Helene Demuth
Helene "Lenchen" Demuth (born December 31, 1820, in Sankt Wendel, Saarland - November 4, 1890, in London) was the housekeeper of Jenny and Karl Marx. She assisted Marx in his political work and may also have been the mother of a child by Marx.
Вorn of peasant parents, as teenage girl she was adopted into the von Westphalen household, to work as a maid. In 1843 Karl Marx married Jenny von Westphalen, the daughter of the house, and Helene came with the pair. She stayed with them as a lifelong housekeeper, friend and political confidante.
On June 23, 1851 Helene Demuth gave birth to a boy, but never revealed the name of the father. The newborn Frederick Lewis Demuth (1851−1929) was given to a London family. Later Friedrich Engels acknowledged the paternity to keep Karl Marx from the embarrassment; however, it did not end the rumors and speculation over the truth or falsehood of Marx's paternity. After Marx's death, in 1883, Helene Demuth moved to Engels's home, where she ran the household. Together with her, he arranged the publication Marx's literary remains.
In October 1890 she was diagnosed with cancer and died on November 4. In accordance with Jenny Marx's wishes, she was buried in the Marx family grave.
[edit] External links
- Helene Demuth
- Marx’s ‘Illegitimate Son’ ...or Gresham’s Law in the World of Scholarship by Terrel Carver
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