Werdau () is a town in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, part of the Landkreis

Zwickau Zwickau (; ) is the fourth-largest city of Saxony, Germany, after Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz, with around 88,000 inhabitants,. The West Saxon city is situated in the valley of the Zwickau Mulde (German: ''Zwickauer Mulde''; progression: ), ...

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

. It is situated on the river Pleiße, 8 km from

. The town was mentioned as early as 1304, and in 1398 it was purchased by Frederick, then margrave of Meissen, who afterwards became

Elector of Saxony The Electorate of Saxony, also known as Electoral Saxony ( or ), was a territory of the Holy Roman Empire from 1356 to 1806 initially centred on Wittenberg that came to include areas around the cities of Dresden, Leipzig and Chemnitz. It was a ...

. The textile industry was the dominant industry in Werdau since the 14th century. The industrial character of the town further increased in the 20th century with the large-scale truck production by the IFA conglomerate. Both industries were not competitive after the

German reunification German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic and the int ...

in 1990, leading to a sharp deindustrialisation. The character of the town changed dramatically over the last 20 years after almost all factories were demolished and the characteristic East-German residential Plattenbauten were scaled back. In 1905, the city held a contest for the design of a new town hall, as the old one built in 1727 had become too small. The tower and floorplan of one design was combined with the façade of another, and ground was broken for construction on 1 August 1908. It was inaugurated on 26 April 1911, with Frederick Augustus III of Saxony in attendance. Werdau station is located on the Leipzig–Hof railway. File:Marienkirche Werdau.jpg, Marien-Church File:Stadtmuseum Werdau.JPG, City Museum File:Werdau - Cemetery chapel (aka).jpg, Cemetery chapel File:Werdau advertising clock (aka).jpg, Advertising clock File:Katholische Kirche Werdau.jpg, Catholic Church

References

External links

* Zwickau (district) {{Zwickau-geo-stub