Wolsztyn (german: Wollstein) is a town in western

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 ...

, on the western edge of

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 ...

. It is the seat of

Wolsztyn County __NOTOC__ Wolsztyn County ( pl, powiat wolsztyński) 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 go ...

, and of the smaller administrative district of

Gmina Wolsztyn __NOTOC__ Gmina Wolsztyn is an urban-rural gmina (administrative district) in Wolsztyn County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, in west-central Poland. Its seat is the town of Wolsztyn, which lies approximately south-west of the regional capital Pozna� ...

Geography

The town is situated within the historic

Greater Poland Greater Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska (; german: Großpolen, sv, Storpolen, la, Polonia Maior), is a Polish historical regions, historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief and largest city is Poznań followed ...

region, located on the small Dojca river, a headstream of the Obra, about southwest of

Poznań Poznań () is a city on the River Warta in west-central Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business centre, and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John ...

. The municipal area includes a large lake ('; Wolsztyn Lake), next to which is a palace built in Classical style in the early 20th century, now used as a hotel and restaurant, and a park. Nearby tourist destinations include the

Pszczew Landscape Park Pszczew Landscape Park (''Pszczewski Park Krajobrazowy'') is a protected area ( Landscape Park) in western Poland, established in 1986, covering an area of . It takes its name from the village of Pszczew. The Park is shared between two voivodes ...

and the

Przemęt Landscape Park Przemęt Landscape Park (''Przemęcki Park Krajobrazowy'') is a protected area ( Landscape Park) in western Poland, established in 1991, covering an area of . The Park is shared between two voivodeships: Lubusz Voivodeship and Greater Poland Voi ...

History

The current settlement was established about 1285 on a causeway across the swampy Dojca River, probably by

Cistercian The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...

monks descending from Obra Abbey. It developed as a centre of

wool Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. As ...

trade and

cloth Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

manufacturing on the road from Poznań to

Lusatia Lusatia (german: Lausitz, pl, Łużyce, hsb, Łužica, dsb, Łužyca, cs, Lužice, la, Lusatia, rarely also referred to as Sorbia) is a historical region in Central Europe, split between Germany and Poland. Lusatia stretches from the Bóbr ...

, vested with

market rights A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

in 1424. Wolsztyn's

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 ...

were confirmed in 1519. It was a

private town A private town is a town owned by a private person or a family. History of Private Towns in Poland In the history of Poland, private towns (''miasta prywatne'') were towns within the lands owned by magnates, bishops, knights, princes, etc. A ...

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 Kościan County in the

Poznań Voivodeship Poznań Voivodeship was the name of several former administrative regions (''województwo'', rendered as ''voivodeship'' and usually translated as "province") in Poland, centered on the city of Poznań, although the exact boundaries changed over t ...

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 ...

. A route connecting

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

and

with

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

ran through the town in the 18th century and 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 ...

often traveled that route. It was annexed by

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

in the course of the

Second Partition of Poland The 1793 Second Partition of Poland was the second of three partitions (or partial annexations) that ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. The second partition occurred in the aftermath of the Polish–Russian War ...

in 1793. In 1807 it was regained by Poles and included within the short-lived Polish

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 ...

, and after its dissolution in 1815 it was reannexed by Prussia. With the Prussian

Province of Posen The Province of Posen (german: Provinz Posen, pl, Prowincja Poznańska) was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1848 to 1920. Posen was established in 1848 following the Greater Poland Uprising as a successor to the Grand Duchy of Posen, w ...

it became part of the

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

in 1871 and a target of the

Germanisation Germanisation, or Germanization, is the spread of the German language, German people, people and German culture, culture. It was a central idea of German conservative thought in the 19th and the 20th centuries, when conservatism and ethnic nationa ...

policies carried out by the

German Eastern Marches Society German Eastern Marches Society (german: Deutscher Ostmarkenverein, also known in German as ') was a German radical,Geoff Eley, op.cit.p.43/ref> extremely nationalist xenophobic organization founded in 1894. Mainly among Poles, it was sometimes kno ...

(''Hakata''). 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 November 1918, Poland regained independence as the

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 ...

, and the town returned to Poland several weeks later, when it was captured by Polish insurgents on January 5, 1919 during the Greater Poland Uprising. With the 1939

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 ...

, the town was occupied by Germany on 7 September 1939 and directly incorporated into the Nazi German

Reichsgau Wartheland The ''Reichsgau Wartheland'' (initially ''Reichsgau Posen'', also: ''Warthegau'') was a Nazi German ''Reichsgau'' formed from parts of Polish territory annexed in 1939 during World War II. It comprised the region of Greater Poland and adjacent a ...

until the end of the war in 1945. The

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 ...

population was subjected to various crimes, including arrests, expulsions and deportations to

Nazi concentration camps From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps, (officially) or (more commonly). The Nazi concentration camps are distinguished from other types of Nazi camps such as forced-labor camps, as well as concen ...

. The Germans established and operated the Stalag XXI C/H

prisoner-of-war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, internment camps, and military prisons. P ...

for Polish,

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

and

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

POWs in the present-day district of Komorowo, a Nazi prison, and a

forced labour Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, violence including death, or other forms of ex ...

camp for

Jews 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 ...

. Notable Polish sculptor and painter

Marcin Rożek Marcin Rożek (8 November 1885 – 19 May 1944) was a Polish sculptor and painter and co-founder and professor at the School of Decorative Arts in Poznań. Rożek is most closely associated with the region of Greater Poland and the city of Pozna� ...

, who lived and worked in Wolsztyn, was arrested by the Germans and then imprisoned in the

Fort VII Fort VII, officially ''Konzentrationslager Posen'' (renamed later), was a Nazi German death camp set up in Poznań in German-occupied Poland during World War II, located in one of the 19th-century forts circling the city. According to different e ...

and the

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

, where he died in 1944. From 1975 to 1998 it was administratively located in the Zielona Góra Voivodeship.

Sights

The town has a

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

parish church of the Immaculate Conception dating from the 18th century, a historical palace of the Gajewski and Mycielski noble families, which now houses a hotel, with an adjacent park, as well as several museums.

Locomotive depot

The railway line from Wolsztyn to

Zbąszyń Zbąszyń (german: Bentschen) is a town in western Poland, in Greater Poland Voivodeship, in Nowy Tomyśl County. It is the administrative seat of Gmina Zbąszyń. Geography The town is situated on the Obra river in the Greater Poland historic ...

opened in 1886. The locomotive roundhouse in Wolsztyn is the last place in Europe to supply

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

s for regular, timetabled train services on the national railway network. As of Summer 2020 these services run to

Leszno Leszno (german: Lissa, 1800–1918 ''Lissa in Posen'') is a historic city in western Poland, within the Greater Poland Voivodeship. It is the seventh-largest city in the province with an estimated population of 62,200, as of 2021. Previously, it ...

and

. The site also includes a railway museum featuring restored locomotives. Since 1993 the

Polish State Railways (''PKP S.A.''; en, Polish State Railways, Inc.) is the dominant railway operator in Poland. The company was founded when the former state-owned enterprise was divided into several units based on the need for separation between infrastructure ...

organises an annual parade of locomotives, which takes place at the start of May. The 2007 event, which also celebrated the roundhouse's centenary, attracted about 20,000 visitors.

Sport

The town is best known for its

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the g ...

team KPR Wolsztyniak Wolsztyn. The local

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

team is Grom Wolsztyn.Grom Wolsztyn football team
/ref>

Major corporations

* Inter Groclin Auto SA Wolsztyn +

Grodzisk Wielkopolski Grodzisk Wielkopolski (german: Grätz) is a town in western Poland, in Greater Poland Voivodeship (Wielkopolskie), with a population of 13,703 (2006). It is south-west of Poznań, the voivodeship capital. It is the seat of Grodzisk Wielkopolski ...

International relations

Twin towns — Sister cities

Wolsztyn is twinned with: * (

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 ...

) * (

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

) * (

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

) * (

)

Notable people

* Bruno Asch (1890–1940) — politician (

SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the ...

) and last

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

of Höchst am Main, Germany *

Heinrich Graetz Heinrich Graetz (; 31 October 1817 – 7 September 1891) was amongst the first historians to write a comprehensive history of the Jewish people from a Jewish perspective. Born Tzvi Hirsch Graetz to a butcher family in Xions (now Książ Wielkopo ...

(1817–1891) — Jewish historian, attended

yeshiva A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are s ...

in Wolsztyn from 1831-1836. * Max Samuel Grifenhagen — Sheriff of

New York County Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

1913–16, present day Borough of Manhattan; his father, Benjamin William Grifenhagen, was born in Wolsztyn) *

Józef Maria Hoene-Wroński Józef Maria Hoene-Wroński (; french: Josef Hoëné-Wronski ; 23 August 1776 – 9 August 1853) was a Polish messianist philosopher, mathematician, physicist, inventor, lawyer, occultist and economist. He was born as Hoëné to a municipal archit ...

(1776–1853) — Polish mathematician known for the Wronskian determinant, philosopher, lawyer, participant of the

Kościuszko Uprising The Kościuszko Uprising, also known as the Polish Uprising of 1794 and the Second Polish War, was an uprising against the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia led by Tadeusz Kościuszko in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Pr ...

Hans Jürgen Kallmann Hans Jürgen Kallmann (20 May 1908 – 6 March 1991) was a German artist. He was born in Wollstein, Posen. Kallmann was the son of a dermatologist.Ernst Klee: ''Das Kulturlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945''. S. Fischer, ...

(1908–1991) — German painter *

Robert Koch Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch ( , ; 11 December 1843 – 27 May 1910) was a German physician and microbiologist. As the discoverer of the specific causative agents of deadly infectious diseases including tuberculosis, cholera (though the Vibrio ...

(1843–1910) — German microbiologist known for

Koch's postulates Koch's postulates ( )"Koch"
''

Robert Kubaczyk (born 1986) — Polish athlete * Hans von Kusserow (1911−2001) — German artist *

Ingeborg von Kusserow Ingeborg von Kusserow (28 January 1919 – 14 April 2014) was a German film actress. Biography Kusserow was born in Wollstein, Province of Posen, Germany (today Wolsztyn, Poland). She starred in Nazi propaganda films during the Third Reich, wh ...

(born 1917) — German actress * Stanisław Piosik (born 1946) — Polish politician *

William Rosenau William Rosenau (1865, Wollstein, Province of Posen, Prussia - 1943, United States) was a leader of Reform Judaism in the beginning of the twentieth century in the United States. Biography William Rosenau was born in Wolstein, Germany in 1865, th ...

(1865–1943) — rabbi *

(1885–1944) — Polish sculptor and painter, killed in the

Adam Skórnicki Adam Skórnicki (born 22 October 1976 in Wolsztyn, Poland) is a former motorcycle speedway rider from Poland. Career Skórnicki started racing in Poland for Unia Leszno in the 1994 Polish Speedway First League; he would spend six seasons wit ...

(born 1976) — winner of the

2008 Individual Speedway Polish Championship The 2008 Individual Speedway Polish Championship ( pl, Indywidualne Mistrzostwa Polski, IMP) is the 2008 version of Individual Speedway Polish Championship organized by the Polish Motor Union (PZM). The Final took place on August 9, 2008 in Leszn ...

References

External links

The Wolsztyn Experience
a society for the preservation of steam railways in Poland
Gallery of images of Wolsztyn locomotive roundhouse

The Roundhouse Wolsztyn site

Media links

EchaRegionu.pl
news and information {{Authority control Cities and towns in Greater Poland Voivodeship Wolsztyn County Poznań Voivodeship (1921–1939) 13th-century establishments in Poland Populated places established in the 1280s