[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wpO25NNPeM[/youtube]
Something for the weekend. Edelweiss, from The Sound of Music. A show tune written for the musical it refers to the sturdy mountain flower, which in the 19th century became a symbol for the people of the Alps. In 1907 it became a symbol of the elite Alpine troops of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The song is a good reflection of the quiet Austrian patriotism of a most remarkable man: Georg Johannes Ritter von Trapp.
Born in 1880 he was the son of a Commander in the Austro-Hungarian navy who had been elevated to the nobility in 1876. This gave his son Ritter (Knight) status, allowing him to put von in his name and to be addressed as baron. His father died when Georg was four, which did not deter him from following in his father’s footsteps by entering the Austrian naval academy in 1894.
He enjoyed a colorful career in the Austrian navy, including participation in quelling the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900, which earned him a decoration. Always fascinated by submarines, he transferred to the infant Austrian submarine service in 1908. When he took command of the U-6 it was a double red letter day for him. His ship was christened by Agathe Whitehead, the granddaughter of the English inventor of the torpedo. Georg went on to marry her in 1910. They were very happy together and had seven kids. When their daughter Maria was born, she sent her husband who was on patrol and could not receive personal missives, a coded message advising him that the SS Maria had been successfully launched!
During World War I, Georg bcame a national hero as a result of his exploits as a U-boat commander. During the War he sank the French cruiser Leon Gambetta, the Italian submarine Nereide, and 11 cargo vessels. He was awarded the Knight’s Cross of Maria Theresa and ended the War in command of a sub base with the rank of Lieutenant Commander. In 1935 he wrote his memories of the U-boat war, To the Last Salute, filled with humor and an honest look at the harrowing conditions of war at sea during the Great War. Like the best of military men Georg understood the innate sadness of war:
“So that’s what war looks like! There behind me hundreds of seamen have drowned, men who have done me no harm, men who did their duty as I myself have done, against whom I have nothing personally; with whom, on the contrary, I have felt a bond through sharing the same profession”.
After the War with the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian empire, Georg found himself without an occupation, the new land locked Austrian republic no longer needing a navy. He missed his career greatly, but he settled down to happy domesticity with his seven children and his wife. His happiness was brief, with his beloved wife being taken from him by scarlet fever in 1922.
Enter Maria Augusta Kutschera. Raised as an atheist and a socialist after the death of her parents, she accidentally attended a Palm Sunday Mass while in college, thinking it was a Bach concert. She was stunned by what she heard in the sermon preached by a priest: “Now I had heard from my uncle that all of these Bible stories were inventions and old legends, and that there wasn’t a word of truth in them. But the way this man talked just swept me off my feet. I was completely overwhelmed.” After she graduated from college she entered the novitiate at the Benedictine Abbey of Nonnberg in Salzburg. When Baron von Trapp sought a teacher from the convent for his ailing youngest daughter, Maria was chosen by the Mother Superior due to her training as a teacher, and also because her health was failing due to lack of exercise and fresh air. Her assignment was to last ten months.
Contrary to how he was portrayed in the film, which Maria von Trapp vigorously protested against, Georg was not a cold hearted martinet who ruled his children with an iron hand. Instead, he was a relaxed gentle man who loved nothing more than to play with his children. He did use his captain’s whistle to summon them, but that was due to the size of the house. He began the process of teaching his children to be musically inclined and loved to sing with them. Intriguingly it was Maria who had the temper in the family, sweetened with smiles and hugs as her angers passed swiftly. She fell in love instantly with the seven children, and when Georg asked him to marry her in 1927, she accepted because he emphasized that the children needed a mother. In time a great love grew between them, and they would have three children.
As a result of the Great Depression, Georg lost most of his money and he, reluctantly, agreed to the formation of the Trapp Family Singers to support the family. With the Anschluss Georg faced a dilemma. He despised the Nazis and all their works. When ordered to display the Nazi flag he responded that his old Persian carpet would look better. He declined invitations for his family to perform at Nazi functions and refused on three occasions a command of a U-boat in the German navy to be based in the Adriatic, although it was made clear to him that his refusals could eventually lead to his arrest. The von Trapps were appalled at the anti-religious propaganda of the Nazis, their persecution of the Jews and the brainwashing of the youth. They determined that they had to get their family out of the Third Reich.
Their escape was not as dramatic as portrayed in the play, but it was dramatic enough. They boarded a train dressed for hiking. Traveling to Italy, Georg claimed Italian citizenship for himself and his family since he had been born in Zara, now in Italy. When the War began in 1939, they left for the US to start a new life in America. In Stowe, Vermont they founded the Trapp Family Lodge where the family could perform. Two of Georg’s sons, Rupert and Werner, fought in the US Army during the War, both serving with the 10th Mountain Division in Italy.
In 1947, at the request of Major General Harry J. Collins who had seen the devastation in Austria while he commanded the Rainbow Division, the Trapps founded the Trapp Family Austrian Relief, Inc.. In 1949 Pope Pius XII awarded Maria von Trapp the Benemerenti medal for the good works performed in Austria by the relief organization.
Georg no doubt would have shared in the medal, but he died of May 30, 1947 from cancer, brought on by the toxic fumes he breathed in while commanding U-boats.
The old sailor would no doubt have loved this tribute paid to him 50 years after his death:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtEzZEe_5kA[/youtube]
“…e had been born in Zara, now in Italy. “
Actually, Zara is now the Croatian city of Zadar.
Also, von Trapp’s first wife was Agatha Whitehead, not Hadley, and it was her father, not her grandfather, who built the first torpedoes, in a factor in the the nearby city of Rijeka, where Georg attended the maritime academy.
Wonderful story! Truth, in this case, is more spectacular then legend.
I thank you HA for the correction of the name of von Trapp’s first wife. As indicated however, it was her grandfather Robert Whitehead who invented the modern torpedo. In regard to Zara, the now was in reference to 1938 when the von Trapps sought refuge.
Thanks, Don, for another dip into your treasure trove of information tastefully presented. Learned a lot. Also brought back fond memories of a snowbound family visit to the Trapp Lodge.
I envy you Pete. I have never visited the lodge. Both the von Trapps were strong characters and in the Sound of Music Georg is rather overwhelmed by Maria, and that is something that Maria von Trapp found both inaccurate and distasteful. I hope that this post will help people understand that there were two remarkable people in that marriage.
Duly noted. I took the “Sound of Music” sightseeing tour in Salzburg shortly after having seen Croatia, so the connection between the two areas was reinforced. I also learned during the tour that von Trapp decided to leave Austria after a chauffeur or servant, who was himself a Nazi, but fond of his employer, alerted him to an impending crackdown.
Zara/Zadar is also notable as the “Catholic” city that the warriors of the Fourth Crusade sacked, despite bitter Papal opposition, before going on to do the same to Constantinople (despite even more vehement Papal denunciation). The latter atrocity is still is still referenced by some Orthodox pundits, in a fist-shaking sort of way, as a kind of theological proof of why the Schism with the Latins must continue.
Yes, the Fourth Crusade destroyed Constantinople, a Christian City, and left it wide open for the Ottoman Turks to take control and destroy all that was Christian. We now have Istanbul and the country of Turkey. A Muslim nation!
The fall of Constantinople was a great tragedy for Christianity, which is presumably why the Pope excommunicated the perpetrators and denounced the act as great crime. Ergo, citing the act as some kind of rationale as to why East and West should never again be one, which only helps those who would destroy all that was Christian, would be as ridiculous as if the residents of Zadar were to despise all Orthodox people unto perpetuity for the reason that their city was pounded into near oblivion by Serbian nationalist forces in the 90’s. I did not see any evidence of the latter during my travels there, but I still see Orthodox grumbling over Constantinople now and again.
Thank you for the post on two counts:
For the bio of Baron von Trapp. My mother’s family were Austrian, spoke German though the last name had an Italian pronunciation possibly because they came from a city near Trieste which is now in Slovenia.
For mention of the Trapp Lodge. I will always remember a Christmas at the Trapp Lodge as one of the nicest and most spiritual that my family has celebrated. My husband was in graduate school in Boston and we found a rental in a suburb close to a Catholic school for our young boys. On a Friday in Dec. the last shipment of our household goods arrived from SE Asia as did two weekend houseguests. When the smoke detectors sounded that 3 am I thought it was a travel alarm and went back to sleep. (Our 10 yr old son had been setting travel alarm clocks to go off at different times of the day and night as an annoying prank). I truly believe that it was Divine Providence or my guardian angel that awakened me for a second time. When my husband opened the basement door, it was like the fires of hell. Despite the smoke and heat we got our children, our two houseguests and even a week old litter of dachshund puppies out into the 7 degree night. Rather than spend Christmas in Motel Six we found at the last minute a chalet for rent at the Trapp Lodge On the 24th, it snowed heavily which delighted the boys after 3 years in the tropics. Christmas Eve we gathered with the other guests in the Lodge to sing carols with the members of the Trapp family. The Sound of Music was the 5th grader’s favorite movie and he was delighted to meet Johann the youngest child of Maria and Georg. The next morning with thankful hearts we attended Mass in a small wooden church. Its ceiling was covered in wood burnings of angels giving glory to God. Perfect. A very simple but memorable Christmas.