Let’s start at the very beginning – famously, a very good place to start. Just two decades after World War II, a Hollywood crew arrived in Salzburg with stars, show tunes, and a compelling, mostly true story of love and resistance to Adolf Hitler: The Sound of Music. The Austrian city, still recovering economically and morally from the Nazi era, wasn’t quite ready for them. Although director Robert Wise was allowed to use the stunning Alpine scenery and the old town’s historic buildings, scenes like soldiers marching across the central Residenzplatz under swastika flags made local authorities very uncomfortable. When the film premiered in 1965, it ran for a couple of weeks, closed due to poor ticket sales, and was largely forgotten locally. That is, until the tour buses started arriving.
Most Austrians – and Germans – still have never seen the five-time Oscar-winning film starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. But a new museum in Salzburg dedicated to the movie and its real-life anti-Nazi singing family aims to reconcile this global cultural icon with its long-ambivalent hometown. The road to Austria’s growing acceptance has been full of dramatic ups and downs, like something only the budding nun Maria and her angelic charges could sing about. “Beneath all the kitsch, this is also a film about resistance,” co-curator Matthias Bergsmann said during a tour of the exhibition. “It was about saying no to national socialism. And about a family who said: if we stick together we will endure, and music will save us. For all its beautiful images and songs, the film has depth.”
The nearly three-hour film was rarely shown on Austrian television until a special screening last Christmas for its 60th anniversary. The dubbed version, called Meine Lieder – meine Träume (My Songs – My Dreams), remains obscure in Germany as well. The 1959 Broadway musical and the later film were based on a popular memoir by Maria von Trapp. In it, she described how, as a spirited young novice, she was hired by Georg von Trapp, a widowed father and former submarine commander in the Austro-Hungarian navy, to care for his seven children. Difficult circumstances and closeness soon led to love. The Nazi annexation of Austria forced the family, who had already begun performing together in the 1930s, to flee their homeland. Driven by strong opposition to Hitler as well as financial worries, they left everything behind to start new lives in the US as professional singers.
Bergsmann said the reasons for Austria’s cold reception were not as simple as embarrassment over the Nazi period, especially given the many World War II films produced in German in the following decades. “At the time, it was perhaps simply too early to tackle this subject in this way, seen as sentimental. Perhaps the wounds were still too deep, or the process of coming to terms with the past was only just beginning.” He said Salzburg locals also complained that Hollywood scrambled their landmarks and the von Trapps’ story for the sake of the script, such as having them flee Austria on foot to Switzerland when they actually left for South Tyrol by train.
Days after the opening, the museum was packed with international visitors and a few locals. “It was top of my bucket list, my dream location since I was a kid,” said Jemimah Daniel, 29, a youth librarian from Christchurch, New Zealand. Her partner Rhys Harris, 30, saiMany parents used to turn off the television during the movie “when the Nazis come.” “So I never knew about that part until I was an adult, and I thought, wow, OK, they actually touch on some real things.”
Clockwise from top left: vintage memorabilia, a framed photo of the Von Trapp family in the US, family photos on the wall, and illustrations.
The exhibit is in the coach house and hunting lodge of the majestic 17th-century Hellbrunn Palace, whose grounds were used in the “I Have Confidence” scene, in which a euphoric Maria leaves the abbey to become a governess. It also boasts the glass gazebo that inspired the set of the “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” duet between Liesl and Rolf, as well as Maria and Georg’s first declaration of love. The building work cost €4.6m (£4m) in public funds, while another €1.8m went into the exhibition, including original costumes, film posters, and private Super 8 films recorded on set.
Clockwise from top left: Sound of Music posters from around the world, a still of Christopher Plummer and Julie Andrews from the film, and a visitor taking a selfie by the gazebo.
A reconstruction of the gazebo inside shows a restored copy of the playful “Do-Re-Mi” scenes shot at Mirabell Gardens on a loop, and visitors are invited to sing along. Access to the real pavilion outside had to be restricted after too many guests danced in it and caused damage.
A reconstruction of the real gazebo.
Upstairs are von Trapp family relics, including a winter dirndl worn by the real Maria, Georg’s naval uniform complete with a sabre, and a journal from the von Trapps’ flight to the US. Caroline Dolley, 55, a companion for elderly people from Chester, England, called the museum “a joyful place”: “I only recently watched The Sound of Music in its entirety for the first time ever. It’s stood the test of time really well.”
It’s “a joyful place,” said Caroline Dolley.
Helmut and Margarete Zoufall, native Salzburgers, wanted to learn more about the film after decades of watching giddy tourists “hop around” on the city monuments. “I remember in the 1970s Americans coming into a record shop and asking for the Austrian national anthem – they thought it was ‘Edelweiss’!” Margarete, 73, said, laughing.
Margarete and Helmut Zoufall.
Helmut, 81, remembered seeing the movie crew at Nonnberg’s hilltop abbey as a young man. “It was always said that the film was made too soon after the war. People were starving and didn’t want to be reminded of that period,” he said. “But time has passed.” Dutch child psychotherapist Weeke von der Kooi, 66, said she loved the movie for its “romance and hope” but never knew it was based on a true story. With rightwing extremism on the rise again, she said, “it’s like history repeating – it’s awful.”
Elisabeth von Trapp.
Elisabeth von Trapp, a granddaughter of Georg and his previous wife Agathe, divides her time between Vermont and Salzburg, where she offers guided tours. Although the movie made her family world famous, she said it irked them that their story got warped by Hollywood. “When they saw the film, they were going, ‘that’s not how I experienced it,'” von Trapp, 72, said, citing for example the captain’s inaccurate portrayal as harsh and remote. “I’m so thrilled that they have a section in this exhibit that tells their true story.” She is grateful Austrians are restoring the von Trapp legacy in their homeland. “I just hope this museum will help say, ‘look, this family was from your own back yard,'” she said, describing their story as a “wake-up call” inIn a tense political era, “They returned in 1950 and performed three major concerts in Salzburg. They issued a powerful message, saying it was time to rebuild and that the events of those years must never happen again.” Elisabeth von Trapp sang at the opening of the Sound of Music museum in Salzburg. According to Bergsmann, social media has recently sparked interest in The Sound of Music among younger audiences, especially in Southeast Asia. The timeless Rodgers and Hammerstein songs are popular on YouTube, and a scene where Georg tears down the Nazi flag and rips it in half has become a favorite gif for opponents of the far right. Plans for the museum go back to the 1980s. It took decades to find the right location, secure government funding, and resolve copyright issues. The museum will serve the roughly 300,000 people who visit the city each year mainly because of its connection to the film—putting it on par with local figure Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as a tourist attraction, Bergsmann said.
Frequently Asked Questions
FAQs A Joyful Place New Museum Encourages Austrians to Embrace The Sound of Music
1 What is A Joyful Place
Its a new museum in Austria dedicated to the film The Sound of Music and its reallife inspiration the von Trapp family
2 Where is the museum located
Its in Salzburg the city where much of the film is set and where the real von Trapp family lived
3 Why does Austria need a museum about The Sound of Music
For decades many Austrians dismissed the film as a Hollywood fantasy The museum aims to help them see it as part of their cultural heritageand as a story worth celebrating
4 Why have Austrians historically disliked the film
Many felt it painted an inaccurate overly sentimental picture of Austria and glossed over the countrys Nazi past Some also saw it as an American invention rather than a true Austrian story
5 What can visitors see at the museum
Expect original props costumes photographs letters and audio recordings along with exhibits on the real von Trapp family and the making of the film
6 Who was the real Maria von Trapp
She was a young woman who became governess to the von Trapp children married their father and later led the family out of Austria after the Nazi takeover The film is loosely based on her memoir
7 How is the real story different from the movie
The family left Austria by train not by climbing over the Alps They were also more musically accomplished than the film suggests and Maria was stricter than her movie counterpart
8 What is the main goal of the museum
To bridge the gap between the films global popularity and Austrian prideencouraging locals to embrace the story as part of their own history
9 Who is behind the project
Its a joint effort by Austrian cultural institutions historians and private investors with input from the von Trapp family descendants
10 When did it open
It opened in 2024 timed to coincide with renewed global interest in the film and its 60th anniversary
11 How much does admission cost
Adult tickets are around 14 with discounts for students seniors and families Children under 6 get in free
