Following the successful Greater Poland uprising of 1806, it was regained by Poles and included within the short-lived Duchy of Warsaw.

After the duchy's dissolution in 1815, it was re-annexed by Prussia, and from 1871 it was also part of Germany under the Germanized name Rakwitz.

In the years 1869–1872 Robert Koch, a German microbiologist and later Nobel laureate, conducted his first medical practice in the town.

In the years 1901–1906 the town was the scene of school strikes of Polish children opposing Germanisation.

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