Frederick Augustus II
Grand Duke of Oldenburg
Frederick Augustus II (16 November 1852 in Oldenburg – 24 February 1931 in Rastede) was the last ruling Grand Duke of Oldenburg. He married Princess Elisabeth Anna of Prussia, daughter of Princess Maria Anna of Anhalt-Dessau and Prince Frederick Charles of Prussia. After her death, he married Elisabeth Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Frederick Augustus' reign began on 13 June 1900, when his father died. His reign came to an end on 11 November 1918, shortly before the German monarchy was abolished on 28 November 1918. Frederick was forced to abdicate his throne at the end of World War I, when the former Grand Duchy of the German Empire joined the post-war German Republic. He and his family took up residence at Rastede Castle, where he took up farming and local industrial interests. A year after his abdication, he asked the Oldenburg Diet for a yearly allowance of 150,000 marks, stating that his financial condition was "extremely precarious".On 18 February 1878, Frederick Augustus married Princess Elisabeth Anna of Prussia, a daughter of Prince Frederick Charles of Prussia. It was a double wedding, in which Princess Charlotte of Prussia (daughter of the Crown Prince and Crown Princess of Prussia) married Bernhard, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Meiningen on the same day as Elisabeth Anna in Berlin. The marriages were the first such occasions performed since Prussia had become the German
Empire in 1870. Due to this increased status, the weddings were attended by many important personages, including King Leopold II of Belgium and his wife Queen Marie Henriette. The Prince of Wales also attended, as one of the brides (Charlotte) was his niece.
Guards Field Gendarmerie Squadron is a cavalry unit of the Russian Imperial Guard. Seniority: December 27 (January 8), 1815. January 6, 1816 - the rights of the old guard were granted. March 16, 1816 - renamed the Life Guards Gendarmerie Half-Squadron. The Separate Corps of Gendarmes was the uniformed security police of the Imperial Russian Army in the Russian Empire during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Its main responsibilities were law enforcement and state security. The responsibilities of the Gendarmes also included the execution of court orders, pursuit of fugitives, riot control, and detainment of "unusual" criminals. Gendarmes could also be assigned to assist local police and officials. The precursors of the Corps were the Imperial Army Gendarmerie regiment (formed in 1815 and based on the Borisoglebsk Dragoon Regiment) and Gendarmerie units of the Separate Corps of the Internal Guards (raised 1811). Following the 1825 Decembrist revolt, the new Russian Emperor, Nicholas I, established the office of the
Chief of Gendarmes in July 1826 and appointed General Count Alexander Benkendorf to it; all of the gendarmes were subordinate to the Chief. Benkendorf was also appointed executive director of the newly formed Third Section of the Imperial Chancellery although the office of the Head of the Third Section did not formally merge with that of the Chief of Gendarmes until 1839. In 1871, the Gendarmes acquired the right to investigate both political and criminal cases, as the judicial investigators were dismissed. Only the most competent army officers holding noble ranks could be appointed to the Corps of Gendarmes. In August 1880, both the Third Section and the Separate Corps of Gendarmes came under the authority of the Minister of Internal Affairs, as proposed by Count Loris-Melikov. The Minister of Internal Affairs took up the office of Chief of Gendarmes, and the Commander of the Corps became his Deputy. Many Gendarme officers were transferred to the new Department of Police. Following the 1902 assassination of MVD Minister Dmitry Sergeyevich Sipyagin, the state security authorities of the Gendarmerie Directorates was transferred to the Okhrana and counterintelligence units of the General Staff and the Department of Police.
The Grand Duchy of Oldenburg (German: Großherzogtum Oldenburg, also known as Holstein-Oldenburg) was a grand duchy within the German Confederation, North German Confederation and German Empire that consisted of three widely separated territories: Oldenburg, Eutin and Birkenfeld. It ranked tenth among the German states and had one vote in the Bundesrat and three members in the Reichstag. Its ruling family, the House of Oldenburg, also came to rule in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Greece and Russia. The Grand Duchy of Oldenburg came into existence in 1815 combining the territory of the old Duchy of Oldenburg with the Principality of Birkenfeld. Whilst Oldenburg was elevated to a grand duchy at the Congress of Vienna, the first two grand dukes continued to style themselves as merely dukes and it was not until 1829 that the newly acceded Augustus used the title of grand duke. Although paternalist, the early grand dukes did not grant a constitution until events overtook them in 1848. Oldenburg remained a monarchy until the German Revolution of 1918-1919, when the last grand duke, Frederick Augustus II, abdicated and Oldenburg became a constituent state of the Weimar Republic as the Free State of Oldenburg.
Awards: Collar sash and star of the House and Merit Order of Duke Peter Frederick Louis, Stars of the Order of St. Andrew the Apostle the First-Called and the Order of the Black Eagle.
