Russell Brand sparks fury with claim Queen may as well be called 'Mrs Bratwurst-Kraut-Nazi' because of royal family's German heritage

The comedian shared an extract from his book Revolution, prompting fury

Russell Brand has provoked a furious backlash after sharing an extract from his book Revolution suggesting the Queen may as well have been called “Mrs Bratwurst-Kraut-Nazi”.

The comedian took a swipe at the monarch by posting a paragraph from his anti-establishment polemic on his Facebook page, days after leaked video footage emerged showing the Queen giving the Nazi salute as a young girl.

The extract lampooned the tradition of calling the Queen “your Majesty”, claiming this placed her “at the top of a class pyramid on a shelf of money with her own face on it”.

“We should be calling her Mrs Windsor,” his extract continued. “In fact that’s not even her real name, they changed it in the war to distract us from the inconvenient fact that they were as German as the enemy that teenage boys were being encouraged, conscripted actually, to die fighting. Her actual name is Mrs Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

"'Mrs Saxe-Coburg-Gotha'!! No wonder they f**king changed it. It’s the most German thing I’ve ever heard – she might’ve well as been called 'Mrs Bratwurst-Kraut-Nazi'."

His post was met by an outpouring of anger from Facebook users who accused him of “glaring hypocrisy” and uploaded an image of him meeting the Queen after the 2007 Royal Variety Performance.

Others claimed his wealth placed him in the same class he denounces, with one adding: "He speaks the ramblings of the privileged few yet wants to appear to represent the masses."

Another wrote: “You are so wrong on many counts...The Queen is Mrs Mountbatten, not Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, that was her mother's maiden name.....Windsor is the House of Windsor, like the Plantaginates and the Tudors, her Grandfather decided on the Windsor Dynasty...as for Her Highness, that is because she is the Head of the Anglican Church of England. She is no more German than you or I.”