Silke Helfrich (1967–2021) was a freelance author, activist, researcher, and blogger and one of the most influential thinkers in contemporary commons studies. Trained in Romance languages and social sciences with a focus on economics, she developed conceptual frameworks that critically rethought property, value, and economic organization beyond market and state logics, always in close dialogue with commons-based practice. She co-founded the Commons Strategies Group and the Commons-Institut. Together with David Bollier, she co-authored several key publications on the commons, including Free, Fair and Alive: The Insurgent Power of the Commons and Patterns of Commoning.