Konarzewo () is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

in the administrative district of Gmina Nowogard, in Goleniów County,

West Pomeranian Voivodeship West Pomeranian Voivodeship is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship (province) in northwestern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Szczecin. Its area equals , and in 2021, it was inhabited by 1,682,003 people. It was established on 1 Janua ...

, in north-western

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. It lies approximately northeast of Nowogard, northeast of Goleniów and northeast of the regional capital,

Szczecin Szczecin ( , , ; ; ; or ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the Poland-Germany border, German border, it is a major port, seaport, the la ...

History

The area became part of the emerging Polish state under its first ruler

Mieszko I Mieszko I (; – 25 May 992) was Duchy of Poland (966–1025), Duke of Poland from 960 until his death in 992 and the founder of the first unified History of Poland, Polish state, the Civitas Schinesghe. A member of the Piast dynasty, he was t ...

around 967, and following Poland's fragmentation it formed part of the

Duchy of Pomerania The Duchy of Pomerania (; ; Latin: ''Ducatus Pomeraniae'') was a duchy in Pomerania on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, ruled by dukes of the House of Pomerania (''Griffins''). The country existed in the Middle Ages between years 1121–11 ...

. The estate of Kniephof originally was a possession of the German noble clan von Dewitz, of

Mecklenburg Mecklenburg (; ) is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The largest cities of the region are Rostock, Schwerin, Neubrandenburg, Wismar and Güstrow. ...

and

Pomerania Pomerania ( ; ; ; ) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The central and eastern part belongs to the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, West Pomeranian, Pomeranian Voivod ...

, which eventually sold it to Prussian Major August Friedrich von Bismarck-Schönhausen. By 1780 the estate included a manor house and four family dwellings. Kniephof vor 1915

The 19th century German chancellor,

Otto von Bismarck Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (; born ''Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck''; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898) was a German statesman and diplomat who oversaw the unification of Germany and served as ...

(b. 1815), lived at Kniephof as a child, and his sister Malwine was born there in 1827.George Hesekiel: ''Das Buch vom Fürsten Bismarck''. Bielefeld und Leipzig 1873
p. 55.
/ref> From 1839 to 1845, Otto von Bismarck and his brother Bernhard jointly managed the Kniephof and two other estates. In 1868, Otto von Bismarck, since 1862 Prussian Minister-President, sold the Kniephof to his nephew Philipp von Bismarck. Until post-

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

border changes transferred the area to Poland, Kniephof belonged to the municipality of Jarchlin (now Jarchlino, Poland) in the district of Naugard (now Nowogard) in the then-German province of Pomerania. The last family owner of the estate, up to 1945, was Klaus von Bismarck. In spring 1945, as the Second World War neared its conclusion, the area was occupied by the Soviet Army. Polish settlers began to arrive, the settlement's name was changed to Konarzewo, and those German residents who had not fled or been killed in the fighting were eventually expropriated and expelled westward in accordance with the

Potsdam Agreement The Potsdam Agreement () was the agreement among three of the Allies of World War II: the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union after the war ended in Europe that was signed on 1 August 1945 and published the following day. A ...

References

Prominent residents

(1815–1898) lived here between 1839 and 1846.

External links

Historical photographs of the manor house of the estate ''Kniephof''
{{Gmina Nowogard Villages in Goleniów County Otto von Bismarck