, built in 1399–1405 According to the city's official webpage the name Bytów comes from the founder of the settlement named "Byt". A settlement was first mentioned by the name of
Butow in 1321. The territory became part of the emerging Polish state under its first historic ruler
Mieszko I in the 10th century. Bytów passed to the
Teutonic Knights in 1329. From 1335 comes the oldest mention of a Catholic parish, which, however, could have existed since the 12th or 13th century. It has been the seat of an administrator of the
State of the Teutonic Knights. This castle was captured by Poland after the
Battle of Grunwald (1410), and king
Władysław II Jagiełło of Poland gave it to
Bogislaw VIII, Duke of Pomerania, for all of his lifetime as payment for support obtained from him against the Teutonic Knights. In the
Peace of Thorn (1411) Bogislaw had to return the castle to the Knights. The town did not join the
Prussian Confederation's revolt against the Teutonic Knights. The town alternated between Poland and the monastic state during the
Polish-Teutonic Wars, and returned to Polish control after the
Second Peace of Thorn (1466). Poland gave Bytów as lien to the
Dukes of Pomerania. Since 1526 the Pomerania dukes held it as an inheritable lien. , built in the 17th century In 1627 during the
Thirty Years' War, the town was rebuilt after being destroyed by a fire. When the Pomeranian dukes died out in 1637 Bytów ceased to be a Polish fief and became directly ruled by Poland, Then the local nobility obtained equal rights with the
nobility of the entire
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1651 there was a dispute between the city authorities and the starost
Jakub Wejher, regarding overdue taxes. During the 18th century, the town suffered from fires and plague. In 1773 in the
First Partition of Poland the town was wholly incorporated in the Prussian
Province of Pomerania. In the 18th century attempts began at
Germanisation of the indigenous Polish-Kashubian population by introducing
German into schools. From 1846 to 1945, Bütow was the seat of the
Landkreis Bütow district in Prussia. The town became part of the
German Empire in 1871 during the Prussian-led
unification of Germany. Polish minority remained active in the city, and in 1910 a Polish Bank Ludowy was founded here. After the end of
World War I and the re-establishment of independent Poland, the
Treaty of Versailles kept the town in the
Weimar Republic in 1919. There was an economic decline, many Germans emigrated to western Germany, and the population was slowly decreasing. In the
interbellum numerous Polish organizations, including the
Union of Poles in Germany, operated in the town. Months before
World War II, in 1939, the Germans carried out arrests of notable local Poles, incl. activists and the head of the local Polish bank. During
World War II the Polish population was subject to deportations and executions, two of its leaders, and were imprisoned in
Sachsenhausen and
Dachau concentration camps, It was captured by the
Soviet Red Army on 8 March 1945. Some inhabitants had fled before the Soviet advance. In April 1945, it was put under Polish administration, confirmed after the end of the war by the
Potsdam Conference and the Polish name
Bytów was restored. Those German inhabitants, which had remained in the town or had returned to it short after the war, were later on
expelled in accordance with the
Potsdam Agreement. The indigenous Polish-Kashubian population was joined by Poles displaced from
former eastern Poland annexed by the Soviet Union and from the rest of
Kashubia. Bytów became the seat of a
powiat (1946–1975, 1999-) within Poland. From 1975 to 1998 it was administratively part of the
Słupsk Voivodeship.
Kashubian Emigration to America Many families from Bytów such as the Brezas and the Pehlers emigrated to the area of
Winona, Minnesota in the
United States, beginning in 1859. The Prussian policy was to force the Kashubians out to make room for German settlers. Some Kashubians moved across the Mississippi River to
Pine Creek, Wisconsin in the early 1860s. Many found jobs in the lumber mills during the lumber boom of the late 1800s occurring in the region. ==Demographics==