List of British people with German ancestry

This is a list of notable British people with German ancestry.

Academia

• Ralf Dahrendorf KBE (1929–2009), sociologist, philosopher, political scientist and liberal politician; born in Hamburg, he acquired British citizenship in 1988
• Geoffrey Elton (1921–1994), (born Gottfried Rudolf Otto Ehrenberg), historian specialising in the Tudor period, born in Tübingen, moved to Britain in 1939
• Edgar Feuchtwanger OBE (born 1924), born in Munich, historian and author
• Max Müller (1823–1900), comparative philologist and Orientalist, born in Dessau, became professor at Oxford University in 1850
• Timothy Reuter (1947–2002), historian of medieval Europe whose father was born in Germany. ^[1]
• John Stein, professor of physiology and fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford; brother of the chef Rick Stein
• J. R. R. Tolkien CBE (1892–1973), writer, poet, philologist, linguist and professor of Anglo-Saxon; his family had German roots but had been living in England since the 18th century; "Tolkien" derives from the German "tollkühn", meaning "foolhardy"
• Sir Guenter Treitel (1928–2019), academic lawyer and expert in English contract law; emigrated on the Kindertransport in 1939

Aristocracy and royalty

• The Astor family, originally from Walldorf but gained prominence in both America and England; the English branch holds two hereditary peerages: Viscount Astor and Baron Astor
• The British Royal Family, who belong to the House of Windsor (a branch of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha); George V (1865–1936), of the United Kingdom changed the name of his branch from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to Windsor in 1917; through Queen Victoria, the current royal family are also descended from the House of Hanover (see entry below)
  • Queen Mary of Teck (1867–1953), consort of George V, (1865–1936); born in Kensington Palace, London, she was a member of the House of Württemberg (through her father Francis, Duke of Teck, (1837–1900) and also a descendant of the House of Hanover (through her mother Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, (1833–1897).
  • Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (1921–2021), member of the British Royal Family by marriage (consort of Elizabeth II), and member of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg by birth
• John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton (1834–1902), referred to simply as Lord Acton, Catholic historian, politician and writer, whose mother was a scion of the noble German Dalberg family
• Lady Mary Victoria Douglas-Hamilton (1850–1922), (later Hereditary Princess of Monaco), mother was a member of the House of Baden
• Natalia Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster (born 1959), wife of Gerald Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster, OBE (1951–2016), and great-granddaughter of Julius Wernher (1850–1912)
• The House of Hanover, German royal dynasty who produced seven British monarchs: George I, George II, George III, George IV, William IV and Victoria
• Harold Augustus Wernher (1893–1973), 3rd Baronet, peer, grandfather of the above Natalia Grosvenor (née Phillips) and son of Julius Wernher (1850–1912). The Mountbatten family also has German origin.

Art

• Frank Auerbach (born 1931), artist, born in Berlin, emigrated 1939
• Lucian Freud (1922–2011), painter, born in Berlin, emigrated 1933
• Walter Sickert (1860–1942), Munich-born painter of Danish-German, English and Irish descent, emigrated 1868, son of the painter Oswald Sickert, (1828–1885).

Commerce

• Siegfried Bettmann (1863-1951), founder of motorcycle maker Triumph Engineering and car maker Triumph Motor Company, came from Bettmannsäge, emigrated 1885
• Charles Beyer (1813–1876), born Carl Friedrich Beyer, co-founder of railway locomotive builder Beyer, Peacock & Company, born in Plauen
• Henry Bolckow (1806–1878), co-founder of steelmaker Bolckow, Vaughan and Liberal MP & politician, emigrated 1827.
• Ernest Cassel (1852–1921), merchant banker of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, born in Cologne ^[2]
• Henry Dübs (1816–1876), born Heinrich Dübs in Guntersblum, founder of railway locomotive builder Dübs & Company, emigrated 1842.
• John Goodman (ca. 1857–1929), born Johannes Gütgemann in Oberwinter, emigrated aged 19, founder of motorcycle maker Velocette
• Tiny Rowland (1917–1998), originally Roland Walter Fuhrhop, Rhodesian-British chairman of the Lonrho conglomerate 1962–94
• Gustav Wilhelm Wolff (1834–1913), born in Hamburg, moved to Liverpool in 1849, co-founded shipbuilder Harland & Wolff, Conservative MP

Entertainment

• Alia Bhatt (born 1993), Bollywood actress of Indian and German descent
• Simon Callow CBE (born 1949), actor of English, Danish, German and French descent
• Julian Clary (born 1959), comedian with a paternal great-grandfather and a maternal great-grandmother who were born in Germany. ^[3]
• Sacha Baron Cohen (born 1971), actor, comedian, Israeli mother born to German Jewish parents
• Ernest Cossart (1876–1951), actor born as Emil von Holst; brother of the composer Gustav Holst, (1874–1934), of German, Swedish, British, Latvian and Spanish descent
• Rupert Everett (born 1959), actor, his great-great-grandmother was Augusta Clara de Schmiedern
• Richard E. Grant (born 1957), actor of Dutch-Afrikaner, Hungarian and half-German descent. ^[4]
• Jenny Hanley (born 1947), actress of English descent through her father, Jimmy Hanley (1918–1970), and Russian-Jewish and German descent through her mother Dinah Sheridan (1920–2012).
• Gerard Hoffnung (1925–1959), Jewish-German musical humourist, born in Berlin who arrived in Britain in 1939 as a Kindertransport refugee.
• Derek Jacobi CBE (born 1938), actor and film director, his great-grandfather, William Jacobi ^[5] emigrated from Germany in the 19th C. ^[6]
• Frederick Jaeger (1928–2004), actor, born in Berlin, but moved to England with Adolf Hitler's rise to power
• Jodhi May (born 1975), actress of French-Turkish Jewish and German descent
• Robert Morley CBE (1908–1992), actor, his mother, Gertrude Emily (née Fass), came from a German family that had emigrated to South Africa
• Olivia Newton-John DBE (1948–2022), actress and singer, matrilineal granddaughter of Max Born (1882–1970) a Nobel physicist; her mother and maternal grandparents were Jewish German. ^{[7] [8]}
• Soni Razdan (born 1956), Bollywood actress, born to a British mother of German descent
• Carol Reed (1906–1976), film director and illegitimate son of Herbert Beerbohm Tree, (1852–1917)
• Oliver Reed (1938–1999), actor who had Dutch, Lithuanian and German ancestry through his grandfather Herbert Beerbohm Tree, (1852–1917)
• Enn Reitel (born 1950), actor and impressionist; his family arrived as refugees from Estonia and Germany
• Sean Pertwee (born 1964), actor; son of actor Jon Pertwee (1919–1996), and his German wife, Ingeborg (née Rhoesa)
• Mark Sheppard (born 1964), actor and musician, born in London of an Irish and German background
• Dinah Sheridan (1920–2012), actress of Russian-Jewish and German descent
• Claire Stansfield (born 1964), actress, director, fashion designer and model of half-English and half-German descent
• Rick Stein CBE (born 1947), television presenter, chef, restaurateur, whose father, Eric Stein, was of German descent (an ancestor, Julius Otto Stein, emigrated from Germany in the 19th century) ^[9]
• Herbert Beerbohm Tree (1852–1917), actor and theatre manager who was born as Herbert Draper Beerbohm, son of Julius Beerbohm; his father was of Dutch, Lithuanian and German origin
• Iris Tree (1897–1968), actress, poet and artists' model; daughter of Herbert Beerbohm Tree (1852–1917)
• Viola Tree (1884–1938), actress; daughter of Herbert Beerbohm Tree (1852–1917)
• Peter Ustinov CBE (1921–2004), actor, writer and dramatist of Russian, German, Polish-Jewish and Ethiopian noble descent
• Gordon Warnecke (born 1962), actor of Indo-Guyanese and German descent

Literature

• Sybille Bedford OBE (1911–2006), novelist born in Charlottenburg, west of Berlin
• John Berger (1926–2017), art critic and novelist, grandfather from Trieste
• Max Beerbohm (1872–1956), essayist, novelist and caricaturist who was of German descent; his half-brother was Herbert Beerbohm Tree, (1852–1917); their father was Julius Beerbohm, (1811–1892).
• Ford Madox Ford (1873–1939), novelist emigrated in 1889; his father, Francis Hueffer (1845–1889), was from Germany
• Robert Graves (1895–1985), (full name Robert von Ranke Graves), poet, novelist and scholar, whose German mother was a great-niece of the historian Leopold von Ranke, (1795–1886).
• Adam Hart-Davis (born 1943), historian, photographer, television presenter and scientist; son of Rupert Hart-Davis, (1907–1999)
• Duff Hart-Davis (born 1936), biographer and journalist, son of Rupert Hart-Davis, (1907–1999)
• Rupert Hart-Davis (1907–1999), man of letters, publisher and editor; great-great-great-grandson of King William IV and, in turn, the German House of Hanover
• Frieda Hughes (born 1960), poet and painter; daughter of Ted Hughes, (1930–1998) and Sylvia Plath, (1932–1963); Sylvia's father, Otto Plath, (1885–1940), was German while her mother, Aurelia Plath, (1906–1994), was of Austrian descent
• Judith Kerr (1923–2019), author of children's books, born in Berlin, her family settled in Britain in 1936
• John Lehmann (1907–1987), man of letters and editor, whose Hamburg-born grandfather, (Augustus) Frederick Lehmann (1826–1891), was a businessman who became a Liberal politician
• Patrick O'Brian CBE (1914–2000), (born Richard Patrick Russ), novelist and translator, the son of a physician of German descent
• Sir Nikolaus Pevsner CBE FBA (1902–1983), historian of art and architecture; born in Leipzig, he moved to England in 1933
• Stephen Spender CBE (1909–1995), poet and novelist, whose mother (Violet Hilda Schuster) had German parents
• J. R. R. Tolkien CBE (1892–1973), writer, poet, philologist, linguist and Professor of Anglo-Saxon (alsosee entry above in 'Academia')

Music

• Antony Beaumont (born 1949), musicologist, writer, composer and conductor; born in London of Anglo-German and Greek-Romanian heritage
• David Bedford (1937–2011), composer and musician; brother of Steuart Bedford (below) and grandson of Liza Lehmann, (1862–1918)
• Steuart Bedford (1939–2021), conductor and pianist; brother of the above David Bedford and grandson of Liza Lehmann, (1862–1918)
• Justin Broadrick (born 1969), musician known primarily for Godflesh and Jesu; maternal grandparents were German immigrants.
• Frederick Delius (1862–1934), composer born as Fritz Theodore Albert Delius in Bradford, Yorkshire to German parents from Bielefeld
• Georg Friedrich Handel (1685–1759), composer, born as Georg Friedrich Händel; settled in London in 1712
• Gustav Holst (1874–1934), composer of British, Swedish, Spanish, Latvian and German descent
• Bert Jansch (1943–2011), folk musician and descendant of a family from Hamburg, who settled in Scotland in Victorian times

News and journalism

• Matt Frei (born 1963), Channel 4 broadcast journalist, born in Essen, emigrated 1973
• Rachel Johnson (born 1965), editor, journalist, television presenter and writer; sister of Boris and Jo Johnson, and descendant of the House of Württemberg through an illegitimate line
• Laura Kuenssberg (born 1976), journalist; granddaughter of Ekkehard von Kuenssberg CBE (1913–2000)

Politics and government

• David Cameron (born 1966), Conservative Party politician and former Prime Minister, he is descended from the German House of Hanover through his fourth great-grandmother Elizabeth Hay, Countess of Erroll (1801–1856), illegitimate daughter of King William IV
• Alf Dubs, Baron Dubs (born 1932), Labour Party politician
• Eyre Crowe (1864–1925), former diplomat, his mother, Asta von Barby, was a German noblewoman
• Natascha Engel (born 1967), Labour politician and former MP (half-German and half-English descent, born in Berlin)
• Nigel Farage (born 1964), former UKIP & Brexit Party leader, politician, his great-grandfather Charles Justus Schrod (born Carl Julius Schrod), was born to German parents ^[10]
• Anthony Gueterbock, 18th Baron Berkeley (born 1939), Labour Party peer
• Wera Hobhouse (born 1960), (née von Reden) Liberal Democrat MP for Bath, emigrated 1990
• Boris Johnson (born 1964), Conservative politician and former MP & Prime Minister of the United Kingdom who is descended from the royal German House of Württemberg (and the House of Hanover) through his German great-great-great-grandmother Karolina von Rothenburg (born to Prince Paul of Württemberg and his mistress Frederike Porth) ^[11]
• Jo Johnson (born 1971), Conservative politician, former MP; brother of Boris and Rachel Johnson, and descendant of the House of Württemberg through an illegitimate line
• Joseph Jonas (1845–1921), former Mayor of Sheffield and Imperial German Consul to the city, emigrated 1867. ^[12]
• Angus Robertson (born 1969), SNP politician and MP; born to a Scottish father and German mother
• Alexander Stafford (born 1987), Conservative politician, former MP for Rother Valley
• Gisela Stuart (born 1955), Labour politician and MP, 1997 to 2017; emigrated here in 1974.

Science

• Andre Geim (born 1958), Russian-born Dutch-British physicist, 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics, working in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester. ^[13]
• John Herschel (1792–1871), English mathematician, astronomer, chemist and inventor; son of William Herschel (1738–1822), the Hanover-born astronomer who emigrated to Great Britain aged of nineteen
• Sir William Herschel, 2nd Baronet, (1833–1917), forensic scientist; son of the above John Herschel and grandson of William Herschel
• Frederick Lindemann, 1st Viscount Cherwell (1886–1957), scientific adviser and physicist; son of Adolph Friedrich Lindemann, an engineer born in Baden-Baden
• Otto Metzger (1885-1961), German-British engineer, and inventor of an impact-extrusion process for forming seamless zinc and brass cans

Sport

• Jimmy Bullard (born 1978), former English footballer
• Nicky Butt (born 1975), former English international footballer
• Geoff Hurst (born 1941), former international footballer; his mother, Evelyn Blick, was from Gloucestershire but her family originated in Germany. ^[14]
• Daniel Prenn (1904–1991), Russian-born German, Polish, and British world-top-ten tennis player
• Glenn Roeder (1955–2021), English former football club coach

Other

• William Stuart-Houston, (1911–1987), half-nephew of Adolf Hitler, emigrated to the USA in 1939

See also

• British people
• German migration to the United Kingdom
• German people

References

1. Nelson, Jinty (17 October 2002). "Timothy Reuter". The Guardian . London. Retrieved 7 February 2011.
2. Grunwald, Kurt (1969). "'Windsor-Cassel' – The last court Jew: Prolegomena to a biography of Sir Ernest Cassel". Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook. 14 (1): 119–161. doi:10.1093/leobaeck/14.1.119.
3. "Julian Clary". Who Do You Think You Are? . BBC . Retrieved 7 February 2011.
4. Didcock, Barry (30 April 2006). "A life in pictures Richard E Grant not only made a film of his diaries, he kept a diary during filming". Sunday Herald. Archived from the original on 7 November 2012. Retrieved 6 July 2017.
5. "1901 England Census". Ancestry.co.uk. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
6. Jasper Rees (15 July 2002). "Crown him with many crowns". The Daily Telegraph . London. Archived from the original on 2 November 2007. Retrieved 4 April 2008.
7. "Olivia Newton-John, 'Grease' star and granddaughter of Jewish Nobel laureate, dies at 73". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 8 August 2022. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
8. Newton-John, Olivia (2019). Don't Stop Believin'. Simon and Schuster. p. 10. ISBN   9781982122263.
9. "Rick Stein". Who Do You Think You Are?. BBC. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
10. Dassanayake, Dion (3 May 2013). "Great-grandfather of Ukip leader Nigel Farage 'was born to German immigrants'". Daily Express . London. Archived from the original on 31 October 2013.
11. Warner, Gerald (23 April 2010). "Revealed: how David Cameron and Boris Johnson are related (and Nick Clegg's Mata Hari connection)". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 26 April 2010.
12. Mock, Wolfgang (1981). The Emergence of the Welfare State in Britain and Germany, 1850-1950. London: German Historical Institute. p. 115. ISBN   0-7099-1710-4.
13. "Professor Andre Geim, FRS (Condensed Matter Physics Group – The University of Manchester)". Archived from the original on 23 April 2012.
14. Hurst, Geoff & Hart, Michael (2002), 1966 and All That, Headline, p. 24