The Hills Are Alive



Heading to the hospital on a train, in Vienna, Austria, Maria Augusta Kutschera was born on January 26, 1905.  Maria married Georg Von Trapp on November 26, 1927 in Austria before the Nazi takeover of Austria.  It was this Maria, that Rogers and Hammerstein fashioned their legendary Maria in The Sound of Music.  There are similarities and differences between the “grand story” of Maria in The Sound of Music,  and Maria Augusta Kutschera Von Trapp’s “real life”. 

“Maria Von Trapp died in 1987, but the songs her life story inspired, echo still.”
---Charles Osgood, CBS News Sunday Morning, aired 1/26/2014.(1)

Of course the musical is a beautifully written sugary rendition of a fictional life with many liberties taken with the outcome of a musical in mind, rather than a historically accurate documentary recounting Maria’s life and that of her family members.

In her article,  “Movie vs. Reality: The Real Story of the von Trapp Family”, Joan Gearin writes, “Examining the historical record is helpful in separating fact from fiction, particularly in a case like the von Trapp family and The Sound of Music. In researching this article, I read Maria von Trapp's books, contemporary newspaper articles, and original documents, all of which clarified the difference between the von Trapps' real experiences and fictionalized accounts”(2)  Similarly, separating fact from fiction in our own ancestral histories and family stories takes the same research of original and historical documents.  We are given oral stories and written histories, but how many of those histories and stories are historically accurate?

The Von Trapp Family Lodge website explains:  “The Sound of Music is a musical and was never meant to be a documentary about our life. Rodgers and Hammerstein were inspired to write it after reading our mother's book, The Story of The Trapp Family. As we had given all of our rights to the German film company, we had no control over the content of The Sound of Music.”(3)  According to her family, Maria was a very powerful woman and nothing like the charming character portrayed in the musical.  Sometimes in our own written and oral histories, family members are described from a single incident, rather than a compilation of their whole life and personality.

Maria was interested and passionate about music and, “In 1944, our mother, Maria Augusta von Trapp, leased a military camp at the foot of our hill, which was about to be dismantled. She always dreamed of creating a music center to bring people together to sing. This spot was perfect!”(3)  Georg Von Trapp died in 1947 and never saw the musical.  Maria died March 28, 1987 in Morrisville, Vermont. 

The following are some facts about the Von Trapp family that are in direct conflict with the musical:

  • There were 3 children born after her marriage to Captain Von Trapp. (2)

  • The family actually took the train to Italy; they did not cross the Alps. (2)

  • Maria came to the von Trapp family in 1926 as a tutor for one of the children, Maria, who was recovering from scarlet fever, not as governess to all the children. (2)

  • Maria and Georg married in 1927, 11 years before the family left Austria, not right before the Nazi takeover of Austria. (2)

  • The names, ages, and sexes of the children were changed. (2)

  • The family was musically inclined before Maria arrived, but she did teach them to sing madrigals.(2)


There is a time and a place for a grand story and there is a time and a place for an accurate story.  Sometimes the two are so far distant that the grand story will interfere with the research for the accurate story and tracing ancestral generations.  Although The Sound of Music is a legendary musical, it will never be a historical account of the Von Trapp family. 

Sources:
(1)Charles Osgood, CBS News Sunday Morning, aired 1/26/2014.
(2)Gearin, Joan, “Movie vs. Reality: The RealStory of the von Trapp Family”, NARA, Winter 2005, Vol. 37, No. 4.  Nara:  http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2005/winter/von-trapps.html
 (3) Trapp Family Lodge:  http://www.trappfamily.com/story/maria
(4)The Sound of Music http://www.the-sound-of-music-guide.com/maria-von-trapp.html

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