The Free Republic of Schwarzenberg is a term now used for an unoccupied area in Western Saxony

Saxony

The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....

 that existed for several weeks after the German capitulation on May 8, 1945. After the surrender of Germany, the districts of Schwarzenberg

Schwarzenberg, Saxony

Schwarzenberg is a town in the district of Erzgebirgskreis in Saxony’s Ore Mountains, near the German–Czech border. The town lies roughly 15 km southeast of Aue, and 35 km southwest of Chemnitz....

, Stollberg

Stollberg (district)

Stollberg is a former district in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It was bounded by the district-free city Chemnitz, and the districts Mittlerer Erzgebirgskreis, Annaberg, Aue-Schwarzenberg, Zwickauer Land and Chemnitzer Land....

 and Aue

Aue

Aue is a small town in Germany at the outlet of the river Schwarzwasser into the river Mulde in the Ore Mountains, and has roughly 18,000 inhabitants. Aue was the administrative seat of the former district of Aue-Schwarzenberg in Saxony, and is part of the Erzgebirgskreis since August 2008...

, in the Ore Mountains, were left unoccupied, for reasons that are unclear. Over time, anti-fascist action groups formed local governments in the 21 towns and villages. This status quo ended when Soviet troops

Red Army

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

 finally occupied the area on June 24, 1945.

There is some speculation as to why neither American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 nor Soviet

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 troops occupied the area. One explanation may be that the Soviets and Americans agreed to halt on the banks of the river Mulde

Mulde

The Mulde is a river in Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is a left tributary of the Elbe and 124 km in length.The river is formed by the confluence, near Colditz, of the Zwickauer Mulde and the Freiberger Mulde , both rising from the Ore Mountains...

. As there are several rivers with this name, and the Schwarzenberg area lies between them, a misunderstanding could be the main reason. Another possible explanation is that the Allies

Allies of World War II

The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...

 simply overlooked the area.

The term Free Republic of Schwarzenberg actually derives from the 1984 novel Schwarzenberg by Stefan Heym

Stefan Heym

Helmut Flieg was a German-Jewish writer, known by his pseudonym Stefan Heym. He lived in the United States between 1935 and 1952, before moving back to the part of his native Germany which was, from 1949–1990, German Democratic Republic...

. As the novel is based on actual events, the term has become a convenient descriptor.