 on 5 August 1915, 250 metres (270 yd) off Pelagosa (Palagruža) Island.[11] He also captured the Greek steamer Cefalonia off Durazzo on 29 August 1915. Some sources incorrectly credit Trapp with sinking the Italian troop transport and armed merchant cruiser Principe Umberto,[12] which resulted in the greatest loss of life in any submarine attack in World War I, but the ship was actually sunk by U-5, commanded by Friedrich Schlosser.[13]

Trapp was transferred to the SM U-14, the former French submarine Curie, which had been sunk and salvaged by the Austro-Hungarian Navy.[14] He conducted ten more war patrols in the much larger submarine, attacking merchant ships instead of warships. Between April 1917 and October 1917, U-14 sank 11 Allied merchant ships under Trapp's command.

In May 1918, he was promoted to Korvettenkapitän (equal to lieutenant commander) and given command of the submarine base at Cattaro in the Gulf of Kotor. However, Austria-Hungary's defeat in World War I led to the empire's collapse. The territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was divided among seven countries, with the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes keeping most of the seacoast. The Republic of German-Austria was landlocked and no longer had a navy, putting an end to Trapp's naval career.[8]

War record

[edit]

Trapp's patrols in U-5 and U-14 made him the most successful Austro-Hungarian submarine commander of World War I, sinking 11 Allied merchant ships totaling 47,653 GRT and two Allied warships displacing a total of 12,641 tons.[5][b]

Vessels attacked while in command of U-5
Date Vessel Nationality Fate
27 April 1915 Léon Gambetta  French Navy Sunk
5 August 1915 Nereide  Italian Navy Sunk
29 August 1915 Cefalonia  Greece Captured
Vessels sunk while in command of U-14
Date Vessel Nationality Location
28 April 1917 Teakwood  United Kingdom 36°39′N 21°10′E / 36.650°N 21.167°E / 36.650; 21.167
3 May 1917 Antonio Sciesa  Italy 36°39′N 21°15′E / 36.650°N 21.250°E / 36.650; 21.250
5 July 1917 Marionga Goulandris  Greece 35°38′N 22°36′E / 35.633°N 22.600°E / 35.633; 22.600
23 August 1917 Constance  France 36°51′N 17°25′E / 36.850°N 17.417°E / 36.850; 17.417
24 August 1917 Kilwinning  United Kingdom 35°26′N 16°30′E / 35.433°N 16.500°E / 35.433; 16.500
26 August 1917 Titian  United Kingdom 34°20′N 17°30′E / 34.333°N 17.500°E / 34.333; 17.500
28 August 1917 Nairn  United Kingdom 34°05′N 19°20′E / 34.083°N 19.333°E / 34.083; 19.333
29 August 1917 Milazzo  Italy 34°44′N 19°16′E / 34.733°N 19.267°E / 34.733; 19.267
18 October 1917 Good Hope  United Kingdom 35°53′N 17°05′E / 35.883°N 17.083°E / 35.883; 17.083
18 October 1917 Elsiston  United Kingdom 35°40′N 17°28′E / 35.667°N 17.467°E / 35.667; 17.467
23 October 1917 Capo Di Monte  Italy 34°53′N 19°50′E / 34.883°N 19.833°E / 34.883; 19.833

Orders, decorations and medals

[edit]

First marriage and inherited wealth

[edit]
Lieutenant Georg Ritter von Trapp and Agathe Whitehead about 1910

Trapp married Agathe Gobertina Whitehead,[22] the eldest daughter and third child of Countess Agathe Gobertina von Breunner-Enckevoirth (1856–1945), Austro-Hungarian nobility, and Cavaliere (Knight) John Whitehead (1854–1902), son of Robert Whitehead (1823–1905) who invented the modern torpedo and a partner at the family's Fiume Whitehead Torpedo Factory[22] (not, as frequently stated, a niece of the British Government minister St John Brodrick, 1st Earl of Midleton). The British government rejected Whitehead's invention, but Austrian Emperor Franz Josef invited him to open a torpedo factory in Fiume.[8] Trapp's first command was the U-boat U-6 which was launched by Agathe.[8][23]

Agathe's inherited wealth sustained the couple and permitted them to start a family, and they had two sons and five daughters over the next ten years. Their first child was Rupert,[24] born on 1 November 1911 at Pula while the couple were living at Pina Budicina 11.[Map 1] Their other children were: Agathe, also born in Pula; Maria Franziska, Werner;[25] Hedwig, and Johanna, all born at the family home the Erlhof in Zell am See;[Map 2] and Martina, born at the Martinsschlössel at Klosterneuburg, for which she was named.[Map 3]

On 3 September 1922, Agathe von Trapp died of scarlet fever contracted from her daughter Agathe.[8] Trapp then acquired Villa Trapp in Aigen, a suburb of Salzburg, and moved his family there in 1924.[8][Map 4] During this period, he delivered several lectures and conducted interviews on his naval career.[3]

Second marriage

[edit]

About 1926, Maria Franziska was recovering from an illness and was unable to go to school, so Trapp hired Maria Augusta Kutschera, a novice from the nearby Nonnberg Abbey as a tutor.[26] They were married on 26 November 1927 when he was 47 and she was 22.[8][27][better source needed] They had three children: Rosmarie, born on 8 February 1929,[28][better source needed] Eleonore (called Lorli), born 14 May 1931, and Johannes, born 17 January 1939 in Pennsylvania.[29]

Turning to music

[edit]
The two eldest Trapp sons, Rupert (right) and Werner, in U.S. Army uniforms, reading sheet music on 24 January 1946

In 1935, 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 (1885–1937), 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.[9]

At about that time, a Catholic priest, Franz Wasner, instructed the children in music.[30][31] Around 1936, 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.[32] Father Wasner became the group's musical director.

Departure from Austria

[edit]

According to Maria von Trapp's memoirs[citation needed], Georg von Trapp found himself in a vexing situation after the German takeover of Austria in 1938. He was offered a commission in the German Navy. This was a tempting proposition, particularly when Georg von Trapp saw the technological advances in 1930s U-boats unthinkable compared to those he had once commanded in World War I, but Trapp decided to decline the offer out of hostility to Nazi ideology. He also politely declined a request for the family choir to perform at Hitler's birthday concert. After his eldest son also announced his intention to refuse to benefit from anti-Semitism and to similarly decline a medical position at a prestigious Vienna hospital that had just fired all Jewish doctors, Georg von Trapp realized that the writing was on the wall. He summoned all his children and warned them that no family could safely refuse three successive offers from a man like Adolf Hitler. After Georg advised them that they must choose between a life of comfort or become refugees and keep their honour,[28] the Trapp family decided to emigrate from Nazi Austria.

On leaving Austria, the Trapps traveled by train to Italy (not over the mountains by foot to Switzerland as is depicted in The Sound of Music). The family had a contract with an American booking agent when they left Austria. Once in Italy, they contacted the agent and requested fare to America,[28] first traveling to London, before sailing to the United States for their first concert tour.[28][33]

In 1939 the family returned to Europe to tour Scandinavia, hoping to continue their concerts in cities beyond the reach of the Third Reich. During this time, they went back to Salzburg for a few months before returning to Sweden to finish the tour. From there, they traveled to Norway to begin the trip back to the United States in September 1939, just after World War II broke out.[9]

After living for a short time in Merion, Pennsylvania, where their youngest child, Johannes, was born, the family settled in Stowe, Vermont, in 1941. They purchased a 660-acre (270 ha) farm in 1942 and converted it into the Trapp Family Lodge.[1] In January 1947, Major General Harry J. Collins turned to the Trapp family in the US pleading for help for the Austrian people, having seen first-hand the suffering of the residents of Salzburg when he had arrived there with the 42nd Infantry Division after World War II. The Trapp Family founded the Trapp Family Austrian Relief, Inc.; the priest Franz Wasner, their pre-war friend, became its treasurer.[citation needed]

Death

[edit]

Trapp died of lung cancer on 30 May 1947 in Stowe, Vermont.[34] In The Story of the Trapp Family Singers (1949), Maria von Trapp pointed out that there was a high incidence of lung cancer among World War I U-boat crews, due to the diesel and gasoline fumes and poor ventilation, and that his death could be considered service-related. She also acknowledged in her book that, like most men of the period, he was a heavy smoker.[35]

Children

[edit]
Image Name Mother Birth Death Notes
Rupert Agathe Gobertina née Whitehead 1 November 1911[8] 22 February 1992(1992-02-22) (aged 80)[24] He married Henriette Lajoie (1927) in 1947 and had two sons and four daughters; they later divorced. He later married Janice Tyre (1920–1994), and had no children with her.[36] He was a physician.[9][37][38]
Agathe 12 March 1913 28 December 2010(2010-12-28) (aged 97)[39][40] She worked as a singer and an artist, and lived in Baltimore, Maryland. Agathe ran a kindergarten with her longtime friend of 50 years, Mary Louise Kane, at the Sacred Heart Catholic parish in Glyndon, Maryland. She had no children.[1][36]
Maria Franziska 28 September 1914[41][42] 18 February 2014(2014-02-18) (aged 99)[36][43][44][45][46][47] She worked as a singer and missionary in Papua New Guinea, no children. In 2008 she visited the ancestral home.[36][48]
Werner 21 December 1915 11 October 2007(2007-10-11) (aged 91)[37][49][50] He married Erika Klambauer in 1948 and had four sons and two daughters, including Elisabeth von Trapp.[25][36][51]
Hedwig 28 July 1917 14 September 1972(1972-09-14) (aged 55)[1][49] She worked as a teacher, lived in Hawaii, and died of asthma, no children.
Johanna 7 September 1919 25 November 1994(1994-11-25) (aged 75) She married Ernst Florian Winter in 1948 and had three sons, one died, and four daughters. She lived in Vienna and died there.[36]
Martina 17 February 1921 25 February 1951(1951-02-25) (aged 30)[49] In 1949, she married Jean Dupiere (died before 1998). She died of complications during childbirth and had a stillborn daughter.
Rosmarie Maria Augusta von Trapp née Kutschera (1929-02-08)February 8, 1929 13 May 2022(2022-05-13) (aged 93)[52] Rosmarie worked as a singer and missionary in Papua New Guinea. She most recently lived in Pittsburgh, and had no children.[36]
Eleonore (1931-05-14)May 14, 1931 17 October 2021(2021-10-17) (aged 90)[53] She married Hugh David Campbell in 1954 and had seven daughters. She lived with her family in Waitsfield, Vermont.[1][36]
Johannes (1939-01-17) 17 January 1939 (age 85)[27] Married 1969 to Lynne Peterson and has one son, Sam von Trapp, and one daughter, Kristina von Trapp-Frame. Johannes managed the family resort in Stowe, Vermont, with his son Sam.[36][54]

Portrayals

[edit]

Trapp has been portrayed in various adaptations of his family's life such as The Sound of Music, both the 1965 film and the Broadway musical, as well as two German films, The Trapp Family (1956) and The Trapp Family in America (1958).[55] However, these adaptations often altered the portrayal of the Captain. In real life and in the memoir The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, written by his second wife Maria Augusta Trapp, the Captain has been described as being a warm and loving father who was always around.[56][57] However, the Captain was portrayed in a more negative light in many adaptations. For instance, in the 1965 film, Georg von Trapp was portrayed as a disciplinary man who always went away and did not care for his children or their feelings at the beginning of the film.[58] BBC Radio presented a different account of the family in October, 2009, in a play by Annie Caulfield called The Von Trapps and Me, focused on Princess Yvonne, "the woman Captain Von Trapp jilted in order to marry Maria."[59][60]

Notes

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  1. ^ Regarding personal names: Ritter is a title, translated approximately as Sir (denoting a Knight), not a first or middle name. There is no equivalent female form. In Austria, the title of "Ritter" (knight) became legally part of the person's name. Many English sources incorrectly refer to him as a "Baron,"[1] which is one step above Ritter in the Austrian nobility. In the Austro-Hungarian Empire, recipients of the Order of Maria Theresa were entitled to be elevated to Baron.[2] However, Trapp received the decoration in 1924 from the Republic of Austria, which did not confer any titles of nobility.
  2. ^ a b Some sources incorrectly credit Zdenko Hudeček with being the most successful Austro-Hungarian submarine commander of the war.[15][16] Trapp is ahead of Hudeček when warship displacement is added to merchant tonnage, giving him over 60,000 tons of enemy ships sunk.[3][17] Hudeček is competitive on merchant ship tonnage sunk, but only when he is credited with sinking the British tanker Mitra, which was actually damaged but not sunk.[18][19] When Mitra is removed from Hudeček's list, Trapp is ahead even on merchant shipping.[19][5][20]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d e f "Tribute to Baron von Trapp Joined by Country He Fled". The New York Times. 14 July 1997. Retrieved 8 January 2011.
  2. ^ Bush, M. L. (1983). Noble privilege. Manchester: Manchester University Press. p. 124. ISBN 9780719009136. ... membership of the Order of Maria Theresa could impart the title of baron. In this respect, membership of these orders could socially elevate noblemen.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Georg's Naval Career". Georg & Agathe Foundation. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
  4. ^ Heeresgeschichtliches Museum / Militärhistorisches Institut (Hrsg.): Das Heeresgeschichtliche Museum im Wiener Arsenal. Verlag Militaria, Wien 2016, ISBN 978-3-902551-69-6, S. 164
  5. ^ a b c "Korvettenkapitän Georg Ritter von Trapp". uboat.net.
  6. ^ "Von Trapp Family House History". Trapp Family Lodge.
  7. ^ "G&A - Children/Parents/Grandparents". Georg & Agathe Foundation.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k von Trapp, Georg (1 December 2007). To the Last Salute: Memories of an Austrian U-Boat Commander. U of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-4667-6. Not long after that Agathe, the oldest daughter, came down with scarlet fever. Her siblings contracted the disease, and their mother nursed them... They were married on January 10, 1911, and lived in the Trapp villa in Pola, Austria. Their first child, Rupert Georg von Trapp, was born November 1, 1911.
  9. ^ a b c d Gearin, Joan. "The Real Story of the von Trapp Family". National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved 5 January 2009. Maria Kutschera and Georg von Trapp married in 1927. They had three children together: Rosmarie (born 1928 or 1929) , Eleonore (born 1931), and Johannes (born 1939).
  10. ^ "G&A | Georg's Naval Career". Georg & Agathe Foundation. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  11. ^ von Trapp, p. 41.
  12. ^ Cummins, C. Lyle (2007). Diesels for the first stealth weapon : submarine power 1902-1945. Wilsonville, Oregon: Carnot Press. p. 105. ISBN 9780917308062. George Ritter von Trapp, of von Trapp Family Singers fame ... was also skipper when she torpedoed ... the loaded Italian troop transport Principe Umberto ...
  13. ^ "Linenschiffleutnant Friedrich Schlosser". uboat.net.
  14. ^ von Trapp 2007, p. 67
  15. ^ O'Hara, Vincent P. (2013). To Crown the Waves: The Great Navies of the First World War. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 9781612512693. Overall, Austro-Hungarian submarines in the Adiratic and Mediterranean sank 196,093 GRT of enemy and neutral merchant ships. The top aces were Lieutenant Commander Zdenko Hudecek and Georg von Trapp, who accounted for 47,788 and 44,595 GRT, respectively.
  16. ^ Pergl, G. E. (1973). Historical Abstracts: Twentieth century abstracts, 1914-. Part B. American Bibliographical Center of ABC-Clio. p. 14. ... show clearly that the Austrian submarine ace of the period was not George von Trapp, but Zdenko Hudeček, who with his submarine U-28, sank 12 enemy ships, totaling 48,000 tons gross weight.
  17. ^ Sondhaus, Lawrence (2014). The Great War at Sea: A Naval History of the First World War. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. p. 275. ISBN 9781107036901. The leading commanders in terms of tonnage sunk were Germany's Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière ... and for Austria-Hungary's much smaller effort, Georg von Trapp, who sank 60,294 tons ...
  18. ^ "Tanker Mitra". uboat.net.
  19. ^ a b Sárhida, Gyula (1989). Tengerek szürke farkasai. Budapest: Maecenas. p. 98. ISBN 9789637425158. 1. von Trapp, U-14, 11- 44 595 BRT* 2. Hudecek, U-17, U-28, 11- 39 727 BRT
  20. ^ "Linenschiffleutnant Zdenko Hudecek". uboat.net.
  21. ^ "Korvettenkapitän Georg Ritter von Trapp - German and Austrian U-boats of World War One - Kaiserliche Marine - uboat.net". uboat.net.
  22. ^ a b Georg & Agathe FOUNDATION Honoring the von Trapp and Whitehead Heritage
  23. ^ Sources conflict on whether the marriage took place in January 1911 or January 1912.
  24. ^ a b Social Security Death Index as "Rupert Vontrapp" 1 November 1911 – 22 February 1992; 05672 (Stowe, Lamoille, VT); 127-14-1082; Social Security issued in New York
  25. ^ a b "Susan Hoyt, Teacher, Sets July Wedding". The New York Times. 23 March 1980. Retrieved 21 July 2007. The engagement of Susan Thatcher Hoyt to Bernhard Rupert von Trapp has been announced by her mother, Mrs. G. Chamberlin Hoyt of Short Hills, New Jersey. Mr. von Trapp is a son of Mr. and Mrs. Werner von Trapp of Waitsfield, Vermont, and Salzburg, Austria. A July wedding is planned.
  26. ^ Trapp Family Lodge. "The von Trapp Chronology". Archived from the original on 30 August 2011. Retrieved 6 April 2015. the nun… was not a governess. She was a tutor for one of the Trapp sisters, who was too weak from scarlet fever to make the 45-minute trek to school.
  27. ^ a b Petition for Naturalization, Retrieved 5 January 2009
  28. ^ a b c d Gearin, Joan (30 October 2005). "Movie vs. Reality: The Real Story of the Von Trapp Family". Prologue. Vol. 37, no. 4. USA. Archived from the original on 29 June 2011. Retrieved 30 December 2017..
  29. ^ "Movie vs. Reality: The Real Story of the von Trapp Family". National Archives. Prologue Magazine. 15 August 2016. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
  30. ^ "Franz Wasner". The Sound of Music Salzburg. Panorama Tours. 14 July 2021.
  31. ^ Ransom, Candice F. (2002). Maria von Trapp: Beyond the Sound of Music. Minneapolis: Carolrhoda Books. pp. 44–45. ISBN 9781575054445.
  32. ^ "Family Choir". Time magazine. 19 December 1938. Archived from the original on 15 April 2009. Retrieved 7 January 2011. When Soprano Lotte Lehmann heard them, she suggested concerts. When Austrian Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg heard them over the radio, he invited them to sing in Vienna. Soon the Trapp family was touring the whole map of Europe.
  33. ^ "Family Life in Vermont". Time Magazine. 18 July 1949. Retrieved 7 January 2011. In 1938, the von Trapp family arrived in the U.S. with $4 in their pocket and a concert contract in hand. Father Wasner came along as the family chaplain, by special dispensation of his bishop. 'How I hated this country at first', Maria von Trapp says. "Oblong envelopes and mayonnaise on pears!' But the family was soon making $1,000 a concert, and she thought better of the country. "It's so big', she exclaims, "and I love to make long-distance calls!" All the von Trapps are now U.S. citizens, and some have dropped their titles and the 'von'.
  34. ^ Barry Monush: The Sound of Music FAQ: All That's Left to Know About Maria, the Von Trapps, and Our Favorite Things, 2015, p. 20 [1]
  35. ^ The Story of the Trapp Family Singers (1949)
  36. ^ a b c d e f g h i Kerr, Peter (29 March 1987). "Maria von Trapp, whose life was 'Sound of Music', is Dead". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 July 2007. Maria Augusta von Trapp, the guiding force behind a family of singers who won world renown when their story was portrayed in the play and film The Sound of Music, died of heart failure yesterday in Morrisville, Vermont, three days after undergoing surgery. She was 82 years old and had lived in Stowe, Vermont, for more than 40 years. ... She is survived by a son, Johannes, of Stowe; two daughters, Eleonore Campbell of Waitsfield, Vermont, and Rosmarie Trapp of Pittsburgh; two stepsons, Rupert, of Stowe and Werner, of Waitsfield; three stepdaughters, Agathe von Trapp of Glyndon, Maryland, Maria Franziska von Trapp of Papua New Guinea, and Johanna von Trapp of San Diego, California, and by 29 grandchildren.
  37. ^ a b Social Security Death Index as "Werner Vontrapp" 21 December 1915; 11 October 2007 (V) 05673 (Waitsfield, Washington, VT); 127-14-1139; Social Security issued in New York
  38. ^ Social Security Death Index as "Janice T. Vontrapp" – 26 June 1920; 21 December 1994 (V) 05672 (Stowe, Lamoille, VT); 05672 (Stowe, Lamoille, VT) 169-14-4569; Social Security issued in Pennsylvania
  39. ^ "So long, farewell: Von Trapp daughter dies, aged 97". The New York Times. 30 December 2010. Retrieved 9 January 2011. Agathe von Trapp, whose film counterpart was 16-going-on-17 Liesl, who had her heart broken by Rolf, the post boy turned Hitler Youth member, died from heart failure at a hospice in the Baltimore suburb of Towson, her friend Mary Louise Kane said yesterday.
  40. ^ King, John (29 December 2010). "Obituary: Kindergarten teacher Agathe von Trapp was the real Liesl of The Sound of Music". Toronto Star. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  41. ^ Electronic mail from Carla Campbell von Trapp Hunter from August 2010
  42. ^ Trapp, Johannes von. "The Trapp Family Biography".
  43. ^ "Maria Trapp: Letztes Mitglied der singenden Familie tot". Salzburger Nachrichten (in German). 21 February 2014. Retrieved 21 February 2014.
  44. ^ "Maria von Trapp, last member of Sound of Music family, dies". BBC. 22 February 2014. Retrieved 23 February 2014. The last surviving member of the Trapp Family Singers, the group whose story inspired The Sound of Music, has died at the age of 99, her family say. Maria von Trapp died at her home in Vermont on Tuesday, her brother, Johannes von Trapp, told the Associated Press.
  45. ^ "Maria von Trapp: last member of family group that inspired Sound of Music dies. Family escaped Nazi-occupied Austria in 1938 and won acclaim throughout Europe for their singing". The Guardian. Associated Press. 22 February 2014. Retrieved 23 February 2014. The last surviving member of the famous Trapp Family Singers made famous in The Sound of Music has died at her home in Vermont, aged 99. Von Trapp's brother, Johannes von Trapp, said she died on Tuesday. ...
  46. ^ "Maria von Trapp, last of famous singing siblings, dies at 99". CNN. 23 February 2014. Retrieved 23 February 2014. Maria von Trapp, the last of the singing children immortalized in the movie musical 'The Sound of Music,' died at her Vermont home of natural causes, her half-brother told CNN on Saturday. The native of Austria was 99 and lived in Stowe. She died Tuesday.
  47. ^ "Maria von Trapp, 'Sound of Music' Daughter, Dies at 99". The New York Times. 23 February 2014. Retrieved 24 February 2014. Maria Franziska von Trapp, the last surviving sibling of seven brothers and sisters who were portrayed in the Broadway musical and the film 'The Sound of Music,' died on Tuesday at her home in Stowe, Vt. She was 99. Her death was confirmed by her half-brother, Johannes von Trapp.
  48. ^ Peterkin, Tom (26 July 2008). "Maria Franziska von Trapp returns to home that inspired The Sound of Music". The Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 26 July 2008. Retrieved 26 December 2008. Seventy years after fleeing the Nazis, a 93-year-old woman whose family was immortalised in "The Sound of Music" has returned to Austria to visit her former home.
  49. ^ a b c "Trapp Family biodata". Trapp Family Lodge. Archived from the original on 31 March 2008. Retrieved 21 January 2009.
  50. ^ "Werner von Trapp, a Son in 'Sound of Music' Family, Dies at 91". Associated Press in The New York Times. 15 October 2007. Retrieved 5 January 2009. Werner von Trapp, a member of the family made famous by the stage musical and the 1965 movie 'The Sound of Music,' died Thursday at his home in Waitsfield, Vt. He was 91.
  51. ^ "Granddaughter of 'Sound of Music' duo to perform". The Topeka Capital-Journal. 24 April 2008. Archived from the original on 3 May 2012. Retrieved 26 December 2008. Her father, Werner, who was portrayed in the musical as the stoic Kurt, purchased a dairy farm about 35 miles south of the von Trapp family's New World homestead after he left the Trapp Family Singers. ... Werner von Trapp died Oct. 11, 2007, at age 91.
  52. ^ "Rosa Trapp 8.II. 1929". Retrieved 12 January 2018.
  53. ^ "Lorli von Trapp Campbell from the 'Sound of Music' family has died at age 90". NPR. 21 October 2021.
  54. ^ Clifford, Stephanie (24 December 2008). "Von Trapps Reunited, Without the Singing". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 December 2008. Still, Johannes von Trapp, the 10th and youngest child, remembers growing up relatively anonymously in a quiet, strict home. ... By 1969, he had graduated from Dartmouth, completed a master's degree from the Yale school of forestry and was planning on an academic career in natural resources. He returned to Stowe to put the inn's finances in order, and ended up running the place. He tried to leave, moving to a ranch in British Columbia in 1977 and staying a few years, then moving to a ranch in Montana. But the professional management in Stowe kept quitting. 'Now I'm stuck here,' he said.
  55. ^ Hirsch, Julia Antopol (1993). The Sound of Music: The Making of America's Favorite Movie. Lincolnwood, Illinois: Contemporary Books. p. 6.
  56. ^ Andrews, Suzanna. "The Sound of Money". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
  57. ^ Hidalgo, Louise (1 March 2015). "The truth about the Sound of Music family". BBC News. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
  58. ^ Wise, Robert. The Sound of Music. Twentieth Century Fox, 1965.
  59. ^ "The "princess" was identified by a London newspaper as Baroness Elsa Schräder".
  60. ^ Tim Walker (30 October 2008). Richard Eden (ed.). "Now for the story of the Baroness from The Sound of Music". Telegraph. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022.

Map locations

[edit]
  1. ^ The Villa Trapp is at Pina Budicina 11 at 44°52′10.40″N 13°50′29.43″E / 44.8695556°N 13.8415083°E / 44.8695556; 13.8415083
  2. ^ The Erlhof is at 47°18′46.88″N 12°48′59.53″E / 47.3130222°N 12.8165361°E / 47.3130222; 12.8165361
  3. ^ The Martinsschlössel is at 48°18′48.04″N 16°19′10.47″E / 48.3133444°N 16.3195750°E / 48.3133444; 16.3195750
  4. ^ The family villa in Aigen is at 47°47′19.59″N 13°4′53.00″E / 47.7887750°N 13.0813889°E / 47.7887750; 13.0813889
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