Maria Agusta Kutschera was born on a train enroute to Vienna just before midnight on January 26, 1905. Maria’s mother died when she was two years old. Her father left her with an elderly cousin so that he could be free to travel. She experienced a lonely and very strict upbringing without any siblings or other children in the household. The movie strongly portrays Maria as the epitome of religious devotion in and out of convent life. Most people are unaware that she was raised as a socialist and atheist and became actively cynical towards all religions. Those beliefs quickly and dramatically changed by the chance meeting of a visiting Jesuit priest to Maria’s college.
Maria had entered a crowded church assuming she was about to enjoy a concert by Bach. Instead, a well known priest, Father Kronseder has just began preaching. Caught in the middle of a standing-room-only crowd, Maria soon found herself caught up in the words of this preacher.
Though Maria was intensely devoted to her convent, she was taken away from the outdoor activities she once thrived on. Her doctor was concerned her health was failing due to a lack of fresh air and exercise. This was when the decision was made to send Maria to the home of retired naval captain Georg von Trapp. Her position was not governess to all the children, as the movie portrayed, but specifically to the captain’s daughter who was bedridden with rheumatic fever. The rest is truly history. Maria never returned to the convent and married the Captain on November 26, 1927.
For much more on Maria and the Trapps, read the history of the Trapp family on the Trapp Family Lodge website, where the above info comes from.
If you’d like to see the place the Trapps lived, and where the movie was set, take a trip to the Salzburg tourism office.