News that I missed, courtesy of The Babylon Bee:
SALZBURG, AUSTRIA — The well-respected Von Trapp family has reportedly fled across the alps to Switzerland to escape the ever growing threat of free speech.
Before their departure, former naval officer Georg von Trapp warned that free speech had been weaponized in Germany and was spreading into Austria. In response, he took his family, comprised of the Trapp Family Singers, and fled over the mountains to neutral Switzerland where they could be safe from people sharing their opinions.
“We can’t stay here. The Nazis are using free speech to round up Jews,” Von Trapp reportedly said. “And that’s horrifying.”
Though not Jewish, the Von Trapp family fled after expressing concern their children would be indoctrinated into a life of free speech and self expression.
According to local rumors, Maria von Trapp, the family governess turned wife, is to blame for affecting Georg’s loyalties. Residents of Salzburg claim he was all for free speech before she came along and started singing all the time.
“How do you solve a problem like Maria?” Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler asked. “Throw them in free speech camps, of course.”
Go here to read the rest.
Gosh she is stupid.
The movie had a little plot hole.
Look on a map.
If you climb over the mountain from Salzburg, you unfortunately would wind up in Germany.
Switzerland is in the other direction.
Yeah, the escape as depicted in the movie is complete fiction:
“The family did not secretly escape over the Alps to freedom in Switzerland, carrying their suitcases and musical instruments. As daughter Maria said in a 2003 interview printed in Opera News, “We did tell people that we were going to America to sing. And we did not climb over mountains with all our heavy suitcases and instruments. We left by train, pretending nothing.”
The von Trapps traveled to Italy, not Switzerland. Georg was born in Zadar (now in Croatia), which at that time was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Zadar became part of Italy in 1920, and Georg was thus an Italian citizen, and his wife and children as well. The family had a contract with an American booking agent when they left Austria. They contacted the agent from Italy and requested fare to America.”
https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2005/winter/von-trapps-html
What college did she go to?
Yeah, the escape as depicted in the movie is complete fiction:
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Pretty much every aspect of the film is a fiction beyond the following: that she’d been seconded to the v. Trapp house by the abbey where she was a postulant, that the head of household was a widowed navy captain named v. Trapp, that the family was wealthy at the time of her arrival, that they later made a living as a singing group, and that they left Austria because Capt. v. Trapp did not wish to be recalled to service (despising the Nazis).
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About 14 years elapsed between her arrival at the v. Trapp household and their departure from Austria and in the intervening years the two married and produced two additional children. I believe the v. Trapp children complained that the screenwriters, Julie Andrews, and Christopher Plummer manufactured a portrait of the two of them which could hardly have been more different from their actual personalities.
Maria had a temper on her and was known to throw items when angered while the Baron tended to be the easy going one.
On Dec 9, 1990 at 0300 the house in Braintree, MA which we were renting caught fire. By Divine Providence I woke up and roused the family and our house guests. Thankfully the fire dept was two blocks away. We spent a week in Motel 6. After seeing an ad for the Trapp Family Lodge in Smithsonian Magazine, we ended up spending Christmas break in one of their chalets. The Sound of Music was my 5th grader’s favorite movie. The Captain and Maria were both deceased by then, but our son was thrilled to meet the younger members of the Trapp family on Christmas Eve and to sing carols with them. It snowed on the 24th. Coming from the Philippines we hadn’t seen snow in 3 years. The Mass was in the Tyrolean styled church was inspiring. We had so much to be thankful for. Best Christmas our family has ever had.
I remember with pleasure attending a concert put on by the Trapp Family Singers in my old home town, Te Puke in 1955 when I was 13 years old. Wonderful.
Their last child was born after they’d departed Austria. The children scattered over a large area and a couple returned to Austria. Some of the Trapps had extraordinary longevity, but I think they’ve all pretty much died. IIRC, the last born is still alive and his adult life has been devoted to running their lodge in Vermont.
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Maria had a temper on her and was known to throw items when angered while the Baron tended to be the easy going one.
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She’s been described as ‘a force of nature’ and the children did say her anger was formidable. My recollection of the description of him was that he was not a martinet who expected his children to behave in his presence like sailors on duty and that music was a regular feature of the household before she arrived (with papa playing instruments and singing).