Szamoczino in the
Piast-ruled
Kingdom of Poland was first mentioned in a 1364 deed, although it surely existed earlier and was probably founded in the 12th century. It was a private village of
Polish nobility, administratively located in the Kcynia County in the
Kalisz Voivodeship in the
Greater Poland Province. It received
town privileges from the hands of King
Augustus III of Poland in 1748. In the
First partition of Poland in 1772 the town was annexed by the
Kingdom of Prussia. After the successful
Greater Poland uprising of 1806, it was regained by Poles and included within the short-lived
Duchy of Warsaw. It was re-annexed by Prussia in 1815, whereafter it was governed within the
Kreis Kolmar in Posen, part of the
Grand Duchy of Posen. During the
Industrial Revolution, the town evolved to a centre of the
weaving industry. From 1871 it was part of
Germany. After
World War I, in 1918, Poland regained independence, and the
Greater Poland Uprising broke out, which goal was to reintegrate the region with the reborn Polish state. On January 13, 1919, the town was captured by Polish insurgents led by Maksymilian Bartsch, but was lost to Germany on the same day. The insurgents made an unsuccessful attempt to recapture the town, Inhabitants of Szamocin were also among 41 Poles murdered in the nearby village of
Morzewo on November 7, 1939. On December 10–12, 1939, the Germans
expelled hundreds of Polish and
Jewish inhabitants from the town to the
General Government. In 1943, the German administration renamed the town
Fritzenstadt, to erase traces of Polish origin. After the German occupation ended in 1945, the original Polish name was restored. ==Demographics==