map

Deutscheinsiedel is situated at an altitude of 714 m in the valley of the river Schweinitz in the Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains) region of Saxony, directly at the border to the Czech Republic.

The name of the village is derived from hermits (German: Einsiedler) who came into this area from the monastery of Osseg (now Osek, CZ) in the 12th/13th century. As the villages in this area were located directly at the border between Saxony and Bohemia, many of them had a common name with prefixes that denoted to which of the two countries they belonged. Thus, there are the pairs Deutsch-Einsiedel and Böhmisch-Einsiedel (now Mníšek, CZ), Deutschneudorf and Gebirgsneudorf (now Nová Ves v Horách, CZ), and Deutschkatharinenberg and Bergstadt Sankt Katharinaberg (now Hora Svaté Kateřiny, CZ). The early settlers came predominantly from the west and the north and worked as glassmakers and miners. During the 16th century—the time of the Counter-Reformation in Austria—many Protestants left Bohemia and took refuge here in Saxony.

Since 1997 Deutscheinsiedel is part of the municipality of Deutschneudorf.