François

François is a French first (English: Francis) and last name that is also represented in Germany as a surname of Huguenot descent. As "von François", numerous members of the German line were raised to nobility.

French

• François Apollot (⚔ 2 May 1945 in Berlin), French sailor, later SS-Oberscharführer and Knight's Cross recipient (29 April 1945) of the Second World War
• François Darlan (1881–1942), admiral and politician
• François de La Rocque (1885–1946), officer and politician
• François Duprat (1941–1978), historian and martyr
• Jean-François Gariépy (b. 1984), French-Canadian political commentator and author

Germany

Curt von Francois Monument in Windhoek, Namibia (2018)

In 1680, five years before the Edict of Nantes was repealed, a branch of the family under a certain Etienne le François (1633–1689) had to leave France because of their Reformed faith. It found asylum in Electoral Saxony (Kursachsen). Family von François came from a family that had its origins in Normandy and can be traced back to François en Bugey Nico François, Seigneur des Alimes, around 1354. The family members were Huguenots.

The cloth manufacturer (since 1686) Nicolas le François was the first family member to settle in Cölln on the Schloßfreiheit (today Berlin) in 1689; from 1699 he lived in Franfurt/Oder. He was the great-great-grandfather of Major General Bruno Hugo Karl Friedrich von François. Bruno's grandfather lord of the manor (Gut Niemegk) Captain August Karl von François (1736–1801) received renewal of the nobility in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation by Roman-German Emperor Joseph II on 21 March 1774. Beginning with Captain Etienne le François (1690–1747), the descendants of the German-based Francois family all, without exception, married German women of nobility.

Germans

• Bruno von François (1818–1870; ⚔ Franco-German War), Major General of the Prussian Army and knight of the order "Pour le Mérite"
• Curt von Francois (1852–1931), founder of the city of Windhoek in German Southwest Africa
• Edmund Francois (1915–1945; ⚔ in West Prussia), Major and Knight's Cross recipient of the Second World War
• Hermann von François (1856–1933), General of the Infantry in the First World War
• Hugo von Francois (1861–1904; ⚔ Hottentot War), Officer in the Prussian Army and the Schutztruppe in German Southwest Africa, most recently captain, military commander and "Southwest Rider" (de)
• Wilhelm François (1878–1955), Craftsmen and politician (Wirtschaftspartei)