Georg Ludwig von Trapp

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Georg von Trapp

Born April 4, 1880(1880-04-04)
Zadar, Austro-Hungarian Empire
Died May 30, 1947 (aged 67)
Stowe, Vermont
Nationality Austrian
Spouse Agatha Whitehead (1890-1922)
Maria Kutschera (1905-1987)
Children Rupert von Trapp (1911-1992)[1]
Agathe von Trapp (1913-)
Maria F. von Trapp (1914-)
Werner von Trapp (1915-2007)[2]
Hedwig von Trapp (1917-1975)
Johanna von Trapp (1919-1994)
Martina von Trapp (1921-1951)
Rosmarie von Trapp (1929-)
Eleonore von Trapp (1931-)
Johannes von Trapp (1939-)
Website
http://www.trappfamily.com

Kommandant Georg Ritter von Trapp (April 4, 1880 – May 30, 1947) headed the Austrian singing family portrayed in The Sound of Music. His exploits at sea in World War I earned him numerous decorations, including elevation to the Austrian nobility.

Contents

[edit] Birth and naval career

Georg Ludwig von Trapp was born in Zadar, Dalmatia, then part of Austria-Hungary, now in Croatia. His father, August von Trapp, died in 1884, when he was four. In 1894, he followed his father's career into the Austro-Hungarian Navy, entering the naval academy at Fiume. He graduated four years later and completed two years of follow-on training voyages including a trip to Australia. In 1900 he was assigned to the armored cruiser Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia and was decorated for his performance during the Boxer Rebellion. In 1902 he passed the officer's examination.

He was fascinated by submarines, and in 1908 he seized the opportunity to be transferred to the newly-formed U-boot-Waffe. In 1910 he was given command of the newly-constructed U-6, which was christened by Agathe Whitehead, granddaughter of the Englishman Robert Whitehead, inventor of the torpedo. He commanded U-6 until 1913.

On April 22, 1915, he took command of U-5 and conducted nine combat patrols. In October 1915 he was transferred to the captured French submarine Curie, which the Austrian Navy redesignated U-14. He conducted ten more war patrols, until, in May 1918, he was promoted to Korvettenkapitän (equal to Lieutenant Commander) and given command of the submarine base in the Gulf of Kotor.

At the end of World War I, Trapp's wartime record stood at 19 war patrols, 12 cargo vessels totalling 45,669 tons sunk, the French armored cruiser Leon Gambetta (12,600 tons) and the Italian submarine Nereide (225 tons). Among other honors, he received a knighthood[3] and the Knight's Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa.

The end of the First World War saw the defeat and collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In the process, Austria was reduced in size to its German-speaking core, losing its seacoast, and had no further need for a navy, leaving von Trapp without a job.

[edit] Marriages

In 1911, Trapp married Agathe Whitehead, who had christened his first command, the U-boat U-6. She was the granddaughter of Robert Whitehead, the inventor of the torpedo, which earned him a fortune. Agathe's wealth, inherited from her family, sustained the couple and permitted them to start a family. Their first child, Rupert von Trapp (1911 - 1992),[1] was born in 1911, and the marriage produced six more children: Agathe von Trapp (1913 -), Maria F. von Trapp (1914 -), Werner von Trapp (1915 - 2007),[2] Hedwig von Trapp (1917-1972), Johanna von Trapp (1919 - 1994) and Martina von Trapp (1921 - 1951).

In 1922, Agathe, the mother, died of scarlet fever contracted from the children. She asked her husband to marry again, because the children needed another motherly influence.

About 1926, one of the children, Maria, was recovering from an illness and was unable to attend school. Trapp hired a tutor for Maria from nearby Nonnberg Abbey. The name of the tutor was Maria Kutschera. She was a young novice at the convent, and had been chosen by its abbess for the position.

Maria and Georg married on November 26, 1927, and, according to daughter Maria and information given out by the von Trapp family today, their first child, Rosmarie, was born on February 8, 1929. (However, both Maria von Trapp's declaration of intention in 1944 and petition for naturalization in 1948 state that Rosmarie's birth occurred the year before, on February 8, 1928.)

Georg and Maria would have two more children, Eleonore ("Lorli") (b. 1931) and Johannes (b. 1939) bringing the total number of Georg's children to ten.[4] In her autobiography, Maria noted that she had a number of miscarriages due to kidney trouble, the last of which occurred in September 1947, a few months after Georg's death.

[edit] Economic disaster and new career

In 1935, Georg's money, inherited from his first wife, Agathe, was safely invested in a bank in London. At that time, however, Austria was under economic pressure from a hostile Germany, and Austrian banks were in a precarious position. To help a friend in the banking business, Georg withdrew most of his money from the London bank and deposited it in an Austrian bank. The Austrian bank thereafter failed, which wiped out most of the family's fortune. As Maria further indicates in her book, Georg was thoroughly demoralized and depressed at this turn of events, but was unable to engage in other gainful activities, and believed that it was beneath the dignity of the family to sing in public or otherwise work for a living. (Prior to the loss of the family fortune, the family had engaged in singing as a hobby.)

Faced with an impossible situation of little or no money, and a husband effectively incapable of providing for her or for the family, Maria took charge and arranged for singing engagements, and otherwise began to make arrangements for the family to sing at various events as a way of earning a livelihood. At about that time, a Catholic priest, Franz Wasner, came to live with them. About the same age as Maria, he became the musical director of the group. In May of 1938, the family was "offered", meaning ordered, to perform at Berchtesgaden, Adolf Hitler's private retreat on the German side of the Austrian Alps.

In early May, the family, opposed to Hitler's annexation of Austria, his ordering them, and having received offers to perform in the United States, left Austria, and fled to Italy by train (not to Switzerland on foot as in the film) and then to the United States.

Georg Ritter von Trapp died of lung cancer in 1947 in Stowe, Vermont. In The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, Maria points out that there was a high incidence of lung cancer among World War I U-Boat crews due to the diesel fumes and poor ventilation, and that his death could be considered service-related. Maria also acknowledges in her book, published in 1949, that the Captain was a heavy smoker (during Georg's lifetime the link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer had not been established).

His children by Agathe were Rupert, Agathe, Maria, Werner, Hedwig, Johanna and Martina; those by Maria were Rosmarie, Eleonore and Johannes. Johannes succeeded Maria as manager of the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, which remains among Vermont's most popular tourist attractions and is one of the major concert sites of the Vermont Mozart Festival.

[edit] Children

Name Birth Death Notes
Rupert von Trapp 1 November 1911 22 February 1992 married 1) 1947 to Henriette Lajoie and 2) to Janice Tyre and had issue. (two sons and four daughters from his first marriage)
Agathe von Trapp 12 March 1913 works as a singer and an artist, now lives in Baltimore, Maryland, no issue.
Maria Franziska von Trapp 28 August 1914 works as a singer and missionary in Papua New Guinea, now lives in Vermont, no issue.
Werner von Trapp 21 December 1915 11 October 2007 married 1948 to Erika Klambauer and had issue (four sons and two daughters)
Hedwig von Trapp 28 July 1917 14 September 1972 worked as a teacher, lived in Austria and died of asthma, no issue.
Johanna von Trapp 7 September 1919 25 November 1994 married 1948 to Ernst Florian Winter and had issue (three sons - one stillborn - and four daughters)
Martina von Trapp 17 February 1921 25 February 1951 married 1949 to Jean Dupiere, died in complications of childbirth and had issue (a stillborn daughter)
Rosemarie von Trapp 8 February 1929 works as a singer and missionary in Papua New Guinea, now lives in Vermont, no issue.
Eleonore von Trapp 14 May 1931 married 1954 to Hugh David Campbell and has issue (seven daughters), she lives with her family in Waitsfield (Vermont)
Johannes von Trapp 17 January 1939 married 1969 to Lynne Peterson and has issue (one son and one daughter)

[edit] References

  1. ^ 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
  2. ^ a b "Susan Hoyt, Teacher, Sets July Wedding", New York Times, March 23, 1980, Sunday. Retrieved on 2007-07-21. "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." 
  3. ^ Regarding personal names: Ritter is a title, translated approximately as Knight, not a first or middle name. There is no equivalent female form.
  4. ^ "Maria von Trapp, whose life was 'Sound of Music', is Dead", New York Times, March 29, 1987. Retrieved on 2007-07-21. "Maria Augusta von Trapp, the guiding force behind a family of singers who won world reknown 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 F. Trapp of Papua, New Guinea, and Johanna von Trapp of San Diego, and by 29 grandchildren." 

[edit] Further reading

  • Trapp, Georg von. To the Last Salute: Memories of an Austrian U-Boat Commander. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2007. 196 pages. ISBN 0803246676
  • Willam Anderson, David Wade, The World of the Trapp Family, 1998