Krajenka () is a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

in the

Greater Poland Voivodeship Greater Poland Voivodeship ( ) is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship, or province, in west-central Poland. The province is named after the region called Greater Poland (''Wielkopolska'' ). The modern province includes most of this historic re ...

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 has 3,804 inhabitants (2005) and lies in

Złotów County __NOTOC__ Złotów County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Greater Poland Voivodeship, west-central Poland. Its administrative seat and largest town is Złotów, which lies north of the regional capital ...

Geographical location

Krajenka is located approximately 15 kilometers south of

Złotów Złotów is a town in northwestern Poland, with a population of 18,303 inhabitants (2011), seat of the Złotów County in the Greater Poland Voivodeship. The town is located on the river Głomia and is surrounded by five lakes. It is part of the ...

, 50 kilometers south-east of

Szczecinek Szczecinek (; ) is a historic city in Middle Pomerania, northwestern Poland, capital of Szczecinek County in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, with a population of more than 40,000 (2011). The town's total area is . The turbulent history of Szcze ...

and 160 kilometers east of the regional center,

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 ...

. It is located on the river, a tributary of the

Gwda The Gwda (; ) is a river in 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 Russ ...

river. It is part of the ethnographic region of

Krajna Krajna is a forested historical region in the north of Greater Poland in Poland, situated in the border area between the Greater Poland, Kuyavian-Pomeranian and Pomeranian Voivodeships. The region consists of parts of Złotów, Piła, Sęp� ...

, located in the northern part of the historic

Greater Poland Greater Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska (; ), is a Polish Polish historical regions, historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief and largest city is Poznań followed by Kalisz, the oldest city in Poland. The bound ...

region.

History

The first mention of the town is from 1286, back then it belonged to noble family of Danaborski whose Coat of Arms was Toporczyk. The name of the town itself comes from the Polish word Krajna, which meant in the past a location on the borders of Polish state. Throughout centuries it was connected to Polish royalty and such families as Danaborski, Dahlke, Kościelecki, Grudziński,

Działyński The House of Działyński was a Polish noble family whose name comes from their original place of settlement, Działyń in Dobrzyń Land. Members of the family held the tile of Count and used the Ogończyk coat of arms. History The original head ...

Sułkowski Sułkowski (feminine: Sułkowska) is a Polish-language surname associated with the Polish noble Sułkowski family. Russified version: Sulkovsky. Notable people with this surname include: *Alexander Joseph Sulkowski Alexander () is a male na ...

, Komierowski.

Magdeburg city rights Magdeburg rights (, , ; also called Magdeburg Law) were a set of town privileges first developed by Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (936–973) and based on the Flemish Law, which regulated the degree of internal autonomy within cities and villages gr ...

were granted in 1420 by the Polish king

Władysław Jagiełło Władysław is a Polish given male name, cognate with Vladislav. The feminine form is Władysława, archaic forms are Włodzisław (male) and Włodzisława (female), and Wladislaw is a variation. These names may refer to: People Mononym * Włodzis ...

. Following the

First Partition of Poland The First Partition of Poland took place in 1772 as the first of three partitions that eventually ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. The growth of power in the Russian Empire threatened the Kingdom of Prussia an ...

, in 1772 it was annexed by

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, ...

. In 1787 the city suffered a fire. After the last Polish owner of the town was killed by the Prussians in 1807, the town was confiscated by Prussian officials and passed from Polish to German hands. In 1846 a Protestant church was built by the famous German architect Carl Friedrich Schinkel. In 1871 a railway station of the

Prussian Eastern Railway The Prussian Eastern Railway () was a railway in the Kingdom of Prussia and later Germany until 1918. Its main route, approximately long, connected the capital, Berlin, with the cities of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) and Königsberg (now Kalini ...

was built south of the river. The town was then the property of

Prince Friedrich Leopold of Prussia Prince Friedrich Leopold of Prussia (; 14 November 1865 – 13 September 1931) was a son of Prince Frederick Charles of Prussia and Princess Maria Anna of Anhalt-Dessau, married in 1854. Family On 24 June 1889, he married in Berlin Princ ...

. According to the German census of 1890, the town had a population of 3,344, of which 400 (12%) were

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 ...

. Despite the policy of

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

, local

in the early 20th century founded the People's Bank and a Polish Catholic Society. After Poland regained independence in 1918, the Polish inhabitants made efforts to reintegrate the town with Poland, but despite their requests and protests, the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...

granted the town to

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. Then it was made part of the province of Grenzmark Posen-Westpreußen. On 21 June 1924, the town made history within German law as the

Reichsgericht The (, ) was the supreme criminal and civil court of Germany from 1879 to 1945, encompassing the periods of the German Empire, the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany. It was based in Leipzig. The began its work on 1 October 1879, the date on w ...

confirmed private ownership by Prinz Friedrich Leopold, including, where he died in 1931. In 1931, local Poles founded a Polish school. Its teacher, Franciszek Gliszewski, was arrested and murdered by the Germans in the

Flossenbürg concentration camp Flossenbürg was a Nazi concentration camp built in May 1938 by the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office. Unlike other concentration camps, it was located in a remote area, in the Fichtel Mountains of Bavaria, adjacent to the town of Flos ...

after the outbreak of

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 1939. On 30 January 1945 the

Soviet 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 ...

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

occupied the abandoned and severely destroyed town during the final stages of

. Many of the inhabitants had fled during the winter of 1944/1945. After the war the town was finally reintegrated with Poland under 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 ...

Number of inhabitants by year

Note that the table is based on primary, possibly inaccurate or biased sources.

Johann Friedrich Goldbeck Johann Friedrich Goldbeck (22 September 1748 – 9 April 1812) was a German geographer and Protestant theologian. Goldbeck was born in Insterburg, East Prussia. He first visited the Latin school in his home town InsterburgA. E. Henning: ''Topogra ...

: ''Volständige Topographie des Königreichs Preußen''. Part II: ''Topographie von West-Preußen''. Marienwerder 1789
p. 102, paragraph 8
Michael Rademacher:

' (2006).August Eduard Preuß: ''Preußische Landes- und Volkskunde''. Königsberg 1835
p. 378.
/ref>F. W. F. Schmitt: ''Topographie des Flatower Kreises''. In: ''Preußische Provinzialblätter'', Andere Folge, Band VII, Königsberg 1855
pp. 115-116.
/ref>

Notable people

* (1914-1939), Polish Catholic priest, murdered by the Germans during

Siggi Wilzig Siggi B. Wilzig, born Siegbert Wilzig (March 11, 1926 – January 7, 2003), was a survivor of concentration camps Auschwitz concentration camp, Auschwitz and Mauthausen concentration camp, Mauthausen who arrived in the United States, USA in 1947 w ...

(1926-2003), Auschwitz Holocaust survivor, CEO of Wilshire Oil CompanyPaid Notice: Deaths WILZIG, SIGGI B.
The New York Times

References

External links