Złocieniec (; ) is a town in northwestern

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 ...

. Located in

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 ...

Drawsko County __NOTOC__ Drawsko County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in West Pomeranian Voivodeship, north-western Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passe ...

since 1999, it was previously a part of Koszalin Voivodeship (1950–1998). The population of Złocieniec is around 12,000 - it is therefore the biggest town in the county (

powiat A ''powiat'' (; ) is the second-level unit of local government and administration in Poland, equivalent to a county, district or prefecture (Local administrative unit, LAU-1 ormerly Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics, NUTS-4 ...

History

The official town webpage states that between the 7th and 6th century BC the area of the town was the site of a village and that the area of Western Pomerania was settled by

Slavs The Slavs or Slavic people are groups of people who speak Slavic languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout the northern parts of Eurasia; they predominantly inhabit Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, and ...

in the 6th-8th centuries. The area was part of Poland during the reign of the first Polish rulers

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 ...

and

Bolesław I the Brave Bolesław I the Brave (17 June 1025), less often List of people known as the Great, known as Bolesław the Great, was Duke of Poland from 992 to 1025 and the first King of Poland in 1025. He was also Duke of Bohemia between 1003 and 1004 as Boles ...

. In the 13th century it was the northernmost area of the

Duchy of Greater Poland The Duchy of Greater Poland was a district principality in Greater Poland that was a fiefdom of the Kingdom of Poland. It was formed in 1138 from the territories of the Kingdom of Poland, following its fragmentation started by the testament of ...

, a province of fragmented

. When the

town rights 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 granted it's highly probable that among German inhabitants of the town were also Slavs from Budów and Strzebłów-villages that were disbanded. Town rights were granted by the brothers von Wedel on 13 December 1333. From 1373 Złocieniec was one of the northernmost towns of the

Lands of the Bohemian Crown The Lands of the Bohemian Crown were the states in Central Europe during the Middle Ages, medieval and early modern periods with feudalism, feudal obligations to the List of Bohemian monarchs, Bohemian kings. The crown lands primarily consisted o ...

(or ''Czech Lands''), ruled by the Luxembourg dynasty. Bohemia iself was part of theh

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...

. In 1402, the Luxembourgs reached an agreement with

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

. Poland was to buy and re-incorporate Złocieniec and its surroundings, but eventually the Luxembourgs sold the city to the

Teutonic Order The Teutonic Order is a religious order (Catholic), Catholic religious institution founded as a military order (religious society), military society in Acre, Israel, Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Order of Brothers of the German House of Sa ...

. During the Polish–Teutonic War (1431–35) Złocieniec rebelled against the Order to join Poland and recognized the Polish King as rightful ruler, but after the

Peace of Brześć Kujawski Peace is a state of harmony in the absence of hostility and violence, and everything that discusses achieving human welfare through justice and peaceful conditions. In a societal sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (such a ...

, the town, after receiving a guarantee of impunity for siding with Poland, returned to the rule of the Teutonic Knights, although, as it turned out, for a short time - only until 1454. In 1668 the town was almost completely destroyed by a fire. In the 18th century it became part of

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

. During the era of

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

the Ordensburg Krössinsee was built near the town in 1934. The SA attacked the Jewish population here during

Kristallnacht ( ) or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from the Hitler Youth and German civilia ...

, later, during the

Second World War 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 ...

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, or violence, including death or other forms of ...

camp was established near the town, from which 31 Poles managed to escape. During

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 ...

, in view of the inevitable defeat of Nazi Germany, on March 2, 1945, the evacuation of people who were unable to fight was ordered. On March 5, the town was captured by the First Polish Army. After

the town was handed over to

by the

Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are calle ...

per the Potsdam Conference, with

Poles Pole or poles may refer to: People *Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland * Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name * Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist ...

being transferred from the East while remaining Germans were expelled to the west. On May 13, 1945 the first transport of Poles expelled from former

Eastern Poland Eastern Poland () is a macroregion in Poland comprising the Lublin Voivodeship, Lublin, Podkarpackie Voivodeship, Subcarpathian, Podlaskie Voivodeship, Podlaskie, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, Świętokrzyskie, and Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Wa ...

, annexed by the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, arrived to Złocieniec from the

Baranowicze Baranavichy or Baranovichi is a city in the Brest Region of western Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Baranavichy District, though it is administratively separated from the district. As of 2025, it has a population of 170,817. ...

region.

Population statistics

* 1666: 990 * 1880: 4,009 * 1925: 5,529 * 1939: 8,623verwaltungsgeschichte.de
/ref> * 1950: 7,550 * 1960: 8,400 * 1970: 10,200 * 1975: 11,500 * 1980: 12,000 * 1990: 18,000 * 2000: 22,000 * 2005: 28,000

International relations

Złocieniec is twinned with:

Notable residents

* Caspar Brülow (1585–1627) scholar and dramatist * Otto Neitzel (1852–1920) a composer and pianist, music writer, journalist and lecturer * Ullrich Haupt (1887–1931), actor IMDb Database
retrieved 17 October 2018 * Rudolf Katz (1895–1961), German politician and judge * Mariusz Rumak (born 1977), Polish football manager *Krzysztof Myszkowski (born 1963), Polish musician, lead vocalist of Stare Dobre Małżeństwo * Kazimierz Jodkowski, philosopher and professor

References

External links

{{Authority control Cities and towns in West Pomeranian Voivodeship Drawsko County Holocaust locations in Poland