The History of the Royal Von Trapp Family Part 9 – The Legacy of the Sound of Music

When the Trapp Family Singers gave their farewell performance in 1956, most assumed that they would withdraw from the shock of fans, audiences, and news reporters to live a normal family life, and simply assumed audiences would forget about them. But that’s not how it was going to be! Shortly after the publication of Maria’s book, a German film company approached her in hopes of buying the film rights to this story. As Maria later recalled, “Our family has a special talent for never getting a lawyer at the right time!” The contract he signed with this establishment was far from being fair and caused him years of regret when the family ran out of royalties.

When a Broadway director’s interest in the story was piqued, Mary Martin was kind enough to insist that a small percentage of the story theater plays the proceeds will be donated to Maria von Trapp, but there was no such bonus for the actual Trapp family of The sound of the music film. His story, however, is loved by people everywhere and has brought many visitors to his Stowe, Vermont hostel.

In the years since the film was released in 1965, the musical has been shown thousands of times in cinemas around the world, and the film has become a hit in countries as far away as China, Finland, Egypt, Japan and Israel. .

You may have wondered after watching the movie: “I wonder what happened to the von Trapp family since then.” This same question led me to research family history, and I discovered that “children” have lived rewarding lives, even though their names are actually Rupert (Friedrich), Agathe (Liesl), Maria (Louisa), Werner (Kurt) , Hedwig (Brigitta), Johanna (Marta) and Martina (Gretl). In addition to these are the three children that Maria gave birth to in the 1920s and 1930s, all of whom are still alive at the time of writing this article in 2011.

Around the time the Trapp family singers disbanded, Rupert, who had recently graduated with a medical degree, married a young American woman and had seven children. Agathe founded a kindergarten in Maryland, while Maria (Trapp’s second oldest daughter) gave her life in missionary service for many years and eventually adopted one of the children she had cared for. Werner met Erika Klambauer after the war, who had been his sister Martina’s dearest friend, and after their marriage they had six wonderful children. Hedwig served at Trapp Family Lodge, helped with missions in Hawaii, and taught children in Austria. Johanna had left the family in 1948 to marry a friend of her brothers, Ernst Winter, with whom she gave birth to seven children near Vienna. Just a year later, the youngest of the first seven children also left the nest to happily marry a Canadian man whom she had met at the family’s music camp. Tragically, she died in childbirth without having lived more than thirty years, and the family was saddened when another member beat them to it. Rosmarie von Trapp served missions abroad before retiring to Stowe, where she is an active member of the local Catholic community, while Eleonore, a cheerful and vivacious lady, married her American husband in 1954 and had seven daughters. Trapp’s youngest son, Johannes, has served as president of the Trapp Family Lodge since 1969 and was married to one of the Lodge’s workers that same year. He and his wife Lynn have two children who live very close to them.

Over the years, the von Trapp family has received numerous awards and accolades, including a letter from President Lyndon B. Johnson and the state of Salzburg gold decoration of honor, seventy percent of whose tourists credit their visit solely to The sound of the music. Mary herself appeared on numerous television shows and received many fan letters, perhaps the most poignant of which came from Mary Martin, Mary’s Broadway counterpart, who wrote: “Dear Mary: One of the greatest joys of my life. it has been knowing you, playing you, and loving you “.

Near the end of Maria’s life, she was heard saying, “If God can do so much for the von Trapp family, He can certainly do the same for you.” When he passed away in March 1987, he left behind a joyous legacy of faith and family that has brought hope to millions of people around the world.