It lies approximately 9 kilometres (5.6 miles) northeast of Nowogard, 32 kilometres (20 miles) northeast of Goleniów and 53 kilometres (33 miles) northeast of the regional capital, Szczecin.
History
The estate of Kniephof originally was a possession of the German noble clan von Dewitz, of Mecklenburg and Pomerania, which eventually sold it to Prussian Major August Friedrich von Bismarck-Schönhausen. By 1780 the estate included a manor house and four family dwellings.[2]
Former Kniephof manor house (2012)
The 19th century German chancellor, Otto von Bismarck (b. 1815), lived at Kniephof as a child, and his sister Malwine was born there in 1827.[3] From 1839 to 1845, Otto von Bismarck and his brother Bernhard jointly managed the Kniephof and two other estates. In 1868, Otto von Bismarck, since 1862 Prussian Minister-President, sold the Kniephof to his nephew Philipp von Bismarck.
Until post-World War II border changes transferred the area to Poland, Kniephof belonged to the municipality of Jarchlin (now Jarchlino, Poland) in the district of Naugard (now Nowogard, Poland) in the then-German province of Pomerania.
The last family owner of the estate, up to 1945, was Klaus von Bismarck.
In spring 1945, as the Second World War neared its conclusion, the area was occupied by the Soviet Army. Polish settlers began to arrive, the settlement's name was changed to Konarzewo, and those German residents who had not fled or been killed in the fighting were eventually expropriated and expelled westward.
Ludwig Wilhelm Brüggemann: Ausführliche Beschreibung des gegenwärtigen Zustandes des königlich-preußischen Herzogtums Vor- und Hinterpommern. Part II, Volume 1, Stettin 1784, p. 313, No. 22.
