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Oldenburg is a former state in northwestern Germany whose capital was Oldenburg. The region gained its independence in the High Middle Ages. It survived the Napoleonic Wars as an independent country, formed part of the German Confederation, and was a member state of the German Reich from 1871 to 1946.
The Oldenburgish state has been joined to numerous distant exclaves over time. Additionally, the country was governed for a long time by Danish rulers. Oldenburg Land is used to designate in a narrower sense the northern, older part of the Grand Duchy, especially the territory of the old County of Oldenburg. The southern part of the country added in 1803 is called Oldenburg Münsterland. To this was added Landwürden, lying to the east of the Weser. In no case were the exclaves that belonged to Oldenburg until 1937 included under the name of Oldenburg Land, nor were the Principality of Lübeck, part of Oldenburg after 1773 (later Kreis Eutin, currently part of Ostholstein) or the Principality of Birkenfeld (part of Oldenburg after 1817, belonging to the Nahe region).
In the Holy Roman Empire Oldenburg was a county that developed around the settlement of Oldenburg, (first attested in 1108) and in the course of history gained control of a wider area. The Counts of Oldenburg stemmed from a Frisian princely house. At first vassals of the Welf Saxon prince Henry the Lion, they took advantage of his deposition by Emperor Barbarossa to make themselves autonomous. The first Oldenburgs belonged to the line of the Rüstringen Frisians. In 1234 the county was acquired by the also Frisian Stedingens, later by other Frisian territories (Butjadingen, Rüstringen, Wurden) and finally in 1575 came into the possession of the Lordship of Jever. Oldenburg gained importance when Count Dietrich of Oldenburg († 1440) married Hedvig of Holstein, daughter of Gerhard VI of Schleswig-Holstein-Rendsburg. Dietrich's younger son carried on the line of Oldenburg counts, which died out in 1667. The elder son, Christian, was elected King Christian I of Denmark in 1448 and Lord of Schleswig and Holstein in 1460. In 1667 this line acquired Oldenburg as well, which thereby was joined in personal union with the Danish crown. The lordships of Jever and Kniphausen were not affected. The Lordship of Jever was willed by Anthony Günther, Count of Oldenburg to the Principality of Anhalt-Zerbst and in 1795 fell by Kunkellehen (female inheritance) to the Russian empress Catherine the Great.[ citation needed ]
Through a territorial trade, the County of Oldernburg was assigned in the Treaty of Tsarskoye Selo on the 27th of August, 1773, to the head of the House of Holstein-Gottorp, the future Emperor Paul I of Russia, who four days later transferred the country to his cousin Frederick August, the Prince-bishop of Lübeck, who was then promoted by Emperor Joseph II to the rank of duke in 1774/1777. The duchy thus consisted of two geographically separate parts: Oldenburg proper and the Prince-bishopric of Lübeck with the Residenz of Eutin. In 1785 Frederick August died. His nephew Peter Frederick Louis accepted the successorship and regency for Frederick August's mentally ill son Peter Frederick William as coadjutor. Under him Oldenburg again became a Residenz. In the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803 Oldenburg obtained the Hanoverian district of Wildeshausen and the districts of Vechta and Cloppenburg from the dissolved Prince-Bishopric of Münster in compensation for losing the Elsfleth Weser Toll (ship toll on the Weser levied by Oldenburg 1623 - 1820). The Prince-bishopric of Lübeck was transformed into a hereditary principality. Although it had joined the Confederation of the Rhine, it was annexed to France in 1810 by Napoleon Bonaparte. The Duke fled to his son George in Russia, who had married the Emperor's daughter Catherine Pavlovna.
In 1814, after the fall of Napoleon, the Duke returned to his country, which was raised to a grand duchy in 1815 after the Congress of Vienna. Furthermore, Oldenburg received a new exclave, the Principality of Birkenfeld on the Nahe, so that the national territory now comprised three parts. In 1818 Oldenburg received the Lordship of Jever back from Emperor Alexander I of Russia. After Peter Frederick Louis's death in 1829 his son Paul Frederick August succeeded him and became the first to call himself Grand Duke. On the 28th of February, 1849, in the context of the German Revolution, the Fundamental Law of the State, the first Oldenburgish constitution, came into force. It was revised as soon as 1852. In 1853 Nicholas Frederick Peter became Grand Duke of Oldenburg. Under his rule the Lordship of In- and Kniphausen was regained.
Oldenburg joined the Steuerverein (Tax Union) in 1836, which was a customs union with the Kingdom of Hanover and others. Hanover joined the Deutscher Zollverein (German Customs Union) in 1854, after negotiating advantageous conditions with Prussia and, facing isolation, Oldenburg followed suit the same year. [1] In the Second Schleswig War of 1864 Oldenburg remained neutral. In the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 Oldenburgish troops fought on the side of Prussia against Austria, joining the Prussian dominated North German Confederation in 1867. In the course of Oldenburg's accession to the North German Confederation, a military convention of July 15, 1867 transferred the Oldenburg armed forces to the Prussian army [2] and consequently, Oldenburg's military participated on the Prussian side in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/1871.
After a reign of 47 years, Nicholas Frederick Peter died in 1900. His son Frederick August succeeded him as the last Grand Duke of Oldenburg.
After World War I and the abdication of Grand Duke Frederick August, Oldenburg became a republic. It remained a state of the German Reich under the name Free State of Oldenburg. However, democracy lasted for only a short time. Already in the state parliamentary elections of 1931 the NSDAP became the strongest faction and in 1932 gained the state presidency as part of a coalition government. In the following years the Free State was Nazified. With the British military government's Ordinance No. 46 on the 23rd of August, 1946, titled "Abolition of the Provinces in the British Zone of the Former State of Prussia and the Reconstitution Thereof as Separate Länder" Oldenburg was joined with the State of Hanover as Verwaltungsbezirk (Administrative District) Oldenburg to create Lower Saxony.
In non-binding referendums in 1956 and on 19 January 1975, citizens in Oldenburg voted to become a separate state from Lower Saxony. [3] However, the Bundestag passed a law on 9 January 1976 refusing to restore the state of Oldenburg. [4] The population of the former Oldenburg state (874,600 in 1977) is greater than the existing state of Bremen (706,500) and slightly less than the state of Saarland (1,085,600). [5]
The Oldenburgische Landschaft is responsible for the cultural heritage of Oldenburg Land (including Oldenburg Münsterland). The history of the state of Oldenburg is displayed in Schloss Oldenburg and other museums.
The territory of the former state of Oldenburg is presently divided among five federal states:
In the nineteenth century the following coat of arms was adopted: A quartered shield, above divided, below divided by an upward point. In the first field are two red crossbars in gold (Oldenburg), in the second in blue a suspended golden cross (Delmenhorst), in the third in a blue field a suspended golden cross covered with a bishop's miter (Principality of Lübeck), in the fourth a red and white checkered field (Birkenfeld), in the point in a blue field a golden, crowned lion (Jever).
The state colours were blue and red, the flag blue with a red cross.
"Heil Dir O Oldenburg" is the national anthem of the former Grand Duchy and, from 1918, of the Free State of Oldenburg.
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Lower Saxony is a German state in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with 47,614 km2 (18,384 sq mi), and fourth-largest in population among the 16 Länder federated as the Federal Republic of Germany. In rural areas, Northern Low Saxon and Saterland Frisian are still spoken, albeit in declining numbers.
Friesland is a district (Landkreis) in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Wesermarsch, Ammerland, Leer and Wittmund, and by the North Sea. The city of Wilhelmshaven is enclosed by—but not part of—the district.
The district of Oldenburg is a district in the state of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Diepholz, Vechta, Cloppenburg and Ammerland, the city of Oldenburg, the district of Wesermarsch and the city of Delmenhorst.
Holstein is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider. It is the southern half of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of Germany.
The Duchy of Oldenburg, named for its capital, the town of Oldenburg, was a state in the north-west of present-day Germany. The counts of Oldenburg died out in 1667, after which it became a duchy until 1810, when it was annexed by the First French Empire. It was located near the mouth of the River Weser.
The Oldenburg Münsterland, otherwise called Oldenburger Münsterland or Oldenburgisches Münsterland, is a region in Lower Saxony, Germany and the administrative area that comprises the federal districts of Cloppenburg and Vechta. It forms the southern part of the historical region of Oldenburg Land, so it is also called Südoldenburg. The inhabitants of the region accordingly call themselves Südoldenburger, with the denominative Oldenburger Münsterländer being rather uncommon.
The Duchy of Saxe-Lauenburg, was a reichsfrei duchy that existed from 1296 to 1803 and again from 1814 to 1876 in the extreme southeast region of what is now Schleswig-Holstein. Its territorial center was in the modern district of Herzogtum Lauenburg and originally its eponymous capital was Lauenburg upon Elbe, though the capital moved to Ratzeburg in 1619.
Land Wursten is a former Samtgemeinde in the district of Cuxhaven, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It was situated approximately 20 km (12 mi) southwest of Cuxhaven, and 15 km (9.3 mi) north of Bremerhaven. Its seat was in the village Dorum. It was disbanded in January 2015, when its member municipalities merged into the new municipality Wurster Nordseeküste.
Peter I or Peter Frederick Louis of Holstein-Gottorp was the Regent of the Duchy of Oldenburg for his incapacitated cousin William I from 1785 to 1823, and then served himself as Duke from 1823 to 1829.
The Prince-Bishopric of Lübeck, was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire until 1803. Originally ruled by Roman-Catholic bishops, after 1586 it was ruled by lay administrators and bishops who were members of the Protestant Holstein-Gottorp line of the House of Oldenburg. The prince-bishops had seat and vote on the Ecclesiastical Bench of the College of Ruling Princes of the Imperial Diet.
The Grand Duchy of Oldenburg Railway was the railway company that was run as a state railway for the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg, part of the German Empire.
The County of East Frisia was a county in the region of East Frisia in the northwest of the present-day German state of Lower Saxony.
The coat of arms of Oldenburg is the coat of arms associated with the state of Oldenburg, a county, duchy and then grand duchy that existed between 1101 and 1918. The arms are also associated with the parts of the House of Oldenburg that ruled the state.
Christian, Duke of Oldenburg is the head of the Grand Ducal Family of Oldenburg.
Eric IV of Saxe-Lauenburg was a son of Eric II, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg and Agnes of Holstein.
Eric V of Saxe-Lauenburg was a member of the House of Ascania; son of Duke Eric IV of Saxe-Lauenburg and Sophia of Brunswick-Lüneburg. Eric V and his brother John IV jointly succeeded their father in 1412 as dukes of Saxe-Lauenburg. After John IV had died in 1414, Eric ruled alone.
The Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel was a subdivision of the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, whose history was characterised by numerous divisions and reunifications. It had an area of 3,828 square kilometres in the mid 17th century. Various dynastic lines of the House of Welf ruled Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel until the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. As a result of the Congress of Vienna, its successor state, the Duchy of Brunswick, was created in 1815.
The Principality of Birkenfeld, known after 1919 as the Region of Birkenfeld, was an exclave of the Grand Duchy and then the Free State of Oldenburg from 1817 until 1937, when it was incorporated into Prussia. It was located in the Nahe region on the left bank of the Rhine river and its capital was Birkenfeld. The government was led by a Government-President (Regierungspräsident) who was appointed by the government of Oldenburg.
The Principality of Ratzeburg is a former state, existing from 1648 to 1918. It belonged to the imperially immediate territory of the Duchy of Mecklenburg within the Holy Roman Empire. It was formed from the territory of the former Prince-Bishopric of Ratzeburg, which was secularised to Mecklenburg-Güstrow in the 1648 Peace of Westphalia. Following the death of the last duke in 1695, the territories of Mecklenburg-Güstrow were split up in the 1701 Treaty of Hamburg, which created the semi-ducal states of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz, with the latter made up of the Principality of Ratzeburg and the Lordship of Stargard. Its territories remained exclaves of Mecklenburg-Strelitz through its later iterations – the Grand Duchy from 1815 and Free State from 1918 – before the bulk of it was finally incorporated into the unified state of Mecklenburg in 1934 as part of Landkreis Schönberg; its small exclaves were incorporated into Kreis Herzogtum Lauenburg of Schleswig-Holstein. Most of the Principality is now within the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
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