Szlichtyngowa () is a town in western

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 ...

, in the

Wschowa County __NOTOC__ Wschowa County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Lubusz Voivodeship, western Poland. It was created in 2002 out of three gminas which previously belonged to Nowa Sól County. Its administrative s ...

of the Lubuskie Voivodship, near the Oder river. The population as of 2019 was 1,278.

History

The town was founded in 1644 by a Polish Protestant activist and

Sejm The Sejm (), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (), is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of the Third Polish Republic since the Polish People' ...

deputy Jan Jerzy Szlichtyng () and was named after him ''Szlichtyngowa/Schlichtingsheim''. From 1634 he bought lands in the vicinity of the village of Górczyna in

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 ...

near the border with

Silesia Silesia (see names #Etymology, below) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Silesia, Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at 8, ...

, with the intention of establishing a town for religious refugees from Silesia during the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...

.''Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich'', Tom XI, Warsaw, 1890, p. 959 (in Polish) It obtained town rights from the Polish King Władysław IV Vasa, by virtue of a privilege issued in

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 ...

in July 1644. After 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 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, ...

. It was regained by Poles in 1807 to be included in 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 ...

and in 1815 it was re-annexed by Prussia. The town was then subjected to Germanisation. It was part of the Fraustadt district in the Province of Posen. From 1871, it was part of

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 ...

. A railway station was built in 1906. Despite belonging to the historic

, i.e. the cradle of the Polish state, after Poland regained independence in 1918, it remained in Germany under 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 ...

, because it was almost entirely populated by

Germans Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, constitution of Germany, imple ...

. With the dissolution of the Province of Posen, it became part of the Prussian Province of Posen-West Prussia, within which it remained until 1938, when it became part of the

Province of Silesia The Province of Silesia (; ; ) was a province of Prussia from 1815 to 1919. The Silesia region was part of the Prussian realm since 1742 and established as an official province in 1815, then became part of the German Empire in 1871. In 1919, as ...

and in 1941, Lower Silesia. In spring 1945, the town was captured by the

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 ...

and after the defeat 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 ...

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 ...

, it was finally reunited with Poland. The largely abandoned town was repopulated 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 ...

from the nearby

Leszno Leszno (, , ) is a historic city in western Poland, seat of Leszno County within the Greater Poland Voivodeship. It is the seventh-largest city in the province with an estimated population of 62,200, as of 2021. Leszno is a former residential cit ...

and

Rawicz Rawicz (; ) is a town in west-central Poland with 21,398 inhabitants as of 2004. It is situated in the Greater Poland Voivodeship (since 1999); previously it was in Leszno Voivodeship (1975–1998). It is the capital of Rawicz County. History The ...

counties, those returning from forced labour from Germany, as well as those expelled from eastern Polish territories, 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 ...

. The remaining German population was expelled by the local Polish administrative authorities.

References

Sources

"Szlichtyngowa"
at Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland vol. XI p. 959

External links

Official town webpageSzlichtyngowa
on Virtual Shtetl Cities and towns in Lubusz Voivodeship Wschowa County Populated places established in 1644 {{Lubusz-geo-stub it:Szlichtyngowa