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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 (1924–2025), born in Munich, historian and author
  • Max Müller (1823–1900), comparative philologist and Orientalist, born in Dessau, became professor at Oxford University in 1850
  • Marius Ostrowski (born 1988), political theorist and historian of ideas and ideologies, born in Frankfurt am Main, moved to Britain in 1994
  • Timothy Reuter (1947–2002), historian of medieval Europe whose father was born in Germany.
  • 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

Art

Commerce

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.
  • 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.
  • 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 emigrated from Germany in the 19th C.
  • 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.
  • 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)
  • 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 (also <nowiki>see entry above in 'Academia'</nowiki>)

Music

News and journalism

Politics and government

Science

Sport

Other

See also

References