Austrian Naval Officer. He was the patriarch of the talented von Trapp Family, who were the inspiration for the 1965 American musical drama film, "The Sound of Music." Unfortunately, the musical takes some liberties with the true story of the von Trapp Family. Born Georg Trapp in Zara, Croatia in what was then a part of the Austria-Hungary Empire, he followed his father's Navy career by entering the naval academy in Fiume. Graduating in 1898, he completed two years of cadet training, including a trip to Australia. In 1900, he was assigned to the cruiser "Queen Maria Theresia" and was decorated for his performance of duty during the Boxer Rebellion in China. Fascinated by submarines, in 1908, he transferred to the newly created U-Boat Division, and in 1910, he was given command of the newly commissioned Austrian submarine U-6. On March 1, 1912, he married Agathe Whitehead, an Englishwoman; they would have seven children. On April 22, 1915, he took command of the submarine U-5, conducting nine combat patrols, and in October of 1915, he was given command of the captured French submarine "Curie," which was redesignated as the U-14, conducting ten additional war patrols. Overall, he sank 12 cargo ships, totaling 45,670 tons, and two warships, the 12,600-tons French cruiser "Leon Gambetta" and the 225-ton Italian submarine "Nereide". In May of 1918, he was promoted to Captain and given command of the submarine base on the Gulf of Cattaro. Although the Austria-Hungary Empire was defeated and collapsed at the end of World War I, he was awarded for his war service the Knight's Cross of the Order of Maria Theresia and a knighthood, thus adding the titles Ritter and von to his family name. Settling in Salzburg, Austria, tragedy struck the family in 1922, when his wife died of scarlet fever, and he became the sole care giver of his children. In 1926, the Mother Abbess of the Nonnberg Benedictine Convent sent the young novice Maria Augusta Kutschera to be the governess to the children of Captain von Trapp. Very quickly, he and the governess fell in love, and on November 26, 1927, he married Maria, and she became the stepmother of 7 children. Two years later, Rosemarie von Trapp was born, the couple's first child, and in 1931, Eleonore was born. During the Great Depression with the banks collapsing in 1935 and the family business failing, he started a poultry farm to support his family. In 1936, his wife and family friend Monsignor Franz Wasner began the Trapp Family Singers, and they soon became well-known when they received high honors at the 1936 Salzburg Music Festival. In 1938, Austria and Nazi Germany were united in the Anschluss Union, but he made little secret that he was horrified at the rise of this powerful political force. Nazi dictator Adolph Hitler invited them to sing at his birthday celebration, but he declined. The Nazi Forces also offered him a commission as a Captain, with the command of a submarine base; again, he refused. With increased Nazi pressure to embrace the new regime, the family decided to escape the deteriorating political situation in Austria for the United States. After touring through several European countries, they emigrated to the United States, initially settling in Merion, Pennsylvania where their last child, son Johannes von Trapp, was born. In 1942, they purchased the old Gale Farm in Stowe, Vermont, which in 1950 became the von Trapp Family Lodge, offering guests sweeping mountain views in an Austrian-style main lodge. After his death, his wife published in 1950 the family story in the book, "The Trapp Family Singers," which eventually was turned into a stage play in 1959 and the award-winning movie, "The Sound of Music" in 1965. Among the many awards that the film "The Sound of Music" received were five Academy Awards, Golden Globe Awards for Best Picture and Best Actress, and in 2001, the United States Library of Congress selected the film to be archived in the National Film Registry, finding it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and preserving his family's story perpetually.