Helene Richter (4 August 1861 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary – 8 November 1942 in Theresienstadt Ghetto) was an Austrian specialist for English studies.

At their weekly salon, influential intellectuals such as the feminists Marianne Hainisch and Rosa Mayreder, theatre director Hugo Thimig, actor Auguste Wilbrandt-Baudius, writers Max Kalbeck and Richard Kralik and classical philologist Hans von Arnim met to exchange ideas.

Helene Richter is best known for her work on English Romanticism, starting with the publication of an article on Percy Bysshe Shelley in Vossische Zeitung in 1892.

Both sisters refused the offer to be evacuated to another country by quoting “alte Bäume verpflanzt man nicht” (“old trees are not to be moved”).

[12] Since 1998, the gate entering the University of Vienna campus from Garnisongasse 13 has been named “Richter-Tor” to commemorate Elise and Helene Richter.

[13][14] When Helene Richter was forced to sell her and her sister’s vast collection of books due to Nazi persecution, she contacted the University of Cologne in Germany.

The Wienbibliothek im Rathaus (Vienna Library at the Town Hall) owns the private document collection of Helene Richter.