Clare Walker on Lessons From the Von Trapp Family

"The story of the .'Family von Trapp' has enchanted people of all faiths since it was put to music by Rodgers and Hammerstein in the Broadway and Hollywood hit musical The Sound of Music, and although the popular portrayal of Fraulein Maria and all those children has taken on fairy-tale status across the world, it has a solid foundation in reality. 

"Around the Year With the von Trapp Family - published in 1955 and now reprinted for a new generation of Catholic families - confirms what the musical portrays: Maria really was a postulant at a Benedictine convent in Salzburg, Austria, and she really did become governess in the employ of World War I Navy veteran and widower Georg von Trapp. Maria and Georg really did fall in love, get married, and sing with the family at festivals all over Europe, and they really did flee Austria after the Nazi takeover.

"The musical ended there, and the credits rolled - but the real-life story of the von Trapps was far from over. As Maria relates in her memoirs, by 1939, Maria and Georg had had two children of their own and had another on the way. Just as war was breaking out all over the Continent, the von Trapps emigrated to America, where they continued to perform as a family. In 1942 they purchased an old farm in Stowe, Vermont."

In a recent recent commentary, writer Clare Walker reflected on a new edition of Around the Year with the von Trapp Family and on some insights on family life and family unity the von Trapp family offer.

To access the complete National Catholic Register post, please visit:

National Catholic Register: Blogs: Clare Walker: A Few of Our Favorite (Traditional) Things: Lessons From the Von Trapp Family (2 MAR 19)

Related link:

History of the von Trapp Family (from the Trapp Family Lodge website)