The Real Von Trapps

Written by Her
Salzburg, Austria. 23rd - 24th December 2016

Villa Von Trapp

For those of you who may not know, The Sound of Music was actually based on a real life musical family living in Salzburg. The character of Maria was based on the life of Maria Augusta who married Georg Von Trapp, a marine captain in 1927 & later wrote a book about her family’s life. Like the movie, Capt. Von Trapp was a stern man of significant wealth. He was originally married to the daughter of the man who invented & produced the torpedo. The couple had 7 children but his wife developed scarlet fever and died aged just 31. 

Maria, an orphan from Vienna, joined the Benedictine order in Nonnberg Abbey in Salzburg. As she was a trained primary school teacher she was sent to live in the Von Trapp home to teach the youngest child, shortly after joining the order. Once Marie Augusta moved in with the Von Trapps, she fell in love with the children (she had less time for the stern captain). Before she was due to go back to the abbey, the capt. asked if she would like to marry him and become a mother to the children. She claims that it was his mention of the children in his proposal that convinced her to stay. When she married Georg she was just 7 years older than his eldest daughter. The couple went on to have 3 more children of their own. 

The Von Trapp family became known as wonderful singers after entering competitions in Salzburg. In fact, the Von Trapp family choir won the award for best musical group at the Salzburg festival in the 1930s & went on to have worldwide fame. They travelled all over Europe & America performing. During WWII, native Austrian Hitler drafted both Capt. Von Trapp & his eldest son to the German army. Staunchly against Hitler's regime, the two men refused to join the army, and as an even bigger insult, they refused to perform at Hitler's birthday party in Austria. Afterwards, the family had no choice but to leave their home in Austria. Unlike the movie they did not have to flee over the mountains, Georg had an Italian passport so they took the train to Italy before heading to the US. The family toured America & finally settled in Vancouver, Canada (which they said reminded them of Austria). The Captain died aged 67 in 1947 and Maria lived on in Vancouver to the age of 82. She died in 1987.

The real home of the Von Trapps is in Aigen, about 10 mins outside Salzburg. The family lived at this residence from 1923 - 1938. In 2008 it was turned into a hotel called villa Trapp so we couldn't resist checking in for one night to have a nose around. Basic but authentic, the 3 storey house is not quite as grand in the one in the movie. One can imagine the rooms filled with people, 7 children, the captain, maria and presumably some staff would have had the house at full capacity. 

Dotted around the house are photos of the Von Trapp children who's names were all different to the movie. I was a little disappointed that there was no Lisel, Marta or Kurt! Photos of Maria Augusta & Georg's wedding in Nonnberg Abbey (not in the grand St.Peters as in the movie) showed the family in all their grandeur & photos of the family performing with musical instruments and audiences could be seen in the entrance hall. 

Other than its history as the Von Trapp residence, the house itself had another interesting story. For seven years, from 1940 to 1947, Villa Trapp became the summer house of Heinrich Himmler (leader of the SS army, military commander of the Nazi party and Hitler's right hand man). During WWII the house was was surrounded by guards & barbed wire. A barracks for the SS was set up in the garden. Here, there still remains evidence of the communication station that Himmler used to send information from Salzburg to Berlin. In 1947, a closed religious order took the residence back and the Villa remained off limits to the public until 2008 when it was rented to a company who were willing to restore & run it as a hotel - as it is today!