The city with the world's tallest church spire and the birthplace of the man who proved its architect wrong about light — where the Ulmer Münster's 161.53-metre Gothic spire has been the tallest church structure on earth since 1890, Albert Einstein was born on 14 March 1879, and the Tailor of Ulm attempted the world's first manned glider flight from the city walls in 1811
Ulm (130,000; metro 190,000) straddles the Danube at the Baden-Württemberg/Bavaria border. The Ulmer Münster (Gothic minster, begun 1377, spire completed 1890) has the world's tallest church spire at 161.53 metres — surpassing Cologne Cathedral — and its gallery at 143 metres is the highest accessible viewpoint from any church in Europe. Albert Einstein was born in Ulm on 14 March 1879; the family moved to Munich when he was a year old. The Fishermen's Quarter (Fischerviertel) is a mediaeval ensemble of crooked half-timbered houses leaning over a millstream — one of the most photographed stre…
Ulm received its town charter in 1181 and by the 14th century was a major Imperial Free City controlling the Danube crossing — wealthy enough to begin funding the world's most ambitious Gothic church in 1377. The city's most famous son, Albert Einstein (1879–1955), was born in a house on Bahnhofstrasse that was destroyed in the Allied bombing of 17 December 1944, which killed over 700 people and destroyed 80% of the Altstadt. Albrecht Ludwig Berblinger (1770–1829), 'the Tailor of Ulm', built a gliding machine in 1811 and attempted to fly across the Danube from the city walls before the watchi…