Stargard is a major railroad junction, where the southwards connection from Szczecin splits into two directions: towards Poznań and Gdańsk.

In the meantime, the trade rivalry with the nearby city of Szczecin led to the outbreak of the Stargard-Szczecin war in 1454,[6] which ended in 1464.

In 1477 Stargard helped Duke Wartislaw X recapture the town of Gartz during a Brandenburgian invasion.

During the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), the Prussians established a prisoner-of-war camp for French troops in the city.

[16] In interwar Germany, the town was the site of a concentration camp for unwanted Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe.

In the March 1933 German federal election the Nazi Party received 58.7% of the vote in the city.

[18] In 1939, during the German invasion of Poland, which started World War II, the Germans established the Dulag L temporary camp for Polish (including Kashubian) prisoners of war and civilians near Stargard, which in October 1939 was transformed into the large prisoner-of-war camp Stalag II-D.[19] Then, after the battle of France in 1940, also the French, the Dutch and Belgians were held there, from 1941 also Yugoslavian and Soviet POWs, from 1942 also thousands of Canadians captured at Dieppe, one of whom was Gerald MacIntosh Johnston, a Canadian actor, who was killed trying to escape, and after 1943 also Italians.

[6] The Polish resistance organized a district of the Union of Armed Struggle and Home Army in Stargard, under the cryptonym "Starka".

The local population was evacuated by the Germans on the order of Heinrich Himmler before the approaching Soviets in the final stages of the war.

[13][4] As a result of World War II the town again became part of Poland, under territorial changes demanded by the Soviet Union at the Potsdam Conference.

[25] Heavy bombing during World War II devastated most of Stargard's fine historical sites and destroyed over 75% of the city.

Some of the notable surviving examples include: Other sites include: The city is home to Spójnia Stargard, a men's basketball team, which competes in the Polish Basketball League (the country's top division), 1997 runners-up, and Błękitni Stargard, formerly a multi-sports club, now a men's association football team, best known for reaching the Polish Cup semi-final in 2015.