page_title: Kętrzyn
section_title: 20th century
hierarchical_section_title: Kętrzyn / History / 20th century
caption_attribution_description: Polski: Jeden z dwóch schronów przeciwodłamkowych obrony lotniczej przy rondzie Solidarności w Kętrzynie
context_page_description: Kętrzyn is a town in northeastern Poland with 27,478 inhabitants. Situated in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Kętrzyn was previously in Olsztyn Voivodeship. It is the capital of Kętrzyn County. The town was named after historian Wojciech Kętrzyński in 1946, however, both the official Kętrzyn and former Polish name Rastembork are still in use.
  The first settlement was established in 1329 and Rastenburg was granted town rights and privileges in 1357. Over the centuries it was part of the Teutonic State, Poland and East Prussia in Germany. The town is known for the surrounding Masurian Lakeland and numerous monuments of historical value such as the Wolf's Lair in nearby Gierłoż, where an assassination attempt against Hitler was made in 1944.
context_section_description: Rastenburg and the surrounding district was the scene of the First World War's First Battle of the Masurian Lakes and Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes. During the Second World War Adolf Hitler's wartime military headquarters, the Wolfsschanze (Wolf's Lair), was in the forest east of Rastenburg. The bunker was the setting for the failed assassination attempt of the 20 July plot against Hitler. 
  In 1945, the area suffered devastation from both the retreating Germans and advancing Soviets during the Vistula-Oder campaign. Some ruins of the Wolfsschanze remain. The town was a Wehrmacht garrison town until it was occupied by the Red Army on January 27, 1945. The largely abandoned town was heavily destroyed by the Soviets.
  After the war, the town was transferred to Poland under border changes promulgated at the Potsdam Conference. Its surviving German residents who had not evacuated were subsequently expelled westward and replaced with Poles, most of whom were themselves expelled from the pre-war Polish Vilnius Region that was annexed by the Soviet Union and given to the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic. The town was given the historic Polish name Rastembork in 1945, and in 1946 it was renamed to Kętrzyn after the Polish historian Wojciech Kętrzyński. 
  After the war, the town's life was being rebuilt. In 1945, the Municipal Theater was established. Thanks to voluntary contributions, books were purchased for newly organized public libraries. A museum was created in the renovated castle.
caption: A preserved air raid shelter from World War II in Kętrzyn
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