Hans-Holger was born in Brussels, Belgium, in 1963 to Heidi Adele and Ernst (Carl Julius) Albrecht, a prominent CDU politician and European Commission official; the Albrecht family had been among the hübsche ("genteel") families of the Electorate of Hanover as doctors, jurists and civil servants since the 17th century, but his immediate ancestors had been wealthy cotton merchants in Bremen and members of the city-state's Hanseatic elite in the 19th and 20th centuries.
He is a descendant of Baron Ludwig Knoop, a cotton merchant of the city-state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen and one of the most successful entrepreneurs of the 19th century.
[2] He started his career at Modern Times Group MTG AB in 1997 as Head of the pay-TV operations at Viasat Broadcasting.
[9] In January 2022, Hans-Holger became chairman of the board of Storytel, one of the worlds leading streaming audiobook services.
[10] Hans-Holger Albrecht resides in London, Austria and Stockholm, and is married with seven children, as many as his sister Ursula von der Leyen, who became Germany's first female defence minister on 17 December 2013.