It was a private town of Polish nobility, administratively located in the Kcynia County in the Kalisz Voivodeship in the Greater Poland Province.

It was again annexed by Germany as a result of the joint German-Soviet invasion of Poland, which started World War II in September 1939.

Piotr Kowalik, commander of the local unit of the Union of Armed Struggle, was arrested by the Gestapo in 1944, and then imprisoned in Żabikowo and the Gross-Rosen and Mittelbau-Dora concentration camps, yet he survived and returned to Gołańcz after the war.

In 2016, an official funeral of the town's defenders from 1656 took place, after their remains were discovered during archaeological works.

Through Victor Gollancz, the town has indirectly given its name to several streets in Germany, including the Gollanczstraße in Berlin.