She was born in Vienna as the eldest of three sisters to Wilhelm Ritschel and his wife Hildegard.

On 19 August 1944, in the middle of the Second World War, the couple married in Vienna.

According to her husband's New York Times obituary, "[s]he was an ardent Nazi who before the war had renounced her Roman Catholic faith and joined the League of German Maidens, the young women’s equivalent of the Hitler Youth.

[2] She gave up her job in order to support her husband's diplomatic and political career.

The couple had three children: daughter Lieselotte Waldheim-Natural works for the United Nations, daughter Christa Waldheim-Karas became an artist (she is married to Othmar Karas, Austrian Member of the European Parliament), and son Gerhard Waldheim is an investment banker.