In the main town square stands a wicker basket woven in 2006, measuring 17 metres (56 ft) long, 9 m wide and 7.7 m high, entered in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's largest basket.

Following the joint German-Soviet invasion of Poland, which started World War II in September 1939, the town was occupied by Germany until 1945.

In December 1939, the German gendarmerie carried out the first expulsions of Poles, including families of intelligentsia, activists and owners of workshops, bakeries and restaurants, which were then handed over to German colonists as part of the Lebensraum policy.

[2] Expelled Poles were deported to a transit camp in Młyniewo, and then to the Radom District in the more-eastern part of German-occupied Poland.

[3] Since 2012, Nowy Tomyśl has been the site of one of the tallest wind turbines in the world.