Helene Antonia von Damm[3] (née Winter; born May 4, 1938) is an Austrian-born American diplomat who served as U.S.

[4] 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.

[7] Following her 1964 divorce from McDonald, von Damm moved to Chicago and worked as a secretary for the American Medical Political Action Committee.

[10] Von Damm was deeply critical of President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society, and was attracted to Reagan's political vision.

After Reagan was elected president, von Damm was named Director for Presidential Personnel, and held that position for two years until 1983.

While in Austria she married her fourth husband, Peter Gürtler, owner of Vienna's luxurious Sacher Hotel (himself very recently divorced).