Must-watchInterwar · Film · 1965
The Sound of Music
A free-spirited novice becomes governess to the seven children of a strict naval captain in Salzburg and fills their house with music, just as Nazi Germany reaches for Austria.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 4 places.
Stop 1: Nonnberg Abbey, Salzburg
Maria, a novice who would rather sing on the hills than keep the abbey's rules, is sent away to work as a governess.
Stop 2: Villa Trapp, Aigen
Key location
In the captain's villa, Maria wins over seven mischievous children with songs and play clothes, and slowly wins over their father too.
Stop 3: Felsenreitschule, Salzburg
After the Anschluss, the family sings at the Salzburg Festival while the new regime waits for the captain to accept a German command.
Stop 4: The Alps near the Untersberg
Refusing to serve Hitler, the captain leads his family on foot into the mountains toward freedom.
What really happened
The story is based on the real von Trapp family. Maria Kutschera, a novice at Nonnberg Abbey, came to the house of the widowed naval hero Georg von Trapp as a tutor in 1926 and married him in 1927; the family choir she helped build won first prize at the Salzburg Festival's choral competition in 1936. On 12 March 1938 German troops crossed into Austria, and the Anschluss was sealed by a staged plebiscite a month later.
The film compresses a decade into a single year and reshapes the characters: the real Georg was a warm father, and the children's names and ages were changed. The Trapps did not escape over the mountains; they left openly by train for Italy in 1938. The Untersberg, where the film's final hike begins, actually leads toward Germany and Hitler's retreat at Berchtesgaden.
Where to watch
Checking streaming services…
Full details
- Original title
- The Sound of Music
- Directed by
- Robert Wise
- Countries
- United States
- Languages
- English
- Released
- 1965
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- Western Europe
- Themes
- Romance
- True story
- Politics
