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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 Helvig of Schauenburg, 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.
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.
Frisia is a cross-border cultural region in Northwestern Europe. Stretching along the Wadden Sea, it encompasses the north of the Netherlands and parts of northwestern Germany. The region is traditionally inhabited by the Frisians, a West Germanic ethnic group.
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.
Cloppenburg is a district in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Ammerland, Oldenburg, Vechta, Osnabrück, Emsland and Leer.
Vechta is a district (Landkreis) in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Oldenburg, Diepholz, Osnabrück and Cloppenburg.
The Duchy of Oldenburg named after 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.
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.
Anton-Günther, Duke of Oldenburg was the head of the Grand Ducal Family of Oldenburg.
Leitzweiler is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Birkenfeld district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Baumholder, whose seat is in the like-named town.
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 which is a side line of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp, the latter being one of several branches of the larger House of Oldenburg.
Eric IV of Saxe-Lauenburg was a son of Eric II, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg and Agnes of Holstein.
Oldenburg Land is a region and regional association in the German state of Lower Saxony in the area of the former Grand Duchy of Oldenburg (1815–1918), the later Free State of Oldenburg (1918–1946) and administrative district of Oldenburg, without its exclaves, along the rivers Hunte and Hase. In the region between coastline, Dümmer and Damme Hills some of the population still speak Low German today and, in Saterland also Saterland Frisian. The region is rich in old Lower Saxon customs such as Schützenfests or Kohlfahrten. Typical country sports include Klootschießen and Boßeln.
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.
Prince Frederick William of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg-Horetonburg was a member of the House of Oldenburg and a Prince of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg.
Georg Udo Victor von Eucken-Addenhausen was a German jurist, politician, and mayor of Jena.
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