The Sound of Music (film) - Historical Accuracy

Historical Accuracy

Both the musical and the film present a history of the von Trapp family, albeit one that is not completely accurate. The following are examples of the dramatic license taken by the filmmakers:

1. Georg Ludwig von Trapp was indeed anti-Nazi and opposed to the Anschluss, and lived with his family in a villa in a district of Salzburg called Aigen; however, the lifestyle depicted in the film greatly exaggerated their standard of living. The real family villa (located at Traunstraße 34, Aigen 5026 in Saltzburg) was large and comfortable but nowhere near as grand as the palace depicted in the film. Georg furthermore had lost most of the family fortune, inherited from his first wife Agathe Whitehead, in a poor business decision trying to prop up a failing Austrian bank managed by a friend. This left the von Trapps virtually bankrupt and they managed to get by only by laying off all of the staff and by taking in boarders. The family’s entry into the music business was primarily due to their precarious financial situation, a fact that caused the proud Georg much embarrassment.
2. Maria Augusta Kutschera had indeed been a novice at Benedictine Abbey of Nonnberg in Salzburg and had been hired by the von Trapp family. However she was hired only to be a tutor to young Maria Franziska ("Louisa" in the movie), who had come down with scarlet fever and needed her lessons at home, not to be a governess for all of the children.
3. Practicality rather than love and affection moved Georg and Maria to marry. Georg needed a mother figure for the children; in deciding not to return to the convent Maria needed the security of a husband and family . Despite the film's portrayal of their budding romance, Maria admitted in her autobiography Maria, that she was not in love with Georg at the time of their marriage. "I really and truly was not in love. I liked him but didn't love him. However, I loved the children, so in a way I really married the children." Maria did however later intimate that she grew to love Georg over time and enjoyed a happy marriage.
4. Georg is referred to as Baron von Trapp but his actual family title was "Ritter" (German for "knight"). Ritter is a hereditary knighthood closer to the British "baronet" than "baron". Furthermore, the Austrian nobility was legally abolished in 1919 and the nobiliary particle von was proscribed so he was legally "Georg Trapp". In reality however both the title and the von particle continued to be widely used unofficially as a matter of courtesy.
5. Maria and Georg were married in 1927, not in 1938 as depicted in the film. The couple had been married for over a decade by the time of the Anschluss and had two of their three children together by that time.
6. Georg had been offered a position in the Kriegsmarine but this occurred before the Anschluss. He was being heavily recruited by the Nazis because he had extensive experience with submarines and Germany was looking to expand its fleet of U-boats. Unlike in the film, Georg seriously pondered the offer before turning it down. His family was in desperate financial straits and he had no other marketable skills other than his training as a naval officer. He eventually decided that he could not serve a Nazi regime. Rather than threaten arrest, the Nazis actually continued to try to woo him.
7. Georg was never in serious danger of being arrested by the Nazis. He had turned down the Kriegsmarine commission before the Nazis had taken over Austria so they could not have arrested him at that time even if they had wanted. In fact, after leaving Austria, he and the family visited Austria again and stayed for several months in 1939 before departing again for good without incident. This was nearly a year after their emigration and after the Anschluss when the Nazis could have easily detained him.
8. The Anschluss occurred in March, and the Salzburg Music Festival is held in June; therefore, the family could not have escaped after their festival performance before the borders closed. However, it is likely that this is why they are shown hiking over the mountain across the border: to avoid the checkpoints.
9. The bell cord on the real Nonnberg Abbey is strictly a prop created by the film crew and is entirely non-functional. The nuns liked it however and asked that it be left after the film crew vacated.
10. The character Max Detweiler, the scheming family music director, is entirely fictional. The von Trapps' priest, the Reverend Franz Wasner, acted as their musical director for over 20 years and accompanied them when they left Austria.
11. The film shows the von Trapp family hiking over the Alps from Austria to Switzerland, but from Salzburg this would be impossible. Salzburg is only a few kilometers away from the Austrian–German border and is much too far from either the Swiss or Italian borders for the family to reach by walking. In fact, a hike over the mountain from Salzburg would put them in the German town of Berchtesgaden and virtually within sight of Adolph Hitler's vacation cottage at Obersalzberg. However, the family most likely did not intend to leave Salzburg on foot. They are shown to escape from Salzburg by car, so they could have driven through the night to a point closer to the Swiss (or Italian) border before starting their hike.
12. In fact rather than making a daring nighttime hike, the von Trapp family simply walked to the local train station and boarded a train to Italy. Although an ethnic Austrian, Georg was born in the Dalmatian city of Zara, which at that time was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire but fell outside of Austrian territory after the empire was divided following World War I. Because of his birthplace he could legally claim Italian citizenship. From Italy, they traveled to London and ultimately the United States. Maria Franziska von Trapp ("Louisa" in the movie) later intimated, "We did tell people that we were going to America to sing. And we did not climb over mountains with all our heavy suitcases and instruments. We left by train, pretending nothing."
13. Friedrich (the second oldest child in the film version) was based on Rupert, the oldest of the real von Trapp children. Liesl (the oldest child in the film) was based on Agathe von Trapp, the second oldest in the real family. The names and ages of the children were changed, in part because the third child (who would be portrayed as "Louisa") was also named Maria.
14. The film was largely filmed in the city and county of Salzburg and Upper Austria, including sites such as Nonnberg Abbey, and St. Peter Cemetery. Leopoldskron Palace, Frohnburg Palace, and Hellbrunn Palace were some of the locations used for the Trapp estate in the film.

The inaccuracies between the true story and the theatre and film depictions cannot be blamed on the von Trapps themselves. They had given up the rights to their story to a German producer in the 1950s who then sold them to American producers. The von Trapps had little if any input into the subsequent musical and film. Maria in fact was reportedly quite upset with the portrayal of her husband as a humorless taskmaster."

The opening scene and aerial shots were filmed in Anif (Anif Palace), Mondsee, and Salzkammergut (Fuschl am See, St. Gilgen and Saint Wolfgang).

Hohenwerfen Castle served as the main backdrop for the song "Do-Re-Mi". At the Mirabell Gardens in Salzburg, Maria and the children sing "Do-Re-Mi", dancing around the horse fountain and using the steps as a musical scale.