Trapp, Georg von, 1880-1947

Georg Ludwig Ritter von Trapp was born in Zara, Dalmatia, then a Crown Land of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (present-day Zadar, Croatia). His father, Fregattenkapitän August Johann[7] Ritter von Trapp, was a naval officer who had been elevated to the Austrian nobility as "Ritter von Trapp". Both his sons inherited the hereditary title. August Ritter von Trapp died in 1884, when Georg was four.[8]

Trapp's mother was Hedwig Wepler. His older sister was the Austrian artist Hede von Trapp, and his brother Werner died in 1915 during World War I.[8]

In 1894, aged fourteen, Trapp followed in his father's footsteps and joined the Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Navy, entering the naval academy at Fiume (now Rijeka).[8] As part of their required education, all naval cadets were taught to play a musical instrument; Georg von Trapp selected the violin.[3] He graduated four years later and completed two years of follow-on training voyages, including one to Australia, as a cadet aboard the sail training corvette SMS Saida II.[3] On the voyage home he visited the Holy Land where he met a Franciscan friar who took him on a tour of all the Biblical sites he wanted to see. Among other things, Trapp bought seven bottles of water from the Jordan River which were later used to baptize his first seven children.[8]

In 1900, he was assigned to the protected cruiser SMS Zenta and was decorated for his performance during the Boxer Rebellion, in which he participated in the assault on the Taku Forts.[3] In 1902, he passed the final officer's examination, and was commissioned a Fregattenleutnant (frigate lieutenant, equivalent to sub-lieutenant) in May 1903.[3] He was fascinated by submarines, and in 1908 seized the opportunity to transfer to the navy's newly formed submarine arm, or U-boot-Waffe, receiving promotion to Linienschiffsleutnant (ship-of-the-line lieutenant, or lieutenant) that November.[3] In 1910 he was given command of the newly constructed SM U-6, which was launched by his wife, the former Agathe Whitehead.[9] He commanded U-6 until 1913.[citation needed]

Trapp's patrols in U-5 and U-14 made him 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.

Georg had been born in Zadar (now in Croatia), which at the time of his birth was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1920, Zadar became part of Italy under the Treaty of Rapallo, when European national borders were realigned after the First World War and the collapse of the Empire, and Georg was thus an Italian citizen, along with his wife and children.
Trapp married Agathe Gobertina Whitehead,[21] the first daughter and third child of Countess Agathe Gobertina von Breunner-Enckevoirth (1856–1945), Austro-Hungarian nobility, and Cavaliere (Knight) John Whitehead (1854-1902), son of Robert Whitehead (1823–1905) who invented the modern torpedo and a partner at the family's Fiume Whitehead Torpedo Factory[21] (not, as frequently stated, a niece of the British Government minister St. John Brodrick). The British government rejected Whitehead's invention, but Austrian Emperor Franz Josef invited him to open a torpedo factory in Fiume.[8] Trapp's first command was the U-boat U-6 which was launched by Agathe.[8][22]

Agathe's inherited wealth sustained the couple and permitted them to start a family, and they had two sons and five daughters over the next ten years. Their first child was Rupert,[23] born on 1 November 1911 at Pula while the couple were living at Pina Budicina 11.[Map 1] Their other children were: Agathe, also born in Pula; Maria Franziska, Werner;[24] Hedwig, and Johanna, all born at the family home the Erlhof in Zell am See;[Map 2] and Martina, born at the Martinsschlössel at Klosterneuburg, for which she was named.[Map 3]

On 3 September 1922, Agathe von Trapp died of scarlet fever contracted from her daughter Agathe.[8] Trapp then acquired Villa Trapp in Aigen, a suburb of Salzburg, and moved his family there in 1924.[8][Map 4] During this period, he delivered several lectures and conducted interviews on his naval career.[3]

About 1926, Maria Franziska was recovering from an illness and was unable to go to school, so Trapp hired Maria Augusta Kutschera, a novice from the nearby Nonnberg Abbey as a tutor.[25] They were married on 26 November 1927 when he was 47 and she was 22.[8][26][better source needed] They had three children: Rosmarie, born on 8 February 1929,[27] Eleonore, born 14 May 1931, and Johannes, born 17 January 1939 in Philadelphia.

In 1935, Trapp's money, inherited from his English first wife, was invested in a bank in England. Austria was under economic pressure from a hostile Germany, and Austrian banks were in a precarious position. Trapp sought to help a friend in the banking business, Auguste Caroline Lammer (1885–1937), so he withdrew most of his money from London and deposited it in an Austrian bank. The bank failed, wiping out most of the family's substantial fortune.[9]

At about that time, a Catholic priest, Franz Wasner, instructed the children in music.[28][29] Around 1936, Lotte Lehmann heard the family sing, and she suggested they perform paid concerts. When the Austrian Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg heard them on the radio, he invited them to perform in Vienna.[30] Father Wasner became the group's musical director.

According to Maria von Trapp's memoirs, Georg von Trapp found himself in a vexing situation after the German takeover of Austria in 1938. He was offered a commission in the German Navy, a tempting proposition, but decided to decline the offer, being opposed to Nazi ideology. He also refused a request for the family to perform at an event for Hitler's birthday.[27] The family decided to leave Austria.

On leaving Austria, the Trapps traveled by train to Italy (not to Switzerland as is depicted in The Sound of Music). The family had a contract with an American booking agent when they left Austria. Once in Italy, they contacted the agent and requested fare to America,[27] first traveling to London, before sailing to the United States for their first concert tour.[27][31]

In 1939 the family returned to Europe to tour Scandinavia, hoping to continue their concerts in cities beyond the reach of the Third Reich. During this time, they went back to Salzburg for a few months before returning to Sweden to finish the tour. From there, they traveled to Norway to begin the trip back to the United States in September 1939, just after World War II broke out.[9]

After living for a short time in Merion, Pennsylvania, where their youngest child, Johannes, was born, the family settled in Stowe, Vermont, in 1941. They purchased a 660-acre (270 ha) farm in 1942 and converted it into the Trapp Family Lodge.[1] In January 1947, Major General Harry J. Collins turned to the Trapp family in the US pleading for help for the Austrian people, having seen first-hand the suffering of the residents of Salzburg when he had arrived there with the 42nd Infantry Division after World War II. The Trapp Family founded the Trapp Family Austrian Relief, Inc.; the priest Franz Wasner, their pre-war friend, became its treasurer.

Trapp died of lung cancer on 30 May 1947 in Stowe, Vermont. In The Story of the Trapp Family Singers (1949), Maria von Trapp pointed out that there was a high incidence of lung cancer among World War I U-Boat crews, due to the diesel and gasoline fumes and poor ventilation, and that his death could be considered service-related. She also acknowledged in her book that, like most men of the period, he was a heavy smoker.