Georg Ludwig von Trapp

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Georg Ludwig Ritter von Trapp

Georg Ludwig von Trapp (* 4. April 1880 in Zara , Dalmatia , Austria-Hungary ; † 30th May 1947 in Boston , USA ) was an Austro-Hungarian naval officer and submarine commander in World War I and the father of the singing von Trapp family .

Life

Georg von Trapp was born as the son of the frigate captain August Ritter von Trapp, who was awarded the Order of the Iron Crown III. Class was raised to the Austrian knighthood in accordance with the statutes of the order in 1876 , born in 1880 in Zara, the capital of the crown land of Dalmatia (today Zadar in Croatia). The Kingdom of Dalmatia belonged to the Austrian half of the Habsburg monarchy . His older sister was the painter Hede von Trapp (1877–1947).

From 1894 he attended the naval academy of the Kriegsmarine in Fiume , which he graduated on July 1, 1898 as midshipman 2nd class. Training trips took him to Australia in the following two years . In 1900 he was assigned to the armored cruiser SMS Kaiserin and Queen Maria Theresa and was awarded the Silver Medal of Honor for bravery for his participation in the storming of the Taku Fort during the Boxer Rebellion in China .

In 1901 he was promoted to midshipman and in 1903 to liner ensign. In 1904 he attended the officer's marine mine course and in 1907 the officer's torpedo course. On November 1, 1908, he became a lieutenant of the line and came to Fiume, where he got to know the submarines built by the Whitehead Company. From July 1, 1910 to June 24, 1913 he was in command of the submarine SM U 6 .

There he also met Agathe Whitehead, daughter of the torpedo manufacturer John Whitehead and granddaughter of the inventor of the torpedo, Robert Whitehead , at a ball. The couple married in January 1911 and moved into a villa near Pola on the Istrian peninsula in the Austrian coastal region . Here Agathe von Trapp had their first two children Rupert (1911–1992) and Agathe (1913–2010). At the beginning of the First World War, Georg commanded the torpedo boat 52 . Agathe, on the other hand, moved with her children to her mother's home at the Erlhof in Zell am See . Here she gave birth to her other children Maria Franziska (1914–2014), Werner (1915–2007), Hedwig (1917–1972) and Johanna (1919–1994).

U 5 and U 12 on an Austrian medal from the War Welfare Office in 1915.
Georg von Trapp in 1915 on SM U 5
Knight's Cross of the Military Maria Theresa Order

From April 22, 1915 to October 10, 1915, Georg Ritter von Trapp was in command of the SM U 5 submarine , with which he sank the French armored cruiser Léon Gambetta and the Italian submarine Nereide . For this he received the Knight's Cross of the Maria Theresa Order after the war (resolution of the Order Chapter of April 21, 1924). In the time of the Austrian monarchy until 1918 he would have theoretically had a right to the baron class, which was never granted to him. Regardless of this, he was and is often incorrectly called baron in literature using the baronary salutation.

From October 14, 1915 to January 13, 1918 he commanded the captured French submarine Curie , which Austria renamed U 14 . On May 1, 1918 he was promoted to corvette captain and was given command of the submarine station in the bay of Cattaro (Kotor) .

After the end of the war, the family moved to Klosterneuburg near Vienna, where they lived in the Martinsschlössel and Martina (1921–1951), the couple's last child, was born. A short time later, Georg's wife Agathe developed scarlet fever in 1922 - she infected her children - and died on September 3rd.

As early as 1920 Georg von Trapp financed the founding of the Vega shipping company with headquarters in Vienna and a branch in Hamburg , whose ships operated in the North and Baltic Seas . In 1921 he founded the Rhein-Donau-Express-Schiffahrts-AG and later sold both companies.

In 1923 he moved with the children to Villa Trapp in Aigen near Salzburg . In 1925 he hired Maria Augusta Kutschera as a teacher for his daughter Maria. The two married on November 26, 1927. Together they had the daughters Rosemarie (* 1929) and Eleonore (* 1931).

Trapp lost the money he had invested with the Lammer Bank in Zell am See when it had to file for bankruptcy in 1935. That is why his wife founded the Trapp Chamber Choir in 1935 under the direction of the local chaplain Franz Wasner . As early as 1937, the choir won first prize in the folk singing competition at the Salzburg Festival .

After the annexation of Austria in 1938, von Trapp received an offer from the German Navy to take over a command task in the area of ​​submarines, but he refused. He also declined the invitation to perform with the family choir on Adolf Hitler's birthday on April 20 in Munich . The family used a concert tour to Italy to travel to the USA, where Maria gave birth to a son Johannes (* 1939) a year later. They became a famous group of singers, the Trapp Family Singers .

After the end of the Second World War , they organized a relief operation under the name Trapp Family Austrian Relief Inc. and collected clothing and food for Austria . For this they were awarded the Egon Ranshofen-Wertheimer Prize in Braunau am Inn in 2007 .

The family built a house in Stowe ( Vermont ), which she called "Cor Unum", and founded a hotel. This is known around the world to this day as the Trapp Family Lodge . Georg von Trapp died in 1947.

children

Surname Date of birth date of death Remarks
Rupert von Trapp November 1, 1911 February 22, 1992 was married to Henriette Lajoie (1927–2013) from 1947 and after the divorce from around 1960 to Janice Tire (1920–1994) and had six children (two sons and four daughters) from their first marriage
Agathe von Trapp March 12, 1913 December 28, 2010 worked as a singer and artist, lived in Baltimore, Maryland until her death, had no children and is buried in the cemetery of the Trapp Family Lodge in Vermont
Maria Franziska von Trapp September 28, 1914 February 18, 2014 worked as a singer and missionary in Papua New Guinea , lived in Vermont, had no children and is buried in the cemetery of the Trapp Family Lodge in Vermont
Werner von Trapp December 21, 1915 October 11, 2007 was married to Erika Klambauer in 1948, had six children (four sons and two daughters) and is buried in the cemetery of the Trapp Family Lodge in Vermont
Hedwig von Trapp July 28, 1917 September 14, 1972 worked and lived as a teacher in Umhausen in the Ötztal and died of asthma, was unmarried, had no children and is buried in the cemetery of the Trapp Family Lodge in Vermont
Johanna von Trapp September 7, 1919 November 25, 1994 married Ernst Florian Winter in 1948 and had seven children (three sons - one died at a young age - and four daughters)
Martina von Trapp February 17, 1921 February 25, 1951 married Jean Dupiere in 1949, died shortly after the birth of their daughter Notburga (born February 25, 1951) as a result of an operation and is buried in the cemetery of the Trapp Family Lodge in Vermont
Rosemarie von Trapp February 8, 1929 worked as a singer and missionary in Papua New Guinea, lives in Vermont, has no children
Eleonore von Trapp May 14, 1931 married Hugh David Campbell in 1954 and has seven daughters, she lives with her family in Waitsfield, Vermont
Johannes von Trapp January 17 , 1939 married Lynne Peterson in 1969 and has two children (a son - Sam, manager of the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe - and a daughter)

Works

  • Until the last flag shot. Memories of an Austrian submarine commander . Pustet, Salzburg a. Leipzig 1935

reception

Year badge "Ritter von Trapp" of the Theresian Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt

Film, stage

Appreciation

Museum

  • The Flottenrock (uniform skirt for staff officers of the Austro-Hungarian Navy) from the possession of Georg Ludwig von Trapp is exhibited in the Vienna Army History Museum .

literature

  • William Anderson: The world of the Trapp family. The life story of the legendary family who inspired The Sound of Music , Anderson Publications, Davison, Mich. 1998, ISBN 1-890757-00-4 .
  • Martin Gschwandtner: Auguste Caroline Lammer (1885–1937) - Austria's only female bank founder to date. Your turbulent history in a time of crisis. 2nd edition, Munich, Norderstedt 2010.
  • Ulrike Kammerhofer-Aggermann, Alexander G. Keul (ed.): The Sound of Music between myth and marketing. Salzburg contributions to folklore. Salzburg 2000.
  • Helmut Neuhold: Austria's heroes at sea. Vienna-Graz-Klagenfurt 2010, ISBN 978-3-222-13306-0 , pp. 186-195.
  • Günter Schomaekers: K. and K. Corvette Captain Georg Ritter von Trapp. The most successful submarine commander in Austria-Hungary in World War I. Krefeld 1964.
  • Maria Augusta Trapp: The story of the Trapp family singers , Doubleday, New York 1990, ISBN 0-385-02896-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ History of the Vega Reederei ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) , (website accessed on July 18, 2015)
  2. ^ Army History Museum / Military History Institute (ed.): The Army History Museum in the Vienna Arsenal . Verlag Militaria , Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-902551-69-6 , p. 164
personal data
SURNAME Trapp, Georg Ludwig von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Trapp, Georg Ludwig Ritter von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian submarine commander and father of the singing Trapp family
DATE OF BIRTH April 4, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Zara
DATE OF DEATH May 30, 1947
Place of death Boston , USA