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Austrians Protest Von Trapp Hotel Plan

By WILLIAM J. KOLE,
AP
Posted: 2008-05-19 20:18:25
Filed Under: World News
VIENNA, Austria (May 19) -- The hills are alive ... with the sound of protest.

Plans to run a hotel out of a former home of the von Trapp family immortalized in the movie "The Sound of Music" have triggered fierce resistance from neighbors who fear tourists will tie up traffic and make a nuisance of themselves.

Photo Gallery

Andreas Schaad, AP

Von Trapp Tourism
Irks Some Neighbors

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This villa on the outskirts of Salzburg, Austria, once belonged to the von Trapp family, immortalized in "The Sound of Music." Now the house is set to be turned into a hotel. But some neighborhood residents are protesting, saying the area is already overrun with tourists.


"We will fight this with all means at our disposal," said Andreas Braunbruck, who lives near the Villa Trapp in a neighborhood of Salzburg already teeming with "Sound of Music" tourists seeking a glimpse of the house.

"Buses and cars are constantly in the street in front of our homes as it is," he told Austrian television on Sunday.

The 125-year-old, pale yellow villa trimmed in white and black is perched on the outskirts of Salzburg, where the 1965 film starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer was made.

The original Broadway musical and the film tell the story of a World War II-era Austrian nun-turned-nanny who cared for a widower's seven children, taught them how to sing and eventually fell in love with him. It altered some details of the family's history.

Baron Georg Ludwig von Trapp, the real-life widower, lived in the villa with his family from 1923 to 1938. After the Nazis confiscated the property in 1939, SS chief Heinrich Himmler moved in and stayed until 1945.

The von Trapps emigrated to the U.S. and settled in Vermont, where their family lodge in Stowe remains a popular tourist attraction in its own right.

Even though the Salzburg villa is the real deal, it does not appear in the movie, which used a lakeside castle and other locations for the exterior garden scenes. All of the interior shots were filmed in a Hollywood studio, and the famous opening scene of Andrews running across an alpine meadow was shot over the border in Bavaria, Germany.

Wilfried Haslauer, a Salzburg tourism official, announced plans last week to refashion the villa into a hotel.

Haslauer said the park surrounding the villa also will be open to the public. He said refreshments and souvenirs will be sold in a pavilion to be built there, and that original furnishings that once belonged to the family would be displayed.

"Finally, after decades, this wonderful place will be opened to the public," Haslauer said in a statement.

Manfred Schitter does not think it is so wonderful.

"Nobody ever talked to us about all this," said Schitter, who also lives nearby. "When you want to make something like this, you ought to speak to the abutters. That didn't happen in this case."

Marianne Dorfer, a hotelier who is overseeing the project and is planning a gala opening of the new inn on July 25, played down the controversy, saying guests would be encouraged to use public transportation.

Brochures for the von Trapp hotel will play up that point, she said.

Austrian ambivalence about the project is understandable.

Although "The Sound of Music" has become a classic and still enjoys a cult following in the U.S. and other nations 43 years after it premiered, many local residents do not know much about it because the movie was not dubbed into German or widely distributed in Austria.

Officials in Salzburg, even better known as the birthplace of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, acknowledge the film is a tourism magnet: 300,000 foreign visitors a year take a "Sound of Music" bus or walking tour of the movie's locations.

Braunbruck, the protest organizer, said he is just after a little peace and quiet.

"Tourist attractions have only one purpose," he said, "and that's to bring in people."

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2008-05-19 17:36:45
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242 comments

gb2fish2 04:27:08 AM May 25 2008

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NOW THATS A COUNTRY FULL OF SL UT S AND WH OR ES

nhkm1 05:41:44 PM May 22 2008

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The movie is from 1965. Not 1955.

cabbiesada6 05:04:02 PM May 21 2008

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Amen Preserve building, NOT all Austrians are like that. Some actually have hearts

dubyasgrammarian 02:08:29 PM May 21 2008

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Turn it into a casino! You get greeted at the door buy a guy dressed up like Baron von Trapp, Julie Andrews look-alikes serve you cocktails while you're gambling, and the slots have a huge "Edelweiss" jackpot every night! Cash in those Deutschmarks!

tjgthedepoman 11:50:44 PM May 20 2008

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PERHAPS THERE WORRIED ABOUT HOW MANY DAUGHTERS CAN BE HIDDEN IN THE BASEMENT, ATTIC AND SECRET ROOMS. AUSTRIA DON'T NEED NO MORE BAD ADVERTIZING. PLUS THERE WELFARE ROLES COULDN'T HANDLE ALL THE UNDOCUMENTED CHILDREN BORN OF THOSE HIDDEN AWAY DAUGHTERS. REMEMBER IT'S A SOCIALIST COUNTRY. HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT.

shanfrina 09:43:07 PM May 20 2008

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Dearest AOL - It's 1965 NOT 1955 for movie Photo ID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

rottiblues 09:28:21 PM May 20 2008

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I thinks there are enough tourist destinations. Let it be. Leave the real thing for the imagination and movies. I don't blame the neighbors.

barkingwolf 08:56:10 PM May 20 2008

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Preserve the building. NO HOTELS.

lavitanuova07 06:24:28 PM May 20 2008

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I'm sure that the villa will be gorgeous once completed! They didn't really say what condition the villa was in previously, so maybe this will be a good thing. It's better than allowing it to deteriorate and get rundown. Heck, they will probably have it managed by a company that specializes in upscale properties, and charge EUR 600.00 per night. That may keep out the 'undesirables."

lavitanuova07 06:15:15 PM May 20 2008

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<<<farriscrthg
Report This! Ahhh whats the point !! I dont like ignorant people , rednecks , religious finatics or political finatics ! they are all highly opinionated and not enlightened at all ! >>>

How are you any different? You sound pretty opinionated as well!

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