[5] Trapp's accomplishments during World War I earned him numerous decorations, including the Military Order of Maria Theresa.

Georg Ludwig Ritter von Trapp was born in Zara, Dalmatia, then a Crown Land of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (present-day Zadar, Croatia).

His older sister was the Austrian artist Hede von Trapp, and his brother Werner died in 1915 during World War I.

[8] In 1894, aged fourteen, Trapp followed in his father's footsteps and joined the Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Navy, entering the naval academy at Fiume (now Rijeka).

[8] As part of their required education, all naval cadets were taught to play a musical instrument; Georg von Trapp selected the violin.

[8] In 1900, he was assigned to the protected cruiser SMS Zenta and was decorated for his performance during the Boxer Rebellion in China, in which he participated in the assault on the Taku Forts.

In hunting and sinking Gambetta, Trapp achieved a notable success as commander of the first-ever underwater nighttime (and only the second) submarine attack on a vessel in the Adriatic.

Some sources incorrectly credit Trapp with sinking the Italian troop transport and armed merchant cruiser Principe Umberto,[12] which resulted in the greatest loss of life in any submarine attack in World War I, but the ship was actually sunk by U-5, commanded by Friedrich Schlosser.

The British government rejected Whitehead's invention, but Austrian Emperor Franz Josef invited him to open a torpedo factory in Fiume.

[8][23] Agathe's inherited wealth sustained the couple and permitted them to start a family, and they had two sons and five daughters over the next ten years.

After his eldest son also announced his intention to refuse to benefit from anti-Semitism and to similarly decline a medical position at a prestigious Vienna hospital that had just fired all Jewish doctors, Georg von Trapp realized that the writing was on the wall.

After Georg advised them that they must choose between a life of comfort or become refugees and keep their honour,[28] the Trapp family decided to emigrate from Nazi Austria.

On leaving Austria, the Trapps traveled by train to Italy (not over the mountains by foot to Switzerland as is depicted in The Sound of Music).

Once in Italy, they contacted the agent and requested fare to America,[28] first traveling to London, before sailing to the United States for their first concert tour.

From there, they traveled to Norway to begin the trip back to the United States in September 1939, just after World War II broke out.

[9] After living for a short time in Merion, Pennsylvania, where their youngest child, Johannes, was born, the family settled in Stowe, Vermont, in 1941.

[1] In January 1947, Major General Harry J. Collins turned to the Trapp family in the US pleading for help for the Austrian people, having seen first-hand the suffering of the residents of Salzburg when he had arrived there with the 42nd Infantry Division after World War II.