In Munich, the Marienkirche's the Limit

When it comes to building in the Bavarian capital, the famous onion domes of the Marienkirche -- not the sky -- will be the limit in the future.

A referendum that passed with a 50.8 percent margin set the 100 meter high (328-foot) towers of the church as the highest a building can rise in the picturesque city. The immediate victims of the referendum are a planned 148 meter high building by Siemens and the Süddeutsche publishing house's 145-meter high planned high-rise in the east of the city.

Both the Social Democratic and Green party city government and opposition parties had approved the construction of the two buildings -- to the horror of former Mayor Georg Kronawitter.

Against the will of his party colleague and successor, Kronawitter -- under whose watch a 114-meter high-rise was built -- began a referendum against the tall buildings. Critics rolled their eyes, and one newspaper called him the "Don Quixote of Urbanism."

"Kronawitter should follow his high-rise attack with a similar proposal. All cars that drive faster than 18 km/h (11 mph) should leave the city," wrote Gerhard Matzig in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, owned by the Süddeutsche publishing house. "Streets could be replaced by mud roads, cars through horse coaches and high-rises through mud huts."