Housekeeper for Jenny and Karl Marx. Born Germany. Her date of birth is also sometimes given as 31 December. She was much more than a housekeeper. As a girl she was adopted into Jenny's family and when Jenny married Karl, Helena came too, and remained in the household until first Jenny and then Karl died: a housekeeper, a colleague in political work and a friend to them both. However, in 1851 she produced a baby with no apparent father. The child, Frederick Lewis Demuth, was adopted (as was common under these circumstances) and lived in London. Engels accepted paternity but probably just to protect Marx's reputation. In 1883, when Marx died, Demuth became Engel's housekeeper and also assisted him in his work as Marx's literary executor. Buried in the Marx family grave, apparently at the wish of Jenny,who had died 9 years earlier.
This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Helene "Lenchen" Demuth (or Helena)
Commemorated ati
Other Subjects
Jerome Kern
Composer. Born Jerome David Kern at Sutton Place, New York City. Studied music in New York and Heidelberg. He worked his theatrical apprenticeship in New York and London. His first complete score f...
Landkreis Gottingen
Landkreis Gottingen (District of Gottingen) in Germany is twinned with Hackney Council.
Caesar Czarnikow
Sugar broker. Born Carl Julius Caesar Czarnikow in Sondershausen, Germany. He came to Britain in 1854, and established his sugar brokerage firm, C. Czarnikow, in 1862, which by the time of his deat...
Frederick Simms
Mechanical engineer and businessman. Born Hamburg, where his grandfather, from Birmingham, had established a business. Educated Germany and London. Inventor and motor industry pioneer. Coined the w...
László Moholy-Nagy
Painter, photographer and film-maker. Born László Weisz in Bácsborsód, Hungary, he changed his surname to that of his mother's lawyer friend, (Wikipedia says maternal uncle) who had helped when the...