Rakoniewice is a town in

Grodzisk Wielkopolski County __NOTOC__ Grodzisk County () 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 government reforms passe ...

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 ...

, with 3,332 inhabitants (2010).

History

As part of the region of

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 ...

, i.e. the cradle of the Polish state, the area formed part of Poland since its establishment in the 10th century. The settlement was recorded in 1252 and named after the

komes Komes (abbreviated K. before a surname), also żupan in Polish, a title developed from the Latin ''comes'' in medieval Poland and was used for dignitary in the period of the Holy Roman Empire for administrative and military district commanders. T ...

, Rakoń. It was a private village of

Polish nobility The ''szlachta'' (; ; ) were the nobility, noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Depending on the definition, they were either a warrior "caste" or a social ...

, 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 Kingdom of Poland. It received town rights in 1662 through the efforts of

voivode Voivode ( ), also spelled voivod, voievod or voevod and also known as vaivode ( ), voivoda, vojvoda, vaivada or wojewoda, is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe in use since the Early Mid ...

of Poznań Krzysztof Grzymułtowski. In the 17th century Rakoniewice was associated with the settlement of so-called dissenters who favored property owners. The town became a center of crafts. The town 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 the

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

in 1793. Following the successful Greater Poland uprising of 1806, it was regained by Poles and included within the short-lived

Duchy of Warsaw The Duchy of Warsaw (; ; ), also known as the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and Napoleonic Poland, was a First French Empire, French client state established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars. It initially comprised the ethnical ...

. After the duchy's dissolution in 1815, it was re-annexed by Prussia, and from 1871 it was also part of Germany under the Germanized name ''Rakwitz''. In the years 1869–1872

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 and anthrax, he i ...

, a German microbiologist and later Nobel laureate, conducted his first medical practice in the town. In the years 1901–1906 the town was the scene of school strikes of Polish children opposing

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 ...

. On January 3, 1919, Rakoniewice was captured by Polish insurgents during the Greater Poland uprising against Germany, and then reintegrated with Poland, which regained independence several weeks prior. Following the joint German-Soviet

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

, which started

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 September 1939, the town was occupied by Germany until 1945. Until 1975 the town was located in the

Wolsztyn County __NOTOC__ Wolsztyn County () 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 government reforms passed ...

. In 1975–1998 it belonged to the

. Despite the historical, geographical, economic reasons to merge with the reconstituted Wolsztyn County in 1999 and opposition of local residents of the villages for a better location for Wolsztyn, Rakoniewice joined the Grodzisk County.

Demographics

Sights

* Timbered church from the 18th century, now Greater Fire Service Museum * Arcaded houses from the 18th - 19th century * Eclectic palace from the 19th century

Transport

The Polish National road No. 32 (

Stęszew Stęszew is a town in western Poland, with 5,248 inhabitants (2004). It is located in Poznań County, within the Greater Poland Voivodeship. Geography Stęszew is situated on the Samica Stęszewska River. There are three lakes within the town lim ...

Wolsztyn Wolsztyn () is a town in western Poland, on the western edge of Greater Poland Voivodeship. It is the seat of Wolsztyn County, and of the smaller administrative district of Gmina Wolsztyn. Geography The town is situated within the historic Grea ...

Zielona Góra Zielona Góra (; ''Green Mountain''; ) is the largest city in Lubusz Voivodeship, located in western Poland, with 140,403 inhabitants (). The region is closely associated with vineyards and holds an annual Zielona Góra Wine Fest, Wine Fest. Zie ...

- Gubin) runs through the town, as well as the railway line No. 357 (Wolsztyn-

Grodzisk Wielkopolski Grodzisk Wielkopolski 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 County, and also o ...

Luboń Luboń () is a town in Poland, situated on the Warta River, in the Poznań metropolitan area, in the Poznań County in the Greater Poland Voivodeship. It has 32,848 inhabitants (2022). The town was created in 1954 by the merger of 3 long establ ...

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

References

{{Authority control Cities and towns in Greater Poland Voivodeship Grodzisk Wielkopolski County