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In 1770 Schlochau (Człuchów) had 135 houses. The town was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia in the First Partition of Poland in 1772 and was referred to as "Schlochau", while fires in 1786 and 1793 destroyed numerous houses. King Frederick William II of Prussia allowed the usage of bricks from the castle during the rebuilding of the town, leaving the castle only with its keep. After the administrative reorganization of Prussia in 1818, Schlochau became the seat of Landkreis Schlochau in the Regierungsbezirk Marienwerder in the Province of West Prussia. Between 1826-28 the town's Protestant community built its chapel, which included the castle's keep as a church tower. The town began to grow economically after the completion through Schlochau of Reichsstraße 1, a roadway from Berlin to Königsberg. The town also received a boost to its development after the opening of a railway from Neustettin (Szczecinek) to Konitz (Chojnice) in 1878. Schlochau's main street was illuminated by 1844 and businesses began to be established near the eastly-located train station. The town's hospital was established by 1865 and the district's Sparkasse (savings bank) opened in 1871, the year Schlochau became part of the German Empire.
Resulting from the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 following World War
I, Schlochau became part of the German border zone with the Second Polish
Republic, whose Polish Corridor began 10 km east of the town. This negatively
impacted the town's trade and economy as it was cut off from much of its
hinterland (East and West Prussia), although Schlochau's population grew
through immigrants from West Prussian lands lost to Poland. In the 1920s
new outlying settlements began to
develop from the influx of immigrants, and the town developed a sports
center and a district museum. By 1937 Schlochau had a mill, a sawmill,
and a population of 6,029 by 1939. After 1922 the town belonged to the
Province of Posen-West Prussia, but with that province's dissolution in
1938 Schlochau became part of Pomerania. In that year the Nazis built a
center for 600 members of the Hitler Youth. As the Eastern Front grew closer
near the end of World War II, the town's authorities began evacuating Schlochau.
The Soviet Red Army reached the district's borders by the end of January
1945, but German resistance prevented them from capturing Schlochau until
17 February 1945, with the town 60% destroyed in the process. Its remaining
German-speaking population was expelled to Germany after the war as the
town became part of Poland with Polish name as "Człuchów". (wiki)
Arms adopted on February 19, 2003 (resolution # IV/20/2003).
Flag was adopted later, exact date unknown.
"Arms: on the red shield head of the bovine animal(white) with the
golden horns. Based on the town's seal from XIV Century.
Flag: a rectangle in the ratio 5:8 composed of three equal vertical
bands: red (at the hoist), white in the middle and gold (yellow) in the
fly.
The Arms are placed in the middle of the white band."
Chrystian Kretowicz, 1 Nov 2008
This is the banner of Komturei Schlochau carried into the battlefield
of Grunwald (Tannenberg) in 1410.
Chrystian Kretowicz, 1 Nov 2008