Empire Days

First: Naval, not Navel

Second: At the time of the Captain's service (probably during World War I), Austria was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which certainly had a navy and ports in the Balkans. I agree, however, that reference to an Austrian Navy is not exactly correct.

 

history

[I agree with the Empire Days comment. To be more specific, the part of the Empire that was technically Austria extended into what is now northern Italy, and had seaports. Keep in mind that the von Trapps were real people. He really was a sea captain, and he was decorated by the Emperor.]

 

Why do they want him?

Yes, von Trapp was an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Navy in WW I. But in the movie the Nazis quickly realize that in order to get him to accept a commission in the German Navy he needs to be ambushed by SS/SA men outside his home at night and forcibly escorted to Bremerhaven. I mean, what kind of navy (or army, air force, etc.) wants a commissioned officer who has to be dragged kicking and screaming to a base? Before WW I Germany had the second largest navy in the world, and very few of its officers were killed outside of the U-boat service (and the record of Austria-Hungary's navy were nothing to make you want to rush out and hire their people). So obviously they had plenty of talent of von Trapp's vintage to draw on without having to dragoon a guy into service who might well use the first warship under his command as a means of defecting. The performance of the German Navy in WW II would indicate that its officers were highly motivated.

 

Who says Austrian Navy?

I cannot recall anyone saying that the Captain is a member of the Austrian Navy. The Mother Abbess says "Imperial Navy", which is correct. Captain Von Trapp WAS a member of the Imperial Navy.

 

Loose ends

Amplifying Comment 11362, Captain von Trapp served in the Imperial Navy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Comment 11173 is well answered by Comment 26747 to Nitpick 39643, not written by me. I would only add that the German Navy (unlike the Wehrmacht) had a number of patriotic officers who were not enthusiastic Nazis. The senior officers of both the Graf Spee and the Bismarck are examples. Perhaps they thought that the Nazis were just a passing phenomenon and that sanity would soon be restored. Von Trapp was wiser and fled.

Finally, the Nazi heirarchy consisted of a bunch of diaffected low-life losers who couldn't make it in the Weimar Republic. Their idiot 'Master Race' nonsense was just overcompensation for an obvious sense of inferiority. According to them, all their troubles were due to someone else, Western Democracies, Jews, Gypsies, labor unions, homosexuals, Communists, Christianity, etc, etc, never themselves. To get an actual Austrian nobleman like Georg von Trapp to serve them would have been a coup. He, of course, despised them for the garbage they were.

 

It's True

Georg von Trapp was an actual naval hero from the days of World War I. Then the "Austrian Navy" was in reality called the Imperial Navy in reference to the great imperial days of the empire. Austria was a part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire and lost her sea cost in the Treaty of Versailles that redrew the boundaries of Europe when the Americans and the British won the war. \r\rIt is believe that in actuality it was the lost of the sea coast, something the Captain loved since childhood that caused him to become the distant and lonely man that he was depicted as in the movie coupled with the loss of his wife when their youngest child was approximately a year old.