What ‘The Sound of Music’ Got Wrong About the Real Von Trapp Family
The Sound of Music is one of the most beloved movies in motion picture history. It tells the story of an Austrian folk music family, the Von Trapps, who fled their native land to escape oppression in the late 1930s. The film won five Oscars and elevated the star power of Julie Andrews, already internationally famous, following her Oscar-winning triumph in the Disney film Mary Poppins.
However, Hollywood took some liberties with the Von Trapp family’s story of defiance and triumph. Fans remembered the movie for its sweeping vistas of the Alps and iconic songs such as “Do-Re-Mi,” “My Favorite Things,” “Climb Ev’ry Mountain,” and “Sixteen Going on Seventeen,” composed by the storied songwriting duo Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II. The soundtrack is one of the biggest-selling albums of all time.
The Sound of Music was the top-grossing movie of 1965 and likely saved the movie studio 20th Century Fox from bankruptcy, brought on by its disastrous production of Cleopatra.
Maria’s Rough Childhood
The real Maria from the film is Maria Augusta Kutschera, who had a challenging childhood. She was born in Vienna in January 1905 and became an orphan at a young age. An abusive uncle, who was a socialist and anti-Catholic, raised Maria.
Maria converted to Catholicism while attending teachers’ college before she became a novitiate candidate in Salzburg.
Maria Was Not the Type To Retire
Maria was demure and composed as Julie Andrews portrayed her in the film. In real life, Maria was a hellion at the convent and remained a strong-willed woman until she died in 1987.
In a 1980 Washington Post story, she said that while she was at the convent, she broke dishes, spoke during periods of silence, whistled during Gregorian chants, and ascended the convent roof. The lyric from the song “Maria,” sung by the nuns in the movie, “How do you solve a problem like Maria?” apparently was accurate.
Maria Was Never a Governess
When Baron Georg Von Trapp sought a tutor for his sick child (coincidentally named Maria) at the convent in 1926, the nuns volunteered Maria.
The real Maria left the convent to tutor only one Von Trapp child for ten months. She was not the governess for the passel of Von Trapp children fathered by the widower Georg Von Trapp.
The Baron Was Not a Harsh Man
Georg Von Trapp was a captain in the Austro-Hungarian Navy and decorated for his service in World War I. Germany tried to coerce him into joining the German Navy, and he refused. By many accounts, he was a kind man and not the stern disciplinarian depicted in the film.
“He was kindness personified,” said daughter Eleonore in a 1978 Washington Post interview. “He was not a martinet but a very loving person.”
Von Trapps Were Not as Affluent as Depicted
Filmgoers remember the splendid estate the Von Trapps lived on in the film. For the Von Trapps, real life was a different story. Their fortunes declined during the worldwide depression of the 1930s. The Von Trapps had to dismiss most of their household servants and began to take in boarders.
In a 1978 Washington Post interview, his daughter Eleonore said her father didn’t want the family to perform publicly.
Georg and Maria Were Not a Perfect Match
Unlike the movie, Georg and Maria were married in 1927, 11 years before fleeing Austria in 1938 when Germany annexed Austria. Georg was a widower whose first wife died in 1924.
Georg, 25 years older than Maria, fell for the woman. However, her feelings were not as strong for him. Her attachment to the children was what she left the convent for, though she did marry the baron and they eventually had three more children together.
The Kid’s Ages and Amounts Were Changed
The children’s names were all changed to Liesl, Louisa, Friedrich, Kurt, Brigitta, Marta, and Gretl. Rupert, Agathe, Maria, Werner, Hedwig, Johanna, and Martina were the oldest Von Trapp kids.
In the movie, Rupert becomes Liesl. By the time the family escaped Austria, Rupert was in his late 20s and a practicing physician. Instead of seven children, there were nine by the time the von Trapps fled Austria because Georg and Maria had two children, Rosmarie and Eleonore. The tenth child, Johannes, was born in America in 1939.
The Von Trapps Were Singing Before Maria
The Von Trapps were a singing household before Maria entered their lives in 1926. In contrast to the stern military persona depicted in the film, Captain Georg Von Trapp encouraged music and song at home. “Georg was a warm and loving if somewhat overwhelmed father,” author Tom Santopietro said in The Sound of Music Story.
The Von Trapp family singers won first place in the Salzburg Music Festival onscreen and in real life.
Julie Andrews Was Not Not the Greatest Yodeler
In 1972, Julie Andrews hosted the single-season television variety series The Julie Andrews Hour, and Maria von Trapp was one of her guests.
Though Maria thought Julie was outstanding in her portrayal of her in The Sound of Music, the Oscar, Emmy, and Grammy-winning performer’s yodeling left something to be desired. In one segment during the show, Maria instructed Julie to yodel properly.
The Family’s Escape Was Not Dramatic
In the film, the family is shown barely evading capture by crossing the Alps to Switzerland on foot. In reality, they told people they were going to America to sing and left by train for Italy one day before Germany sealed the Austrian border.
When they got to Italy, Georg secured Italian citizenship because his birthplace had become Italian territory in 1920. The Von Trapps then traveled to London by ship to the United States.
Hollywood Needs a Geography Lesson
Fans of The Sound of Music remember the final scene of the family scaling the mountains on foot on their way to deliverance from Switzerland, with the soaring “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” finale closing the movie.
The problem with the last scene is that the family left Salzburg to evade, and Salzburg does not border Switzerland. It borders Germany, the last place the Von Trapps would want to go. Director Robert Wise addressed this by saying, “In Hollywood, you make your geography.”
