[3] Wieleń was a private town of Polish nobility, including the Czarnkowski and Sapieha families, administratively located in the Poznań County in the Poznań Voivodeship in the Greater Poland Province of the Polish Crown.

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

The border between Germany and Poland ran along the Noteć river and therefore, the small part of the town lying north of the river, including the Prussian Eastern Railway station of Filehne Nord remained in Germany as part of the Netzekreis district in the Prussian Province of Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia.

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

Towards the end of World War II, the town was occupied by the Red Army and was restored to Poland in its entirety.