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Georg von Trapp was an Austro-Hungarian naval officer and submarine commander who became the father of the Trapp Family Singers. He fought in World War I, sinking several Allied ships and earning many decorations, and later emigrated to the United States with his second wife and children.
- The von Trapps only had to cross the railroad tracks behind their villa—not the Alps—to escape the Nazis. The Trapp Family Singers on tour in 1940. In the climactic scene of “The Sound of Music,” the von Trapps flee Salzburg, Austria, under the cover of night and hike across the surrounding mountains to safety in Switzerland.
- The names and ages of the real von Trapp children were changed for the film. In actuality, the eldest von Trapp child was not 16-going-on-17-year-old Liesl, but Rupert, who was born in 1911 and a practicing physician by the time the family fled Austria in 1938.
- Maria worked as a tutor to one von Trapp child, not a governess to them all. In 1926, Georg von Trapp’s second-oldest daughter, Maria, contracted scarlet fever—the same disease that took the life of his first wife four years earlier—and could no longer walk the four miles to school.
- The von Trapps married more than a decade before they fled Austria. Unlike in the film when they wed as the Nazis were taking control of Austria in 1938, 47-year-old Georg von Trapp and 22-year-old Maria wed more than a decade earlier on November 26, 1927.
Jul 22, 2024 · Learn how the von Trapps, a musical family from Austria, fled the Nazi regime and became American citizens. Discover the facts and fictions behind the movie The Sound of Music and the life of Georg von Trapp, a naval hero and baron.
Dec 1, 2023 · The musical von Trapp family fled Austria during the Nazi occupation in 1938 and later settled in Vermont. They inspired the 1965 movie ‘The Sound of Music.’ Search
- Concord Music Group
Learn about the life of Georg Ritter von Trapp, the navy captain and the father of the singing Trapp family. Discover his career, his marriages, his escape from Austria and his role in the musical Sound of Music.
Baron Georg von Trapp was a 46-year-old decorated war hero who had retired from the navy after World War I.
Feb 6, 2015 · For LIFE’s new book celebrating the 50th anniversary of the release of the film of The Sound of Music — which premiered Mar. 2, 1965 — Daniel S. Levy traveled to Vermont to visit Johannes ...
