# Albrecht family

The Albrecht family is a North German family whose members have been prominent as civil servants, politicians and businesspeople. The family was among the hübsche ("courtly" or "genteel") families of the Kingdom of Hanover, the informal third elite group after the nobility and the clergy that encompassed the higher bourgeoisie and university-educated civil servants.

## History

The family was first mentioned at the end of the 15th century in a register book of the city of Höxter on the river Weser, North Rhine-Westphalia. The progenitor, or the founder of the family was Barthold Albrecht (1557-1642), who was a pastor in Bodenwerder. Numerous of his descendants were doctors, jurists, politicians, and civil servants in what became the Electorate and later the Kingdom of Hanover. The lawyer Karl Franz Georg Albrecht (1799–1873) became director-general of direct taxation in the Kingdom of Hanover in 1847, and then director-general of customs from 1854 and member of the State Council of Hanover from 1856. He was the father of George Alexander Albrecht (1834–1898), who became a wealthy cotton merchant in the city state of Bremen, where he became part of the Hanseatic elite and was appointed as the Consul of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1895. He married Baroness Louise Dorothea Betty von Knoop (1844–1889), the eldest daughter of the major cotton industrialist, Baron Ludwig Johann von Knoop, who had been ennobled in the Empire of Russia by Alexander II. They were the parents of the cotton merchant Carl Albrecht (1875–1952), who married Mary Ladson Robertson (1883–1960), who belonged to a prominent American family of the Southern aristocracy from Charleston, South Carolina; she was a descendant of James Ladson and several colonial governors of Carolina. Carl and Mary Albrecht were the parents of the medical doctor and psychologist Carl Albrecht (1902–1965). The latter was the father of the conductor George Alexander Albrecht and Ernst Albrecht, the European civil servant who later served as Prime Minister of Lower Saxony. The conductor George Alexander Albrecht was the father of the chief conductor of the Dutch National Opera Marc Albrecht while Ernst Albrecht was the father of the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen (née Albrecht) and of her younger brother, the businessman Hans-Holger Albrecht.
The family is included in the Deutsches Geschlechterbuch which covers prominent families in Germany.

## Coat of arms

Throughout history, the family received the coat of arms for their services. It features in red a golden lion that breaks a silver chain. On the red and silver bulging helmet with red and silver covers, there is a red column on which stands a golden star.

## Family tree

* Barthold Albrecht (1557–1642), pastor
** Statius Albrecht (1603–1651), medical doctor
*** Johann Peter Albrecht (1651–1724), medical doctor
**** Johann Günter Albrecht (1676–1745), medical doctor (Oberlandphysicus) in Hildesheim
***** Johann Peter Albrecht (1703–1753), state councillor (Hof- und Regierungsrat) in the Electorate of Cologne
****** Johann Friedrich Albrecht (1737–1799), county governor of Isenhagen
******* Franz August Heinrich Albrecht (1766–1848), county governor of Syke
******** Karl Franz Georg Albrecht (1799–1873), state councillor and director-general of customs in the Kingdom of Hanover
********* George Alexander Albrecht (1834–1898), consul and cotton merchant in Bremen; married Baroness Louise Dorothea von Knoop (1844–1889)
********** Carl Albrecht (1875–1952), cotton merchant in Bremen; married Mary Ladson-Robertson
*********** Carl Albrecht (1902–1965), medical doctor and psychologist
************ George Alexander Albrecht (1935–2021), conductor
************* Marc Albrecht (1964–), conductor
************ Ernst Albrecht (1930–2014), director-general of the European Commission and Prime Minister of Lower Saxony
************* Ursula von der Leyen (1958–), President of the European Commission
************* Hans-Holger Albrecht (1963–), businessman