Georg Johannes von Trapp

Incorporates information from the article in the German Wikipedia

Korvettenkapitän Georg Johannes, Ritter von Trapp (April 4, 1880 – May 30, 1947), known as Baron von Trapp, was an Austro-Hungarian Navy officer. His exploits at sea during World War I earned him numerous decorations, including the prestigious Military Order of Maria Theresa. The story of his family served as the inspiration for the musical The Sound of Music.

Birth and naval career
Georg Johannes Ritter von Trapp was born in Zara, Kingdom of Dalmatia, then a Crown Land of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now Zadar in Croatia. His father, Fregattenkapitän August Trapp, was a naval officer who had been elevated to the Austrian nobility in 1876 which entitled him and his descendants to the style of Ritter (Knight) von in the case of male and von in the case of female offspring.

August Ritter von Trapp died in 1884, when Georg was four. His mother was Hedwig Wepler. Von Trapp's older sister was the Austrian artist Hede von Trapp. His brother, Werner von Trapp, died in World War I in 1915. In 1894, von Trapp followed in his father's footsteps and entered the k.u.k. (imperial and royal) Austro-Hungarian Navy, entering the naval academy at Fiume (Rijeka). He graduated four years later and completed two years of follow-on training voyages including a trip to Australia. In 1900 he was assigned to the armored cruiser SMS Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia and was decorated for his performance during the Boxer Rebellion. In 1902 he passed the officer's examination. He was fascinated by submarines, and in 1908 he seized the opportunity to be transferred to the newly formed U-boot-Waffe. In 1910 he was given command of the newly constructed SM U-6, which was christened by Agathe Whitehead, granddaughter of the Englishman Robert Whitehead, inventor of the torpedo. He commanded U-6 until 1913.

On April 17, 1915, von Trapp took command of SM U-5 and conducted nine combat patrols. While in command of the U-5 he sank the following:
 * the French armored cruiser FRENCH CRUISER Léon Gambetta at 39.3°N, 18.15°W on April 21, 1915, 25 km south of Cape Santa Maria di Leuca,
 * the Italian submarine ITALIAN SUBMARINE Nereide at 42.23°N, 16.16°W on August 5, 1915, 250 metres off Pelagosa (Palagruža) Island.

He captured:
 * the Greek steamer Cefalonia off Durazzo on August 29, 1915.

Von Trapp is sometimes incorrectly credited with sinking the Italian troop transport Principe Umberto. In reality, this was sunk by U-5 under von Trapp's successor Friedrich Schlosser (1885–1959) on June 8, 1916, after von Trapp was transferred to the SM U-14.

On October 14, 1915, von Trapp was transferred to the captured French submarine Curie, which the Austrian Navy redesignated SM U-14.

Von Trapp conducted ten more war patrols, until, in May 1918, he was promoted to Korvettenkapitän (equal to Lieutenant commander) and given command of the submarine base in the Gulf of Kotor.

At the end of World War I, von Trapp's wartime record stood at 19 war patrols; 11 cargo vessels totalling 45,669 tons sunk, plus the Léon Gambetta and Nereide and 1 cargo vessel captured. Among other honors, he received the Knight's Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa.

The end of the First World War saw the defeat and collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In the process, Austria was reduced in size to its German-speaking core – losing its seacoast – and had no further need for a navy, leaving von Trapp without a job.

First marriage
Von Trapp was first married to Agathe Whitehead, a niece of St John Brodrick, 1st Earl of Midleton and a granddaughter of Robert Whitehead, who invented the modern torpedo. Agathe christened his first command, the U-boat U-6..

Agathe's inherited wealth sustained the couple and permitted them to start a family. Their first child, Rupert, was born on November 1, 1911, at Pola. The family lived at Pina Budicina 11. The marriage produced six more children: Agathe, also born at Pola; Maria Franziska; Werner; Hedwig; and Johanna; all born at Zell am See at the family home—the Erlhof —and Martina, born at Klosterneuburg at the family home, the Martinsschlössel.

On September 3, 1922, Baroness von Trapp died of scarlet fever contracted from her daughter Agathe. The family purchased a villa in Aigen, a suburb of Salzburg, and moved in 1924.

About 1926, Maria Franziska was recovering from an illness and was unable to attend school, so von Trapp hired Maria Augusta Kutschera, from the nearby Nonnberg Abbey, as a tutor.

Second marriage
Von Trapp, 47, married Maria, 22, on November 26, 1927. They had three children: Rosmarie, born February 8, 1929, in Salzburg, Austria; Eleonore, born May 14, 1931, in Salzburg; and Johannes, born January 17, 1939, in Philadelphia, bringing the total number of von Trapp's children to ten.

Later life
In 1935, von Trapp's money, inherited from his 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. Von 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 fortune.

This demoralized and depressed von Trapp, who ceased to engage in other gainful activities, believing that it was beneath the dignity of the family to work for a living or to sing in public. Until the loss of the family fortune, the family had sung together as a hobby.

Faced with an impossible situation of little or no money and a husband incapable of providing for her or for the family, Maria took charge and began to make arrangements for the family to sing at various events as a way of earning a livelihood. At about that time, a Catholic priest, Franz Wasner, around Maria's age, came to live with them and became the group's musical director. Maria also entrusted the priest with management of the family's finances as treasurer of the Trapp Family Austrian Relief fund.

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.

According to Maria von Trapp's memoirs, Captain von Trapp found himself in a weird situation. He was offered a commission to the German Navy in 1938, a tempting proposition for a Captain without a navy, but decided he would have to decline, being opposed to the Nazi beliefs. Knowing that he could not decline this induction without threat of arrest, possible for his entire family, he decided to leave Austria.

Some details of the von Trapps' escape from Austria were changed in The Sound of Music. In the film it was stated that he was threatened with death if he did not capitulate to the Nazis. It was also stated that the Captain had been born into what later became the Italian territory of Zara, the family were all Italian citizens as a result. Therefore, the family left Austria for Italy by train in broad daylight, rather than by hiking 300 km over the mountains outside Salzburg to Switzerland in the middle of the night. In reality, Captain von Trapp was threatened with arrest, not death. When WWII started in 1939, Italy was allied with Germany, which still listed von Trapp as a criminal for his escape; the family fleeing to Italy would have been highly unlikely. The family believed that if they went to live in America, the U.S. would protect them.

The family then sailed to the United States for their first concert tour, then went back to Europe to tour Scandinavia in 1939 hoping to continue their concerts in the non-Nazi areas. 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.

After living for a short time in Merion, Pennsylvania, where they welcomed their youngest child, Johannes, the family settled in Stowe, Vermont, in 1941. They purchased a 660 acre farm in 1942 and converted it into the Trapp Family Lodge. They built a home which they named Cor Unum (One Heart).

In January 1947, Major General Harry J. Collins turned to the von Trapp family in the USA pleading for help for the Austrian people, having seen the residents of Salzburg suffer when he had arrived there with the famed 42nd Rainbow Division after World War II. The Trapp Family founded the Trapp Family Austrian Relief, Inc.

Von Trapp died of lung cancer on May 30, 1947, in Stowe, Vermont.