The Grand Ducal family of Oldenburg

[Svetabel]

It will be very hard to find her picture or a portrait!

I've seen a sketch of her in the David McIntosch book on the Oldenburgs. Great book.

Really?!!!! Well, I will have to buy this book, then! Thank you so much Svetabel for this information! And do you know where on the net I could buy this book? It's a very recent book, isn't it?

Yes, the recent one of 2007 year published by Rosvall Royal Books, a great photoalbum on the Oldenbourg Family. The ISBN is 91-975671-3-2.

[berno]

If you would like to post pictures of Ida's sister would be great and perhaps portraits of elisabeth (sister of queen marie von Hannover and alexandra Josifovna)? Thanks a lot!

[berno]

I habe never seen these pics/paintings except for the one of Elisabeth by Stiehler. I always wondered how the relatiosn were between Elisabeth and her sisters Marie, Alexandra and Therese (as far as the latter one concerns there seems to be no information nor pics/paintings of her at all)/ I have seen pics from the two sisters Marie and Alexandra though and both had a striking resemblance. It seems to me that Elisabeth had a different appearance than her sisters. Anyway thanks again and I look forward to other postings.

[Bourgogne]

Thanks a lot Bourgogne, reallly nice. I habe never seen these pics/paintings except for the one of Elisabeth by Stiehler. I always wondered how the relatiosn were between Elisabeth and her sisters Marie, Alexandra and Therese (as far as the latter one concerns there seems to be no information nor pics/paintings of her at all)/ I have seen pics from the two sisters Marie and Alexandra though and both had a striking resemblance. It seems to me that Elisabeth had a different appearance than her sisters. Anyway thanks again and I look forward to other postings.

For Therese, I'm like you, I never found even one only word or one picture about her! Just her name and birth/death!
And you're right, Elisabeth was not exactly like her sisters. Physically, she was more like her mother, while Marie and Alexandra were more like their father.

[beladona]

And what about some portraits of Frederika, later married to Count (?) Washington? Or her half brother Elimar with his morganatic wife Nathalia? Did you find them in your wonderful book, Bourgogne?

[Bourgogne]

Friederike gave up her position in Oldenburg, and with her husband they became homesteaders in Austria...

[beladona]

 I suppose Friederika could have an interesting life...to leave family and home and start a completely new life in absolutely different world...

[Bourgogne]

Yes! And with the man she loved... Today almost all royals make mesalliances... But at this time it was very rare, especially for the princesses. So we can be sure that she was really in love!

Friederike when she was young

[beladona]

And - at least - she had parents, who allowed her to marry man, which she loved, even if it meant she lost her family. Did she ever return to Europe or visited someone from her family?

[Bourgogne]

In fact, the poor Friederike had a very very unhappy life when she was a little girl.

She had to endure a veritable martyrdom, because she was suffering from a deformation of the spine, and was forced to spend three years in an hospital, far from her family, during this time she was strapped to an horrible machine, and litteraly streched...
But, this treatment was successfull, and she had a normal life after this!

She was courted by the prince Karl of Hessen-Philippstahl, but did'nt want to marry him (she had a very strong character).

When she had 35, she announced that she was in love with Baron Washington, and determined to marry him! It was incredible, this man was 10 years younger and had been professor of her half-brother Elimar.
Friederike's parents were dead at this time, and her half-brother Grand-Duke Peter liked her very much, so he gave his approval (on the contrary of what he did for Elimar's wedding, in this case he never forgave him).
They left Oldenburg for Pöls (near Graz), and Friederike spent a very happy life playing the role of a farmer's wife.
They had two sons, who had no children.
I don't think she came back in Oldenburg, at least, it's not mentioned in the book I have. It seems that she really broke away with her first life.

[Naslednik Norvezhskiy]

I drove through almost all of Oldenburg this Easter on my way to Paris and I had never realized that the southernmost part, the Oldenburgish Münsterland, is not only the northernmost Catholic region in Germany, but in the extreme south of the very flat Grand Duchy, the low ridge of Dammer Berge gives Oldenburg a tiny portion of the Central German Massif. Does anybody know if the Grand Ducal family came to enjoy this most "exotic" part of their grand duchy (like the Hanoverian RF did at Marienburg), say in the carnival town of Damme by the Lake Dümmer?  

Or did they only holiday in Rastede in the lush Ammerland or in "far-away" Eutin with the occassional "sea spa" stay on Wangerooge, leaving the bleak moors and Catholics of the Oldenburgish Münsterland a terra incognita, much like the Glücksborgers did with regard to Jutland?

[Learning]

Which of the former Grand Ducal homes does the Oldenburg family continue to retain? I know the palaces in Oldenburg itself were lost? What about Rastede?

[Naslednik Norvezhskiy]

Which of the former Grand Ducal homes does the Oldenburg family continue to retain? I know the palaces in Oldenburg itself were lost? What about Rastede?

Yes, as far as I know they retain at least Rastede and the estate Lensahnerhof in Lensahn in their former exclave, the Principality of Lübeck. In this feudal so-called "Counts' Corner" of Holstein they are almost neighbours with the Landgrave of Hesse at Panker.

[kmerov]

Grand Duke Peter II


Grand Duke Friedrich August II, last Grand Duke of Oldenburg

[Naslednik Norvezhskiy]

I think we ought to know more about Peter II, the guy who was his cousin the Russian Emperor's initial candidate as Frederik VII's successor as King of Denmark and Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, but was dropped by the Great Powers in favour of Christian IX because he was too anti-Danish in the S-H Question.

Seems like he wasn't too dissimilar to Christian IX: According to Neue Deutsche Biographie he was deeply conservative and deeply shocked by the revolutions of 1848. (Did he in any way actively support the S-H Revolt of 1848?). He tried unsuccessfully to have a Chamber of Princes instituted as second chamber in the parliaments of the North German Confederation and the German Empire, to counter the democratic diets. His exceptional long reign (1853-1900) did witness reforms, but it was only the agrarian and rural character of his grand duchy that prevented any serious constitutional conflicts between the conservative grand duke and his subjects.