Getting the Geography Straight

 Most Americans are familiar with the scene from The Sound of Music, where the Von Trapp family barely slips out from under the nose of the Nazi Gestapo after a musical performance in Salzburg. They then ditch their car somewhere and hike over the alps to safety in neutral Switzerland. Right? Remember that?  Well, I was thinking about that scene the other day when we hiked (actually, it was more like a comfortable stroll) over the border into Austria from Bavaria. We had passed the sign pointing to Salzburg coming home on the autobahn the Sunday before -- and the geography was not adding up in my head, so I looked it up. Come to find out, my perception of the proximity of Austria and Switzerland has been dead wrong most of my life -- and I lay the blame squarely on the shoulders of this movie. (Who needs to look at a map when they've seen the movie, right?) 😏 Anyway, in the interest of straightening it all out for others who might also have been imagining it wrong all these years, check out the map:

Actors portraying the Von Trapps
in the 1965 musical

Europeans who have seen this movie must have scratched their heads at the escaping over the alps part. I'm guessing most of us in the US, though, just took it as fact, because, let's be honest here -- most Americans (even ones like me, educated in Catholic schools in the '70s and '80s) are pretty ignorant about European geography! (About as ignorant as Europeans are about the American borders between states, to be fair, right?) But, seriously, here's the problem with this scene: 

If you are starting from Salzburg -- which is like a gnat on the "knuckle" of the German finger (on the border, near the daisy) that pokes into Austria -- you cannot just don your lederhosen and hiking boots and willy-nilly hike over to Switzerland. The closest Swiss border lies approximately 334 miles (538 km) away from Salzburg. It would take 4 days to hike over the flattest, easiest terrain -- and would be a crazy thing to try with small children. Which is why the Von Trapps didn't do that. It would have been nuts. The Von Trapp family, in point of fact, didn't hike anywhere in their escape from the Reich, regardless of how dramatic and romantic such an escape would have been. 

The real Von Traps at their home in PA, USA
(c. 1965)

What really happened: After perpetrating the notion that they were going on vacation, the family, all the bigs, littles, mediums, and a pregnant Maria, together with George, a maid and musical director, walked out the back gate of their family villa, crossed over a few train tracks to the train station, and boarded a train for Italy. Not picturesque, but there you have it. The "escape" occurred one day before the Austrian border was sealed by the Nazis in March of 1938, but that was the only close call of the whole endeavor. Family and friends knew in advance what they intended to do, and the trip was well-planned and coordinated.

 After spending a short time in Italy, the family wound up in London. By September of 1938, they'd sailed for New York where they performed in concerts throughout the northeast. As most know, the family ended up settling in the state of Pennsylvania and supported themselves chiefly through music, and eventually books and proceeds from the movie based on their life (1965). Or well, it was sort of based on their life. Names and ages of the children were changed, the courtship  of Maria and George was not as swoony as in the movie -- and they did not hike over the alps. 

Here's the pancake: The crazy fact of the matter is that, if they had actually hiked over the mountains closest to Salzburg, the Von Trapps may well have landed right in the lap of the Nazi powers in Obersalzberg -- the site of Adolf Hitler's famous mountain retreat. It was by far the smarter idea to take the train!

*Sources: https://www.history.com/news/the-real-history-behind-the-sound-of-music

https://the-take.com/read/as-seen-in-the-sound-of-music-did-the-von-trapps-escape-the-nazis-by-hiking-over-the-mountains