Oldenburg is a city of approximately 160,000 inhabitants on the river Hunte in Lower Saxony in the north of Germany, close to Bremen. It was founded in 1108 and its attractive pedestrianised old town attracts many visitors and shoppers to specialist shops, department stores, street cafés and restaurants. In 2000 Kingston and Oldenburg signed a Declaration of Intent to work towards cooperation between the two towns.
As a regional centre, Oldenburg is home to many local and federal government offices and has a wide range of services and industry. It is also an important cultural centre, with a state theatre, opera and ballet, many smaller and alternative theatres as well as several museums, amongst them the Edith Ruß Haus Museum for Media Art, and Horst-Janssen-Museum which is dedicated to this local artist.
Oldenburg’s Carl-von-Ossietzky University with about 10,000 students is a campus university founded in 1973 and has links with other universities around the world, including Kingston University. Oldenburg also has a polytechnic and many vocational training centres, including one for the hearing impaired.
The official partnership agreement between Kingston and Oldenburg was signed in October 2010.
The Mayor of Oldenburg, Prof Dr Gerd Schwandner and the Leader of Kingston Council Councillor Derek Osbourne.