Trapp

The Story of the Trap Family Singers

Maria Augusta Trapp Beaverton 921 TRAPP FAMILY

Written 1949, NOT the "Sound of Music"

• Born 26/01/1905 near Vienna, Died 28/03/1987 in Stowe, Vermont
• Graduated teacher's college in Vienna in 1923
• entered Nonnberg Abby (Benedictine monastery in Salzberg) in 1924
• sent to teach Maria Franziska Trapp in 1926
• married Captain Georg von Trapp 26/11/1927, 3 children Rosmarie 1919, Eleonore 1931, Johannes 1939
• Chapter 0 - the wishing bell, Maria T. visits Tyrol in ~1934, wishes she too could become a writer after 40, rings a church's Wishing Bell
• Chapter 1 - raced staircase, slid down bannister, whistled, climbed roof

  • p12 Bus to Aigen and Trapp home, 3 km east (no water anywhere near back, Salzach river 600 meters downhill, across train tracks and many roads

  • p19 Rupert 1911, Agathe 1913, Maria 1914, Werner 1915, Hedwig 1917, Joanna 1919, Martina 1921

  • p20 25 previous nurses, governesses, and teacher since mother died 4 years before
  • p21 mountains: Untersberg, Tennengebirge, Hagengebirge, Staufen, Watzmann
• Chapter 2
  • p23 Butler Hans, Baroness Mathilda, Resi cook, Mariandl kitchen maid, Poldi and Lisi housemaids, Pepi gardener, Franz farm
  • p25 Pola, Austrian Navy Yard, primitive submarine, exhaust gases, fixed periscope
  • p27 engagement to Princess Yvonne "soon"
• Chapter 3
  • p29 religion, grammar, composition, literature, history, geography, physics, botany, French, geometry, algebra, Latin PLUS drwing, needlework, and music theory
  • p34 guitar and singing
• Chapter 4
  • p37 Captain plays violin with children, "I didn't think I would ever play again" . . . Advent wreath

  • p42 4th century bishop St. Nikolaus vs devil Krampus p44 Morgen Kinder Wird's Was Geben p45 Holy Eve fast day

• Chapter 5
  • p59 abby council decides Maria should wed Captain p61 11/26/1927
• Chapter 6

  • p66 ''Fasching Dienstag'' party

  • p68 Baron (heavy smoker) gives up smoking for Lent much about Easter season
• Chapter 7
  • p76 Salzberg (pop 35,000) Festival
  • p76 Iuvavum christianized 5th century, St Rupertus built Benedictine Abbey, niece Saint Erentrudis built Nonnberg
  • p78 Music festival, children reluctant tourguides for dozens of visitors
  • pregnant with Rosmarie Erentrudis, born 02/08/1929
• Chapter 8

  • p85 Peter obsessed with Handbook of Camping

  • p87 Camping on Veruda off the shore of Istria and Dalmatia, owned by Signor Pauletta
• Chapter 9
  • p92 Eleonore 14 May 1931

  • p93 scarlet fever

    • Group A streptococcal infection, no vaccine as of 2022, kidney stones

  • p97 Lammer and Company is bankrupt
• Chapter 10
  • p99 Rupert in Innsbruck medical college (190 km west)
  • p102 Easter 1935 Father Wasner
• Chapter 11

  • p104 August 1936 meet Lotte Lehmann enters Trapps in Festival group singing contest, which they win; Georg leaves embarrassed

• Chapter 12

  • p108 Salzburg radio appearance, Austrian Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg invites them to sing with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra at a State diplomatic dinner

• p109 Kleinen Musikvereinssaal ("Small music club hall") then Salzburg Music Festival
• p111 December 1936 European concert tour, audience with Pope Pius XI
• Chapter 13

  • p113 March 11, 1938 Anschluss

    • Schuschnigg arrested March 12, spent war in Sachsenhausen then Dachau.
  • p117 Georg given Nazi flag for house: "You know, I don't like the color. It's too loud. ..."
  • p119 pregnant with "Barbara", infected kidneys, doctor asks to abort

  • p121 "House of German Art & Restaurant", Hitler at next table

  • p122 Georg asked to run a Nazi submarine, p123 son Rupert asked to work at Vienna hospital p123 Family asked to sing at Hitler's birthday April 20
  • p125 Archbishop agrees they should take Father Wasner with them
• Part Two Chapter 1
  • St. Georgen? Italy? Mountain Climbing in Tyrol (cover story)

  • p128 Navy pension in Italy paid passage to Britain, September 1938 ship American Farmer to US

• Part Two Chapter 2 Mr Wagner

  • Hotel Wellington, Seventh Avenue at 56th street (still there, Carnegie Hall 1 block east)

  • Two youngest daughters at Ursuline Academy in the Bronx
  • padding to hide pregnancy
• Part Two Chapter 3 Getting Settled
  • p140 Blue bus, 10 Choir members, 56 bags, first concert at Lafayette College in Easton, PA
  • p143 receptions the hardest (p144 Georg counts 611 handshakes)
  • p145 "P-lease, Bishop - scram."
  • p146 Schinken semmel - ham bread roll
  • p148 Mrs. Pessl, Town Hall Concert, paid $700
  • p150 Carleton Smith, house in Germantown PA, The Society of Friends
• Part Two Chapter 4 Barbara

  • p152 Henry Drinker friend

  • p155 birth at home, only negro midwives, Maria afraid
  • p156 Johannes Georg 17 January 1939
• Part Two Chapter 5 What Next?
  • Wagner contract expired, 18/40 concerts, visitor visa expires March 4, INS application denied

  • Danish impresario, first concert Copenhagen March 12, ''Normandie'' to Southampton

• Part Two Chapter 6 In Sight of the Statue of Liberty
  • p165 female Trapps briefly visit Austria.
  • p165 "Met the men in St. Georgen south of the border" ???

  • p166 War, concerts cancelled, back to US on SS Bergensfjord, arrive October 7, 1939

  • p167 "I never want to leave again" - sent to Ellis Island for a few days, hearings
• Part Two Chapter 7 Learning New Ways

  • p175 Embarrassing attitudes from the 1940s: "... old grandma rocking on the porch with the cutest little darky on her lap, or of that group of sturdy colored boys picking cotton or harvesting peanuts.

• Part Two Chapter 8 The Miracle

  • p179 252 Merion Rd ''Merion Station PA 19066''

  • p180 F.C. Schang of Columbia Concerts inc.
  • p181 Mr. Coppicus, "no sex appeal"
  • p184 "Trapp Family Singers"
• Part Two Chapter 9 Merion
  • p195 Handicrafts
• Part Two Chapter 10 The Fly
  • p197 new repertoire, with American and English songs
  • p201 " ... I swallowed a fly"
  • p202 "you are all guests at a musical party"
• Part Two Chapter 11 Stowe in Vermont
  • p203 success, second tour 96 concerts, third tour more than 100
  • p204 after 5 years, debts paid and money in the bank
  • p207 tourist house for 20 people in Stowe VT ... then the real estate agents

  • p213 Purchased property off Luce Hill Road

• Part Two Chapter 12 A New Chapter
  • p214 also bough neighboring farm, total almost 700 acres
  • p217 Rupert and Werner drafted
• Part Two Chapter 13 The End of a Perfect Stay
  • p222 lack of prejudice against "enemy aliens" un-European and heart-warming
  • p223 Freeman's Auction House in Philadeplhia, helpful auctioneer Bill
• Part Two Chapter 14 The New House
  • p228 Theophile, former owner of second farm becomes "our farmer"
  • p229 maple sugar, 363 gallons
  • p232 old house falls down, 1832 newspapers under layers of wallpaper ,p244 Concert to fund new schoolhouse roof, then community volunteers to complete house
• Part Two Chapter 15 Concerts in Wartime
  • p250 little Johannes sells furloughs to soldiers for a penny a day ,p251 singing hearse
• Part Two Chapter 16 Trapp Family Music Camp
  • p262 1944, Sons probably in Italy
• Part Two Chapter 17 Snapshots of the Camp
  • p271 recorder instrument in six weeks of practice
• Part Two Chapter 18 Trapp Family Austrian Relief, Inc.
  • p283 107 performances, collecting donations at most
• Part Two Chapter 19 A Letter
  • p293 scapularconfraternity.weebly DOT com/about-the-confraternity.html Confraternity of the Scapular
  • p298 Georg dies Friday May 30, 1947 at 4:30AM
  • p302 a doctor had 17 cases of lung cancer, WW1 U-boat men
• Part Two Chapter 20 The Memorable Year
  • p304 Rosmarie (born 8 February 1929) disappeared in June, found later, sent to psychiatrist
• Part Two Chapter 21 Cor Unum
  • p308 After Armistice Day, sons visited Salzburg, house confiscated by Himmler, chapel to beer parlor, Father Wassner's room became Hitler guest quarters
  • p308 Hitler had group of soldiers shot because one hummed a Russian folk song
  • p308 house sold to Saint Joseph's Seminary
  • p309 Werner marries Martina's bosom school friend Erika
  • p310 home named Cor unum, one heart