Falkenau is a village and a former municipality in the district of Mittelsachsen, in Saxony, Germany. On 1 October 2011, Falkenau joined the town of Flöha.
Located in the Ore Mountain Basin, the village of Falkenau stands on the shores of the river Flöha.
Falkenau and its sole district Hetzdorf is located north of Augustusburg, east of Flöha and west of Oederan.
The original meaning of the name Falkenau or Falkenawe is unclear, but generally interpreted as "falcon's riparian forest".
Until the middle of the 12th century, the region lay in the primeval forest known as the Miriquidi, which covered large parts of what is now southern Saxony and stretched across the ridge of the Ore Mountains to northern Bohemia.
Falkenau was first mentioned as Falkenawe in 1378 in a tax register of the socalled "Castrum Schellenberg" district. But the first settlers probably arrived as early as the late 12th century in the course of the Medieval . The settlers founded the village as Waldhufendorf with 15 farms arranged along both sides of the river. The oldest family names of these farmers were Richter (1546), Rudolph (1563), Ruttluff (1563), Schubert (1563), Kunz (1564), Teufel (1566), Wächtler (1567), Hartwig (1580), Förster (1583), AÃÂmann (1586), Ranfeld (1585), Becker (1585), Schnorr (1589), Naumann (1599), Fintzel (1593), and Barthel (1595).
Small ore mining endeavours were undertaken in the northern forests of Falkenau along the with a first phase during the late 16th century and a second one from 1674 till 1842.
Since the beginning of the 19th century and during the 20th century, the village was a small, but supraregional centre of the textile industry with business connections to major cities in Germany and Europe.
Falkenau had a population of around 140 people during the mid-16th century, with only 20 more in 1688.
In the 19th century, the population of Falkenau grew steadily after the Congress of Vienna in June 1815 and the following decades of early Industrialization in Germany due to the establishment of numerous hydropowered spinning mills and textile manufactories in the village.
Falkenau reached its highest peak of population in the year 1950 with a total of 2921 people. The population has slowly declined since then.
Falkenau is connected to the . Between Hof and Zwickau, the course of this road largely corresponds to the old Via Imperii. Further on to Dresden, it follows the historic , which leads eastwards via Chemnitz, Oederan, and Freiberg, towards Upper Lusatia and on to Silesia.
The village has two small train stations and is connected by one bus line to Chemnitz. The upper station Falkenau (Sachs) Süd connects the village to Dresden, Chemnitz, and Freiberg (DresdenâÂÂWerdau railway). The lower station Falkenau (Sachs) HP connects to Chemnitz and Olbernhau (Pockau-LengefeldâÂÂNeuhausen railway). Until 1968, the socalled LöÃÂnitz Valley railway branched off to GroÃÂwaltersdorf in the neighbouring district of Hetzdorf.
In 1722, the post office of Electoral Saxony erected on behalf of Augustus II the Strong a numbered milestone along the historic . The quarter milestone rests on a low plinth and consists of a rectangular ca 1.7 metres high slab. It only bears the monogram âÂÂARâÂÂ, a post horn, the year of manufacture and, on the narrow side the odd row number "25".
The school, built 1913, was designed by the Saxonian architect Curt Herfurth.
Falkenau also has a public outdoor swimming pool inaugurated in 1927. It is located in a quiet spot within the forest west of the village, about 300 metres from (between Flöha and Oederan, coming from Chemnitz, on the left).