LÖBAU, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Saxony, on the Löbau water, 12 m. S.E. of the town of Bautzen, on the Dresden-Görlitz railway. Pop. (1905) 10,683. There is a spa, König Albert-Bad, largely frequented during the summer season. The town has agricultural implement, pianoforte, sugar, machine-building and button works, and trade in grain, yarn, linen and stockings. Other industries are spinning, weaving, dyeing, bleaching and brewing.
Löbau is first mentioned as a town in 1221; it received civic rights early in the 14th century and, in 1346, became one of the six allied towns of Lusatia. It suffered severely during the Hussite war and was deprived of its rights in 1547.
See Bergmann, Geschichte der Oberlausitzer Sechsstadt Löbau (Bischofswerda, 1896); and Kretschmer, Die Stadl Löbau (Chemnitz, 1904).