The real von trapp family

Georg von trapp
Maria von trapp
Are any of the von trapp family still alive

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Movie vs. Reality: The Real Story of the Von Trapp Family

En Español

Winter 2005, Vol. 37, No. 4

By Joan Gearin

I first saw the movie The Sound of Music as a young child, probably in the late 1960s. I liked the singing, and Maria was so pretty and kind! As I grew older, more aware of world history, and saturated by viewing the movie at least once yearly, I was struck and annoyed by the somewhat sanitized story of the von Trapp family it told, as well as the bad 1960s hairdos and costumes. "It's not historically accurate!" I'd protest, a small archivist in the making. In the early 1970s I saw Maria von Trapp herself on Dinah Shore's television show, and boy, was she not like the Julie Andrews version of Maria! She didn't look like Julie, and she came across as a true force of nature. In thinking about the fictionalized movie version of Maria von Trapp as compared to this very real Maria von Trapp, I came to realize that the story of the von Trapp family was probably something closer to human, and therefore much more interesting, than the movie led me to believe.

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Maria Kutschera actually came to the Trapp family as a governess to supprt the Baron von Trapp with his children. After the two fell in love, they married on November 26, 1927.

Two more daughters were born and the von Trapps were content with their lifes. In 1935, Father Wasner entered their lives. It was he who brought sophistication to their family hobby - music.

The natural freshness and purity of their voices awarded them the first prize in a choral competition during the Salzburg Festival in 1935. The family, who had lost all its money during the depression, was invited to give concerts throughout Europe.

In 1938, Hitler entered Austria and the von Trapps decided to save their spiritual rather than their material wealth and left their large estate outside of Salzburg for the United States. As if going out for one of their usual family hikes with knapsacks on their backs and dressed in mountaineering clothes, they left their house and belongings behind. They took trains through the Austrian Alps, crossing the border to Italy and on through Switzerland, then France to Lond

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Maria von Trapp

Matriarch of the Trapp Family Singers (1905–1987)

This article is about the matriarch of the Trapp Family Singers. For her stepdaughter, see Maria Franziska von Trapp.

Maria von Trapp DHS
Von Trapp in 1948
Born	Maria Augusta Kuczera (1905-01-26)26 January 1905 Vienna, Austria-Hungary
Died	28 March 1987(1987-03-28) (aged 82) Morrisville, Vermont, U.S.
Resting place	Trapp Family Cemetery, Trapp Family Lodge, Stowe, Vermont, U.S.
Spouse
Children	3, including Johannes von Trapp, plus 7 stepchildren

Maria Augusta von TrappDHS (née Kutschera; 26 January 1905 – 28 March 1987), often styled as "Baroness",^[1]^[2]^[3] was the stepmother and matriarch of the Trapp Family Singers.^[4]^[5] She wrote The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, which was published in 1949 and was the inspiration for the 1956 West German film The Trapp Family, which in turn inspired the 1959 Broadway musical The Sound of Music and its 1965 film version.^[6]^[7]