His American great-grandmother is a descendant of two signatories of the American Declaration of Independence, and descends from the Founding Fathers of the United States, the Mayflower pilgrims.
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He grew up in Munich and Trossingen and was educated at the Jesuit college Kolleg St. Blasien, about which he wrote in connection with sexual harassment in the Catholic Church in Der Spiegel.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe | Otto von Bismarck | Ferdinand Marcos | Alexander von Humboldt | Wernher von Braun | Carl Maria von Weber | Ferdinand Magellan | Herbert von Karajan | Franz Ferdinand | Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher | Ferdinand II of Aragon | John von Neumann | Franz Ferdinand (band) | Lars von Trier | Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria | Ferdinand von Mueller | Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor | Ferdinand I | Paul von Hindenburg | Alexander von Humboldt Foundation | Heinrich von Kleist | Anne Sofie von Otter | Ferdinand | Erich von Stroheim | Max von Sydow | Louis-Ferdinand Céline | Justus von Liebig | Ferdinand Foch | Hermann von Helmholtz | Franz von Papen |