By Joan Gearin
Maria von Trapp, photograph from her Declaration of Intention, dated January 21, 1944. (Records of District Courts for the united states of america, RG 21)
We first saw the film The Sound of Music as a child that is young probably within the belated 1960s. We liked the singing, and Maria had been therefore pretty and sort! 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 as I grew older, more aware of world history, and saturated by viewing the movie at least once yearly. “It is maybe maybe maybe not historically accurate!” We’d protest, an archivist that is small the creating. Into the very early 1970s We saw Maria von Trapp by by herself on Dinah Shore’s tv program, and kid, ended up being she nothing like the Julie Andrews type of Maria! She did not appear to be Julie, and she discovered as being a force that is true of. In thinking about the fictionalized film version of Maria von Trapp in comparison with this genuinely Maria that is real von, We arrived to understand that the storyline associated with the von Trapp family members ended up being most likely one thing nearer to human being, and for that reason even more interesting, compared to the film led us to think.
An element of the tale associated with von that is real Trapp are available in the records regarding the National Archives. If they fled the Nazi regime in Austria, the von Trapps traveled to America. Their entry to the usa and their applications that are subsequent citizenship are documented into the holdings associated with the National Archives and Records management.
Reality from Fiction
The Story of the Trapp Family Singers (published in 1949), there were many alterations and omissions while the Sound of Music was generally based on the first section of Maria’s book.
- Maria found the von Trapp household in 1926 being a tutor for just one for the young kiddies, Maria, who was simply coping with scarlet temperature, not quite as governess to any or all the young ones.
- Maria and Georg hitched in 1927, 11 years ahead of the grouped household left Austria, maybe maybe not prior to the Nazi takeover of Austria.
- Maria would not marry Georg von Trapp because she was at love with him. As she stated inside her autobiography Maria, she fell so in love with the kids in the beginning sight, maybe not their dad. As he asked her to marry him, she wasn’t certain that she should abandon her spiritual calling but ended up being encouraged by the nuns to accomplish God’s might and marry Georg. “we actually and undoubtedly wasn’t in love. We liked him but did not love him. But, I enjoyed the young young ones, therefore you might say we actually married the youngsters. . . . By and by I discovered to love him a lot more than We have ever liked before or after.”
- There have been 10, maybe maybe perhaps not 7 von Trapp young ones.
- The names, many years, and sexes associated with kids had been changed.
- Your family had been musically inclined before Maria arrived, but she did help them learn to sing madrigals.
- Georg, definately not being the detached, cold-blooded patriarch associated with household whom disapproved of music, as portrayed in the first 50 % of The Sound of Music, had been really a mild, warmhearted moms and dad who enjoyed musical tasks along with his household. Although this improvement in their character may have created for a much better tale in emphasizing Maria’s healing influence on the von Trapps, it distressed his family members significantly.
- Your family would not secretly escape on the Alps to freedom in Switzerland, holding their suitcases and instruments that are musical. As child Maria stated in a 2003 meeting printed in Opera Information, “We did inform individuals who we had been likely to America to sing. Therefore we failed to climb up over hills along with our suitcases that are heavy instruments. We left by train, pretending absolutely absolutely nothing.”
- The von Trapps traveled to Italy, perhaps perhaps perhaps not Switzerland. Georg was created in Zadar (now in Croatia), which at that time had been area of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Zadar became element of Italy in 1920, and Georg had been therefore A italian resident, and their spouse and young ones aswell. The household had an agreement by having a booking that is american if they left Austria. They contacted the representative from Italy and asked for fare to America.
- As opposed to the fictional Max Detweiler, pushy music promoter, the von Trapps’ priest, the Reverend Franz Wasner, acted as his or her musical manager for more than two decades.
- Though she ended up being a caring and person that is loving Maria was not constantly since sweet as the fictional Maria. She tended to erupt in upset outbursts consisting of yelling, tossing things, and doors that are slamming. Her emotions would straight away be relieved and good humor restored, while other family unit members, especially her spouse, found it less very easy to recover. Inside her 2003 interview, younger Maria confirmed that her stepmother “had a dreadful mood. . . . And from a single minute to a higher, you did not understand what hit her. We had been maybe perhaps perhaps not familiar with this. But we took it just like a thunderstorm that could pass, since the next moment she could possibly be good.”
The true von Trapps
Georg von Trapp, created in 1880, became a nationwide hero as a captain within the Austrian navy during World War I. He commanded submarines with valor and received the name of “Ritter” (knight), and later baron, as an incentive for their heroic accomplishments. Georg married Agathe Whitehead, the granddaughter of Robert Whitehead, the creator for the torpedo, in 1912. They’d seven young ones together: Rupert, 1911–1992; Agathe, 1913–2010; Maria, 1914–2014; Werner, 1915–2007; Hedwig, 1917–1972; Johanna, 1919–1994; and Martina, 1921–1952. After World War I, Austria destroyed each of its seaports, and Georg retired through the navy. Their spouse passed away in 1922 of scarlet temperature. Your family was devastated by her death and not able to keep surviving in an accepted destination where that they had been therefore delighted, Georg offered his home in Pola (now Pula, Croatia) and purchased an estate in Salzburg.
Photographs from von Trapp Declaration of Intention papers
(Records of District Courts associated with the united states of america, RG 21)
Maria Augusta Kutschera was created in Vienna, Austria, in 1905. She had been orphaned as a child and grew up as an atheist and socialist by the relative that is abusive. While going to the State Teachers’ university of Progressive Education in Vienna, she unintentionally went to a Palm service, believing it to be a concert of Bach music, where a priest was speaking sunday. Years later on she recalled in her own autobiography Maria, “Now I experienced heard from my uncle that all these Bible stories were inventions and old legends, and therefore there had beenn’t a term of truth inside them. However the means this guy chatted simply swept me personally off my legs. I happened to be entirely overrun.” Right after, Maria graduated from university, and for that reason of her spiritual awakening, she joined the Benedictine Abbey of Nonnberg in Salzburg as a newcomer. She considered that “These . . while she struggled because of the unaccustomed guidelines and control, . 2 yrs had been actually required to get my character that is twisted and overgrown self-will cut right down to size.”
But, her wellness endured not receiving the workout and outdoors to which she ended up being accustomed. Whenever Georg von Trapp approached the Reverend mom for the Abbey looking for an instructor for their daughter that is sick ended up being selected, partly as a result of her training and ability as an instructor, but in addition as a result of concern on her wellness. She had been expected to stay with all the von Trapps for 10 months, during the final end of which she’d formally go into the convent.
Maria tutored young Maria and developed a caring and loving relationship with most of the kiddies. She enjoyed performing using them and having them involved with outside tasks. During this time period, Georg fell deeply in love with Maria and asked her to remain with him and start to become a mother that is second their kids. Of their proposition, Maria stated, “God will need to have made him term it in that way because if he had just asked us to marry him i would not need said yes.” Maria Kutschera and Georg von Trapp married in 1927. That they had three young ones together: Rosmarie, 1929– ; Eleonore, 1931– russian mail order wives ; and Johannes, 1939–.