Helene von Damm

Helene Antonia von Damm, born Helene Antonia Winter in Linz 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." 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. ==Career==

, 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. 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. Von Damm was appointed US Ambassador to Austria in 1983. She served for just over two years before resigning in 1986. ==Personal life==

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. The marriage did not last, as von Damm notes that she had difficulty reconciling her demanding career with domestic life. Von Damm left her post in 1986, 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). ==List of positions==

• US Ambassador to Austria (1983–86) • White House Staff Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel (1982–83) • White House Staff Director of Presidential Personnel (1981–82) • United Service Organization World Board of Governors (past) • Coro Foundation Public Affairs Leadership training • American Medical Association Secretary, AMA PAC (1965) ==Publications==

• 2011, July 19: Sommerzeit — late afternoon TV-magazin at ORF 2 • 2018, Mai 3: Stöckl. — late night talk with Barbara Stöckl at ORF 2 • 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==