History of Inowroclaw

during the First Partition of Poland and added to the Netze District (as German: Inowrazlaw before 1905, and in 1905-1920 and 1939-1945 Hohensalza; rarely Jung Breslau). The city was a headquarters for Napoleon Bonaparte during his invasion of Russia. Following the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Inowrocław (as first Inowraclaw and later Inowrazlaw) was administered as part of Prussia - Grand Duchy of Posen. It flourished after the establishment of a railway junction in 1872 and a spa in 1875. The city and the region were renamed Hohensalza on December 5, 1904. It was electrified in 1908.

Following the Treaty of Versailles ending World War I, the name Inowrocław was restored along with the return of the sovereign Polish state on January 10, 1920. High unemployment resulting from trade embargos led to violent confrontations between workers and the police in 1926 and hunger strikes killed 20 in 1930. Inowrocław was part of Poznań Voivodeship until 1925, when it became an independent urban district. This district was briefly annexed to Great Pomerania during the reform of Polish regional administration just prior to World War II. Captured by the German 4th Army on September 11, 1939, Inowrocław was again renamed Hohensalza and initially administered under the military district (Militärbezirk) of Posen before being incorporated into Nazi Germany first as part of the reichsgau of Posen (1939) and then as part of Reichsgau Wartheland (1939-1945.) Between 1940 and 1945, Hohensalza was used as a resettlement camp for Poles and an internment camp for Soviet, French, and English POWs.

Inowrocław returned to Poland and its original name following the arrival of the Soviet Red Army on January 21, 1945. The last German air raid occurred on April 4, 1945, when a single aircraft dropped four fragmentation bombs and fired on travellers waiting at