Die Ulmer Sammlung

Die Ulmer Sammlung traces a women's community in Ulm to the Beguine movement of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Educated daughters from Ulm's patriciate and wealthy bourgeoisie brought their fortunes into this free, economically independent foundation. Members worked in trades, supported social and educational initiatives, and remained free to leave, including for marriage. Villages and estates belonged to the community and received responsible management.

Members chose a Meisterin from among themselves, while Amtsschwestern handled administrative responsibilities within the community. Its social and economic standing in Ulm appears documented from 1284. The community flourished in the fourteenth century and resisted restrictions on women's rights in the late fifteenth. After the Reformation, it continued as an evangelical women's foundation. The Thirty Years' War and plague ended its self-government, while Barbara Kluntz later made it a cultural hub. Dissolution came in 1808, but the Sammlungsschule became Württemberg's first public higher girls' school.