page_title: Johanna von Trapp
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Johanna von Trapp / Career
caption_attribution_description: Promotional photo of the Trapp Family Singers. The family was preparing to give a concert in the Boston area in 1941.
context_page_description: Johanna Karolina Gobertina Barbara von Trapp was the sixth child of Georg Ritter von Trapp and his first wife, Agathe. She was a member of the Trapp Family Singers, whose lives were the inspiration for the play and film The Sound of Music. She was portrayed as the character "Marta".
context_section_description: The family left Austria in the summer of 1938 and returned to the US in 1939 after a brief visit to Austria. Just 20 years old, departing Oct. 27th from Bergensford (Sweden) on the 'American Farmer' she and her family began an uncertain unknown journey. Their arrival in the United States began with a stay at Ellis Island, from where they were admitted and shortly thereafter began recording the first album released by RCA. Johanna sang first soprano in the family chorus, together with her sister Agathe von Trapp. After World War II ended, the Trapp family held summer music camps in Stowe Vermont, at which Johanna von Trapp taught aspiring musicians the recorder, cooked for the camp guests and her family.  She was secretary of the Trapp Family Austrian Relief, Inc., co-founded by her father Captain Georg von Trapp, to aide his fellow Austrians caught in dire post WWII needs. Their relief effort partnered with CARE (Cooperative for American Remittance to Europe and now Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere) to send relief packages of food and clothing to Austria. From 1946 to 1950 they sent a total of 275,000 pounds of material. Throughout her singing career and later during her married life, Johanna found time to express her other artistic talents, working with ceramics, sketching and painting water colors. She became a naturalized United States citizen in 1948.
  Johanna von Trapp married Ernst Florian Winter on Easter Monday in 1948 and changed her middle name to Franziska. She had seven children: Ernst Leopold (1949–1969), Florian Stefan (1951), Johanna Maria (1952), Notburga Maria (1953), Hemma Maria (1956 ), Agathe (1957 ) and Severin (1959 ). She lived with her family – four daughters and three sons – in both the United States (West Nyack, NY) and Austria (Salzburg, Schloss Eichbuechl N.O.). With Ernst Florian, she raised her children in an organic homesteading tradition incorporating her rich European heritage into family life.  She was known for her hosting, cooking and preparing feast day meals that often were shared with upwards of 50 guests. Her indomitable go-to spirit and ability to persevere through the loss of her oldest son from a car accident, showed her strength and resilience. She was known to her children as the story teller of her childhood life in the von Trapp family. Approaching life with a great sense of humor and faith, carried her throughout her life.
  During her later years, she focused on painting watercolors and sharing with an up-and-coming younger audience of Sound of Music performers, the true life story behind the musical. Her artwork charmingly expresses flora and fauna in colorful vignettes with an Edelweiss series as a tribute to her father whom she adored and respected. With her sisters Agathe and Maria, Johanna held an exhibition of their combined works of art, in Salzburg 1993.  The following year, she died in Vienna after the effects of a stroke, at the age of 75. Her final resting place is with her husband Ernst Florian Winter (1923–2014) and oldest son, Ernst Leopold, at Gersthof, Vienna, Austria.
caption: The Trapp family rehearsing before a concert, near Boston, 27 September 1941.
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