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Better German Podcast with Susi

Susanne Schilk-Blümel
Since 09/2023 56 episodes

31 The Sound of Music

Is Austria like the movie?

2024-04-11 11 min

Description & Show Notes

Welcome to Episode 31 of the Better German Podcast ! In this episode, we will talk about 'The Sound of Music' from an Austrian perspective, discussing its historical context, the impact of World War II, and the portrayal of Austrian traditions. We will go into the reason why The Sound of Music was literally successful everywhere but in Austria and Germany. But how much of The Sound of Music is actually alive? Just the hills?

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Summary
In this episode of Better German, host Susi Blumel shares her perspective as an Austrian on the iconic movie "The Sound of Music." She discusses the historical context of the film, its reception in Austria, and whether it accurately reflects Austrian culture. Susi also extends her offer to help those interested in learning German through private lessons, online courses, and group courses available.

Key Points Explored🔎

Primary Topic: Introduction to The Sound of Music
  • Number of viewers and global popularity
  • Personal perspective as an Austrian
  • Recommendation to watch the movie
Primary Topic: The Story of The Sound of Music
  • Setting and historical context
  • Reaction to the movie in Austria and Germany
  • Influence of director Robert Wise
  • The sensitive subject of the Nazis in the movie
Primary Topic: Is Austria Really Like The Sound of Music?
  • Authenticity of the movie's scenery and traditions
  • Modernization of Austria
  • Traditional clothing and continued cultural practices
Primary Topic: Learning German and German Courses
  • The host's role as a German teacher
  • Available options for learning German, including private lessons and online courses
  • Encouragement to visit the website for more information
Related Episodes  
Episode 30: "To Be" in German                       

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Transcript

Welcome to the Better German podcast. My name is Susi Blümel, and I will teach you German and everything around the language , the countries and the culture. So in this episode I'm actually going to talk about, The Sound of Music, the movie, which, particularly if you're American, know, probably. As far as I know, this is the movie that has been seen by the most people in the world. I think I've, I remember a number of like 2 billion viewers. This may be a couple of years old, Okay, so of how many people saw The Sound of Music, but it has been a lot. And, I'm going to give you a perspective from the viewpoint of an Austrian, I'm born and raised in Austria, about this film, The Sound of Music. And not just about, like, "Are people really like that, and is Austria really like that?" But I'm going to tell you a little bit more about the story, which I think is interesting, and I hope you like it. If you have never seen the film, The Sound of Music, I actually suggest you to do it. It is a nice movie. It has good music. It has the beautiful scenery of Austria, and it will give you a little bit of an idea about Austria and about a part of the Austrian history. It is set in Austria in 1938. The interesting thing is how I even learned about this film was that, I started traveling to the United States when I was 16 and I was there many times, and I spent maybe two years in total in the United States and I made friends, and they asked me, "So is Austria really like in The Sound of Music?" And for many years I had to admit "Well, I don't know. To be honest, I've never seen the movie." That was before the times of streaming, and, it never played in Austrian TV when I was young, and I never saw it offered in a video rental place, so I just never saw it. And really, it's like, wherever this movie was released, it was a big success, but not in Germany and not in Austria, and we're going to look at why that is. And then after I had been asked many times, and time went by a little bit, I finally rented the DVD, and I watched it It's musical, not everybody likes musicals, but it's not one of those musicals where people sing all the time. It's, it's a movie and in between there are musical numbers And the movie is about an Austrian family. I'm not going to give you the whole story, but it's about an Austrian family and it's based on a historic, true, on a true story, and it's actually quite an interesting story. And it plays, as I said, in 1938 and 1938 was just before the second world war started, and, at that time we already had Nazis. It was about the interaction and the actually quite courageous way how this family was dealing with the Nazis, and I watched a movie and I liked it. I was like, "Okay, we have beautiful scenery, and we have great acting and we have good music. And yes, okay, not everybody likes musicals, but it's not like Austrians hate musicals. So I don't get it why people never wanted to see this movie and why this was never successful in Austria." So I did a little bit of research, and, what I found was a really interesting story because this movie was released in 1964. So that was less than 20 years after the Second World War had stopped and this whole subject was still sensitive and people would not talk about it freely and, I guess there were also still people around from the Second World War that had not come clean, or there were people around that had been Nazis or had collaborated with Nazis. Anyway, it was still a subject that at that time was not faced openly. So when this movie was released in Austria and as far as I know in Germany as well, they cut out all the scenes that had anything to do with Nazis. Well, and if you do that, it is really just kitsch. There isn't really anything in there. I mean, do you still have the beautiful mountains and you have the cute kids and you have Julie Andrews and you have the hills are alive with the sound of music. And that's it. You don't have a story, and that's why The Sound of Music was never successful at that time in Austria. I don't think it was aired later ever in TV, and, as I said, before that came out, I didn't even know it. And that was actually very interesting because the director of this movie, Robert Weiss, was someone that my stepfather, who was also working in the arts, was admiring very, very, very much. And he even had the chance to meet him at the, like both of their later days and still even Claus, my stepfather, he also hadn't known this movie. So even though he admired Robert Weiss very much, he still hadn't actually made it through that movie. So anyway, it's a great movie. If you have seen it, I hope this gives you a little bit of a background story. And now, to answer the actual question that has prompted me to even watch the movie, Is Austria really like that? Well, the mountains, yes. The scenery is there, it's still there. Of course, we have started adding, I mean, Austria is not, like, conserved, like it was at that time, or even before that time. We have modern houses as well, of course, but we do have the, in, in most of the areas in Vienna and in Salzburg, where the, where the movie is set, we have historical city centers and historical buildings and a lot of them. And, also you see a lot of the traditional Austrian clothing in that movie. Maybe it's a little bit of a Hollywood version, but people in Austria, in the countryside particularly, but not only, do wear the Austrian traditional clothes. The Austrian traditional clothes, you can call them "Trachten," that's the general term. and particularly the women's part is called the "Dirndl," it's the traditional dress, and it is worn. People wear it, and actually in the last years, in the more recent years, it has become, at least more fashionable again to wear it. There are festivals, that are basically parties, big parties, where people drink beer and have fun and dance, that are mainly, that are centered around this theme of wearing the traditional clothes. Like "Oktoberfest" in Bayern, maybe if you've heard it, and, But also in the countryside, aside from that, people do actually wear the traditional clothes and a lot of the traditions are still alive. So, is Austria like The Sound of Music? Yes, part of it, and this tradition does live. Not everything is like that. A lot of our lives are like, I don't know, I don't want to say normal because that sounds weird, but they're not that different from lives in America or England or probably any other place in the world. But yes, the tradition there is still there and you can find this and you can do Sound of Music tours in Salzburg. Yeah, that's that. I hope you enjoyed that. It's not a very long episode, but I was asked this so much that I decided, okay, I have to tell you this story. Let me know if you like it and if you have any more questions about this. And if you want to learn German because you have decided now, "Yes. Okay, so after hearing this, it's time. I'm really going to travel to Austria and I want to learn German." Then, of course, I can help you because I am a German teacher and I help everybody who wants to learn German, to learn German without complexities. So, whatever you need, I got you covered. I teach private lessons, there is online courses, self paced online courses that you can do. And, there's group courses, and so there's different options. There will be more courses coming up this year. At this point, you can start with the Complete German Beginner, like Complete Beginner course. So if you're a Complete Beginner, or if you have learned a little bit of German, start this and there is more courses added regularly. You find the infos about all of this on bettergerman.info, and I see you there and, please, if you like this podcast, subscribe it and like it and share it with the world. Okay, talk to you next week. Bye bye.

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