| Free State of Oldenburg Freistaat Oldenburg | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| State ofGermany | |||||||||||||
| 1918–1946 | |||||||||||||
.svg) Flag | |||||||||||||
.svg) The Free State of Oldenburg (red) within theWeimar Republic | |||||||||||||
| Anthem | |||||||||||||
| Heil dir, o Oldenburg | |||||||||||||
| Capital | Oldenburg | ||||||||||||
| Area | |||||||||||||
• 1925 | 6,427 km2 (2,481 sq mi) | ||||||||||||
| Population | |||||||||||||
• 1925 | 545,172 | ||||||||||||
| • Type | Republic | ||||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||||
• Established | 11 November 1918 | ||||||||||||
• Disestablished | 23 November 1946 | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Today part of | Germany | ||||||||||||
TheFree State of Oldenburg (German:Freistaat Oldenburg) was afederated state that existed during theWeimar Republic andNazi Germany. It was established in 1918 following theabdication of the Grand DukeFrederick Augustus II of theGrand Duchy of Oldenburg after theGerman Revolution and was abolished by theAllies following theSecond World War.
The state parliament consisted of alandtag with a fluctuating number of members but not more than 48, elected for a term of three years byuniversal suffrage. The state administration, headed by aMinister-President, was responsible to thelandtag and could be removed by a vote of no confidence.[1] For most of the Weimar period, due to the political stalemate in thelandtag with neither the parties of the left nor the right able to form a stableparliamentary coalition, the state governments usually were headed bynon-partisan technocrats.[2]
From 1925 to 1927, followingBavaria's lead, Oldenburg was one of many German states that issued a ban onAdolf Hitler's participation in public meetings.[3] However, in theMay 1932landtag election, theNazi Party became the largest party with 48% of the vote and captured a majority of thelandtag seats, for the first time in any German state. When the Nazi PartyGauleiter ofGau Weser-Ems,Carl Röver, became Minister-President on 16 June 1932, Oldenburg became one of only five states to have installed a Nazi-led government before the Nazis came to power nationally.[4]
Following theirseizure of power at the national level, the Nazi government enacted the "Second Law on the Coordination of the States with the Reich" that established more direct control over the states by means of the new powerful position ofReichsstatthalter (Reich Governor). Röver was installed in this post for both Oldenburg andBremen on 5 May 1933 and was succeeded as Minister-President byGeorg Joel.[5] When Röver died on 15 May 1942,Paul Wegener becameReichsstatthalter.
The state originally consisted of the main district ofOldenburg Land, as well as the twoexclaves ofEutin near the Baltic coast andBirkenfeld in southwestern Germany. As a result of theGreater Hamburg Act it lost both exclave districts toPrussia and gained the City ofWilhelmshaven in return, effective 1 April 1937. By the beginning of the war in 1939, as a result of these territorial changes, Oldenburg had an area of 5,375 km2 (2,075 sq mi) and 580,000 inhabitants.
After the war, Oldenburg was part of theBritish occupation zone. It lost its status as a separate German state when it was merged into the newly founded state ofLower Saxony as the administrative region (Verwaltungsbezirk) of Oldenburg, and became a part ofWest Germany upon its establishment in May 1949. The two exclaves became part of the states ofSchleswig-Holstein andRhineland-Palatinate, respectively.
States of the Weimar Republic (1919–1933) | |||||||
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