Aftermath
In 1814 the Duchy acquired the Principality of Birkenfeld and became a grand duchy.
In 1871 Oldenburg joined the German Empire, and in 1918 it became a free state within the Weimar Republic.
In 1937 (with the Greater Hamburg Act), it lost the exclave districts of Eutin near the Baltic coast and Birkenfeld in southwestern Germany to Prussia and gained the City of Wilhelmshaven; however, this was a formality, as the Hitler régime had de facto abolished the federal states in 1934.
By the beginning of World War II in 1939, as a result of these territorial changes, Oldenburg had an area of 5,375 square kilometres (2,075 sq mi) and 580,000 inhabitants.
In 1946, after World War II, Oldenburg merged into the newly founded state of Lower Saxony forming, territorially unchanged, the administrative region (Verwaltungsbezirk) of Oldenburg. Region and State both became a part of West Germany in 1949. The administrative region was abolished in 1978 and merged with neighbouring governorates (Regierungsbezirke) into the new region of Weser-Ems, dissolved in 2004.
Read more about this topic: Duchy Of Oldenburg
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“The aftermath of joy is not usually more joy.”
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