von der Leyen in 2016, photo by Sergey Kohl/Bigstock.com
Birth Name: Ursula Gertrud Albrecht
Place of Birth: Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium
Date of Birth: 8 October, 1958
Ethnicity: German (including Baltic German), English, Scottish, as well as distant French, Irish, Italian, Swiss-French, and Swiss-German
Ursula von der Leyen is a German politician. She is the President-elect of the European Commission, due to take office on 1 November 2019. She has served as the Deputy Leader of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, since 15 November 2010. She was the Minister of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, from 22 November 2005 to 30 November 2009, Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, frmo 30 November 2009 to 17 December 2013, and Minister of Defence, from 17 December 2013 to 17 July 2019, among many other posts.
Her father, Ernst Carl Julius Albrecht, worked as one of the first European civil servants from the establishment of the European Commission in 1958, first as the Chef de Cabinet to the European Commissioner for Competition Hans von der Groeben in the Hallstein Commission, and then as the Director-General of the Directorate-General for Competition from 1967 to 1970. Her mother, Heidi Adele (Stromeyer), was a Germanist.
Ursula is married to physician Heiko Echter von der Leyen, with whom she has seven children.
Ursula’s patenral line can be traced back to her thirteenth great-grandfather, Diederik Albrecht.
Ursula’s patenral grandfather was Carl Eduard Albrecht (the son of Friedrich Carl Albrecht and Mary Ladson Robertson). Ursula’s grandfather Carl, who was born in Bremen, Bremen, was a psychologist. Ursula’s great-grandfather Carl was a cotton merchant, also from Bremen, Bremen, and was the son of cotton merchant George Alexander Albrecht, and Louise Dorothea Betty “Lullu” Knoop. Ursula’s great-grandmother Mary was an American emigrant, from Charleston, South Carolina, and was the daughter of Edward Twells Robertson and Sara Gilmor Ladson.
Ursula’s paternal grandmother was Adelheid Eugenie Johanna “Adda” Berg (the daughter of Ernst Carl Julius Berg and Clara Elisabeth Krause). Ernst was the son of Carl Franz Heinrich Berg and Johanna Wilhelmine Ottilie Voss. Clara was the daughter of Julius Rudolph Krause and Henriette Conradine Adelheid Ruß.
Ursula’s maternal grandfather was Gustav Julius Wilhelm Stromeyer (the son of Carl Wilhelm Gustav Stromeyer and Anna Rosa Runge). Ursula’s grandfather Gustav was born in Hanover, Lower Saxony. Ursula’s great-grandfather Gustav was the son of Philipp August Adolf Stromeyer and Therese Henriette Jacobine Schuster. Anna was born in San Antonio, Texas, United States, the daughter of German parents, Heinrich “Henry” Runge, of Bremen, Bremen, and of Johanne Dorothee Juliane “Julia” Hornung, of Hildesheim, Lower Saxony.
Ursula’s matenral grandmother was Gertrud Emma Margarethe Ohlrogge (the daughter of Richard Ohlrogge and Anna).
Source: Genealogy of Ursula von der Leyen – https://www.geni.com