NEW ULM

city, seat of Brown County, southern Minnesota, U.S., on the Minnesota River, near the mouth of the Cottonwood, 75 mi (121 km) south of Minneapolis. Founded in 1854 by German immigrants, it was named for Ulm in Wrttemberg. The town was almost destroyed in the Sioux uprising of 1862; the Defenders' Monument next to the courthouse square commemorates the event. Overlooking the city on a bluff is a 102-ft (31-m) bronze statue (c. 1898) honouring Hermann (Arminius), a German tribal leader who inflicted a major defeat on the Romans at the Teutoburg Forest in AD 9. Dr. Martin Luther College dates from 1884. New Ulm's economy is based on agriculture (food processing), augmented by light manufacturing (chiefly electronic equipment and plastics). Nearby is Flandrau State Park and Ft. Ridgely (1854). Inc. village, 1857; city, 1876. Pop. (1992 est.) 13,446.