Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-66.74.70.128-20140318171147/@comment-4612798-20140318173021

Erm... well Germany used to have an Emperor. So whenever it was that your great-grandpa became a German citizen the papers would presumably have been signed in the Emperor's name. Just as now anything official in the UK is on behalf of the Queen, or in modern Germany it would be on behalf of the federal government.