Whenever I meet people and it dawns on them that I am a member of the actual von Trapp Family whose story inspired The Sound of Music, I am confronted with questions: “Who are you in the movie?” “Are the play and the movie authentic?” “Did you escape from the Nazis over the mountains?” Then people want to know all about my family and our lives before and after the era depicted in The Sound of Music (the stage play and the film). This interest is always genuine, and is touching to me.
But how can I tell the story of our large family and its adventures that took place over a period of more than a hundred years in a few minutes of conversation? Our life story has been told, reported on, and adapted ever since we first arrived in America to give concerts in 1938. Many people know of us as the Trapp Family Singers from our concerts, our record albums, and the Broadway play and motion picture based on our life story. Others are familiar with us because of the books written by my second mother, Maria Augusta von Trapp. Thousands have attended our music camp or visited the still operating Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vermont.
Our story has also been distorted at times, with not only The Sound of Music resorting to a liberal dose of artistic license, but also many articles being written with incorrect information about our family. And since my second mother joined our family after seven of us children had already been born, her books do not reflect what our earlier life was like, our father’s and grandfather’s impressive histories, or our first mother’s important role. Nor do the books based on Maria’s story depict what transpired after she passed away in 1987. Indeed, few people know much about our lives before and after The Sound of Music became one of the most popular musicals of all time.
As the oldest daughter of Georg Ritter von Trapp and his first wife, Agathe Whitehead von Trapp, I have long felt a need to answer the many questions posed to our family over the years and to respond to the widespread desire to learn more about our story that has fascinated so many.
I have often been asked to write down my memories of the untold era of our lives—the period of World War I and its aftermath—when we lived in the secure home of our maternal grandmother. Looking back, I am grateful that we were allowed to take our first steps into the world in one of Austria’s most beautiful areas, the shore of a lake surrounded by high mountains.
In this book, I will tell of our early years, of the invasion of Austria and how it changed our lives, of our life in America, of our tours as the Trapp Family Singers, of my reactions to The Sound of Music, and I will give an update on each of my brothers and sisters. I want to point out that these are my memories; my siblings may remember certain events differently, which is only natural because individuals may experience the same event in different ways. And as the oldest daughter, I lived through more of the family’s history than most of my brothers and sisters.
My family lived through some of the twentieth century’s most trying times without compromising our deeply held beliefs. Often when the problems we faced seemed insurmountable and overwhelming, circumstances would suddenly change for the better to smooth our way into the next step of our journey. Some people would call these positively changed circumstances “coincidences.” I, however, do not think of them as such. Throughout the turbulent years of war and other difficulties, God’s guidance and protection kept us safe in the palm of His hand.
Agathe von Trapp
Baltimore, Maryland, 2002