The Trapp Family

The von Trapps come to the Town of Salzburg

In 1923, Georg Ritter von Trapp, an officer in the former Imperial and Royal navy and recently widowed, moved into a villa in the Aigen neighbourhood of Salzburg with his seven children, where they all lived for the next 15 years.

A new wife and mother: Maria von Trapp

When his nine-year-old daughter Maria began to fall ill, the widower turned to the abbess of Nonnberg Abbey in search of a tutor. She found him twenty-year-old governess Maria Augusta Kutschera, who was contemplating joining the Benedictine order. Just two years later, on 26 November 1927, the father of the family married his maid, who was almost 25 years his junior. They would have three children together.

The world-famous choir is established

In 1935, von Trapp lost his entire fortune due to bad speculation by his bank. This meant that the family had to rely on renting out parts of the house and performing concerts. Together with the children and house chaplain Franz Wasner, the proactive Maria established the Trapp Chamber Choir. Encouraged by soprano Lotte Lehmann, the young choir entered the folk singing competition at the Salzburg Festival in 1937 and promptly won first prize.

The family emigrates to the United States

In 1938, after Austria's Anschluss to Hitler's Germany, Georg von Trapp received a draft order to join the German navy. His dislike of the National Socialists and his refusal to accept an invitation to Hitler's birthday party prompted the family to travel to St. Georgen near Bruneck in South Tyrol and then via London to the USA. The Trapps then settled in Stowe, Vermont. From there The Trapp Family Singers would spend 20 productive years touring the American continent, Australia, the Fiji Islands and Hawaii.

The legend of the Trapp family lives on in the famous cult film The Sound of Music (1965), which was mainly filmed in Salzburg. You can explore the original locations on a stroll through the town or on a Sound of Music tour.

The Trapp family today - Trapp Family Lodge

In the 1940s, the Trapps constructed a mountain residence in Stowe, Vermont. Today, the Trapp Family Lodge is run as a hotel. It captivates with its European atmosphere and cuisine, along with its own microbrewery.