Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Georg Ritter von Trapp

A hero for liberty.
Many people have probably heard of Captain Ritter von Trapp because of the hugely successful film "The Sound of Music", but not many may be aware of the whole story of this upstanding man and devoted son of Austria. Georg Ritter von Trapp was born on April 4, 1880 in the coastal city of Zara, what is today Zadar, Croatia but what was then a Hungarian port, part of the Hapsburg Empire of Austria-Hungary. The son of a navy captain, the sea was in his blood from the very beginning. He listened to his father's stories of naval adventure all his life and eventually attended the Naval Academy and became an officer in the Imperial and Royal Navy of Austria-Hungary, first seeing service in the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion in China where he earned his first combat decoration. (Read entire post.)
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2 comments:

Titus said...

He has a very readable little memoir of his service as a U-boat captain.

Hans Georg Lundahl said...

Thank you for linking to Amazon!

He left earthly cares same year as ma was born, 1947, and 40 years later his second wife Maria von Trapp, née Kutschera, passed away when I was finishing secondary high school with declared intent of converting to Catholicism.

Also, Sound of Music is a very good musical (despite Mons. Williamson's assessment) and based on a very lovely book. Nice to know her husband also left some writing!