Zwickau is a city in Saxony. Its rich history includes being the birthplace of the 19th-century composer Robert Schumann and of a number of automotive makes. Horch and its junior companion brand Audi , which is now based in Ingolstadt , and the post-war East German small car Trabant , were founded here.
Although none of those brands survives in Zwickau, Volkswagen, now the owner of Audi, has built a factory in town. Zwickau's history dates back almost years.
It sits beside and gives its name to the river Zwickauer Mulde , a tributary of the larger Mulde which in turn flows into the Elbe. The centre and most districts of Zwickau are on the left western bank of the river. For many centuries, its economy has largely been based on coal and silver mining, predating the industrial revolution by centuries, which is why the city retained a very medieval type old town. Zwickau has always been a rather affluent and important town, even if remaining on the small side compared to other Saxon metropoles.
While a centre of a region that numbers around inhabitants, Zwickau has only around 90 citizens, providing for a small-town feel. Despite the rather unfortunate development during the communist times, Zwickau retained a wealth of architectural heritage and a particular charm not found in the modernist Chemnitz , baroque Dresden or busy Leipzig. To Leipzig there are S-Bahn-connections every hour with the S5X, which use the Leipzig city tunnel and therefore offer direct connection to the Leipzig city centre, the main station, and the airport.
Local trains link Zwickau to smaller towns across the Saxon Ore Mountains. The closest airports geographically are Leipzig-Halle , Dresden and Erfurt. Those airports have service from few destinations. For intercontinental flights you may use the slightly farther removed Berlin airports or Prague Ruzyne in the Czech Republic.
