Schwarzenberg is a town in the district of Erzgebirgskreis in Saxony’s Ore Mountains, near the German–Czech border. The town lies roughly 15 km southeast of Aue, and 35 km southwest of Chemnitz.Founded in the 12th century to protect a trade road, the small mountain town became the centre of a territory known as Herrschaft Schwarzenberg and later Amt Schwarzenberg. During the division of Germany, Schwarzenberg was part of East Germany and became the greatest producer of washing machines in Eastern Europe. Schwarzenberg became more widely known in 1987, when Stefan Heym coined the term Free Republic of Schwarzenberg for a small gap between the Soviet and American occupation zones in May/June 1945.GeographySchwarzenberg is in the southwestern Ore Mountains. It lies at elevations stretching from 428.5to above sea level. The Old Town with church and castle is located on a rock (the Schlossberg, 593m) around which a meander of the River Schwarzwasser has formed; the Mittweida flows into the Schwarzwasser inside the town. However, the town's overall situation is in a basin. The most prominent peaks surrounding it, in addition to the Schlossberg, are the Hirschstein (641m), the Hohe Hahn (674m), the Hohe Henne (728m), the Rockelmann (580m), the Galgenberg (557m) and the Raschau Knochen (551m).