Son of famed ‘Sound of Music’ couple launched von Trapp family brewery
The youngest of the 10 children of Maria and Georg von Trapp of ‘Sound of Music’ fame started an award-winning brewery at the family’s Vermont resort.
The beloved Broadway show and film “The Sound of Music” tells a fictionalized account of the von Trapp family who fled Austria as Nazi Germany took over Europe in the years leading to World War II.
After the real-life family’s escape from Austria (on train a day before the border’s closed), they toured the United States as the Trapp Family Singers. They then settled in Stowe, Vermont, where they built a guest lodge that open in 1950 tht has expanded and modernized into a year-round resort.
Today, Director and Executive Vice President Kristina von Trapp Frame and her brother, Sam von Trapp, lead the resort. They are the grandchildren of Maria (née Kutschera) and Captain Georg Ludwig Ritter von Trapp descending from the couple’s youngest child, Johannes.
“It seems like a great movie,” von Trapp Frame said of the 1965 film starring Julie Andrews as her grandmother, Maria von Trapp, “but not necessarily about my family.”
Frame sat down with the Burlington Free Press this summer, as the resort celebrated its 75th anniversary, and focused on its rebranding.
“The overall feeling of our property we still want to be the same,” she said during that interview. “There’s this sense of ahh – presence and peacefulness. People just slow down a bit.”
Who were the von Trapp children
The actual von Trapp children were, oldest to youngest, Rupert, Agathe, Maria, Werner, Hedwig, Johanna, Martina, Rosmarie, Eleonore and Johanne. The oldest seven children of the captain and his first wife, Agathe, and were the characters used in the movie. The youngest three were Georg and Maria’s children.
Rosmarie and Eleonore were born in Austria. Johanne, who is in his mid-80s and now retired, is the only one of the children born in the United States.
According to von Trapp Frame, the older generation did not embrace “The Sound of Music” comparisons. The new generation is finding ways for the resort is “blend it gently” with the family’s real story, according to von Trapp Frame.
“As you can imagine our family had a more complex relationship with ‘The Sound of Music’ than many other people did,” Sam von Trapp told the Free Press in 2024. “It’s easier with each generation to form their own relationship with it.”
The movie was based on the Rodger and Hammerstein Broadway musical, which was based on Maria Trapp’s 1949 book, “The Story of the Trapp Family Singers.”
Buy Maria Trapp’s “The Story of the Trapp Family Singers”
Trapp Family Lodge rebranded in 2025
Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe is now known as the von Trapp Family Lodge & Resort. The hotel, restaurant and outdoor recreation complex wanted to take on its 75th year with a message that reflected its history, presence and future.
Can you visit von Trapp Family Lodge & Resort without staying there?
The four-star hotel and resort offers many amenities for visitors close on 2,600-acres at the foot of Mount Mansfield, Vermont’s highest mountain in Stowe. The resort hosts events, weddings and many seasonal activities.
The restaurants and brewery are open to non-guests. Visitors can also purchase trail/property passes or tickets to any of the resort’s tours or activities.
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.burlingtonfreepress.com ’
