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By The Native Team September 30, 2020 • 5 min read

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Many would have heard or watched the famous film The Sound of Music starring Hollywood stars like Christopher Plummer and Julie Andrews, an adaptation of the real-life journey that the Von Trapp Family Singers went through during the annexation of Austria. As dreamy and moving as the film portrays the storyline, some of the details of the film are not as accurate as they seem - leading to much dispute and disagreement from the Austrian people. After some research, here are the key points you need to know about the truth behind the Sound of Music! 

The Austrians are not fond of the film at all, or have yet to see it 

sound of music
© soundofmusic

Even though the Sound of Music was internationally recognised and adored, it was a flop in Austria and Germany. In 1965, the movie only ran for only three weeks in Austria and it was not shown on local  television until 2000. The general sentiment is that Austrians do not approve of the film’s Americanized portrayal of their culture, with several inaccuracies in the story. 

Maria was not a governess for the children 

maria
© Youtube

Maria was indeed trained and raised in a Salzburg Abbey to become a nun. However, instead of being a governes,  Maria was hired as a tutor for one of the children, Maria, who was recovering from scarlet fever. 

Contrary to her portrayal as a gentle and sweet teacher, the real-life Maria was not always gentle to the children. She tended to erupt into angry outbursts that involved lots of yelling and slamming of doors and would discipline the children often. On the other hand, the Captain, Georg von Trapp was seen to raise the children with an iron first in the film but in reality, he was a gentle and warm-hearted parent who indulged in musical activities with the family. 

The real Von Trapp family

von trapp family
© Commons.wikimedia

In the Sound of Music, the Von Trapp family children are portrayed as mischievous, rebellious kids that were uncontrollable by all the previous governess. Only when Maria came along, the children seemed to only grasp the first lessons of music from her. 

In actual fact, The Von Trapp family did not learn about music from Maria, but from a young priest named Father Franz Wasner. When he heard the family sing in a four-part harmony, Wasner thought that they had potential and began teaching them on a regular basis. In 1937 they made their first European tour as professional singers—the Trapp Family Choir. 

The names of the children were changed as well in the movie and there were actually 10 children instead of 7. None of them actually fell for a Nazi and Liesl was not “16 going on 17”! As such there were many inaccuracies pertaining to the Von Trapp family history. 

There were a lot of misconceptions about Austria culture and history

austria
© Elias Maurer

One of the common misconceptions that people usually have is that the tune of “Edelweiss” belonged to the national anthem or a traditional Austrian folk song, when it was in fact neither of them. It was actually a original composition for the Broadway musical and the actual national anthem is actually called “ Land der Berge, Land am Strome” which stands for “Land of Mountains, Land of Rivers”

The film also painted Salzburg and Austria as a whole in an unrealistic light - it distorted the image of Salzberg by romanticizing it. Many visitors would only see the city as how it was presented in the film, failing to recognise the true essence of Salzberg, with its history of music, its quaint domestic life, and its more contemporary culture.

The Von Trapp Family did not Cross the Alps to Escape 

alps
© Wikipedia

As for their escape, the family did not plan a secret mission to climb over the Alps in the wee hours of the night to escape the clutches of the Nazi army. In reality, they pretended to attend a hiking trip and fled from Austrian territory by train to Italy. 

 The climb on the Switzerland Alps was falsely painted in the movie and it was quite impossible to reach the mountains overnight as it is actually about 300 kilometres away from Salzburg. In fact, the “Switzerland mountains” that was portrayed in the film was actually Mount Untersberg, which is just 20min away from Salzburg’s city centre. 

The “Sound of Music” is still a brilliant film nevertheless and credit has to be given for its cinematics as well as catchy soundtracks. If you haven’t seen it before, it is great to give it a watch and enjoy this adaptation of the Von Trapp family! Then again, it is important to keep in mind these factors listed above and understand that this film is not a wholly accurate representation of Austrian culture and there is so much to explore and learn about Austria beyond what is portrayed in the film.

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The Native Team


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