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Viola Herms Drath

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Viola Herms Drath
Born
Viola Herms

February 8, 1920
Düsseldorf, Germany
Died (aged 91)
Washington, D.C., United States
Cause of deathHomicide
NationalityGerman-American
EducationM.A. in philosophy and Germanic literature
Alma materUniversity of Nebraska
Occupation(s)Journalist, writer
Known forAuthored eight textbooks read in over 150 colleges and universities
Spouses
Francis S. Drath
​
​
(m. 1947; died 1986)​
Albrecht Gero Muth
​
(m. 1990)​
Children2
AwardsWilliam J. Flynn Initiative for Peace Award from the National Committee on American Foreign Policy (2005)

Viola Herms Drath (February 8, 1920 – August 11, 2011) was a Washington, D.C., author, socialite and a German-American member of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy for over thirty years. She was murdered, at age 91, by her second husband, Albrecht Gero Muth.

Early life

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Drath was born in Düsseldorf, Germany, on February 8, 1920.[1] She is reported to have learned English from vacations and boarding school in Scotland. In 1946, during her time working in Munich, Drath met U.S. Army Lt. Col. Francis S. Drath while visiting Lake Constance in Switzerland; he was, at the time, the deputy military governor of Bavaria.[1] Within the year, the couple were married and had moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, his hometown.[1] The Draths had two children together, daughters Connie (born 1948) and Francesca (born 1952).

Career

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In 1946, in Germany, she was a playwright, with one of her early productions, Farewell Isabell,[2] staged in Straubing's Municipal Theater[3] and in Munich.

During the post-World War II period, Drath worked as a German interpreter in Munich, in the office of her soon-to-be husband, who was the deputy military governor of Bavaria.

After moving to Lincoln, Nebraska, with her first husband, she attended the University of Nebraska, where she studied for an advanced degree in literature and philosophy.[3] While in Nebraska, she was an editor of Die Weltpost in Omaha, commentator for KUON-TV, and correspondent for the National Observer. Later she was an American correspondent for the German magazine Madame.

In 1968, Drath became a political correspondent for the German newspaper Handelsblatt.[4] During this time, Drath and her first husband moved to Washington, DC, where Col. Drath was a legislative liaison with the Selective Service. They bought a house at 3206 Q Street, Northwest, in the Georgetown district in northwest Washington, D.C.[1]

Sonia Adler hired Drath to write for the Washington Dossier,[1] where she wrote about "political gossip, lifestyle advice, and culture, explored a diverse cross-section of the city's fine-art world.[3]

As a member of the executive committee of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, she was described as a "notable figure in German-American relations for over thirty years."[citation needed] Her 1988 article for the National Committee, The Reemergence of the German Question, proposed negotiations on German unification between the two German states and the four Allied Powers.[citation needed]

Drath was a foreign policy adviser during the 1988 Bush campaign [citation needed] , where she helped "lay the groundwork which led to the "2+4" process towards German unification in 1990".[citation needed] In 1989, Drath met President George H. W. Bush.[citation needed]

During her life, she authored eight textbooks read in over 150 colleges and universities[citation needed]. She taught at American University [citation needed] and lectured at the University of Southern California [citation needed]. Her articles and commentaries were published in American Foreign Policy Interests, The Washington Times, Commentary, Businessweek[citation needed], The Chicago Tribune, Strategic Review[citation needed], The National Observer, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Das Parlament, and Der Spiegel[citation needed].

Social activities

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She was a member of the White House Commission on Remembrance [citation needed], co-chair of the Berlin Air Lift Diamond Jubilee Committee [citation needed], coordinator of the International Consultative Mechanism on Remembrance [citation needed], and National Coordinator of National Observance to Mark Iraq Liberation Day.[citation needed]

Diplomatic activities

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During Drath's life, she was:

  • Advisor and member of the Delegation of the Republic of Cyprus to the First Committee, 51st United Nations General Assembly, [citation needed]
  • Advisor, Member of the Delegation of the Republic of Cyprus to the 2001 UN Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons, in All Its Aspects, [citation needed]
  • Advisor, Member of the Delegation of the Republic of Cyprus to the 2006 Conference to Review Implementation of the 2001 Programme of Action to Eradicate the Illicit Proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons, in All Its Aspects, [citation needed]
  • Observer, Bamako Convocation of the Eminent Persons Group in Bamako, Mali, [citation needed]
  • Special Advisor, Delegation of the United States to the 17th Organization of America States General Assembly,[citation needed]
  • Observer, 4th United Nations Meeting of the International Commission on Verification and Security, [citation needed] and
  • Observer, Esquipulas II.[citation needed]

Murder

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Drath's first husband, Francis Drath, died on January 11, 1986. In the early 1980s, Viola met Albrecht Gero Muth, 44 years her junior, then an unpaid intern from Germany.[1]

Four years after the death of her husband, Drath, then 70 years old, married the 26-year-old Muth.[5] The April 1990 marriage was performed by a Virginia Supreme Court judge.[5]

After their marriage, Muth fabricated a story that an elderly German Count had fallen from an elephant in India and needed to appoint a successor before dying—from that point forward, Muth insisted on being called Count Albrecht.[5] Following the 2003 completion of the Iraq War, Muth suddenly adopted the rank, and wore the uniform, of a brigadier general in the Iraqi Army, organizing diplomatic events in DC that he claimed were for the new Iraqi regime.[1] In April 2011, Muth somehow arranged a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery to honor fallen American soldiers in Iraq, supposedly on behalf of the Iraqi regime.

Early in the marriage, Muth started a pattern of domestic violence against Drath, inducing repeated police visits to the Q Street home.[1] On August 11, 2011, Drath was found dead in the bathroom of her Q Street home.[4] Muth was held at St. Elizabeths Hospital, where he was initially found incompetent to stand trial after being diagnosed with schizotypal personality disorder and a delusional disorder.[6] In a report submitted to the court, forensic psychologist Mitchell Hugonnet concluded that Muth had narcissistic personality disorder but was not mentally ill.[7] In 2014, Muth was convicted of murdering his wife[5] and was sentenced to 50 years in prison.[8] Judge Russell F. Canan's remarks before sentencing described Muth as "a common serial domestic violence abuser, made worse when he drinks, who subjected Ms. Drath to many years of abuse."[8]

Cultural legacy

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Author Warren Adler acknowledged Drath in his novel The War of the Roses.[3]

In 2015, it was announced that Christoph Waltz would direct and star in the film The Worst Marriage in Georgetown (retitled Georgetown before its release), based on the true crime story of the murder of Viola Drath.[9] The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 27, 2019, and was released theatrically in the United States on May 14, 2021.

Awards

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Bibliography

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  • A Thoroughly Muddled Marriage: Report of an Inmate, an unpublished and previously undisclosed memoir[3]
  • The German State in Historical Perspective, Germany in World Politics by Viola Herms Drath (ed.), New York, 1979
  • Willy Brandt: Prisoner Of His Past by Viola Helms Drath (which Dr. Henry A. Kissinger said[3] was "a must read for those interested in fully appreciating an important statesman both within his own times and beyond.")
  • Farewell Isabell, a comedy play
  • No Reliance upon a Woman?, a comedy play
  • Toward a New Atlanticism, (article in the Washington Times)
  • Time to Reinvent the Alliance, (article in the Washington Times)
  • Engagement and Provocation, (published by Macmillan)
  • What do the Germans Want?, (published by Macmillan)
  • Reporter in Deutschland, a reader for beginners[10]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h White, Josh (January 1, 2012). "Profile of dead Washington socialite Viola Drath". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 14, 2021. Retrieved January 16, 2014.
  2. ^ Location of copy of Farewell Isabell. WorldCat. OCLC 73447158.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Arellano, Megan (August 25, 2011). "Viola Drath's Cultural Legacy: A Look at the Works of a Murdered D.C. Writer". Washington City Paper. Archived from the original on October 25, 2020. Retrieved January 16, 2014.
  4. ^ a b Weber, Joseph (August 14, 2011). "D.C. police rule death of former Washington Times columnist a homicide". The Washington Times. Archived from the original on August 15, 2011. Retrieved January 16, 2014.
  5. ^ a b c d Alexander, Keith L. (January 16, 2014). "Albrecht Muth, 49, convicted of murder in death of socialite wife Viola Drath, 91". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 17, 2014. Retrieved January 16, 2014.
  6. ^ Zaveri, Mihir (June 21, 2012). "Viola Drath murder case judge intent on October trial for Albrecht Muth". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 2, 2022.
  7. ^ Ross Joynt, Carol (September 4, 2012). "Two Court-Appointed Experts Say Albrecht Muth Is Competent to Stand Trial for Murder". Washingtonian. Archived from the original on April 19, 2021. Retrieved November 2, 2022.
  8. ^ a b Alexander, Keith L. (April 30, 2014). "Albrecht Muth sentenced to 50 years in 2011 slaying of his socialite wife, Viola Drath". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on April 30, 2014.
  9. ^ Andrews-Dyer, Helena (May 6, 2015). "Actor Christoph Waltz will direct and star in 'The Worst Marriage in Georgetown'". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on October 13, 2015. Retrieved May 7, 2015.
  10. ^ bib item 1. WorldCat. OCLC 4387313.
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