Hohenstein-Ernstthal is a town in the Zwickau

Zwickau (district)

Zwickau is a district in the Free State of Saxony, Germany.- History :The district was established by merging the former districts Zwickauer Land, Chemnitzer Land and the urban district Zwickau as part of the district reform of August 2008....

 rural district, Free State of Saxony, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. The towns of Hohenstein and Ernstthal were united in 1898, and the town is either known by its hyphenated form, or simply called Hohenstein.

The town grew in the 15th century after silver

Silver

Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...

 mines were established nearby. Ernstthal was named in honor of August Ernst von Schoenburg.

Physicist Gotthilf Heinrich von Schubert

Gotthilf Heinrich von Schubert

Gotthilf Heinrich von Schubert was a German physician and naturalist....

 and inventor Christoph Gottlieb Schröter were born in Hohenstein.
The writer Karl May

Karl May

Karl Friedrich May was a popular German writer, noted mainly for adventure novels set in the American Old West, and similar books set in the Orient and Middle East . In addition, he wrote stories set in his native Germany, in China and in South America...

 was born in Ernstthal. The house of his birth is a museum.

Furthermore Hohenstein-Ernstthal is especially famous for the Sachsenring

Sachsenring

The Sachsenring racing circuit is located in Hohenstein-Ernstthal near Chemnitz in Saxony, Germany. Among other events, it features the annual German motorcycle Grand Prix of the FIM Grand Prix motorcycle racing world championship.- History :...

racing circuit.

The mayor of Hohenstein-Ernstthal is Erich Homilius.