Zwickau is, with around 89,000 inhabitants, the fourth-largest city of the Free State of Saxony after Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz and it is the seat of the Zwickau District. The West Saxon city is situated in the valley of the Zwickau Mulde, and lies in 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. From 1834 until 1952, Zwickau was the seat of the government of the south-western region of Saxony.
The name of the city is of Slavic origin and may refer to Svarog, the Slavic god of fire and of the sun. Zwickau is the seat of the West Saxon University of Zwickau with campuses in Zwickau, Markneukirchen, Reichenbach im Vogtland and Schneeberg. The city is the birthplace of composer Robert Schumann.
As cradle of Audi's forerunner Horch and as seat of the Sachsenring company which produced East Germany's most popular car, the Trabant, Zwickau has historically been one of the centres of the German automotive industry, with a tradition over one hundred years old, including other car makers like Auto Union and Volkswagen.