[3] Gostyń was a private town, administratively located in the Kościan County in the Poznań Voivodeship in the Greater Poland Province of the Polish Crown.

In the 16th century Gostyń was an important regional Reformation center,[5] and in 1565 a synod of various Protestants of Greater Poland was held there.

During the German invasion of Poland, which started World War II, Gostyń was captured by the Wehrmacht on 6 September 1939.

[9] On 21 October 1939 some 30 citizens of the town whose names were listed in the Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen (Special Prosecution Book-Poland) prepared by local German minority, were executed by an Einsatzkommando.

Among the murdered were Gostyń's mayor Hipolit Niestrawski, Polish activists, officials, craftsmen and former Greater Poland insurgents.

[11] Mass expulsions began on 4 December 1939, with up to 2,000 Poles deported to General Government on the orders of SS-Standartenführer Ernst Damzog stationing in Poznań.

[12] Władysław Nawrocki [pl], Polish officer and pre-war chairman of the local football club Kania Gostyń, was murdered by the Soviets in the Katyn massacre in 1940.