Zschorlau

Zschorlau lies nestled in the gentle hills in the western Ore Mountains some 5 km from Aue and is overhung in the south by the Steinberg. The community, as is so with many former forest homestead villages (Waldhufendörfer) in the Ore Mountains, grew up on a stream, in this case the Zschorlaubach, which rises southwest of the community on a broad moory plateau known in the local speech as Dr Forst or Hoher Forst (“The Forest” or “High Forest”). Before the stream reaches the community, its waters feed the Filzteich (pond), a popular recreation area. At the end of the community’s area at the Gößnitzgrund comes a glen through which the Zschorlauer Talstraße (Zschorlau Valley Road) was built in 1907. Also in this glen is found the St. Anna am Freudenstein visitor mine.

The community lies on the southeast flank of the Schneeberger Lagerstätte (deposit), which reaches to the edge of the community. This is made clear by the headframe of the Türkschacht (mine) standing on a bank only a few metres behind the houses between Zschorlau and Neustädtel.

One thing that sets the St. Anna am Freudenstein visitor mine area apart is that it belongs geologically to the Schneeberger Lagerstätte, but is also considered an outlying part of that deposit.

Furthermore, the wolframite deposits discovered and mined in the municipal area are interesting.

The centres of Albernau (with Schindlerswerk) and Burkhardtsgrün are parts of Zschorlau, which together with neighbouring Bockau forms an administrative community (Verwaltungsgemeinschaft).

From 1952 to 1990, Zschorlau was part of the Bezirk Karl-Marx-Stadt of East Germany.

Zschorlau’s council consists of 16 seats, 15 of which are held by the CDU and the other by the Albernauer Alternative.

There is a partnership with the community of Dietenhofen in the district of Ansbach.