Szamocin (german: Samotschin, 1943-45: Fritzenstadt) is a town in

Chodzież County __NOTOC__ Chodzież County ( pl, powiat chodzieski) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Greater Poland Voivodeship, west-central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local gov ...

Greater Poland Voivodeship Greater Poland Voivodeship ( pl, Województwo wielkopolskie; ), also known as Wielkopolska Voivodeship, Wielkopolska Province, or Greater Poland Province, is a voivodeship, or province, in west-central Poland. It was created on 1 January 1999 o ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

History

''Szamoczino'' in the

Piast The House of Piast was the first historical ruling dynasty of Poland. The first documented List of Polish monarchs, Polish monarch was Duke Mieszko I of Poland, Mieszko I (c. 930–992). The Poland during the Piast dynasty, Piasts' royal rule i ...

-ruled

Kingdom of Poland The Kingdom of Poland ( pl, Królestwo Polskie; Latin: ''Regnum Poloniae'') was a state in Central Europe. It may refer to: Historical political entities *Kingdom of Poland, a kingdom existing from 1025 to 1031 *Kingdom of Poland, a kingdom exist ...

was first mentioned in a 1364 deed, although it surely existed earlier and was probably founded in the 12th century. It was a private village of

Polish nobility The ''szlachta'' (Polish: endonym, Lithuanian: šlėkta) were the noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth who, as a class, had the dominating position in the ...

, administratively located in the Kcynia County in the

Kalisz Voivodeship Kalisz Voivodeship may also refer to: *Kalisz Voivodeship (1314–1793) *Kalisz Voivodeship (1816–1837) The Kalisz Voivodeship was a voivodeship of the Congress Poland, that existed from 1816 to 1837. Its capital was Kalisz. It was established o ...

in the

Greater Poland Province of the Polish Crown , subdivision = Province , nation = Poland , year_start = , event_end = Third Partition of Poland , year_end = , image_map = Prowincje I RP.svg , image_map_capt ...

. It received

town privileges Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the tradition ...

from the hands of King

Augustus III of Poland Augustus III ( pl, August III Sas, lt, Augustas III; 17 October 1696 5 October 1763) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1733 until 1763, as well as Elector of Saxony in the Holy Roman Empire where he was known as Frederick Aug ...

in 1748. In the First partition of Poland in 1772 the town was annexed by the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Re ...

, fell to the Napoleonic

Duchy of Warsaw The Duchy of Warsaw ( pl, Księstwo Warszawskie, french: Duché de Varsovie, german: Herzogtum Warschau), also known as the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and Napoleonic Poland, was a French client state established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807, during ...

in 1807 and was restored to Prussia in 1815, whereafter it was governed within the

Kreis Kolmar in Posen The Kreis Kolmar in Posen (1818–1877 ''Kreis Chodziesen'') was a district in the northern government region of Bromberg, in the Prussian Province of Posen, from 1818 to 1920. The district capital was Kolmar in Posen. History The ''district of ...

, part of the

Grand Duchy of Posen The Grand Duchy of Posen (german: Großherzogtum Posen; pl, Wielkie Księstwo Poznańskie) was part of the Kingdom of Prussia, created from territories annexed by Prussia after the Partitions of Poland, and formally established following the ...

. During the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

, the town evolved to a centre of the

weaving Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Other methods are knitting, crocheting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal th ...

industry. From 1871 it was part of

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. After

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, in 1918, Poland regained independence, and the Greater Poland Uprising broke out, which goal was to reintegrate the region with the reborn Polish state. On January 13, 1919, the town was captured by Polish insurgents led by Maksymilian Bartsch, but was lost to Germany on the same day. The insurgents made an unsuccessful attempt to recapture the town, however in accordance to the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...

it was still reintegrated with the newly established

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...

in 1921. After the joint German-Soviet

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...

, which started

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, in September 1939, it was captured by Germany, and already on September 17, the Germans murdered two

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

boy scouts in the town. Inhabitants of Szamocin were also among 41 Poles murdered in the nearby village of Morzewo on November 7, 1939. On December 10–12, 1939, the Germans expelled hundreds of Polish and

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

inhabitants from the town to the

General Government The General Government (german: Generalgouvernement, pl, Generalne Gubernatorstwo, uk, Генеральна губернія), also referred to as the General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region (german: Generalgouvernement für die be ...

. In 1943, the German administration renamed the town ''Fritzenstadt'', to erase traces of Polish origin. After the German occupation ended in 1945, the original Polish name was restored.

Sports

The local

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

club is Sokół Szamocin. It competes in the lower leagues.

Notable people

Ernst Toller Ernst Toller (1 December 1893 – 22 May 1939) was a German author, playwright, left-wing politician and revolutionary, known for his Expressionism (theatre), Expressionist plays. He served in 1919 for six days as President of the short-lived B ...

(1893–1939), playwright * Heinz Seelig (1909–1992), Israeli architect *

Adam Szejnfeld Adam Stanisław Szejnfeld (; born 13 November 1958) is a Polish politician. He was elected to the Sejm on 25 September 2005, getting 26,568 votes in 38 Piła district as a candidate from the Civic Platform list. Life and career In the 80's he was ...

(born 1958), politician; councillor and Mayor of Szamocin 1990–1998 * Bartosz Ślusarski (born 1981), footballer *

Radosław Cierzniak Radosław Cierzniak (; born 24 April 1983) is a Polish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper for a number of teams in both Poland and Ukraine, such as Obra Kościan, Sparta Oborniki, Volyn Lutsk, Karpaty Lviv, Amica Wronk ...

(born 1983), footballer

Nearby municipalities

Margonin Margonin (german: Margonin) is a town in Chodzież County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, Poland, with 2,941 inhabitants (2004). History Margonin dates back to the 7th century, and in the 9th–12th it was a defensive stronghold, which became p ...

Chodzież Chodzież (german: Kolmar in Posen) is a town in northwestern Poland with 17,976 inhabitants as of December 2021. Situated in the Chodzież County, Greater Poland Voivodeship (since 1999), previously in Piła Voivodeship (1975–1998). Geograp ...

International relations

Twin towns — Sister cities

Szamocin is twinned with: *

Grasberg Grasberg is a municipality in the district of Osterholz, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approximately 13 km southeast of Osterholz-Scharmbeck, and 20 km northeast of Bremen. History Before the cultivation and colonisation of ...

References

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20080111035809/http://www.szamocin.umig.gov.pl/ {{Authority control Cities and towns in Greater Poland Voivodeship Chodzież County Shtetls