Archaeologists have determined that a settlement existed at the location of present-day Kluczbork by 1000–800 BCE. The Germanic
Sciri and
Bastarnae settled in the vicinity, and were followed c. 100 BCE by
Celts and various Germanic tribes, including
Silingi and
Vandals. The latter left
Silesia c. 400 and
West Slavs came to the region in the 7th century (see
Silesians). In the late 10th century the Silesian territory was included in the emerging Polish state by its first historic ruler
Mieszko I. In the 13th century the
Knights of the Cross with the Red Star acquired territory in Silesia, including the villages of
Młodoszów,
Kuniów, and
Chocianowice. The Knights built a settlement on 2 November 1252 . Named Cruceburg (later spelled Creutzburg, Creuzburg, Kreuzburg), it received
Magdeburg rights on 26 February 1253, now accepted as the official date of the town's foundation. The Knights
adjudicated in the town until 1274, when it started to be administered by a
vogt of local Silesian dukes and
juries were introduced. As a result of the
dynastic fragmentation of Poland, Kluczbork was part of various Polish duchies ruled by the
Piast dynasty:
Duchy of Silesia until 1293,
Duchy of Głogów until 1312,
Duchy of Oleśnica until 1323 and
Duchy of Legnica until 1341, when it came under direct rule of the King of Poland,
Casimir III the Great. In 1356 it passed to the
Czech Crown, The population grew to 8,750 by 1895 and 10,236 by 1900.
20th century Following the
Treaty of Versailles after
World War I, Kreuzburg was involved in the
Upper Silesian
referendum in 1921. 95.6% (37,957 votes out of 39,703 participants) voted to remain within
Weimar Germany instead of joining the
Second Polish Republic. It became part of the
Province of Upper Silesia; to differentiate between other places named
Kreuzburg, it was known as
Kreuzburg O.S. (referring to
Oberschlesien, or
Upper Silesia). By 1939 the town was the seat of
Landkreis Kreuzburg O.S. and had 11,693 inhabitants. After the
Nazi Party took power in Germany in the 1930s,
anti-Polish and
anti-Jewish sentiments became more visible. In 1936, the Germans changed the Polish-sounding street names, and in 1938, during the
Kristallnacht they burned down the synagogue, built in 1886. {{multiple image|align=right|caption_align=center|perrow=2|total_width=260 During
World War II, in 1939, the Germans established the Oflag VIII-A
prisoner-of-war camp, initially for Polish officers and later also for
French prisoners of war. In 1942, the camp was dissolved and the prisoners were transferred to
Oflag VIII-F in
Moravská Třebová in German-occupied Czechoslovakia. The town was captured by the
Red Army on 20 January 1945. Following Germany’s defeat, Kluczbork was restored to
Poland. In July 1945, the new Polish administration issued a decree requiring the remaining Germans to wear clothing marked with the letter “N” on a white background. Soon afterward, the remaining German population was
expelled in accordance with the
Potsdam Agreement. Between 1975 and 1998, the town was part of the former
Opole Voivodeship. A monument to
Jan Dzierżon, a pioneering and internationally renowned Polish
apiarist, was unveiled in 1981. ==Economy==