HAINICHEN, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Saxony, on the Kleine Striegis, 15 m. N.E. of Chemnitz, on the railway to Rosswein. Pop. (1905), 7752. It has two Evangelical churches, a park, and commercial and technical schools. Hainichen is a place of considerable industry. Its chief manufacture is that of flannels, baize, and similar fabrics; indeed it may be called the centre of this industry in Germany. The special whiteness and excellence of the flannel made in Hainichen are due to the peculiar nature of the water used in the manufacture. There are also large dye-works and bleaching establishments. Hainichen is the birthplace of Gellert, to whose memory a bronze statue was erected in the market-place in 1865. The Gellert institution for the poor was erected in 1815.