Plauen

Plauen
Plauen and the city hall tower in the morning fog
Coat of arms
Plauen
Location of Plauen within Vogtlandkreis district
Coordinates: 50°29′N 12°07′E / 50.483°N 12.117°E / 50.483; 12.117Coordinates: 50°29′N 12°07′E / 50.483°N 12.117°E / 50.483; 12.117
Country	Germany
State	Saxony
District	Vogtlandkreis
Government
• Lord Mayor	Ralf Oberdorfer (FDP)
Area
• Total	102.12 km2 (39.43 sq mi)
Elevation	412 m (1,352 ft)
Population (2015-12-31)
• Total	65,201
• Density	640/km2 (1,700/sq mi)
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes	08523;-5;-7;-9
Dialling codes	03741
Vehicle registration	V, AE, OVL, PL, RC
Website	www.plauen.de

Plauen (German pronunciation: [ˈplaʊ̯ən]) is a town in the Free State of Saxony, east-central Germany.

It is the capital town of the district Vogtlandkreis. The town is situated near the border of Bavaria and the Czech Republic.

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, 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.

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).

In the 1930s, Plauen hosted the first chapter of the Nazi Party outside of Bavaria. Plauen's population, however, has shrunk dramatically since the Second World War (1939: 111,000 inhabitants). It was occupied by American troops on 16 April 1945 but was left to Red Army on 1 July 1945.

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 socialistic 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.