Send Gift Baskets to Oldenburg, Germany

Excavations carried out in the area show that Aldenburg is at least 1000 years old. The first mention of it was found in 1108, in Oldenburg’s documentation. The importance of this town is because of its location at a ford – the Hunte river. Oldenburg was once the capital of a county, later recognized as a duchy, and eventually became a free state. It was under the heavy control of Bremen which led it to later be annexed into Germany.

The 17th century in Oldenburg was a pretty hard time. There was a lot of war and tension, which led to a massive jump in the people living there. But in 1667 the town had an epidemic, leading to an even worse fire. With their interest mostly in Denmark, the Danish kings seldom took care of their old county in Northern Germany. In 1773, after Napoleon had invaded and conquered much of Denmark at that time, the Danish rule over Oldenburg also ended. The ruined city buildings were then finally rebuilt but by this time, Oldenburg was a second-rate town. (German speakers sometimes use the word “klassizistisch” to refer to the classical or neoclassical style that can be found in buildings built during the 19th century.)

After the German government announced the abdication of Emperor Wilhelm II (9 November 1918) following victory in World War I, Germany began to suffer from an economic crisis. Monarchic rule ended in Oldenburg following the abdication of Grand Duke Frederick Augustus II on 11 November 1918. The Grand Duchy now became the Free State of Oldenburg, which is known as Oldenburger Land today.

As part of our work to bring transparency to the ballot box, we look back at a time when voters also cast their votes by paper. In 1928, almost 10% of Oldenburg’s voters opted for the Nazi Party (National Socialist German Workers’ Party). The party had gained a seat in municipal government. In the September 1930 Oldenburg state elections, the Nazi Party’s share of the vote rose to 27.3%, and on May 29, 1932, the Nazi Party received 48.4% in the state election, enough to put the Nazi party in charge of forming a state government and, significantly, making Oldenburg the first state in the country to put the Nazis in power based on electoral turnout. By that autumn, a campaign of Aryanization started forcing the sale of former Jewish-owned property at steep discounts.

The State of Oldenburg became a part of the British zone of occupation after World War II. The military government resided in the city. Some displaced persons camps were established in the city which had only 1.4% of its buildings destroyed by allied bombing campaigns. A change in a population of about 42,000 refugees led to a population increase of over 100,000 persons. In 1946 the Free State of Oldenburg dissolved, and its area became the ‘Administrative District’ of Oldenburg (Verwaltungsbezirk Oldenburg) in Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen). The city was now the capital of the district. In 1978, the district became dissolved and replaced by Weser-Ems administrative region (Regierungsbezirk Weser-Ems), with the city as the administrative capital. The whole state of Lower Saxony dissolved its district administrations by the end of 2004. It was part of administrative reforms to give the districts more independence from our state.