Werner Herzog

LOS ANGELES – JAN 13: Herzog at the 37th Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards at the InterContinental Hotel on January 13, 2012 in Century City, CA kathclick/Bigstock.com

Place of Birth: Munich, Germany

Date of Birth: 5 September, 1942

Ethnicity:
*father – German, as well as distant French Huguenot
*mother – Croatian, Austrian

Werner Herzog is a German filmmaker and actor. He has directed the feature films Signs of Life, Even Dwarfs Started Small, Aguirre, the Wrath of God; The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, Heart of Glass, Stroszek, Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979), Woyzeck, Fitzcarraldo, Where the Green Ants Dream, Cobra Verde, Scream of Stone, Invincible (2001), The Wild Blue Yonder, Rescue Dawn, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done; Queen of the Desert, Salt and Fire, and Family Romance, LLC; and many documentaries, including Land of Silence and Darkness, Grizzly Man, Encounters at the End of the World, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Into the Abyss, and Meeting Gorbachev. He also wrote all of his features, except for Heart of Glass, Where the Green Ants Dream, and My Son, all of which he co-wrote, and Scream of Stone and Bad Lieutenant, both of which he did not write. He often collaborated with star Klaus Kinski. Werner’s acting roles include the film Jack Reacher and the series The Mandalorian.

Werner is the son of Elizabeth (Stipetić) and Dietrich Herzog. He took his mother’s surname after his parents divorced, and later returned to using Herzog for his film career. In his memoir, Werner wrote of his father’s ancestry, “My family on my father’s side were all academics. Their roots are in Swabia, but one branch of the family were Huguenots by the name of de Neufville, who presumably fled persecution in France at the end of the seventeeth century and sought refuge in Frankfurt.”

Werner is married to Elena Pisetski. He has a son with his former wife Martje Grohmann; a daughter with his former partner Eva Mattes; and a son with his former wife Christine Ebenberger.

Werner’s paternal grandfather was named Rudolf Herzog.

Werner’s paternal grandmother was named Ella.

Werner’s maternal grandfather was Croatian, from Zagreb.

Werner’s maternal grandmother was Austrian, from Vienna.

Sources: Werner Herzog writes of his father’s ancestry – https://www.google.com

Werner Herzog discusses his ancestry – https://www.dw.com