Augustus the Elder, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (18 November 1568 – 1 October 1636) was the Lutheran Bishop of Ratzeburg from 1610 to 1636 and the Prince of Lüneburg from 1633 to 1636.

Augustus was born in 1564 as the fifth of fifteen children and the son of William the Younger and his wife Dorothea of Denmark.

As a young man he was a colonel in the service of Rudolf II and fought in the campaigns against France and Turkey.

Nevertheless he lived with Ilse Schmidtchen, a commoner, in a 'marriage-like relationship'[1] and had 12 children by her; he built her a house near his residence, Celle Castle.

The children were later elevated to the hereditary peerage under the name von Lüneburg; this surname still exists.