Free State of Oldenburg

Origins

Grand Duke Frederick Augustus II abdicated in November 1918, and Oldenburg became a free state, with a constitution adopted in 1919. It kept the detached principalities of Lübeck around Eutin and Birkenfeld in the Hunsrück.

Rule and society

Oldenburg was rural, with dairy farming in the marshes and moors and a naval port at Wilhelmshaven nearby. Its Lutheran north and Catholic south around Cloppenburg and Vechta differed politically. In 1932 the Nazis won an absolute majority, and Carl Röver formed one of the first Nazi state governments. In 1937 the Greater Hamburg Act transferred Lübeck and Birkenfeld to Prussia and gave Wilhelmshaven to Oldenburg.

Decline and legacy

Under the Nazis, Röver became Reich governor for Oldenburg and Bremen. After 1945 the state lay in the British zone, and in November 1946 it was merged with Hanover, Brunswick and Schaumburg-Lippe into the state of Lower Saxony. Oldenburg survives as a historic region and administrative name.