Ulm

I'm going to back up a little from the last post. I'll take it from the time I was transferred from Kansas to Germany. My eighteen months in Germany might have been the most important period in my life. There, I took responsibility for the first time in my life, stopped being a party animal and found the direction and motivation in my life that got me through college and made me whatever it is I am now. I made several life-long friends and learned about the world outside of America. First, I'll tell you about the town:

Ulm

Ulm is a city in south-central Germany, halfway between Munich and Stuttgart and 70 miles north of Switzerland. Ulm and Neu-Ulm, its younger more industrial twin, straddle the Danube River at its earliest navigable spot. Ulm lies in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, while Neu-Ulm is on the western edge of Bavaria.

The area has been settled for 5,000 years but was first mentioned in historical writings in the year 854. From the late Middle Ages through the Renaissance, Ulm was a very wealthy city, and the architecture is there to prove it. Most impressive is Ulm’s Gothic cathedral, the Münster. The Muünster has a delicate beauty in contrast to other, more solid-looking Gothic churches and it boasts the highest church steeple in the world. The Munster is unique in Gothic design: instead of twin towers or domes at the front of the building, it has just the one single spire, soaring up from the massive arched front doorway. The Müunster’s steeple tapers to a point 530 feet above the city. The highest 100 feet or so consists of intricately carved stone that  resembles black lacework especially when the sun shines through it. The Muünster stood claim to being the tallest building in the world from 1890 when the steeple was completed until 1908, when the Singer Building was erected in New York.

The nave of the Müunster goes straight back to the choir and alter with no transepts. In other words, it is shaped like a house, not a cross, like most contemporary cathedrals. At the back of the building above the chapels, there are two more spires, each about half the height of the main spire, which gives balance to the design. The apse is roofed with red tile, and flying buttresses run down each side of the Munster like ribs. It is truly a Gothic masterpiece.

The Müunster is everything to Ulm, as you would expect of such a small town. Ulm has 100,000 people now, but there were only 10,000 townsfolk when the foundation was laid. The city square is built around it, the town hall is next to it, and the best shopping is at its foot.  Ulm’s most famous beer is called Münster Brau in its honor. The foundations were laid on the highest point in the area, so that the spire can be seen clearly for miles around. The Muünster has dominated life in and around Ulm for centuries, first as a huge investment of the town’s treasure and labor, and later as its greatest source of fame, pride and income. For those who live nearby, the Muünster is visually and socially inescapable.

The town square in front of the cathedral, the Müunsterplatz, is the center of Ulm life, with its Sunday farmers market, its summer beer fests and winter Christmas Market. All of Central Ulm’s streets and back-alleys radiate out from the Muünsterplatz, and if one gets lost in the maze of Ulm’s medieval cobbled streets, all one has to do is walk toward the Muünster’s great spire.

There are many moods to the Müunster. From a few miles away, across sunny green fields, the sight of it rising in the distance can be so inspirational that one feels compelled to go directly there and submit to whatever power wrought it. At night from across the river, lit by blue-green lights, it takes on a glowing, ethereal quality and seems too large to be real, like a painted prop or an inflatable version of itself. When walking under its massive bell tower on a gloomy Winter day, its soot-blackened stonework and leering gargoyles give you the unconscious desire to hide your face in fear.