Германия

Капитал Бра

Germany's rap king, born in Soviet Siberia

Хелене Фишер

Siberia-born queen of German Schlager

Палина Рожински

Leningrad-born queen of German pop culture

Зедд

Grammy-winning producer born in Saratov, USSR

Александр Зверев

Soviet roots, German glory: tennis's quiet giant

Дмитрий Глуховский

Moscow novelist who created the Metro series and became Russia's best-selling sci-fi author in exile

Юрий Дудь

Russia's most-watched interviewer — his YouTube documentaries on the Gulag and Soviet history reached tens of millions

Эмилия Шуле

Born in Blagoveshchensk, Russia, she became one of Germany's most celebrated young actresses

Гидон Кремер

Riga-born violin virtuoso who defected from the USSR and became a champion of new music

Грегор Гизи

German leftist politician whose mother was born in St. Petersburg and whose great-grandmother was Russian nobility

Хайнрих Цертик

Kazakhstan-born Russlanddeutscher who became a CDU politician representing Germany's Russian-German community

Герман Минковский

Born in Kaunas (Russian Empire) — the mathematician who gave Einstein's relativity its geometry

Игорь Левит

Nizhny Novgorod-born pianist who became Germany's most politically outspoken classical star

Иван Ребров

Berlin-born singer with a Russian mother who became the world's most famous interpreter of Russian folk songs

Кирилл Петренко

Omsk-born conductor who became Chief Conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic — the world's greatest orchestra

Кирилл Серебренников

Rostov-born theatre and film director placed under house arrest by Putin — now in exile in Paris

Лу Андреас-Саломе

Born in St. Petersburg, became Nietzsche's muse, Rilke's lover, and Freud's first female psychoanalyst

Николай Давыденко

Severodonetsk-born tennis star who reached World No. 3 and won the ATP World Tour Finals

Унаг (Сента-София Деллипонти)

German Celtic folk singer with Bulgarian-Russian roots who became a surprise chart phenomenon

Отто Валлах

Born in Königsberg with Russian Imperial connections — won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and founded terpene chemistry

Рашид Сюняев

Born in Tashkent — the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect bears his name, and he is one of the greatest living astrophysicists

Роза Люксембург

Born in the Russian Empire's Polish territories — the most important female revolutionary thinker of the 20th century

Светлана Алексиевич

Born in Stanislaviv (Ukraine) — Nobel Prize-winning voice of the Soviet catastrophe and its survivors

Татьяна Мария

Russian-born German tennis player who reached the Wimbledon semi-final as a mother of two

Владимир Юровский

Moscow-born conductor who leads the Bavarian State Opera and London Philharmonic — the heir to the German conducting tradition

Владимир Сорокин

Born in Bykovo — Russia's most provocative living novelist, now in Berlin exile

Владимир Войнович

Born in Dushanbe — the satirist who wrote The Life and Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin and mocked the Soviet system to its face

Фолькер Бек

Вальдемар Хердт

Kazakhstan-born Russlanddeutsche who became a CDU politician in Germany

Василий Кандинский

Moscow-born father of abstract painting

Владимир Каминер

Born in Moscow — the author and DJ who turned being a Russian in Berlin into the funniest book of the 2000s

Владимир Кличко

Born in Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan — unified heavyweight champion who dominated boxing for a decade

Юрий Манин

Юрий Шевчук

Born in Magadan — frontman of DDT, Russia's most politically fearless rock band

Жанна Немцова

Daughter of assassinated Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov — journalist and democracy activist in Germany

Алишер Усманов

Uzbek-born Russian billionaire who owned Arsenal FC and built USM Holdings — one of Russia's great fortunes

Никита Володин

Russian-trained pairs skater who teamed with Minerva Fabienne Hase and won Grand Prix events for Germany

Дмитрий Овчаров

Born in Donetsk, became Germany's greatest table tennis player and world No. 1

Вячеслав Муханов

The man who explained why the universe looks the way it does — father of cosmological inflation theory

Катя Петровская

Born in Kyiv — Maybe Esther became one of the most celebrated European literary debuts of the century

Даниэль Донской

Moscow-born actor who became a major German TV star and a passionate advocate for Ukraine

Екатерина Леонова

Russian ballroom champion who won Let's Dance and became one of Germany's most beloved TV personalities

Ольга Грязнова

Born in Baku, writes in German — one of Germany's most acclaimed young novelists

Штефани Гизингер

Germany's Next Top Model winner turned international supermodel — mother is a Russian-German Aussiedler

Максимилиан Мундт

Lead of Netflix's How to Sell Drugs Online Fast — Germany's biggest streaming star with Russian paternal roots

Марина Вайсбанд

Kyiv-born political director of Germany's Pirate Party — a new kind of democratic voice

Сергей Лагодинский

Volgograd-born MEP who became Germany's leading Russian-origin voice in the European Parliament

Пауль Земяк

CDU politician and former party secretary-general with Eastern European roots

Вальтер Хомолка

Germany's leading liberal rabbi — rebuilt Jewish life in Germany with Russian-Jewish diaspora roots

Катарина Тальбах

Berlin theatrical legend with Russian theatrical roots — the most beloved actress on the German-speaking stage

Марк Вашке

Star of Dark (Netflix) — Germany's most internationally recognised dramatic actor with Russian family roots

Ширин Давид

Germany's biggest female rapper with Lithuanian-Russian Jewish roots — 4 million YouTube subscribers

Бернд Лено

German national team goalkeeper of Russian-German Aussiedler descent — Arsenal and Fulham Premier League star

Вальдемар Антон

Born in Russia, became a Bundesliga star for Hannover and Stuttgart — German international

Оскар Хартманн

Russian-born serial entrepreneur who co-founded Westwing and KK&K — Germany's startup ecosystem connector

Никита Животовский

Russian-born mathematics professor at TU Munich — one of Europe's leading combinatorists

Костя Ульман

Russian-born German actor known for Sommersturm and major German romantic comedies

Олексеш

Ukrainian-born German rapper with millions of streams — one of Germany's authentic Russian-speaking hip-hop voices

Арсений Вершинин

Grew up in a small Siberian town, studied nuclear physics in Moscow — then co-founded Personio, Germany's $6B HR tech giant