Plauen

Plauen developed in the Vogtland of central Europe, a region whose name recalls the authority of medieval imperial advocates. Its town life grew around local lordship, markets, and routes through the valleys of the region. Craftsmen and merchants depended on the surrounding agricultural countryside, while fortifications and civic institutions distinguished the town from neighboring villages. Control of Plauen mattered within the changing relationships among local lords and larger Saxon powers.

In 1430 Hussite forces took and burned the town. The Reformation was introduced in Plauen in 1524, and a major fire destroyed much of the town in 1548. Cotton textiles became important: a municipal ordinance of 1600 recognised a guild producing fine cloth. The Thirty Years' War brought plunder, fire and plague before the town recovered.