Kurt Willy Muellenberg

Kurt Willy Muellenberg, the former Chief of the United States Department of Justice’s Organized Crime Section, former Chief of the Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Section, and former Inspector General of the General Services Administration, died peacefully on July 30, 2023, in Washington, D.C. He was 91 years old. Mr. Muellenberg was born on January 6, 1932, in Jena, East Germany. When the U.S. Army was approaching Jena in the Spring of 1945, Mr. Muellenberg’s Commandant, age 15, ordered Kurt, age 13, to join the local Hitler Youth cadre to go fight the Americans. Kurt’s mother countermanded the order, perhaps, saving his life, saying: “Go to your room. I’ve lost a husband to this war. I’m not going to lose a son.”

When World War II ended, Jena was in the Russian Zone and subsequently part of the German People’s Democratic Republic, the communist East German state. After a Russian Lieutenant informed Mr. Muellenberg, then age 17 that he would never be permitted to attend a university because of his participation in a high school prank in the 1949 May Day parade, his mother urged him to escape. Under cover of darkness, Mr. Muellenberg and a friend sought to cross a deforested heavily guarded area along American Zone border. Mr. Muellenberg made it, but his friend did not. Mr. Muellenberg emigrated from West Germany to the United States in 1952. He would not see his mother, two brothers and a sister again--all left behind in East Germany—for decades.

In 1952 and 1953, he worked as a laborer for Western Electric Co. in Buffalo, NY. From 1953 to 1957, he served in the United States Air Force and was sworn in as a naturalized United States citizen on February 12, 1954. He began taking courses at the University of Maryland when he was stationed at Andrews Air Force Base and continued his education at Maryland and at the University of Maryland Law School after completing his military service. He graduated from the University of Maryland Law School in June 1961 and became a member of the Maryland Bar on September 6, 1961.

In October 1961, he began working at the General Counsel’s Office in the United States Department of Agriculture. In February 1966, he joined the Department of Justice where he worked for 18 years, including working on the Organized Crime Strike Forces in Detroit and Cleveland. He became the Chief of the Organized Crime Section in Washington, D.C. in November 1976 and served in that position for almost two and a half years. He was one of the original twelve inspectors general appointed by President Jimmy Carter on April 1, 1979, to be IG of the General Services Administration. President Ronald Reagan removed 16 Inspectors General, including Mr. Muellenberg in January 1981. Mr. Muellenberg then returned to the Department of Justice to serve as the Criminal Division’s first Senior Litigation Counsel for International Law Enforcement stationed in Europe. In that capacity, he assisted the terrorist investigations following the seizure of the Achille Lauro cruise ship and a discotheque bombing in Berlin.

After retiring from the Department of Justice in December 1987, Mr. Muellenberg served as the Court Appointed Monitor under two consent decrees entered in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. He served as Court Appointed Monitor from 1995 until 2000 under a consent decree to eliminate any organized crime influence in the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union and under a second consent decree from 2000 until 2006 involving an organized crime dominated local union in the Meadowlands Sports Complex. In 2006, Mr. Muellenberg was nominated to receive the Henry E. Petersen Memorial Award which is bestowed on those who have made a lasting contribution to the Criminal Division and exemplify character, diligence, courage, professionalism, and talent. Mr. Muellenberg was passionate about the law and justice, and continued to serve on the Public Review Board of UNITE HERE until early this year.

Mr. Muellenberg was predeceased by his first wife, Consuelo Garcia-Quant, their middle son, Kurt D Muellenberg, as well as his second wife Susan Pearce, with whom he spent over 25 years traveling the world. He is survived by his older sister Hilda, two sons, Kenneth and Erik, as well as his three grandchildren, Kurt, Trey, and Paige.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in his memory can be made to The Yellow Ribbon Fund, a veteran service organization supporting military families facing medical crisis.