diff --git a/library/Icinga/Web/Helper/Markdown.php b/library/Icinga/Web/Helper/Markdown.php
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..4a06a78a7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/library/Icinga/Web/Helper/Markdown.php
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+<?php
+/* Icinga Web 2 | (c) 2019 Icinga GmbH | GPLv2+ */
+
+namespace Icinga\Web\Helper;
+
+use Parsedown;
+
+class Markdown
+{
+    public static function text($content)
+    {
+        require_once 'Parsedown/Parsedown.php';
+        return HtmlPurifier::process(Parsedown::instance()->text($content));
+    }
+}
diff --git a/library/Icinga/Web/View/helpers/string.php b/library/Icinga/Web/View/helpers/string.php
index a36a0f224..bec504750 100644
--- a/library/Icinga/Web/View/helpers/string.php
+++ b/library/Icinga/Web/View/helpers/string.php
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 namespace Icinga\Web\View;
 
 use Icinga\Util\StringHelper;
+use Icinga\Web\Helper\Markdown;
 
 $this->addHelperFunction('ellipsis', function ($string, $maxLength, $ellipsis = '...') {
     return StringHelper::ellipsis($string, $maxLength, $ellipsis);
@@ -12,3 +13,7 @@ $this->addHelperFunction('ellipsis', function ($string, $maxLength, $ellipsis =
 $this->addHelperFunction('nl2br', function ($string) {
     return nl2br(str_replace(array('\r\n', '\r', '\n'), '<br>', $string), false);
 });
+
+$this->addHelperFunction('markdown', function ($content) {
+    return Markdown::text($content);
+});