Birth of Maria Von Trapp

Birth of Maria Von Trapp

Maria Augusta Kutschera was born on a train on its way to Vienna, on 26th January 1905.

Her mother died when she was about two years old and Maria grew up with a foster mother, in a little house on the outskirts of Vienna.

She underwent a very strict education without any other children around.

She spent five years in a grade school followed by three years in a high school and four years in a State Teacher’s College.

Maria joined the Nonnberg Abbey in Salzburg to become a nun.

It was decided that Maria should leave the convent for a year to go to the Trapp Villa to work as a governess for the captain’s daughter, who lay in bed with rheumatic fever.

After the first year, the children asked their father to do something to make their governess stay.
They even suggested he should marry her.

As Maria said “Yes I do”, they were engaged.
She never returned to the abbey and married the captain on 26th November 1927.
They later had three children together.

The von Trapp family had always been musical, even before Maria joined them.
The family began performing together with the help of a Catholic priest named Franz Wasner, who served as musical director.

They won a singing competition in 1936, and went on a European tour the following year as the Trapp Family Choir.

When Germany took over Austria in 1938, the von Trapps decided it was time to leave rather than live under a regime they opposed.

They traveled first to Italy and then later made their way to the United States, where they had arranged a concert tour.

Their early years in America were challenging, the family had little money and had to learn English.

They soon changed their name to the Trapp Family Singers, and audiences came to adore this group of charismatic performers dressed in traditional Austrian outfits.

In 1942, the von Trapps bought a 660-acre farm in Stowe, Vermont.
The area reminded them of Austria, and Maria soon started up a summer music camp there.

Georg von Trapp died in 1947, and two years later Maria wrote her memoir, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers.

In 1950, she opened the grounds to the public as the Trapp Family Lodge.

In 1955, the Trapp Family Singers stopped touring.
Maria devoted much of her time to her faith, conducting missionary work.

But the story of her life and her family soon made its way to the Broadway stage.
Her 1949 book was adapted into a Broadway musical called ‘The Sound of Music’

The Sound of Music was also turned into a 1965 film, starring Julie Andrews as Maria.

Generally pleased with the portrayal of her family’s story on the stage and big screen, Maria von Trapp nonetheless felt that The Sound of Music got a few things wrong about her.

According to the Los Angeles Times, she said,

“They showed me as such a goody-goody. … I was nothing of the kind!”

Many who knew her considered her to be a strong and determined woman.

Her granddaughter, singer Elisabeth von Trapp, said that Maria
“was a very vibrant, amazing woman, but not at all like Julie Andrews.”

Maria died of heart failure at age 82 on 28th March 1987, in Morrisville, Vermont.