Zwickau

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.

Understand
Zwickau's history dates back almost 900 years. It began as a settlement by the local Slavic tribes, called Šwikawa in Sorbian (a name referring to the pagan god  Svarozič). 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 500 000 inhabitants, Zwickau has only around 90 000 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.



By train
The city's main railway station is the Zwickau Hauptbahnhof.

Two separate regional trains go from Zwickau to Thuringen (via Gera, Jena, Erfurt and Weimar), as well as Lower Saxony (Göttingen) [RE 1] every two hours. 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 private railway company Vogtlandbahn operates local diesel trains through Plauen and Vogtland that go as far as Mariánské Lázně and Sokolov in the Czech Republic.



By plane
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.

Easiest to reach is Leipzig Airport (LEJ) with a direct train connection every hours between 05:00 and approx. 00:00 taking the S5X.

Other airports have no direct connection to Zwickau, so you need to either change means of transportation on your way or provide yourself with a car. Be prepared for a 2-hour drive or a journey of 3 hours or more by train if you want to get from the airport straight to Zwickau. Given that all of the airports are near interesting tourist destinations on their own, it is good to combine your Zwickau into a tour of eastern Germany (and possibly the Czech Republic) if you plan on arriving by air.

By public transit
The Städtische Verkehrsbetriebe Zwickau operates a network of tramways and bus lines in the city. There are only four tram lines in operation, confusingly numbered 3, 4, 5 and 7. 5 and 7 connect the Bahnhof (train station) with the old town, while 4 and 7 go from the city centre to Pölbitz, passing through the impressive 19th-century quarters and stopping reasonably close to the August Horch Museum.

By car
Zwickau has a very compact old town, which you will be able to navigate on foot easily. Exploring it that way is also preferable as many of the streets are pedestrianized, and even those accessible to cars have many restrictions and are not advisable to drive through unless you particularly need to.

There is a network of parkings strategically located around the old town. The prices are generally harmonized at €1.00 per hour. Of particular interest is the multi-level garage at the Zwickau Arcaden, where you can pay in the automated kiosks with euro coins and banknotes, but or with most credit and debit cards.

Do




Eat
The Zwickauer Bürgersteak is a pork back steak filled with ham, gherkin, onions and mustard, which is fried in an egg shell.

Go next
Zwickau is in the west of Saxony, the more urbanized part of the state:
 * Plauen, beautiful relaxed city in the western extremity of Saxony, famous for its lace industry (approx. 30 min with car via Autobahn or by train)
 * Chemnitz, the largest city in Western Saxony, formerly Karl-Marx-Stadt (approx. 30 min with car via Autobahn or by train)
 * Dresden, the lush baroque capital of Saxony (approx. 1 hour with car via Autobahn or 1½ hours by train)
 * Leipzig, the largest city in Saxony famous for centuries for its trade fairs and since 1813 for the Battle of Nations (approx. 1½ hours with car via Autobahn or 1 hr 15 min by train)

Being in the southwest of Saxony, Zwickau is also reasonably close to many cities in Thuringia and Bavaria:
 * Gera is 40 minutes by road or one hour by train (change in Gößnitz)
 * Jena, traditional university city and high-tech centre in Thuringia, is one hour by road or 1½ hours by train (change in Gößnitz)
 * Hof in Franconia is less than an hour by car or a little more than an hour by train