To the Last Salute: Memories of an Austrian U-Boat Commander

Introduction

Introduction MeettheRealCaptainvonTrapp Georg Johannes Ritter von Trapp was born in Zara on the Dalmatian coast, then Austrian territory, on April 4, 1880, to August and Hedwig Wepler von Trapp. He had a sister Hedwig and a brother Werner. August von Trapp was an Austrian naval officer, who died of typhoid fever when Georg was only four years old. His widow, Hedwig, managed to raise her three children on a small pension, moving first to her mother’s home in Eisenach, Germany, and then to Graz, Austria, where the children went to school. Georg went to the naval academy in Fiume to learn to be an officer. In those days the schooling included etiquette, dancing, and violin lessons because the officers were allowed to go to social events, including court balls. They needed to know correct behavior and appropriate conversation for such occasions. As was the custom, Georg’s graduating class sailed around the world in a schooner. They got as far as Australia and then went up the coast of China, taking measurements (for their maps, no doubt). They did not continue across the Pacific but went home the way they had come. They stopped in Egypt, where a fortuneteller grabbed Georg’s hand and predicted, “You will have two wives, you will have ten children, you will see two world wars, and you will live to be one hundred years old.” He was shocked at these improbable predictions, especially since he had not sought her advice in the first place. Ironically, all but the last one came true, though when given, each seemed more unlikely than the next. In the Holy Land, Georg met a Franciscan monk who took him on a tour of all the Biblical sights he wanted to see. Among other things, Georg bought seven bottles of Jordan water; they were later used to baptize his first seven children. In 1908 Georg was commissioned by the Austrian navy to study the design and construction of torpedoes and submarines at the Whitehead factory in Fiume.1 While in Fiume, he was invited to a party where Agathe Breunner Whitehead played the piano and her daughter Agathe played the violin.2 It was love at first sight. Agathe invited Georg to visit her family’s summer home at Zell am See, Austria. Their summer home was a chalet named the Erlhof, with a spectacular view of the alp called the Kitzsteinhorn. Georg and Agathe continued to see each other, attending balls and parties during the social seasons of Pola, Trieste , and Fiume. When U-5 was to be launched for the first time in 1909, Agathe was chosen to christen the vessel; standing close by on the platform was Kapitänleutnant von Trapp.3 Coincidentally, Georg commanded the U-5 a few years later in the war. The romance between Agathe and Georg continued at the leisurely pace that was customary in those days. They were married on January 10, 1911, and lived in the Trapp villa in Pola, Austria. Their first child, Rupert Georg von Trapp, was born November 1, 1911, in Pola; Agathe followed on March 12, 1913. When Maria Francisca arrived on September 28, 1914, Agathe sent her husband a telegram to inform him, but because of the war, personal telegrams to the military were not allowed. They had agreed ahead of time on a code, so she telegrammed, “S.M.S. Maria arrived.”4 Papá, as his children referred to him, was much beloved as a father. His children remember him romping around with them, playing Indians with them, and teaching them simple songs the navy men sang.5 When he came home on leave from the war, they remember being quiet so he could sleep, and then, when they couldn’t wait any longer, singing outside his door to awaken him. But when the leave was over, there was never any dramatic good-bye. He was suddenly gone, and then, just as suddenly, he appeared during his next leave. xiv INTRODUCTION During the war Georg’s family moved to Zell am See, to the Whitehead family’s Erlhof. It was a safe haven, with a selfsustaining farm, outbuildings for laundry, wood, an ice cellar, a gardener’s house, a farmhouse, and stables. It had a dock and a boathouse on the lake since trips to town (directly across the lake) were made by boat. As an English...