Deutsche Welle (English edition)
High, higher, Ulm Minster!
The highest steeple in the world is not in Cologne or Rome, but in Ulm. The church in southern Germany is a building of superlatives. That's why it's featured in part eight of our series "Extreme Places".
You can see it from far off — the steeple of Ulm Minster is outstanding in the fullest sense of the word. It rises to just over 161 meters (528 ft.) into the sky — higher than any other church tower in the world. It is the uncontested symbol of the city on the Danube. The Gothic architecture, the 15-meter-tall church windows, the elaborate altars, the gigantic organ: almost everything about Ulm Minster is impressive. And so is the time it took to build it: there were more than 500 years between the laying of the foundation stone in 1377 and its completion in 1890.
The fact that the monumental Protestant church was built in the 130,000-person city in BadenWürttemberg, is thanks to the citizens of Ulm. The minster is a people's church — the building was financed completely by the residents of the city. To this day, Ulm locals are deeply proud of their record-breaker.
A visit to Ulm Minster
DW reporter Hendrik Welling explored Ulm Minster and its history for the series "Europe to the Maxx" on DW-TV's magazine "Euromaxx." He climbed Europe's highest church tower — and even experienced it virtually from a bird's eye view.
Incidentally, legend has it that there was help from the animal world in the construction of the church. The craftsmen were struggling to transport an especially large wooden beam for the minster through the city gate. They were about to tear down the gate when a sparrow, which was carrying a twig lengthwise in its beak, is said to have flown through it. The solution dawned on them, and so the church could
be built after all. In thanks, they created a monument to the little bird on the roof of the minster. The Ulm Sparrow is ubiquitous in the city to this day — whether in the form of a pastry or as a souvenir.
Church tower with a view
Most visitors come to climb the highest steeple in the world. You can't go all the way to the
top, but you can at least stand on the viewing platform at a height of 143 meters. Exactly 768 steps lead up the tower, but the view more than compensates for the strenuous ascent. It is — just like the minster itself — simply outstanding.
Service tips:
Address:Ulm Minster, Münsterplatz 1, 89073 Ulm, Germany
Getting there:Around 10 minutes' walk from Ulm main station
Hours:daily 10a.m.-6p.m. (AprilSeptember), 10a.m.- 5p.m. (October-March)
Admission:You can visit the church free of charge. Entry to the tower: €5.00 ( opening dependent on the pandemic).
Special tip:In the Birdly 3D- ight simulator (Ulm Stories, Münsterplatz 25) you can experience Ulm Minster from a bird's-eye perspective with VR goggles (currently closed due to COVID-19). The simulator translates your arm movements into aps, and you y like a bird through the virtual streets around the minster.
The accompanying book
Europe at its most extreme: the series "Europe to the Maxx" on DW's lifestyle and culture magazine "Euromaxx" makes Europe's superlatives experienceable – from extraordinary architecture to spectacular landscapes to unique cultural phenomena. Accompanying the series, the book "111 extreme places in Europe that you shouldn't miss" was published in cooperation with Emons Verlag. An alternative travel guide, both informative and entertaining. For avid travelers, fans of Europe and anyone who likes to show off with unusual pub quiz trivia. Full of guaranteed record breakers!
care, and then there was always the insecurity of this being a suicide mission, he added.
The fleet sailed to the Canary Islands, then along the African coast to Sierra Leone. At the narrowest point, it crossed the Atlantic Ocean and reached the South American continent along the area that today is Rio de Janeiro. The journey continued along the South American east coast, with the men constantly on the lookout for the hypothetical passage to the west. It was all very tedious, and the fleet stopped en route in the winter months. The supply situation was increasingly difficult and the mood on board the ships soured, leading to a mutiny.
Sea passage to the west
Magellan, however, proved to be tenacious. On October 21, 1520, he discovered a cape. His fleet sailed between the southern tip of the South American continent and the island of Tierra del Fuego, into a labyrinth of waterways, losing one ship on the way while another ship took advantage of the confusion and fled back to Spain. But Magellan had found the longed-for passage in these storm-battered waters. It took the decimated armada six weeks to reach the Pacific Ocean.
From the southeast of the Pacific Ocean, they continued in a northwesterly arc for three and a half months without once encountering inhabited islands. Hunger, thirst and illness claimed 19 lives before the crews found fresh provisions on one of the Mariana Islands — a tragedy because unwittingly, Magellan's ships had passed by many islands that could have provided him and his crew with fresh water and food.
Finally, the three remaining ships and their 150-strong crew landed in the Philippines on March 21, 1521 as the first Europeans there ever. It was Magellan's final destination. He planned to take possession of these rich islands for Spain, with an eye on a possible governorship. "When he arrived in the Philippines, he pulled off such a crazy show that large numbers of natives converted to Christianity and capitulated to Spain," according to Jostmann.
Others were not swayed, and when Magellan tried to conquer a village in April 1521, he was killed by spears and a poison arrows. Lacking sufficient sailors for three ships, two vessels quickly fled after the crews sank the third.
Completing the circumnavigation
Under the command of Juan Sebastian Elcano, the two ships sailed to the Spice Islands, where they finally took the long-desired cargo on board. Elcano chose the route around the Cape of Good Hope for the return trip.
In the end, almost three years after setting sail for the Moluccas, only one of the five ships returned home, with Captain Elcano completing Magellan's involuntary and unplanned circumnavigation of the world.
On September 6, 1522, the Victoriareached the Spanish port of Sanlucar de Barrameda. About 20 sailors survived the first historically documented circumnavigation of the world. Since the middle of the 16th century, the western passage has been named Strait of Magellan after Ferdinand Magellan.
In the 19th century, many intellectuals celebrated Magellan as a hero and genius, a view that's outdated now with our perspective on colonialism, said Christian Jostmann. You have to admire the explorer's ambition, tenacity and sheer will power, he added, but for the historian, that's not a reason to celebrate him.