Oldenburg (city)

Oldenburg is an independent city in the German state of Lower Saxony, officially named Oldenburg (Oldb) to tell it apart from Oldenburg in Holstein. It stands on the rivers Hunte and Haaren in the northwest of the country, between Bremen to the east and Groningen in the Netherlands to the west, and belongs to the Northwest Metropolitan Region. Archaeological finds point to a settlement from the 8th century, and the first documentary mention, in 1108, names Aldenburg in connection with Elimar I, regarded as the first count of Oldenburg. The town gained importance at a ford of the navigable Hunte and became the capital of the County, later Duchy, Grand Duchy and Free State of Oldenburg; it is the place of origin of the House of Oldenburg. At the end of 2019 it had 169,960 residents. It is home to the Carl von Ossietzky University, founded in 1973, and the Küstenkanal makes it the most important non-coastal harbour in Lower Saxony.