Ulm

Cathedral and university city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, on the Danube at its confluence with the River Iller, 71 km/44 mi southeast of Stuttgart; population (2005 est) 120,600. Industries include motor vehicles, mechanical engineering, electronics, and data processing. Its Gothic cathedral (begun in 1377) with the highest stone spire ever built (161 m/528 ft) escaped damage in World War II when two-thirds of Ulm was destroyed. It was a free imperial city from the 14th century to 1802. The physicist and mathematician Albert Einstein was born here.

Architecture Ulm's cathedral has five naves and has carvings, frescoes, and stained glass. There are old towers and houses, a 14th-century Rathaus, and another in Late Gothic and Renaissance styles. It is connected by bridges with Neu-Ulm on the right bank of the Danube in Bavaria.

History Ulm was originally a settlement of the Alemanni and was made a town by the Emperor Frederick I. In the Middle Ages it was an important market on the trade route to Italy and Asia. In 1805 Napoleon defeated 60,000 Austrians under General Mack here, marking the high point of Napoleon's campaign of German conquest.