Meerane is a town in the Zwickau district of Saxony, Germany. It lies midway between the towns of Altenburg and Zwickau, west of Chemnitz.As of 31 December 2008, there were 16,517 inhabitants. The population has declined from a peak of over 26,000 in the 1940s.Meerane was once important for the manufacture of woollen and mixed cloths; associated industries such as dyeworks, tanneries and machine factories were also located there.