Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1913.djvu/1044

 922 GERMAN EMPIRE: — OLDENBURG

The oveiiordsliip of the soil within the State is distributed as foHows: — The Grand-duke has seignorial rights over 527 square miles; titled and untitled nobles over 353 square miles, and town corporations over 117 square miles.

Marriages, 1911, 776; births. 2,835; deaths, 2,061; surplus of births, 775. Among the births were 85 stillborn, and 384 illegitimate children.

With the exception of 2,627 Catholics, 298 Jews and 212 persons of other confessions (1905), the people are Protestants. The total population on December 1, 1910, numbered 106,347 (53,523 males and 52,824 females). The capital, Neu-Strelitz, had 11,928 inhabitants in 1910.

British Minister Plenipotentiary. — Rt. Hon. Sir W. E. Goschen, G.C.V.O., K.C.M.G.

Consul-General. — W. E. Hearn (Hamburg).

Eeference.

Mayer (A.), Geschichte des Grossher20gtiims Mecklenburg-Strelitz 1816 — 1890.

Neustrelitz, 1890.

OLDENBURG.

(Grossherzogtum Oldenburg.)

Grand-duke Friedericli August, born November 16, 1852; the son of Grand-duke Peter and of Princess Elizabeth of Saxe-Altenburg; succeeded at the death of his father, June 13, 1900; married (1), February 18, 1878, to Princess Elizabeth (died August 28, 1895) daughter of Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia; (2), October 24, 1896, to Princess Elizabeth of Mecklenburg- Schwerin; issue of first marriage, a daughter, Sophia, born February 2, 1879; married February 27, 1906, to Prince Eitel Friedrich, second son of the Emperor Wilhelm II., of the .second, a son, Nicolaus, born August 10, 1897; and two daughters, Ingeborg Alix, born July 20, 1901, and Altburg Mathilda, born May 19, 1903. Brother of the reigning Grand-Dicke.—Trmce Georg, born June 27, 1855.

The ancient house of Oldenburg is said to be descended from Witduklnd, the celebrated leader of the heathen Saxons against Cliarles the Great. In the fifteenth century a scion of the House of Oldenburg, Count Christian VIII., was elected King of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. The main line became extinct with Count Anton Guiither, in 1667, whereupon the territory of the family fell to the King of Denmark, who made it over to Grand-duke Paul of Russia, in 1773, in exchange for pretended claims upon Schleswig-Holstein. The Grand-duke then (1773) gave Oldenburg to his cousin, Prince Friedrich August of Holstein- Gottorp, with whose descendants it remained till 1810, when Napoleon incorporated it with the Kingdom of Westphalia. But the Congress of Vienna not only gave the country back to its former sovereign, but, at the urgent demand of Czar Alexander I., added to it a territory of nearly 400 square miles, with 50.000 inhabitants, bestowing at the same time upon the Prince the title of Grand-duke. Part of the new territory consisted of the Principality of Birkenfeld, on the left bank of the Rhine, close to the French frontier. Another part consisted of the Principality of Llibeck, and another of a piece of the secularised bishopric of Munster. The Grand-duke has a civil list of 400,000 marks, or 20,000L, and the levenue from the crown lands (Krongut) is estimated at 255,000 marks, or 12 7501.; he draws also a considerable revenue from private estates of the family in Holstein.

By the Constitution, 1849, revised 1852 and 1908, the legislative power is exercised by a Landtag, or Diet, elected for five years, by the vote of all citizens paying taxes. By a law of April 17, 1909, the direct mode of election was introduced in 1911. The Grand-Duchy is divided into 29 districts. The Landtag consists of 45 delegates. The executive is vested, under the Grand-duke, in a responsible ministry of three departments. The outlying Principalities of Llibeck and Birkenfeld have also provincial councils, both of 15 members, summoned twice a year by the provincial government.

The budgets are divided into the budget of the Grand-duchy and the budgets of the Duchy of Oldenburg and the Principalities of Llibeck and Birkenfeld. Estimated revenue, 1912, 819,245^.; expenditure, 813,841Z.