Rosmarie Trapp, Whose Family Inspired 'Sound of Music,' Dies

[appalachiablue]

- This undated photo provided by Trapp Family Lodge shows Rosmarie von Trapp.
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- AP News, May 19, 2022.

Rosmarie Trapp, whose Austrian family the von Trapps was made famous in the musical and beloved movie “The Sound of Music,” has died. She died Friday at the age of 93 at a nursing home in Morrisville, Vermont, Trapp Family Lodge announced. Her brother Johannes is president of the Stowe resort. Rosmarie was the first daughter of Austrian naval Capt. Georg von Trapp and Maria von Trapp, and a younger half-sibling to the older von Trapp children portrayed on stage and in the movie.

The family escaped from Nazi-occupied Austria in 1938 and performed singing tours throughout Europe and America. They settled in Vermont in the early 1940s and opened a ski lodge in Stowe. “She traveled and performed with the Trapp Family Singers for many years, and worked at the Trapp Family Lodge in its infancy when the family first began hosting guests in their home,” Trapp Family Lodge said. “Her kindness, generosity, and colorful spirit were legendary, and she had a positive impact on countless lives,” the statement said.

“The Sound of Music,” was based loosely on a 1949 book by Maria von Trapp. Georg von Trapp and his first wife, Agathe Whitehead von Trapp, had seven children. After his first wife died, Georg married Maria, who taught the children music. Georg and Maria von Trapp had three more children, Rosmarie, Eleonore and Johannes, who were not portrayed in the movie. Eleonore “Lorli” von Trapp Campbell died in October in Northfield, Vermont.

When she became a U.S. citizen in 1951, she signed her name as Rosmarie Trapp, leaving out von, according to the lodge. Rosmarie worked for five years as a missionary and teacher in Papua New Guinea with her sister Maria, her relatives said. In Stowe, she was known for walking everywhere, frequently pulling her purchases home in a wagon or cart. She also wrote frequent letters to the local newspaper, where she was given her own space, “Rosmarie’s Corner,” for her stories, they said. She led sing-alongs, knitting circles, spun wool, owned multiple thrift shops and loved to teach people to sing, they said. ~
https://apnews.com/article/politics-entertainment-movies-vermont-austria-c3c7c81f6de817b77d16ca3adbe0bdd5

- 'The Sound of Music,' 1965, Julie Andrews.

[Effete Snob]

1. The Austrian Navy sure paid well

For a country with no oceanfront, a navy officer must have been paid one heck of a salary.

[Igel]

2. He was a submarine commander, apparently, in the navy.

Yes, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had a navy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_von_Trapp

Georg Ludwig Ritter von Trapp (4 April 1880 – 30 May 1947) was an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Navy who later became the patriarch of the Trapp Family Singers. Trapp was the most successful Austro-Hungarian submarine commander of World War I, sinking 11 Allied merchant ships totaling 47,653 GRT and 2 Allied warships displacing a total of 12,641 tons. His first wife Agathe Whitehead died of scarlet fever in 1922, leaving behind seven children. Trapp hired Maria Augusta Kutschera to tutor one of his daughters and married Maria in 1927. When he lost most of his wealth in the Great Depression, the family turned to singing as a way of earning a livelihood. Trapp declined a commission in the German Navy after the Anschluss and settled in the United States

Kucera is a Czech surname.

On edit: Removed Wiki's footnotes, some were being parsed as HTML formatting.

[Effete Snob]

8. "sinking 11 Allied merchant ships"

I wonder if their captains were good singers. Probably not, I guess.

[cab67]

4. The "von" in his last name suggests he came from money.

[SouthernLiberal]

7. Studied German in school

The Ritter part of his name may actually be a title, since Ritter in German translates to knight. So I suspect that he did not just come from money, but from the nobility.

[appalachiablue]

5. Chris Plummer did well in the movie role, fine actor I've seen as Iago.

- Linienschiffsleutnant von Trapp on the bridge of U-5.



- Georg Ludwig Ritter von Trapp (4 April 1880 – 30 May 1947) was an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Navy who later became the patriarch of the Trapp Family Singers. Trapp was the most successful Austro-Hungarian submarine commander of World War I, sinking 11 Allied merchant ships totaling 47,653 GRT & 2 Allied warships displacing a total of 12,641 tons. His first wife Agathe Whitehead died of scarlet fever in 1922, leaving behind 7 children. Trapp hired Maria Augusta Kutschera to tutor one of his daughters and married Maria in 1927.

When he lost most of his wealth in the Great Depression, the family turned to singing as a way of earning a livelihood. Trapp declined a commission in the German Navy after the Anschluss & settled in the US.

Trapp's accomplishments during World War I earned him numerous decorations, including the Military Order of Maria Theresa. After his death in 1947, the family home in Stowe, Vermont, became a ski lodge, the Trapp Family Lodge.[6] Maria von Trapp's 1949 memoir The Story of the Trapp Family Singers was adapted into the West German film The Trapp Family (1956), which served as the basis for the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music (1959) and the film adaptation directed by Robert Wise (1965)... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_von_Trapp
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- The Austro-Hungarian Navy or Imperial and Royal War Navy, Kriegsmarine was the naval force of Austria-Hungary. Ships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy were designated SMS, for Seiner Majestät Schiff (His Majesty's Ship). The k.u.k. Kriegsmarine came into being after the formation of Austria-Hungary in 1867, and ceased to exist in 1918 upon the Empire's defeat and subsequent collapse at the end of WWI.

Prior to 1867, the Imperial Austrian Navy or simply the Austrian Navy, saw action in the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars, the Austrian expedition against Morocco (1829), the 2nd Egyptian–Ottoman War, the First and Second Wars of Italian Independence.. the Austrian Empire reformed itself into the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary, and the navy also became the Austro-Hungarian Navy.. By 1914, the k.u.k. Kriegsmarine had a peacetime strength of 20,000 personnel, seeing action in the Boxer Rebellion and other conflicts prior to World War I.

During most of World War I, the Allied Powers maintained the Otranto Barrage to bottle up the k.u.k. Kriegsmarine in the Adriatic Sea. Largely tasked with defending the Empire's 1,130 nautical miles of coastline and 2,172.4 nautical miles, the Navy chose to rely on its U-boats to attack Allied shipping rather than risk the destruction of its battleships, cruisers and other surface vessels. In June 1918, it attempted to break the Otranto Barrage with a large naval fleet, but the attack was called off after the battleship Szent István was sunk by an Italian torpedo boat on 10 June.

Five months later, with the Austro-Hungarian Empire facing collapse and defeat in the war, the Empire decided to transfer most of its navy to the newly declared State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs on 31 Oct., effectively bringing the k.u.k. Kriegsmarine to an end. Three days later, the Empire's military authorities signed the Armistice of Villa Giusti, pulling the rapidly disintegrating empire out of the war. With the signing of the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye and the Treaty of Trianon, Austria and Hungary became landlocked, and the Empire's most important ports of Trieste, Pola, Fiume and Ragusa became part of Italy and Yugoslavia. The k.u.k. Kriegsmarine's main ships were turned over to the Allies, who scrapped most of them in the 1920s during the era of naval disarmament...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austro-Hungarian_Navy

[Effete Snob]

10. There are a lot of reasons why Austrians aren't fond of that film

This imperial bootlicker living large is one of them.

[markie]

3. "Her kindness, generosity, and colorful spirit were legendary..."

I had the great pleasure, many years ago, to be a guest in her home...

...memories of Johannes showing me his loom and being served apples and cheese as a light repast

[appalachiablue]

6. How wonderful, lucky you. Thanks for that!

[Rhiannon12866]

9. As a kid, I went to summer camp in Vermont and on a hiking trip my friend met Maria von Trapp

When they stopped at the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe. I looked her up and Maria von Trapp, played by Julie Andrews in the movie - and mother of Rosmarie Trapp - died in 1987. Rosmarie was the eldest of the three children she had with Captain Georg von Trapp.