Maria Augusta von Trapp DHS, often styled as “Baroness”, was the stepmother and matriarch of the Trapp Family Singers. She wrote The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, which was published in 1949 and was the inspiration for the 1956 West German film The Trapp Family, which in turn inspired the 1959 Broadway musical The Sound of Music and its 1965 film version.
Georg von Trapp on the bridge of submarine U-5 of the Austro-Hungarian Navy (1915)
Trapp Family Singers preparing for a concert in Boston in 1941. Maria is the third from left, in a dark suit.
Maria von Trapp's certificate of arrival at Niagara Falls, New York, on 30 December 1942
The family cemetery in 2022. Maria's grave is on the left
The Trapp Family was a singing group formed from the family of former Austrian naval commander Georg von Trapp. The family achieved fame in their original singing career in their native Austria during the interwar period. They also performed in the United States before emigrating there permanently to escape the deteriorating situation in Austria leading up to World War II. In the United States, they became well known as the "Trapp Family Singers" until they ceased to perform as a unit in 1957. The family's story later served as the basis for a memoir, two German films, and the Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway musical The Sound of Music. The last surviving of the original seven, Maria Franziska, died in 2014 at the age of 99. The youngest and last surviving member of the Trapp Family Singers is Johannes von Trapp.
The Trapp Family in January 1946. Photograph by Conrad Poirier.
The Trapp Family rehearsing before a concert, near Boston, 27 September 1941.
Cor Unum (later the "Trapp Family Lodge"), home of the Trapp Family Singers in the U.S., in 1954
Baroness Maria von Trapp (front) and five of her ten singing children (back row, left to right) Agatha, Hedwig and Johanna; (center, left to right) Marie and Martina.