Helene Demuth (31 December 1820 – 4 November 1890) was a German
housekeeper who worked for
Jenny
Jenny may refer to:
* Jenny (given name), a popular feminine name and list of real and fictional people
* Jenny (surname), a family name
Animals
* Jenny (donkey), a female donkey
* Jenny (gorilla), the oldest gorilla in captivity at the time of ...
and
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
, and later served as the household manager and political confidante of
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels ( ,["Engels"](_blank)
'' Sankt Wendel
Sankt Wendel is a town in northeastern Saarland. It is situated on the river Blies 36 km northeast of Saarbrücken, the capital of Saarland, and is named after Saint Wendelin of Trier. According to a survey by the German Association for Hou ...
in today's
Saarland
The Saarland (, ; french: Sarre ) is a state of Germany in the south west of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and ...
. In 1840 Helena and her older sister worked in Trier as maids, Helena in
von Westphalen household, her sister in the house of a soapmaker two blocks away. They only worked there for about a year, then Katharina got pregnant and both went back to St. Wendel. In 1843 Helena lived in St. Wendel in the house of her mother in Grabenstrasse. In 1843 Karl Marx married
Jenny von Westphalen
Johanna Bertha Julie Jenny Edle von Westphalen (12 February 18142 December 1881) was a German theatre critic and political activist. She married the philosopher and political economist Karl Marx in 1843.
Background
Jenny von Westphalen was bor ...
. Helena Demuth joined their household in April 1845 in Brussels, where she was sent by Jenny's mother.
[Hal Draper, "Helene Demuth," in ''The Marx-Engels Glossary: Volume III of the Marx-Engels Cyclopedia.'' New York: Schocken Books, 1986; pg. 55.] She stayed with the Marxes as a lifelong housekeeper, friend, and political confidante, and was commonly known to the family by the nicknames Lenchen or Nim.
After Marx's death in March 1883, Helena Demuth moved to Engels's home, where she ran the household.
The pair worked in tandem to organize and arrange for the publication of Marx's literary estate, discovering in the process the manuscript from which Engels was able to reconstruct the
second volume of
Das Kapital
''Das Kapital'', also known as ''Capital: A Critique of Political Economy'' or sometimes simply ''Capital'' (german: Das Kapital. Kritik der politischen Ökonomie, link=no, ; 1867–1883), is a foundational theoretical text in Historical mater ...
.
In October 1890, Helena was diagnosed with cancer. She died in London on 4 November that year at the age of 69. In accordance with Jenny Marx's wishes, she was buried in the Marx family grave and later re-interred in the
tomb of Karl Marx
The Tomb of Karl Marx stands in the Eastern cemetery of Highgate Cemetery, North London, England. It commemorates the burial sites of Marx, of his wife, Jenny von Westphalen, and other members of his family. Originally buried in a different part ...
at
Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...
.
Frederick Demuth
On 23 June 1851 Helene Demuth gave birth to a boy, Henry Frederick Demuth, the birth certificate leaving the name of the father blank.
Some scholars accept that the child had been sired by Karl Marx,
[Saul Padover (trans. and ed.), "Introduction: Marx, the Human Side," to Karl Marx, ''On Education, Women, and Children.'' New York: McGraw Hill Book Co., 1975; pg. xxv.] a view that reflects surviving correspondence from the Marx family and their wider circle, as well as the fact that Marx's wife had been on a trip abroad nine months prior to the birth.
[ The baby was given Friedrich Engels' first name, and family correspondence suggests that Engels, a bachelor living in ]Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
and Karl Marx's closest personal friend, claimed fatherhood of the boy. But that correspondence was written years after the actual event by one of Marx's daughters, who knew it from hearsay.
The child's paternity, however, remains a subject of discussion, with the academic Terrell Carver
Terrell Foster Carver (born 4 September 1946) is a Professor of Political Theory at the University of Bristol.
Career
Carver was born in Boise, Idaho. After receiving his B.A. from Columbia University in 1968, Carver went on to study in Engla ...
stating that, although it has been claimed since 1962 that Marx was the father, "this is not well founded on the documentary materials available", adding that "the gossip" is not supported by "direct evidence that bears unambiguously on this matter".
Shortly after the birth, the baby, Frederick Lewis Demuth (1851–1929), was placed with a working class
The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...
foster family in London named Lewis. He later trained as a toolmaker,[Draper, "Frederick Demuth," in ''The Marx-Engels Glossary,'' pg. 55.] and was active in the Amalgamated Engineering Union
The Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU) was a major United Kingdom, British trade union. It merged with the Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union to form the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union in 1992.
History
...
and a founder member of the Hackney Labour Party.[ ]Eleanor Marx
Jenny Julia Eleanor Marx (16 January 1855 – 31 March 1898), sometimes called Eleanor Aveling and known to her family as Tussy, was the English-born youngest daughter of Karl Marx. She was herself a socialist activist who sometimes worked as a ...
, Marx's youngest daughter, came to know Frederick some time after her father's death and made him a family friend.[
]
Notes and references
External links
Helene Demuth
* Terrel Carver
{{DEFAULTSORT:Demuth, Helene
1820 births
1890 deaths
People from Sankt Wendel (district)
Karl Marx
German domestic workers
Burials at Highgate Cemetery
German emigrants to England