Kępno

Infobox Settlement
name = Kępno

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image_shield = POL Kępno COA.svg
pushpin_

subdivision_type = Country
subdivision_name = POL
subdivision_type1 = Voivodeship
subdivision_name1 = Greater Poland
subdivision_type2 = County
subdivision_name2 = Kępno County
subdivision_type3 = Gmina
subdivision_name3 = Gmina Kępno
area_total_km2 = 7.8
population_as_of = 2006
population_total = 14710
population_density_km2 = auto
latd = 51 | latm = 17 | lats = | latNS = N | longd = 17 | longm = 59 | longs = | longEW = E
elevation_m =
postal_code_type = Postal code
postal_code = 63-600
website = http://www.um.kepno.pl

Kępno Audio-IPA-pl|PL-Kepno.ogg|'|k|e|m|p|n|o ( _de. Kempen in Posen) is a town in Poland. It lies on the outskirts of the Greater Poland Voivodeship, as it borders on Silesia and the Łódz Land, at the crossing point of two transport routes: north to south (road number 11) and east to west (road number 8). As of December 31, 2004 Kępno had a population of 14,755. One popular attraction in Kępno is the recently restored Rynek (market square).

History

Previously part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Kępno was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia in the 1793 Second Partition of Poland. Administered within South Prussia from 1793-1807, it was part of the Napoleonic Duchy of Warsaw from 1807-1815. As Kempen, it was restored to Prussia in the 1815 Congress of Vienna and administered within the Grand Duchy of Posen (until 1848) and the Province of Posen, within which it was the seat of the district Kempen in Posen. The town was a 19th century shtetl.

On 17 January 1920, after World War I, it became part of the Second Polish Republic. During World War II, troops of Nazi Germany occupied Kępno from 1939 until the advance of the Soviet Red Army on 21 January 1945.

Notable residents

* Wilhelm Freund (1806-1894), philologist
* Samuel Holdheim (1806-1860), reform rabbi
* Meir Lob ben Jehiel Michel Weiser, Malbim (1809-1879), rabbi
* Hermann Aron (1845-1913), electrical engineer
* Gustav Jacob Born (1851-1900), histologist
* Edward Lasker (1885-1981), chess player
* Witold Tomczak (born 1957), politician

Education

* Wyższa Szkoła Zarządzania "Edukacja" in Wrocław, branch in Kępno