the name of a number of dynasties descended from the Oldenburgs, a family of German counts. From 1448 to 1863 representatives of the House of Oldenburg ruled in Denmark, where Christian I was the first king of the dynasty. They also ruled in the two other countries of the Kalmar Union, Norway and Sweden. In Norway they were in power from 1450 to 1814, and in Sweden from 1457 to 1523, except for one interval. They also ruled Schleswig-Holstein from 1460 to 1863. One of the collateral lines of the Oldenburgs was the family Gottorp. The Glücksburg dynasty traces its lineage, through collateral lines, back to the Oldenburgs.
beginning in the 12th century, a county in northern Germany with the city of Oldenburg as the main city. From 1667 to 1773 the county of Oldenburg was a possession of the Danish kings. It became a duchy in 1777 and was a grand duchy from 1815 to 1918. A state in Germany from 1918 to 1945, Oldenburg became a district in the Land (state) of Lower Saxony in 1946. Oldenburg was at first in the English zone of occupied Germany, but in 1949 it became part of the Federal Republic of Germany.
a city in the Federal Republic of Germany, in the Land (state) of Lower Saxony, on the Hunte River, a tributary of the Weser River, at the Hunte-Ems Canal. Population, 132,100 (1971). A transportation junction, Oldenburg is an industrial center with electrical, agricultural, and other branches of machine building. Other industries include food processing, the manufacture of textiles, glassmaking, and woodworking. Oldenburg has a botanical garden. [18–1144–2; updated]