Ottobeuren Abbey

Imperial Abbey of Ottobeuren
Reichskloster Ottobeuren
Imperial Abbey of the Holy Roman Empire
1299–1624 1710–1803
Coat of arms
The façade of the basilica, designed by Johann Michael Fischer, has been hailed as a pinnacle of Bavarian Baroque architecture
Capital		Ottobeuren Abbey
Government		Principality
Historical era		Middle Ages
•	Founded	764
•	Imperial immediacy	1299
•	Lost Reichsfreiheit as     Vogtei of Augsburg	1624
•	Regained immediacy	1710
•	Secularised to Bavaria	1803
Preceded by Succeeded by Duchy of Swabia Prince-Bishopric of Augsburg Prince-Bishopric of Augsburg Kingdom of Bavaria

Coat of arms

Ottobeuren is a Benedictine abbey, located in Ottobeuren, near Memmingen in the Bavarian Allgäu, Germany.

For part of its history Ottobeuren Abbey was one of the 40-odd self-ruling imperial abbeys of the Holy Roman Empire and, as such, was a virtually independent state. At the time of its dissolution in 1802, the imperial abbey covered 266 square kilometers and had about 10,000 subjects.

It was founded in 764 by Blessed Toto, and dedicated to St. Alexander, the martyr. Of its early history little is known beyond the fact that Toto, its first abbot, died about 815 and that Saint Ulrich was its abbot in 972. In the 11th century its discipline was on the decline, until Abbot Adalhalm (1082–94) introduced the Hirsau Reform. The same abbot began a restortion of the decaying buildings, which was completed along with the addition of a convent for noble ladies, by his successor, Abbot Rupert I (1102–45). Under the rule of the latter the newly founded Marienberg Abbey was recruited with monks from Ottobeuren. His successor, Abbot Isengrim (1145–80), wrote Annales minores and Annales majores.

Blessed Conrad of Ottobeuren was abbot from 1193 until his death in 1227, described by the Benedictines as a "lover of the brethren and of the poor".

In 1153, and again in 1217, the abbey was consumed by fire. In the 14th and 15th centuries it declined so completely that at the accession of Abbot Johann Schedler (1416–43) only six or eight monks were left, and its annual revenues did not exceed 46 silver marks. Under Abbot Leonard Wiedemann (1508–46) it again began to flourish: he erected a printing establishment and a common house of studies for the Swabian Benedictines. The latter, however, was soon closed, owing to the ravages of the Thirty Years' War.