Why this book: I had loved the movie The Sound of Music and had heard that the actual story of the von Trapp family, their escape from Austria was very different from the movie. I wanted to know the real story of the family and their lives before and after The Sound of Music.

Summary in 4 sentences: The book is written in the first person from the perspective of Agathe von Trapp the eldest daughter of the von Trapp family and she begins with the story of her parents, their families and the world of the von Trapp family in the Austro-Hungary empire prior to and during WW1. After Austria-Hungary loses the war, she describes how the family survives difficult times, and just as things are coming together for them, the Nazis invade Austria and when Capt von Trapp refuses to serve in the Nazi Navy, he knows he is marked as an enemy of the Third Reich, and he and his family are vulnerable to being sent to the concentration camps. They escaped to America, made a reputation for themselves as a singing family, established a home, eventually a lodge in Vermont, and the book describes their touring to much acclaim all over America and the world throughout the forties, fifties and into the sixties. When the movie is released in 1965, the von Trapp family singers were nearing the end of their touring, many were engaged with the lodge they’d built, or had moved on with their lives, and the author describes their lives after the movie.

My Impressions: This is an autobiography of the von Trapp family from the perspective of the oldest daughter who lived through WW1 and into the 21st century, having written this book in 2003. She wanted to set the record straight regarding her family, what they had experienced in Austria and later in America, given that so much attention was given to them after the release of The Sound of Music in the mid 60s. She initially hated the movie as it distorted the character of her father, presenting in the movie him as a gruff, distant and strict patriarch, whereas she insisted that he was warm, personable and easy going in real life. The movie also took a lot many liberties with the facts of their lives in Austria and their escape from the Nazis. She wanted to set the record straight. Later, she came to appreciate the movie after she saw how much the movie’s popularity helped her family with publicity for their singing and their lodge in Vermont.

The book is a fascinating look at the world of an Austrian aristocratic family at the beginning of the 20th century and how the two world wars upset the social order they had inherited from the 19th century. Prior to the WW1, the von Trapp family had been part of the upper classes but after the war, they were forced from their home in what had been Austria, but which became Italy after the war. Agathe describes how they struggled and adapted to a new world order, as the European economies collapsed, life was hard especially for the defeated nations, and then their mother died. They weren’t destitute but Papa struggled to find work to make ends meet, and for the first time, they worried about money and depended on relatives, as their family of 7 children had slid down the social ladder as former aristocrats to essentially middle class status.

When their mother died, the older children had to step in and take care of the younger ones until their father who was working, hired as a nanny a nun who’d been a bit overly independent and troublesome in a local monastery. After a while, he asked the children if they liked her and would they like to have her as a new Mother. They did and they were married. She was 22 and he was 49. That part of the Sound of Music was accurate. She stepped into their home, took charge and created order out of chaos and began organizing the musical talents of the children. Papa had always played the violin and, as was the norm in upper class families of that era, all of the children had had music lessons. So Maria (who they called “Mother”) stepped into an already very musically inclined and talented family. She organized them and they began performing in public.

As noted in the summary above, after the “Anschluss” in 1938, when the Nazis took over Austria, the pleasant trajectory of the von Trapp family life, was again at risk. The family had already been performing and touring as singers beginning in the early thirties, and had been invited to tour in America, when Papa was made an “offer” he couldn’t refuse. He had had an exceptional reputation as a submarine commander for the Austrian Navy in WW1, but refused to serve in the German Navy. He then knew he didn’t have much time – they had to leave Austria and escape the Nazis before they – or at least he – would be put in a concentration camp.

So they accepted the offer to tour the US and at least for public consumption (to protect themselves from the Nazis) they left Austria to tour the US, but with bags packed not intending to return. But they left on a train, not singing and climbing over the Alps as was portrayed in the movie. They did in fact enjoy a very successful tour performing in the US, decided to stay there and were aided by patrons who supported their application to immigrate.

The remainder of the book is about how the family adapted to America – by continuing to tour, not just in the US but internationally. Eventually they decided to settle in Vermont on a farm which they built into a family-style hostel. That large home caught fire and burned down and was replaced by a larger Lodge which remains today in the family. Papa von Trapp passed away at age 67 in 1947, and Maria became the matriarch of the family until she passed away at age 82 in 1987. THe book concludes with Agathe sharing the various paths taken by members of the von Trapp family going their separate ways but staying engaged. The Trapp family lodge in Stowe Vermont continued to evolve and has stayed in the family. Agathe passed away in 2010 at age 97.