# Plauen

Plauen (German pronunciation:; Upper Sorbian: Pławno; Czech: Plavno) is a town in Saxony, Germany with a population of around 65,000. It is Saxony's 5th most populated city after Leipzig, Dresden, Chemnitz and Zwickau, the second-largest city of the Vogtland after Gera, as well as the largest city in the Saxon Vogtland region (Sächsisches Vogtland).
The city lies on the upper reaches of the White Elster River, a tributary of the Saale, in the Central Vogtlandian Hill Country. Plauen is the southwesternmost city of a string of cities sitting in the densely populated foreland of the Elster and Ore Mountains, stretching from Plauen in the southwest via Zwickau, Chemnitz and Freiberg to Dresden in the northeast. It is the county seat of the Vogtland District. Plauen directly borders Greiz in Thuringia to the north, and it is also situated near the Saxon border with Bavaria (Franconia) and the Czech Republic (Bohemia).
Plauen and the surrounding Saxon Vogtland are known as the historic center of the German embroidery and lace industry, and the products of the region are protected under the label Plauener Spitze [de] ("Plauen Lace"). The Elster Viaduct (Elstertalbrücke), spanning the valley of the White Elster between Plauen and Pöhl, is the second-largest bridge built out of bricks in the world, after the Göltzsch Viaduct.
Despite its location in Saxony the regional Vogtlandian dialect spoken in Plauen is a variety of East Franconian (with Saxon influences) related to the dialects of neighbouring Franconia in Bavaria. The name of the city as well as the names of many of its neighborhoods and boroughs are of Slavic origin.

## History

Plauen was founded by Polabian Slavs in the 12th century as "Plawe" and was passed to the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1327. The town was captured by the Archbishop of Magdeburg, Lippold von Bredow [de], in 1384. In 1466, it was passed to Albertine Saxony and later in 1569 to the Electorate of Saxony. Plauen became incorporated into the Kingdom of Saxony in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars, and in 1871 it became part of the German Empire.
In the late-19th century, Plauen became a centre of textile manufacturing, specializing in Chemical lace, called Plauen lace. Around 1910, Plauen, as an industrial 'boomtown' of the region, reached its population peak (1910 census: 121,000, 1912: 128,000). Plauen's population, however, has shrunk dramatically since the Second World War (1939: 111,000 inhabitants).
In the 1930s, Plauen hosted the first chapter of the Nazi Party outside of Bavaria.
During the war, the Nazis operated a prison in the town, and three subcamps of the Flossenbürg concentration camp. 500 women, mostly Polish, but also Russian, Italian, French, Yugoslavian and Croatian, were imprisoned and used as forced labour in the first two subcamps, and 50 men from various countries were imprisoned in the third subcamp. It was occupied by American troops on 16 April 1945 but was left to Red Army on 1 July 1945. On 15 December 1945, the city issued 7 semi-postal postage stamps of its own to raise money for reconstruction.
From 1945 onwards, Plauen fell into the Soviet occupation zone of Germany, which later became the German Democratic Republic (1949–1990). Plauen hosted a large Red Army occupation garrison and, in the last years of the GDR (DDR), an officer school of the Border Guards ("Grenztruppen der DDR"). The first mass demonstration against the communist regime in the GDR began in Plauen on 7 October 1989; this was the beginning of a series of mass demonstrations across the country and ultimately led to the re-unification of Germany in 1990.
The exposé Fast Food Nation gives special mention to Plauen as the first city of the GDR to have a McDonald's restaurant following the collapse of the Berlin Wall.
As part of Saxony's local government reform of July 1st 2008, Plauen lost its status as a district-free city and was integrated into the Vogtlandkreis district.

## Jewish Community of Plauen

The Jewish community of Plauen dates back to the early 14th century and numbered several hundred between the two world wars. A reform-Jewish, bauhaus-style synagogue was opened in 1930, only to be demolished in 1938 during the Krystallnacht.
Plauen becoming a Nazi stronghold, attacks against the Jewish community were frequent in the 1920s. Physically labelled Jews are documented from 1932. Most of the Jewish population either left or was killed during The Holocaust. Today, no Jewish community exists in Plauen. The city of Plauen maintains a few sites in the city to commemorate past Jewish life in Plauen, such as the Jewish Cemetery.
A 3D-model of the Jewish Synagogue of Plauen was designed by Prof. Marc Grellert and his team from the TU Darmstadt as a part of his project to 3D-design German synagogues that were demolished before, during and after WW2.

## Politics

The first freely elected mayor after German reunification was Rolf Magerkord [de] of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), who served from 1990 to 2000. The mayor was originally chosen by the city council, but since 1994 has been directly elected. Ralf Oberdorfer [de] of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) was mayor between 2000 and 2021. The most recent mayoral election was held in two rounds on 13 June and 4 July 2021, in which Steffen Zenner (CDU) was elected.
| Candidate | Candidate | Party | First round | First round | Second round | Second round |
| Candidate | Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Votes | % |
| | Steffen Zenner | Christian Democratic Union | 8,390 | 33.5 | 8,768 | 41.1 |
| | Silvia Queck-Händel | Independent | 5,881 | 23.5 | 6,477 | 30.4 |
| | Lars Buchmann | Independent | 4,197 | 16.8 | 4,398 | 20.6 |
| | Ingo Eckardt | Independent | 2,077 | 8.3 | Withdrew | Withdrew |
| | Thomas Kaden | Free Saxons | 1,865 | 7.5 | 1,107 | 5.2 |
| | Thomas Haubenreißer | Free Democratic Party | 1,635 | 6.5 | Withdrew | Withdrew |
| | Andreas Ernstberger | Independent | 970 | 3.9 | 574 | 2.7 |
| Valid votes | Valid votes | Valid votes | 25,015 | 99.6 | 21,324 | 99.8 |
| Invalid votes | Invalid votes | Invalid votes | 113 | 0.4 | 53 | 0.2 |
| Total | Total | Total | 25,128 | 100.0 | 21,377 | 100.0 |
| Electorate/voter turnout | Electorate/voter turnout | Electorate/voter turnout | 51,961 | 48.4 | 51,926 | 41.2 |
| Source: City of Plauen |||||||
The most recent city council election was held on 9 June 2024, and the results were as follows:
| Party | Party | Votes | % | +/- | Seats | +/- |
| | Alternative for Germany (AfD) | 24,718 | 28.1 | 8.1 | 12 | 3 |
| | Christian Democratic Union (CDU) | 22,638 | 25.8 | 2.1 | 11 | 0 |
| | Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) | 11,730 | 13.4 | New | 5 | New |
| | Social Democratic Party (SPD) | 8,155 | 9.3 | 4.7 | 4 | 2 |
| | Free Democratic Party (FDP) | 4,356 | 5.0 | 4.9 | 2 | 2 |
| | The Left (Die Linke) | 4,333 | 4.9 | 9.7 | 2 | 4 |
| | Initiative Plauen (WV) | 4,179 | 4.8 | 0.6 | 2 | 0 |
| | Voter Initiative Plauener List (PL) | 4,123 | 4.7 | New | 2 | New |
| | Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne) | 3,658 | 4.2 | 4.4 | 2 | 1 |
| Valid votes | Valid votes | 87,890 | 100.0 | | | |
| Total ballots | Total ballots | 30,855 | 100.0 | | 42 | ±0 |
| Electorate/voter turnout | Electorate/voter turnout | 50,803 | 60.7 | 2.5 | | |
| Source: City of Plauen |||||||

## Industry and infrastructure

Plauen (Vogtland) Oberer Bahnhof lies on the Leipzig–Hof line. The section of this line through Plauen is part of the Saxon-Franconian trunk line running between Nürnberg, Hof, Plauen, Zwickau, Chemnitz and Dresden. The city had another station, Plauen (Vogtland) Unterer station (now defunct), on the Elster Valley Railway. There is a plan to rename the Oberer (Upper) station into Plauen Hauptbahnhof (Main Station).
Vogtlandbahn (Vogtland Railway), a regional train company, operates services from Plauen to Hof, Werdau, Chemnitz, Zwickau, Falkenstein and Adorf within Germany and Cheb in the Czech Republic. At these stations, there are other Vogtlandbahn services to Munich, Regensburg, Marktredwitz, Dresden and Leipzig within Germany and Karlovy Vary and Prague in the Czech Republic. A Vogtlandbahn Express Bus service runs between Plauen and Berlin Schönefeld Airport and Zoological Garden.
The Plauen Straßenbahn is a tram system with 6 lines connecting the center of city, the central Plauen-Tunnel stop, to the surrounding areas and the upper railway station (Oberer Bahnhof).

## Main sights

* Embroidery Machine Museum
* Museum Plauener Spitze
* Galerie e.O. plauen
* Old City Hall
* Elster Viaduct – second largest brick bridge in the world
* Friedensbrücke – largest stone arch bridge in the world
* Johanniskirche
* Old Elster Viaduct – oldest bridge in Saxony
* Malzhaus

## Education and science

Plauen is home to a University of Applied Sciences with about 300 students and a DIPLOMA Fachhochschule.

## Twin towns – sister cities

Plauen is twinned with:
* Aš, Czech Republic (1962)
* Steyr, Austria (1970)
* Hof, Germany (1987)
* Siegen, Germany (1990)
* Cegléd, Hungary (2005)
* Pabianice, Poland (2006)
* Šiauliai, Lithuania (2010)
The urban district of Jößnitz is twinned with Heilsbronn, Germany.

## Notable people

* Heinrich von Plauen (1370–1429), Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights
* Christoph Pezel (1539–1604), theologian
* Johann von Mayr (1716–1759), Prussian general
* Ferdinand Gotthelf Hand (1786–1851), philologist
* Eduard Friedrich Poeppig (1798–1868), botanist, zoologist and explorer
* Gustav Hartenstein (1808–1890), philosopher
* Charles Beyer (1813–1876), locomotive designer and engineer
* Emil Kautzsch (1841–1910), theologian
* Arwed Rossbach (1844–1902), architect in Leipzig
* Hermann Vogel (1854–1921), illustrator
* Arthur Hess (1891–1959), SA general and Nazi politician
* Kurt Helbig (1901–1975), weightlifter
* Friedrich Hielscher (1902–1990), religious philosopher, writer and resistance fighter against Nazism
* E.O. Plauen (1903–1944), cartoonist
* Paul Wessel (1904–1967), politician (SED)
* Egon Zill (1906–1974), Nazi SS commandant of the Flossenbürg concentration camp
* Werner Hartenstein (1908–1943), war-time commander of U-156
* Walter Ballhause (1911–1991), photographer
* Horst Dohlus (1925–2007), SED functionary
* Karl Richter (1926–1981), conductor, organist, and harpsichordist
* Hans Otte (1926–2007), composer and pianist
* Klaus Zoephel (1929–2017), composer and conductor
* Klaus Zink (born 1936), footballer
* Angelika Bahmann (born 1952), slalom canoeist, Olympic champion
* Kornelia Ender (born 1958), swimmer, Olympic champion
* Volker Eckert (1959–2007), serial killer
* Matthias Freihof (born 1961), television actor and director
* Andrea Stolletz (born 1963), handball player
* Jörg Schneider [de] (born 1967), politician
* Olaf Schubert (born 1967), comedian and musician
* Martin Dulig (born 1974), politician (SPD)
* Philip Geipel (born 1986), racing driver
* Christian Bahmann (born 1981), slalom canoeist
* Christin Zenner (born 1991), swimmer
* Kassem Taher Saleh (born 1993), politician (Alliance 90/The Greens)

### Honorary citizens

* Martin Mutschmann, 1933 (revoked 1945)

## Gallery

* Plauen downtown
* Old market square
* Old city hall
* Church of St. Mark
* Vogtlandtheater
* Commemorative plaque in Plauen for the mass demonstration of 1989