The city lies in the middle of a string of cities sitting in the densely populated northern foreland of the Elster and Ore Mountains, stretching from Plauen in the southwest via Zwickau, Chemnitz and Freiberg to Dresden in the northeast, and is part of the Central German Metropolitan Region.

Geologist Georgius Agricola (1494–1555), author of several significant works on mining and metallurgy including the landmark treatise De Re Metallica, became city physician of Chemnitz in 1533 and lived here until his death in 1555.

Important industrial companies were founded by Richard Hartmann, Louis Schönherr and Johann von Zimmermann.

As a working-class industrial city, Chemnitz was a powerful center of socialist political organization after the First World War.

[9] Chemnitz contained factories that produced military hardware and a Flossenbürg forced labor subcamp (500 female inmates) for Astra-Werke AG.

The World War II bombings left most of the city centre in ruins and post-war, the East German reconstruction included large low-rise (and later high-rise Plattenbau) housing.

[13] GDR Prime Minister Otto Grotewohl said: The people who live here do not look back, but look forward to a new and better future.

They look with love and devotion to the founder of the socialist doctrine, the greatest son of the German people, to Karl Marx.

Plans for the recovery of a compressed city centre around the historic town hall in 1991 led to an urban design competition.

The mooted project on an essentially unused area of the former city would be comparable in circumference with the Potsdamer Platz in Berlin.

[16] Numerous internationally renowned architects such as Hans Kollhoff, Helmut Jahn and Christoph Ingenhoven provided designs for a new city centre.

The intensive development included demolition of partially historically valuable buildings from the period and was controversial.

[citation needed] In late August 2018 the city was the site of a series of protests that attracted at least 8,000 people.

There were reports that rightist protesters chased down dark skinned bystanders and those that appeared to be foreigners on the streets before more police arrived and intervened.

The riots were widely condemned by media outlets and politicians throughout Germany, and were "described as reminiscent of civil war and Nazi pogroms.

The German language Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung corrected its earlier reports, stating that there had evidently been no mob violence but there have been sporadic encroachments.

[24] One week after the protests, a free "Concert against the Right" under the motto "We are more" (#wirsindmehr) attracted an audience of some 65,000 people.

[25] A one-minute silence commemorated the murdered Daniel H., the son of a German mother and a Cuban father.

[27][28] The city won the bid to be one of the two European Capitals of Culture (in 2025) on 28 October 2020, beating Hanover, Hildesheim, Magdeburg and Nuremberg.

Tourist sights include the Kassberg neighborhood with 18th and 19th century buildings and the Karl Marx Monument by Lev Kerbel, nicknamed Nischel (a Saxon dialect word for head) by the locals.

Landmarks include the Old Town Hall with its Renaissance portal (15th century), the castle on the site of the former monastery, and the area around the opera house and the old university.

The most conspicuous landmark is the red tower built in the late 12th or early 13th century as part of the city wall.

Many of these shops are international brands, including Zara, H&M, Esprit, Galeria Kaufhof, Leiser Shoes, and Peek & Cloppenburg.

The large Galerie Roter Turm (Red Tower) shopping centre is very popular with young people.

Alfred Gunzenhauser, who lived in Munich, had a collection of some 2,500 pieces of modern art, including many paintings and drawings by Otto Dix, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and others.

The neighborhoods of Einsiedel, Euba, Grüna, Klaffenbach, Kleinolbersdorf-Altenhain, Mittelbach, Röhrsdorf and Wittgensdorf are at the same time localities within the meaning of Sections 65 to 68 of the Saxon Municipal Code.

Because of massive investment in out-of-town shopping right after reunification, it was not until 1999 that major building activity was started in the centre.

Prior to this, Chemnitz was for a long time the largest German city without a connection of long-distance intercity services.

In August 2012, electro-diesel trams were ordered from Vossloh, to support an expansion of the light rail network to 226 km (140 mi), with new routes serving Burgstädt, Mittweida and Hainichen.

Chemnitz also has a small commercial airport (Flugplatz Chemnitz-Jahnsdorf [de] about 13.5 km (8.4 mi) south of the city.