Rupert von Trapp

Infobox Person
name = Rupert von Trapp


image_size = 200px
birth_date = birth date|1911|11|1|mf=y
birth_place = Pola, Istria, Austria
death_date = flagicon|Vermont Death date and age|1992|2|22|1911|11|1
death_place = Stowe, Vermont
nationality = Austrian
occupation = singer
spouse = 1) Henriette Lajoie, divorced, and 2) to Janice Tyre
children = George, Monique, Elizabeth "Tizza", Christopher, Stephanie, Francoise (from his first wife)

Rupert von Trapp born November 1 1911 in Pola, now known as Pula, Croatia, was a member of the Trapp Family Singers, whose lives were the inspiration for the play and movie The Sound of Music. He was born ten months after his parents marriage. His father was Georg Ludwig von Trapp, his mother Agathe Whitehead (1890-1922).

Early life

Rupert grew up in Zell am See during WW I with his silblings: Agathe von Trapp - also born in Pola - (1913), Maria Franziska von Trapp (1914), Werner von Trapp (1915-2007), Hedwig von Trapp (1917-1972) and Johanna von Trapp (1919-1994). The last sister Martina von Trapp (1921-1951) was born in Klosterneuburg (Austria). The Trapp Family moved from Zell-am-See to Klosterneuburg, because there home called a lake hotel called "Kitzsteinhorn" were flooded. Bevore living in the hotel, the Trapp Family lived on a farm called "Erlhof" near Agathe Whitehad von Trapps mothers and her sisters.

1922 died Ruperts mother of scarlet fever and was buried in Klosterneuburg. Rupert was nearly eleven years old.

1925 moved the Trapp Family to Salzburg-Aigen. Rupert entered a public school, together with Werner, his sisters went to the Ursuline covent.

1927 remarried his father Georg Ludwig von Trapp, Maria Augusta Kutschera (1905-1987) , the teacher from Ruperts sisters Maria Franziska and Johanna. Georg and Maria Augusta had three children together: Rosemarie (1929), Eleonore (1931) and Johannes (1939).

Career

Rupert studied medicine and became a Austrian citizen. His hobby was to play the accordion and the piano. Later, in the family chorus, he sang bass.

1938 Rupert had a possibility of a have a good job in Vienna but refused because the job was being taken away from a Jewish doctor by the Nazis.

The Trapp Family left Austria in summer of this year and went to America. Rupert was now in his middle-twenties. He went on tour with his silblings and his stepmother, and entered the army, together with Werner in 1942. Rupert came back in 1945.

In 1947, few months after the death of his father Georg Ludwig in May of the same year, he married Henriette Lajoie, had six children with her, and left the family chorus forever.

Rupert died 1992 at the age of 80 and was buried at the Lodge in Vermont, next to his father, his stepmother and his siblings: Werner, Hedwig and Martina.

Trivia

Rupert was portrayed as the character "Friedrich" in The Sound of Music .

Rupert became a naturalized United States citizen in 1948.

Books

Maria Augusta von Trapp: „Vom Kloster zum Welterfolg“ (German)

Ebenda, „Von Welterfolg zu Welterfolg“ (German)

Ebenda, „Gestern, heute, immerdar“ (German)

External links

* http://www.trappfamily.com (The Homepage from the Trapp Family)
* http://www.geocities.com/vlsmarble/rtrivia.html (Differences the real Trapp Family contra the informations in „The Sound of Music)
* http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2005/winter/von-trapps.html (Some Informations about the Trapp Family)
* http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=22158196 (Ruperts birthday and deathday)