1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Plauen

PLAUEN, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Saxony, on the Weisse Elster, 60 m. south of Leipzig, on the railway to Hof and Munich and at the junction of lines to Eger and Gera. Pop. (1890), 47,007; (1900), 73,891; (1905), 105,383. It was formerly the capital of Vogtland, or Voigtland, a territory governed by the imperial vogt, or bailiff, and this name still clings in popular speech to the hilly district in which the town lies. Of its three Evangelical churches the most prominent is the fine Gothic church of St John, with twin spires, which was restored in 1886. Other buildings of note are the town hall, dating from about 1550, and the old castle of Hradschin, now used as a law court. Plauen is now the chief place in Germany for the manufacture of embroidered white goods of all kinds, for the finishing of woven cotton fabrics, known as Plauen goods, and for the making of lace.

Plauen was probably founded by the Slavs. First mentioned in 1122, it passed under the authority of Bohemia in 1327 and came to Saxony in 1466, remaining permanently united with the electorate since 1569. The manufacture of white goods was introduced by Swabian, or Swiss, immigrants about 1570. The advance in its material prosperity has been especially rapid since the incorporation of Saxony in the German Zollverein.

See Fiedler, Die Stadt Plauen im Vogtland (Plauen, 1874); and Beiträge zur Geschichte der Stadt Plauen (Plauen, 1876); Metzner, Führer durch Plauen (1903); and the publications of the Altertumsverein zu Plauen (1875 seq.).