Zwickau (also Zwigge in the Saxon dialect) is the fourth largest
city in Saxony with around 90,000 inhabitants and a regional center
in the southwestern part of the country.
An area called
Territorium Zcwickaw was first mentioned in 1118. Hard coal was
mined here and in the surrounding region for almost 800 years. As a
result, the city developed into the center of the Zwickau coal
field. As an electoral city until 1806, Zwickau was the district
headquarters in the Kingdom of Saxony from 1834/1835, from 1874 the
headquarters of the district administration (after 1939 the district
of Zwickau) and in 1907 it became an independent city. In the course
of the total restructuring of the administrative structures to
enforce the principle of so-called democratic centralism in the GDR,
Zwickau lost its position as the district government seat that had
been in place since 1834 and became part of the Karl-Marx-Stadt
district. Zwickau has not been a district since 2008; the city was
incorporated into the newly formed district of Zwickau.
The
city is a founding member of the metropolitan region of Central
Germany and part of the Chemnitz-Zwickau agglomeration. This is also
where the administration of the above-mentioned district has its
headquarters. The urbanization of the urban fringes, which has been
increasing since 2000, has increased the area of the city, which
now largely covers the valley of the Zwickauer Mulde. The tourist
route of the Saxon-Bohemian Silver Road, which is popular with
motorists, is scenic and equipped with many cultural and historical
sights, connects the old mountain town of Zwickau with the state
capital Dresden, following the course of the Ore Mountains in an
easterly direction.
Zwickau is the cradle of the Saxon
automotive industry. The more than one hundred year old tradition in
automobile manufacturing began at the beginning of the 20th century
with the establishment of the Horch (1904) and Audi (1909/1910)
plants, which were operated by Auto Union in the 1930s and 1940s and
during the GDR era was continued by the Sachsenring works. After the
end of the division of Germany, Volkswagen AG founded one of the
largest companies in the new federal states, Volkswagen Sachsen
GmbH, in what is now the Moselle district of Zwickau, which
continues this automotive tradition.
The Romantic composer
Robert Schumann was born here in 1810. The city is therefore
internationally known as the automobile and Robert Schumann city. In
addition, on April 21, 2016 it was recognized as the “Reformation
City of Europe”.
The August Horch Museum, the West Saxon
University of Applied Sciences in Zwickau, the Robert Schumann
Conservatory and the Plauen-Zwickau Theater are nationally important
cultural and educational institutions.
Zwickau in western Saxony lies in a wide valley meadow at the entrance to the western Ore Mountains and the Vogtland. In terms of area, this occupies part of the natural area in the Ore Mountain Basin, which follows the course of the Zwickauer Mulde. The city center is at a geographic altitude of 267 m above sea level. NN not far from the west bank of the Zwickauer Mulde. Immediately opposite on the east bank of the Zwickauer Mulde, the Brückenberg rises steeply with mountain cellars dating from the Middle Ages. Saxony's longest community is in the east, just outside the city of Mülsen. In the west, after a gentle climb in the direction of the neighboring town of Werdau, the Windberg (350 m above sea level) dominates the panorama. Adjacent to this, to the north, is the Zwickau City Park, which consists largely of mixed forest. In the north, the urban area stretches across the wide, fertile floodplain of the Zwickauer Mulde in the direction of Crimmitschau, Meerane and Glauchau, where the city limits run not far behind the Volkswagen plant in Zwickau. Upstream, Zwickau shares a border with the town of Wilkau-Hasslau to the south. Southwest of the valley of the Zwickauer Mulde rises the district of Zwickau-Planitz, whose most striking buildings are the Lukaskirche, which is part of the Planitz Castle ensemble, and the Oberplanitzer water tower, which is close to the SOS Children's Village. Other highest elevations surrounding the city are the Kreuzberg (398 m), the Fernblick (377 m), the Alexanderhöhe (362 m), the Crow Hill (360 m) and the Kuhberg (358 m). The city stretches about 20 kilometers north-south and about 11 kilometers east-west.
During the Carboniferous period,
a primeval forest of ferns, giant clubmoss and horsetail grew at the
foot of the Variscan Mountains, the remains of which later became coal
seams under the Rotliegend and mountain debris, which enabled mining in
the Zwickau region for more than 600 years.
Geological
peculiarities are also documented by fossil finds from the Cainsdorf
outcrop of the Zwickau coalfield. On the picture you can see on the
left: Sigillariaceae remains (extinct clubmoss plants), in the middle
below: Annularia sphenophylloides leaves of the Calamitaceae
(horsetails) and on the right: the Linopteris neuropteroides leaves of
the extinct Medullosales (seed ferns). These arose about 305-310 million
years ago.
The finds are located in the area of the natural
geological monument Rußkohlenflöz. This outcrop of the soot coal seam,
the only permanently exposed outcrop of a hard coal seam in Saxony, is a
geological natural monument in Central Europe, very rare as an outcrop
of different geological eras (Silurian, Devonian and Upper
Carboniferous) and is protected under Section 21 of the Saxon Nature
Conservation Act (SächsNatSchG).
The city was in the
years 1486, 1500, 1529, 1543, 1560, 1573, 1604, 1607, 1608, 1622, 1627,
1655, 1661, 1672, 1694, 1721, 1723, 1733, 1736, 177, 17670, 177, 17670,
1778, 1786, 1790, 1830, 1858, 1897, 1917, 1932, 1954, 2002 and 2013
affected by flooding or ice drift in the Zwickauer Mulde. The highest
known water levels were:
July 31, 1858: 4.61 m at the Bierbrücke
July 31, 1897: 2.96 m at the Bierbrücke
January 4, 1932: 4.17 m at
the Bierbrücke
July 10, 1954: 4.78 m at the Pölbitz gauge (2.10 m on
the main market)
Today's western Saxony was settled by the Germanic tribes of the Suebi and Thuringians until the 6th century. Sorbs inhabited the area from the 7th century. In the 10th century, after the Sorbs were subdued by Heinrich I, the local population gradually became Christian and German settlers began to immigrate.
From the
district to the city
In 1118, the Zcwickaw territory was mentioned
for the first time in a document issued by Bishop Dietrich I of Naumburg
in the Bosau monastery near Zeitz. This is not a specific place, but a
Gau populated by Sorbs, the center of which was the village of
Osterweih. This settlement was later abandoned; it was in what is now
the north suburb. Around this time, Countess Bertha von Groitzsch
introduced Christianity to the region and built the Marienkirche in
Osterweih.
Around the year 1150, the focus of settlement shifted
to today's inner-city area. A merchant settlement developed around the
Nikolaikirche (near today's Nikolaischule). This lay at the crossroads
of two important trade routes, the salt route Böhmischer Steig and the
Polish track. The former led via Halle/Leipzig to Prague, the latter
from Kraków via Saxony to southern Germany. At the same time, a
settlement center developed around the Marienkirche and around the area
of the later Wettin-Electoral Zwickau Castle Osterstein with the
Katharinenkirche.
It can be assumed that Zwickau received city
rights between 1192 and 1212. In a document from 1212, Zwickau was first
referred to as an oppidum (larger fortified settlement or town). In the
document, which is dated May 12, the bishop of Naumburg confirmed the
agreement between Margrave Dietrich von Meißen and the abbot of the
Bosau monastery, in which the latter waived claims against the city and
city church in exchange for compensation of 250 marks.
The
Zwickau Franciscan monastery with monastery school was first mentioned
in 1232; it belonged to the Saxon Franciscan Province (Saxonia). In
1240, the Cistercians set up a farm that was subordinate to the Grünhain
monastery. Medical care is first mentioned in 1266 with the later St.
George and Margarethen Hospital. In 1273 there was already a council,
which started the municipal self-government. A mayor has been documented
since 1297.
Since the Mulde was easy to cross in Zwickau,
important trade routes led through the city. Already in the 12th
century, the high trade route, which led from Nuremberg via Hof, Plauen
and Reichenbach bei Zwickau to Bohemia, was of great importance. It
promoted Zwickau's prosperity early on, so that the city rose from 1290
to 1407 as an imperial city, alongside Augsburg and Nuremberg, to become
a city of the first rank. The founding of the Zwickau Latin School also
dates back to 1290, which in the late German Middle Ages was also known
as the Zwickau Grinding Mill due to the strict house rules. In the same
year, the cities of Zwickau, Chemnitz and Altenburg entered into an
alliance. This came about on the initiative of the emperor and is
documented by a document. The emperor intended to curtail the influence
of the rulers. The Castrum Zwickaw, the later Wettin Renaissance castle
Osterstein, is said to have been mentioned for the first time in 1292,
but this is viewed by historians as questionable.
Mining began in
the region in 1316, when Margrave Friedrich the Bitten enfeoffed the
town with a treasure trove in Fürstenberg (between Kirchberg and
Weißbach). Silver and copper were mined here. Zwickau already had a moat
in 1295 and the city wall with the four city gates can be traced back to
1327.
In 1328 a fire destroyed large parts of the city, including
the Marienkirche and the Katharinenkirche.
The state law and the
Zwickau common law based on the Sachsenspiegel were codified in 1348 in
the Codex Statutorum Zviccaviensium - the Zwickau city law book. Here
you will find pictorial representations of the death penalty and the
first handicraft regulations as well as the first mention of hard coal.
The devastating fire of 1403 destroyed almost the entire city.
Margrave Wilhelm I then granted the city a seven-year tax exemption to
facilitate reconstruction. In 1421, numerous villages in the Zwickau
area were banned from brewing beer. In 1430, during the Hussite Wars,
Hussites unsuccessfully besieged the city, but looted and burned the
suburbs and surrounding villages. The village of Osterweih that was
destroyed in the process was not rebuilt.
Because of the expansion of sovereign positions of power by Margrave Wilhelm I, who engaged the town judge Franz Steussing in a conspiracy with the margravial Vogt Conrad Brückner and the councilor Nikel Hugk for his intentions, there was a dispute with the Zwickau council. The revoking of municipal privileges by the sovereign resulted in an intervention in municipal jurisdiction. Steussing abused his office as city judge and enriched himself with considerable damage to the city. After the death of Margrave Wilhelm I at the beginning of February 1407, the council had the opportunity to put Steussing on trial. In 19 articles the Council laid out the offenses of Conrad Brückner and in 14 articles those of Franz Steussing in order to justify drastic action. Steussing was executed on February 14, 1407 on the main market square in Zwickau. As a result, on July 10, 1407, the new sovereigns had Mayor Peter Mergenthal and three councilors in Meissen beheaded under the Red Tower and buried in the cloister of St. Afra Monastery, befitting their status. In 1983 the graves with the skeletons of the four executed Zwickau councilors were found. The Zwickau coat of arms adorned the tombstones. In addition to the towers, this coat of arms also shows the swans. This proved that the swans were already part of the Zwickau coat of arms around 1400. The towers, on the other hand, have been adorning the coat of arms since 1290. The event from 1407 is mentioned in the State Museum for Archeology in Chemnitz.
In 1444 the city regained its jurisdiction. The
Schneeberger silver deposits were discovered in 1470. Their exploitation
was mainly in the hands of the Zwickau patricians, including the
magistrate Martin Römer and his brother Nicol, Hans Mergenthal, Hans
Federangel and other Zwickau merchants.
Emperor Frederick III.
conferred the Red Seal privilege on the city in 1473. The red seal color
was only reserved for the emperor, important state officials or clerical
dignitaries (cardinals). Since then, deeds and official documents have
been sealed with red wax by the Council. This privilege was u. a. also
represented by the city colors (red and white).
The Zwickau mint
was founded around 1440. It was in operation with interruptions until
1493. The first Saxon coins with the portrait of a ruler were struck
here from 1492 to 1493. These penny coins with the name "Beardgroschen"
show the bearded bust of Elector Friedrich III. The Zwickauer
Bartgroschen and the interest groschen later minted in Schneeberg with
the same value served to prepare the first Saxon silver guilders
(thalers) minted in Annaberg and probably also in Wittenberg.
The
Ernestine Elector Frederick III, known as Frederick the Wise, described
his Zwickau as the pearl in the Electorate of Saxony.
When Duke
Albrecht of Saxony set off on a pilgrimage to Rome and Palestine in
1476, the Zwickau patrician Martin Römer and Hans Mergenthal, the land
pension master, were in his entourage. Martin Römer died in 1483 as a
generous sponsor of his city - among other things he was the builder of
the Zwickau granary next to the Osterstein Castle. In 1477 he had the
Great Pond created as a fire water pond and for fish farming. It was not
until the middle of the 19th century that it was given the name
Schwanenteich.
The Nuremberg painter Michael Wolgemut (teacher of
Albrecht Dürer) created the winged altar of the Marienkirche in 1478.
Zwickau has had two pharmacies since 1486: the Löwenapotheke and the
Salomonisapotheke (herb vault). Both houses still stand diagonally
across from the historic town hall on the main market. The well-known
Zwickau carver Peter Breuer received citizenship in 1504. Numerous works
in the churches of Zwickau and the surrounding area come from his hand.
His Pietà Lamentation for Christ in Zwickau's Mariendom is a well-known
work of art.
The city also houses works of art by one of the most
famous artists in Electoral Saxony between the late Gothic and
Renaissance periods, the stonemason and sculptor Paul Speck. In the city
center, these include the pulpits and baptismal fonts of St. Mary's
Cathedral, St. Catherine's Church and, directly opposite, the portal of
the post office.
The founding of the Zwickau City Archive dates
back to 1487, when Elector Frederick the Wise and his brother Duke
Johann asked the Zwickau Council to set up a fireproof vault "with iron
doors and three good locks" for them and their cousin Duke Albrecht in
order to both sides to keep important documents. Old treasures from the
Middle Ages such as manuscripts, incunabula, documents, letters and
books are archived here, as well as the Hans Sachs volumes of the
Nuremberg Meistersinger (1494-1576). Of the twenty-one volumes of his
master songs that still exist worldwide, here are fourteen volumes, two
quarto and six folio volumes of master songs (MG 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 12, 13
and 15), six folio volumes of sayings (SG 4, 11, 12, 13, 16 and 18) as
well as Sachs' catalog raisonné.
In addition to the city archive,
Zwickau also has one of the oldest libraries in the whole of Upper
Saxony, the council school library. Its historical roots go back to the
founding of the Zwickau Latin School, which was set up towards the end
of the twelfth century. Its inventory includes around 250,000 different
items, including, for example, the Zwickau manuscripts, including the
oldest manuscript from the 9th century. Among the 6000 volumes from the
estate of the Zwickau chief town clerk and councilor Stephan Roth
(1492-1546) are also many university publications, printed one-offs and
pieces of music. Both the educator and orientalist Johann Zechendorf
(1580-1662) and Rector Christian Daum (1612-1687) left extensive
collections to the council school library. This facility, which also
serves international experts in scientific historical research in
particular, was housed in the east wing of the König Albert Museum,
which was built in 1914 and later became the Municipal Museum of
Zwickau. The facility has had online access since January 2011.
Elector Friedrich the Wise and his brother Duke Johann renewed the
Zwickau coin mandate in 1490. Due to the demands of the bakers, the
local grain mills received bag turns in 1502 - the first documented use
of this technology. In 1505, the council received church patronage from
the Eisenberg monastery, the patronage of the town's churches. Zwickau
had the privilege of brewing and the citizens entitled to brew had built
mountain cellars to store beer since 1511.
Witch hunts were carried out in Zwickau from 1424 to
1629: 14 people were involved in witch trials and three were executed.
In 1516 the citizens refused to pay homage to the new council. In
1519 Georgius Agricola (1494–1555) founded the Greek school, which he
combined with the Latin school a year later. From 1519 to 1523 he was
rector of the then known Zwickau council school.
From October
1520 to April 1521 Thomas Müntzer preached in Zwickau, he came here on
the recommendation of Martin Luther. In 1520, Luther dedicated his
writing On the Freedom of a Christian to his friend, the mayor of
Zwickau, Hermann Mühlpfort. Thomas Müntzer joined the "Zwickau
Prophets", who Luther later attacked as "enthusiasts". In March 1522,
citizens of Zwickau stormed the Grünhainer monastery courtyard to free
captured farmers. Iconoclasm ensued.
In April 1522, Martin Luther
came to Zwickau at the request of the council and preached a few
sermons. Here he escaped an assassination attempt by taking refuge in an
inn. There he uttered the saying: "This is my paradise". From then on,
the inn bore the name “Zum Paradies”. The adjacent Mulde Bridge is
therefore also called "Paradise Bridge". The steel rivet bridge that was
built on the site around 1900 still bears this name today. The old inn,
however, was demolished in the course of a so-called "socialist urban
transformation".
In 1523, the pastor Nikolaus Hausmann was the
first in Zwickau to profess the Lutheran Reformation. The Franciscans
were expelled from the city. In 1523, Augsburg native Hans Schönsperger
set up the first printing works in the city. At the latest under his
successor Gabriel Kantz, Zwickau became an important center for
Reformation publications. Zwickau was thus also referred to as "the
strong castle of the Reformation". In 1525 there were peasant uprisings
in the Zwickau area. Pastor Hausmann obtained a pardon for 80 insurgents
from Elector Johann.
Zwickau was the center of cloth makers in
the electorate. "Zwicksches Tuch" was a term well beyond the borders of
Saxony. The cloth makers began building the Gewandhaus on the main
market in 1522; three years later it was completed. After the
Oberhohndorf coal deposits were discovered in 1530, coal mining began on
a larger scale than before.
Around 1540, about 10,000 people
lived in Zwickau. 230 of them were master cloth makers.
Differences of opinion between the Ernestine Elector John the Steadfast
and the Albertine Duke George the Bearded led temporarily between 1530
and 1533 to the Zwickau Mint being put back into operation. After the
re-establishment of the coin community, the Wettins merged the Zwickau
Mint with the Schneeberg Mint in 1534.
Starting with the Saxon Fratricidal War and the Altenburg robbery of
princes, Leipzig was divided in 1485. After that, Zwickau continued to
belong to the electorate (Ernestine Saxony/Thuringia) of Elector Johann
Friedrich I. In the Schmalkaldic War, the city was conquered in January
1547 by the troops of Albertine Duke Moritz occupied, looted, burned
down and the residents expelled. Although Moritz, like his Ernestine
cousin, was a Protestant, he supported the army of the Catholic Emperor
Charles V. In the event that the imperial troops were victorious, Duke
Moritz counted on being granted the title of elector. The Schmalkaldic
War ended with the Wittenberg capitulation. After that, Albertine Saxony
was given the title of Elector by the Emperor at the Diet of Augsburg in
1548. At the same time, it was decreed that the city of Zwickau should
be detached from Ernestine Saxony and annexed to Electoral Albertine
Saxony (Dresden/Meissen). This makes Zwickau the only large town in
Saxony that was part of the Electorate without interruption until the
end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. Since 1691, the Electoral Saxon
Office of Zwickau had been part of the Ore Mountain District, which had
been detached from the large Meissen District. Due to its convenient
location, the city became an administrative center of the Ore Mountains.
The following quote from Zwickau has been handed down from Luther's
friend and companion Melanchthon, one of the great humanists of modern
times:
"Zwickau has always been a pearl in these lands, because
it watches over breeding and customs more strictly than most other
cities, and because it is fertile with many talents and has had and
still has many citizens who are outstanding through their education ,
that they adorn the whole of Germany. In art and science, Zwickau
surpasses all cities in these countries.”
– Philip Melanchthon, 1548
Until the founding of the Kingdom of Saxony in 1807, Zwickau had the
privilege of calling itself an "electoral city". The seven red and white
flags on the electoral hat of the city coat of arms represent the seven
electorates of the Holy Roman Empire. Although the city was hit by
severe flooding in August 1573, at the end of the month the great
shooting of princes took place, in which, in addition to the Saxon
elector, numerous high-ranking guests from almost all parts of the
empire took part.
During the
Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) Zwickau was besieged nine times.
Wallenstein, general of the Imperial troops, demanded contributions in
kind and money from the city. After the Peace of Westphalia in 1648,
Zwickau had to pay the Swedes peace money of 2,063 thalers. The war
burden totaled 321,141 thalers.
During the Seven Years' War
(1756-1763) Zwickau was exposed to changing occupations by Prussia,
Austria and the Imperial Army. The citizens had to suffer from billeting
and high contributions. Zwickau had to pay 557,664 thalers to Prussia
alone up until the 19th century.
On May 16, 1812, Emperor
Napoleon took up residence in Zwickau with his wife Marie Louise. The
emperor was received by the people of Zwickau with ringing of bells, a
parade of riflemen and citizens standing in a trellis.
In 1835,
in the Kingdom of Saxony, which had been halved since the Congress of
Vienna in 1815, the Erzgebirge district was dissolved and the city
became part of the district administration (since 1874 district
authority) Zwickau.
From February 26 to March 2, 1830, the worst
ice drift in centuries caused a devastating flood on the Zwickauer
Mulde.
In the middle of the 19th century the city wall was torn
down and the city moat was filled in. Roads were built on the filled
moat. These initially had different names (Moritzgrabenweg,
Schulgrabenweg, Mühlgrabenweg, Schloßgrabenweg).
On October 11, 1921, locksmith Fritz Tittmann founded
the first local NSDAP group outside of Bavaria in Zwickau. In the Third
Reich, Zwickau honorary citizenship was also awarded to high-ranking
National Socialist politicians.
During the Nazi period before
1935, the Grabenweg streets were combined into a ring road encircling
the city center and renamed Adolf-Hitler-Ring.
From 1933 to 1934,
a temporary concentration camp was set up in Osterstein Castle. Up to
750 people were imprisoned here, mostly social democratic and communist
critics of the regime. The first secretary of the KPD sub-district
leadership, Martin Hoop, was murdered here on the night of May 10-11,
1933. In the three Auto Union plants (Horch main plant, Dorotheenstraße
plant and Audi plant) a subcamp of the Flossenbürg concentration camp
was set up for the production of military vehicles for around 3000
forced labourers. Among them were not only concentration camp prisoners
but also prisoners of war. Zwickau commemorates these victims with
memorials and exhibitions.
During the pogrom night from November
9th to 10th, 1938, apartments belonging to Jewish citizens in Zwickau
were destroyed, a meeting place on the ground floor of Burgstraße 10 and
the chapel of the Jewish cemetery were set on fire.
In contrast
to other major Saxon cities such as Leipzig and Dresden, Zwickau was not
badly damaged by carpet bombing during the air raids of World War II.
After targeted attacks on armaments factories and transport facilities,
such as the aircraft repair works Gustav Basser KG at the Zwickau
airfield on Reichenbacher Straße (May 12, 1944) and the Reichsbahn
repair shop and the Auto Union works Horch and Audi (October 7, 1944 ),
the city center was only a direct target on March 19, 1945. The south
side of St. Mary's Church ("Zwickau Cathedral") and the surrounding
residential buildings were damaged by an air mine explosion. After the
war, historical buildings in the city center that were badly damaged
were demolished. Altogether Zwickau was destroyed to 5%. 591 people lost
their lives in the air raids (including Planitz and Cainsdorf).
The air raid policeman Arno Rau saved Zwickau from the planned total
destruction by hoisting the white flag on the tower of the Marienkirche
in the evening hours of April 17, 1945 and causing the church bells to
ring.[39] The planes then turned away and units of the US Army advanced
to the Zwickauer Mulde without a fight.
The
city center on the west bank of the Mulde was occupied by the 3rd US
Army on April 17, 1945. The heavily guarded demarcation line between the
Red Army's occupation area and the US Army ran along the Zwickauer
Mulde. It was forbidden to cross the hollow. There was a shot here. In
order to get from the east to the west part of the city, resourceful
citizens used the underground paths of the coal shafts. According to the
agreements of the Yalta Conference, the entire Zwickau district was
finally included in the Soviet zone of occupation. The 3rd US Army
withdrew its forces from West Saxony to Bavaria and from July 1, 1945
Zwickau was occupied by the Red Army.
As part of the uranium
mining of SAG Wismut for Soviet nuclear weapons development, which
started in the western Ore Mountains in 1946, Zwickau became an
important processing and supply center for this branch of industry.
The former Adolf-Hitler-Ring was given the name
Dr.-Friedrichs-Ring after the death of the Saxon politician Rudolf
Friedrichs.
On July 25, 1952, the city came under the district
reforms in the GDR to the district of Karl-Marx-Stadt (until May 9, 1953
and from June 1, 1990 Chemnitz district). The former district of Zwickau
was dissolved and divided into the districts of Auerbach, Reichenbach,
Schmölln, Stollberg, Werdau and Zwickau-Land (main part).
In
mid-July 1954, severe flooding flooded large parts of the city center,
almost completely the old town. On the square in front of the
Gewandhaus, the water was so high that the ground floor windows of the
building were about two-thirds covered by water.
In 1960 Zwickau
was hit by a serious mining accident. An explosion occurred in the “Karl
Marx” hard coal plant, killing 123 miners. Hard coal was mined for the
last time in 1978.
The central pioneer holiday camp "Karl
Liebknecht" was set up and operated as a tent city on the Windberg near
Zwickau.
With the reunification of
Germany and the accession of the GDR to the Federal Republic of Germany
on October 3, 1990, Zwickau once again belonged to the state of Saxony.
When the district reform law came into force in Saxony on August 1,
1994, the two previous districts of Werdau and Zwickau were combined to
form the district of Zwickauer Land. District seat became Werdau. The
city of Zwickau retained its status as an independent city.
As
part of the Saxon district reform on August 1, 2008, the city's district
freedom was revoked. Zwickau was given the status of a large district
town and became the administrative seat of the now significantly
enlarged newly founded district of Zwickau, which was formed from the
independent city of Zwickau and the former districts of Chemnitzer Land
and Zwickauer Land.
On November 4, 2011, shortly after 3 p.m.,
there was an explosion and a subsequent fire in a residential building
at Frühlingsstraße 26 in Zwickau-Weißenborn. As it turned out later, Uwe
Böhnhardt, Uwe Mundlos and Beate Zschäpe, right-wing terrorists of the
National Socialist underground, went into hiding in this house for
several years. According to the police investigation, Beate Zschäpe
triggered the explosion when the media reported the death of the two
accomplices in Eisenach. The house was demolished six months after the
explosion. Since November 3, 2019, there has been a memorial for the ten
NSU victims in the form of ten trees and associated plaques, after the
first tree planted on September 8, 2019 was sawed down by unknown
persons just a few weeks later.
The Gewandhaus was extensively
renovated from 2016 to 2021 for over 20 million euros.
After the opening of the inner-German border in autumn 1989, Zwickau suffered a sharp drop in population. An eleven-story high-rise building for the employment agency on Leipziger Strasse was therefore completely oversized for this purpose from the outset. After the historic Gründerzeit building of the cotton mill in Zwickau-Pölbitz was restored with private investment funds in 2006, the employment agency moved in here. The initial departure of young, well-trained people due to the threat of unemployment after 1990 was also related to the closure of five large Zwickau companies. In addition, the city could not escape the general negative demographic trend; in the new federal states the number of newborns fell dramatically after 1990. Another reason for the population decline was increasing suburbanization. Since reunification, many people from Zwickau have moved to the outskirts of the city to own their own homes. As a result, Zwickau has the most relocations in Saxony on average over the year. Similar to other large cities in Germany, Zwickau is now surrounded by what is known as a “belt belt”. The Zwickau district still has by far the highest population density of all Saxon districts. The process has recently slowed down considerably as a result of investments in jobs, day-care centers for children, urban redevelopment and the renovation of historic buildings. According to information from the municipal statistics office on the migration movement of the Zwickau population, this already reached a balanced balance in 2009.