Sister cities of Zwickau

Zwickau (German pronunciation: [ˈtsvɪkaʊ]; Sorbian: Šwikawa, Czech Cvikov) in Germany, belongs to an industrial and economical core region. Nowadays it is the capital city of the district of Zwickau. The city is situated in a valley at the foot of the Erzgebirge mountains and is also part of the so-called Saxon triangle metropolitan area, an economic network which includes Leipzig-Halle, Dresden and Chemnitz. The city has slightly fewer than 100,000 inhabitants, but has a regional catchment area of over 480,000 people. From 1834 until 1952 Zwickau was the former seat of the government of the south-western region of Saxony.

Zwickau, known as the city of Automobiles and the Romantic composer Robert Schumann also is the cradle of the Saxon automotive industry with an over one hundred year old tradition. The city has a long history of automotive development and automobile industry along with Auto Union. Well known beyond Germany's borders are trademarks such as Horch, Audi, Trabant and Volkswagen. Since 2000 the great history of brands is presented by the new August-Horch Museum inside the former Audi Works of Zwickau. The West Saxon University of Applied Sciences of Zwickau (Westsächsische Hochschule Zwickau) has always been an important centre for education and training of automotive engineers.

The valley of the 166 kilometres (103 miles) long Zwickauer Mulde river stretches from the Vogtland to the Colditz Castle at the other end. The Silver Road, Saxony's longest tourist route, connects Dresden with Zwickau. The German ADAC City Guide recently wrote: "The town of Zwickau has transformed itself over the years from a traditional mining town into an elegant Art-Nouveau town, which is well worth discovering."

The city easily can be reached by car via the nearby Autobahns A4 and A72. The city has a main railway station (Zwickau-Hbf) and is also reachable via a public airfield which takes light aircraft.

In 2011, the city was associated by some newspapers with the so-called "Zwickau cell", a neo-Nazi group from Thuringia responsible for several murders and bank robberies.