Early Life
Ursula von der Leyen is the daughter of Ernst (Carl Julius) Albrecht, a prominent CDU politician and European Commission official, as well as a long-time Prime Minister of Lower Saxony.
She was born in Ixelles in Brussels, where her father worked for the European Commission (as a Director-General from 1969), and lived in Belgium until she was 13 years old. In 1971, the family moved to Lehrte in Hanover.
Ursula von der Leyen is a descendant of Baron Ludwig Knoop, a cotton merchant of the city-state of Bremen and one of the most successful entrepreneurs of the 19th century.
Read more about this topic: Ursula Von Der Leyen
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