The Ego and Its Own
During the 1960s, when Helms became a private pupil of Adorno, he studied the Critical theory (Frankfurt School) and its roots in Marxism. Thereby he discovered Max Stirner, whose work "Der Einzige und sein Eigentum" ("The Ego and Its Own") had provoked a violent critique from Marx, which led in consequence to his basic concept of Historical Materialism. Helms worked for many years upon this work of Stirner and its reception, producing his literary opus magnum, the 600-page "Die Ideologie der anonymen Gesellschaft" in 1966.