Helene von Damm

Helene von Damm
1982 portrait
United States Ambassador to Austria
In office
May 10, 1983 – January 15, 1986
PresidentRonald Reagan
Preceded byTheodore E. Cummings
Succeeded byRonald S. Lauder
Personal details
Born
Helene Antonia Winter

(1938-05-04) May 4, 1938 (age 86)
Linz, Austria
NationalityAustrian[1]
United States (since 1959[2])
Political partyRepublican
Spouse(s)Charles McDonald
Christian von Damm
Byron Leeds
Peter Gürtler
Domestic partnerJürgen Wilke
OccupationDiplomat, author

Helene Antonia von Damm[3] (née Winter; born May 4, 1938) is an Austrian-born American diplomat who served as U.S. Ambassador to Austria, and also worked as an assistant to President Ronald Reagan.[4]

Early life

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Helene Antonia von Damm,[5] born Helene Antonia Winter[6] in Linz[7][8][9] (Austria) in 1938, grew up in Ulmerfeld-Hausmening (now part of Amstetten, Austria), where her father worked as engineer (German title: Betriebsingenieur) at the Neusiedler Papierfabrik (that was since 1918 part of the Neusiedler AG, now Mondi).[9] She had a tumultuous childhood, marked by the Second World War, the post-war Soviet occupation, and the death of her father from tuberculosis when she was twelve years old. She recalled that she "had a difficult time digesting" the things she witnessed as a child, and dreamed of "a better life in places far away."[7]

In 1958 von Damm married a U.S. Army corporal named Charles McDonald and emigrated to the United States. In 1959 the couple settled in Detroit, where she found work as a typist and immersed herself in politics.[7]

Career

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Von Damm with President Reagan on his first day in the Oval Office, 1981

Following her 1964 divorce from McDonald, von Damm moved to Chicago and worked as a secretary for the American Medical Political Action Committee. It was in that role that she first met Ronald Reagan during a speech in 1965.[10]

Von Damm was deeply critical of President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society, and was attracted to Reagan's political vision. ″Reagan was one of the few people who spoke totally differently ... He made a lot of sense to someone who had just come from socialism. Johnson wanted to change things back to what I'd left. I resolved that if Reagan ever ran for office, I'd try to get on his team″, she said.[7]

Von Damm moved to California in 1966 to work for Reagan's gubernatorial campaign. She started as a scheduling assistant, and in 1969 was appointed as his personal secretary. She continued working with Reagan through his two terms as governor. She then served as his executive assistant during his business years, and as a finance director for nine northeastern states during the 1980 Presidential campaign. After Reagan was elected president, von Damm was named Director for Presidential Personnel, and held that position for two years until 1983.[2]

Von Damm was appointed US Ambassador to Austria in 1983. She served for just over two years before resigning in 1986.[2]

Personal life

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Von Damm divorced her first husband in 1964, after growing restless with what she described as her former husband's lack of ambition. In 1971 she was remarried to Christian von Damm, a Bank of America executive of German descent.[11] The marriage did not last, as von Damm notes that she had difficulty reconciling her demanding career with domestic life.[7]

Von Damm married her third husband Byron Leeds in 1981. Leeds, a Morris County, New Jersey computer industry consultant, had been an old friend. However, he remained in New Jersey while she was working in Washington. Following her diplomatic appointment to Austria the couple grew further apart, and they divorced soon after. While in Austria she married her fourth husband, Peter Gürtler, owner of Vienna's luxurious Sacher Hotel (himself very recently divorced).[7]

The relationship became a subject of public fascination, and eventually von Damm decided to signal her intention to resign. In June 1985 she cabled a resignation letter to Washington, indicating that it was ″the interests of our country″ that she step down.[12]

Von Damm left her post in 1986,[2] and divorced Guertler the next year. He committed suicide in 1990.[13] Since the year 2000 up until his death on May 27, 2016, she lived in her Vienna flat with the German actor Jürgen Wilke (de:Jürgen Wilke).[14]

List of positions

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Publications

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  • Von Damm, Helene (1976). Sincerely Ronald Reagan. Ottawa, Illinois: Green Hill Publishers. ISBN 978-0-916-05405-2.
  • Von Damm, Helene (1987). Wirf die Angst weg, Helene: Die Erinnerungen der Helene von Damm (in German). Vienna: Neff. ISBN 978-3-7014-0241-0.
  • Von Damm, Helene (1989). At Reagan's Side: Twenty Years in the Political Mainstream. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-24445-9.

Filmography

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  • 2011, July 19: Sommerzeit — late afternoon TV-magazin at ORF 2[1]
  • 2018, Mai 3: Stöckl. — late night talk with Barbara Stöckl at ORF 2[15]
  • 2018, September 15: Alte Feinde – Neue Freunde. ″Terrassengespräche″ über den Kalten Krieg. Die Nachbarn: Helene von Damm – Personalchefin von Ronald Reagan. Sergei Mikheyev – Dolmetscher von Michail Gorbatschow. Directed and produced by Robert Dornhelm for ORF III

Further reading

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References

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  1. ^ a b In the late afternoon ORF-TV-magazin Sommerzeit at ORF 2 Helene von Damm said that she is an Austrian citizen. It's not clear whether Helene von Damm was able to retain her Austrian citizenship alongside her American citízenship all the time; or whether she had to give up it and has been granted it again since her resettlement to Austria.
  2. ^ a b c d "Helene von Damm. AKA Helene A. Winter". NNDB – tracking the world. Soylent Communications. Retrieved September 23, 2018.
  3. ^ "Helene von Damm" (without "Antonia" or "A.") in the Zentrales Melderegister (ZMR) (= Austrian resident registration), retrieved September 23, 2018.
  4. ^ "The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project Women Ambassadors Series AMBASSADOR HELENE VON DAMM" (PDF). Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. 15 February 1988. Archived (PDF) from the original on 16 July 2024. Retrieved 5 August 2024.
  5. ^ "Michael Evans Portrait Project Collection — 1981–1984 (120 mm negatives): Black and White photos" (PDF). Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. p. 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 4, 2018. Retrieved September 23, 2018. [Session] 5/6/83 — [Name] Helene Antonia Von Damm — [Title] US Ambassador to Austria
  6. ^ At Regean's Side. New York: Doubleday. 1989. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-385-24445-9.
  7. ^ a b c d e f Carlson, Peter (July 8, 1985). "Ambassador Helene Von Damm Quits Her Post After An Undiplomatic Affair and a Fourth Marriage". People. Vol. 24, no. 2. Meredith Corporation. Archived from the original on June 10, 2016. Retrieved September 23, 2018.
  8. ^ Helene (A.) von Damm, born Helene Winter May 4, 1938 in Linz:
  9. ^ a b Korotin, Ilse (2016). "Damm Helene von, geb. Winter; Diplomatin und Botschafterin". biografiA: Lexikon österreichischer Frauen. band 01. A–H (in German). Vol. 1. Wien/Köln/Weimar: Böhlau. pp. 548–549. ISBN 978-3-205-79590-2.
  10. ^ "Remarks at the Swearing-in Ceremony for Helene A. von Damm as United States Ambassador to Austria". Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. May 16, 1983. Retrieved September 23, 2018.
  11. ^ "Undiplomatic Look Back At The Reagans". Chicago Tribune. February 23, 1989. Retrieved May 22, 2018.
  12. ^ "Much-married U.s. Ambassador Calls It Quits". Chicago Tribune. United Press International. June 13, 1985. Retrieved July 31, 2014.
  13. ^ "Peter Gurtler, Vienna Hotel Owner, 44". The New York Times. Associated Press. October 26, 1990. p. 27. Retrieved May 22, 2018.
  14. ^ Wurzinger, Gerhard, ed. (March 17, 2017). "Wilke, Jürgen". Austria-Forum (in German). Vienna. Retrieved September 9, 2018.
  15. ^ "Helene von Damm, Heinz Nußbaumer, Susanne Schnabl und Michael Balgavy zu Gast in 'Stöckl.'" [Am 3. Mai um 23.05 Uhr in ORF 2]. APA-OTS [= Original Text Service] (in German). ORF – press release. May 2, 2018. Retrieved September 23, 2018.
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Diplomatic posts
Preceded by U.S. Ambassador to Austria
1983–1986 		Succeeded by
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