Kreis Wirsitz

Kreis Wirsitz was one of 14 or 15 Kreise (English: counties) in the northern administrative district of Bromberg, in the Prussian province of Posen.

The county contained additional municipalities such as Bialosliwie, Lobzenica (Lobsens), Miasteczko Krajeńskie (Friedheim), Mrocza (Mrotschen), Nakło nad Notecią (Nakel), Sadki and Wysoka (Wissek) plus over 100 villages.

Its constitutional peculiarity had been abolished on 5 December 1848, when it was converted into the Prussian Province of Posen, by way of which it was transformed into one of Prussia's regional subdivisions, but still no part of the German Confederation.

The members of the German parliament (German: Reichstag) forming the Polish National Democratic Party (Polish: Stronnictwo Narodowo-Demokratyczne), led by Władysław Taczanowski (1825–1893), protested on 1 April 1871 in the parliament of the newly founded united Germany against Prussia joining with all her provinces united Germany.

On 27 December 1918 the Greater Poland uprising started and involved most of the Prussian Province of Posen, where Poles formed the majority.

[1] By the Treaty of Versailles on 28 June 1919 Germany ceded the Kreis Wirsitz to the newly reestablished Poland.

A few days after the beginning of World War II, being along the border of Prussia and due to the routing of the Ostbahn this strategically important county was occupied by German troops.

With the invasion of the Soviet Red Army in January 1945, the county was returned to Polish administration under the old name powiat Wyrzyski.