Helene or Helena Demuth (30 December 1820 – 4 November 1890) was a German housekeeper who worked for
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 b ...
and
Karl Marx
Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
, and later served as the household manager and political confidante of
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels ( ;"Engels" ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.Sankt Wendel in today's
Saarland
Saarland (, ; ) is a state of Germany in the southwest 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 the smallest in ...
. In 1840 Helena and her older sister Katharina worked in
Trier
Trier ( , ; ), formerly and traditionally known in English as Trèves ( , ) and Triers (see also Names of Trier in different languages, names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle (river), Moselle in Germany. It lies in a v ...
as maids, Helena in the 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. Helena was living in the house of her mother in Grabenstrasse, St. Wendel in 1843, when 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 b ...
. Helena 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
''Capital: A Critique of Political Economy'' (), also known as ''Capital'' or (), is the most significant work by Karl Marx and the cornerstone of Marxian economics, published in three volumes in 1867, 1885, and 1894. The culmination of his ...
''.
In October 1890, Helena was diagnosed with cancer. She died in London on 4 November that year at the age of 69. She was buried in the Marx family grave in accordance with Jenny's wishes, and later re-interred in the
tomb of Karl Marx
The Tomb of Karl Marx is in the Eastern cemetery of Highgate Cemetery, North London, England. It is the burial site of Karl Marx, his wife Jenny von Westphalen, and other members of Marx's family. Originally buried in a different part of the East ...
at
Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in North London, England, designed by architect Stephen Geary. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East sides. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for so ...
.
The obituary penned by Engels in ''The People's Press'' writes the following: "The leaders of the Socialist movement bore testimony to "her strong common-sense, her absolute rectitude of character, her ceaseless thoughtfulness for others, her reliability, and the essential truthfulness of her nature". Engels at her funeral declared that Marx took counsel of Helena Demuth, not only in difficult and intricate party matters, but even in respect of his economical writings. "As for me," he said, "what work I have been able to do since the death of Marx has been largely due to the sunshine and support of her presence in the house."
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 and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
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 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, to be known as Frederick Lewis Demuth, was placed with a
working class
The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...
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 ...
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 Socialism, socialist activist who sometimes ...
, Marx's youngest daughter, came to know Frederick some time after her father's death and made him a family friend.