of the in 1809 and part of the Frankfurt Region in the Prussian Province of Brandenburg in 1816. With Prussia the town became part of the German Empire in 1871 and flourished after being connected to the railway network in 1877. It also served as an educational and administrative centre for the surrounding region. In 1913 the local Polish community erected the Sacred Heart Church, the town's first Catholic church since the Reformation. World War II In 1939 the Luftwaffe constructed , later used by the Soviet Air Forces between 1945 and 1992. A subcamp of the Ravensbrück concentration camp was set up for the enlargement of the airfield. After the Warsaw Uprising, many Polish women from Warsaw were imprisoned there. In January 1945 battles of the Vistula–Oder Offensive occurred in and around the town. The German population fled in haste warned about the mass rapes. On 4 February 1945 Kurt Flöter, Königsberg's then mayor, was condemned to death by hanging by an SS court martial chaired by Otto Skorzeny, because he had fled before issuing a general evacuation order by the military. On the same day the Soviet Red Army occupied the town. The entire city centre with the Church of St. Mary and the town hall was burned to the ground by the Soviets on 16 February 1945. 80 percent of the entire town was destroyed. After the German capitulation, under border changes promulgated at the Potsdam Conference, the town became again part of Poland; the local population was dispossessed and expelled. Post-war Poland The town was first renamed as Władysławsko by June 1945. On 21 August 1945 the name was changed to Królewiec nad Odrą (Królewiec being the historic Polish equivalent for Königsberg, adding upon Oder for distinction). On 7 May 1946 the town was renamed again as Chojna. Chojna was gradually repopulated by Poles, many of whom were expelled from former eastern Poland annexed by the Soviet Union. Vestiges of the war are still visible in some of Chojna's buildings. The foundation wall of the destroyed town hall was rebuilt for use as a cultural centre, town library, and public house. The monastery was also reconstructed, while the marketplace was newly built. Reconstruction of the destroyed St. Mary's church began in 1994 as a joint German-Polish cooperation. In 1997 the roof of the church's nave was covered, while the pyramidal tower roof of the tower was