Augustus I or Paul Frederick Augustus (German: Paul Friedrich August von Oldenburg) (13 July 1783 – 27 February 1853) was the reigning Grand Duke of Oldenburg from 1829 to 1853.
Augustus had one younger brother, Duke George of Oldenburg, who was a year younger than him. In 1785, his mother died in childbirth at the age of twenty. His father never remarried.
From 1788 to 1803, the two princes were educated at home under the supervision of their father. Together with his brother, he studied at the University of Leipzig from 1803 to 1805. From 1805 to 1807 he and his brother travelled extensively in England and Scotland.[1]
In December 1810, the Duchy of Oldenburg was annexed by the French Empire and Augustus and his father traveled to Russia to stay in exile with their relatives, the Russian imperial family.[2] This annexation was one of the causes for the diplomatic rift between former allies France and Russia, a dispute that would lead to war in 1812 and eventually to Napoleon's downfall.
From 1811 to 1816 he was Governor of Estonia where he led the work to prepare the abolition of serfdom. He participated in the Napoleonic Wars from 1812 to 1814.[3] After the end of the Napoleonic Wars, he returned to Russia to finish his work as governor of Estonia. He returned to Oldenburg in 1816.[4]
Although Oldenburg, like many other German duchies, had been elevated from a mere duchy to a grand duchy in 1815 at the Congress of Vienna, his father chose to continue the use of the lesser title of Duke, making Augustus the Hereditary Prince rather than the Hereditary Grand Duke of Oldenburg.[5]
As Hereditary Prince, he participated extensively in the government of the duchy.[6]
Augustus and Ida had one son, Peter, who was born in 1827 and would later succeed Augustus as Grand Duke. Just like her sister, however, Princess Ida died after three years of marriage, in 1828.
Augustus succeeded his father, Grand Duke Peter I, to the throne of Oldenburg, and the Principality of Birkenfeld on 21 May 1829. Unlike his father, Augustus assumed the title of Grand Duke, and Augustus was thus the first to use the title Grand Duke of Oldenburg.
As Grand Duke, Augustus was employed in reforming the administration of his small state and showed himself a patriarchal ruler who cared for agriculture, transport, social welfare, art and science. Trade flourished along the lower Weser and Jade, and the city of Oldenburg developed into one of Northwestern Germany's cultural centres.[7]
The Grand Duke however was reluctant to follow popular demands to introduce a constitution for the Grand Duchy. Although article 13 of the constitution of the German Confederation obliged Oldenburg to have a constitution, following the advice of his Russian relatives, the Grand Duke again and again postponed the promise of a constitution given in 1830.
Only as a consequence of the Revolutions of 1848 did the Grand Duke reluctantly give in under pressure from his advisers. On 18 February 1849, he signed the Oldenburg constitution which had already been revised by 1852.[8]
Augustus and Cecilia had three sons, of which just one, Elimar, survived to adulthood.
Grand Duchess Cecilia died on 27 January 1844 in Oldenburg.
Death and succession
Grand Duke Augustus died on 27 February 1853 in Oldenburg. He was buried in the Ducal Mausoleum in the Churchyard of Saint Gertrude in Oldenburg. Augustus was succeeded as Grand Duke by his eldest son, Peter.
^Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Großherzogtum Baden (1834), "Großherzogliche Orden" pp. 32, 50
^Liste der Ritter des Königlich Preußischen Hohen Ordens vom Schwarzen Adler (1851), "Von Seiner Majestät dem Könige Friedrich Wilhelm III. ernannte Ritter" p. 20
