Emperor Otto, known as Otto the Great, has consolidated the German Reich by his suppression of rebellious vassals and his decisive victory over the Magyars, and provided his regime with a firm base by bringing the church tightly under his control.

His use of the church as a stabilizing influence has created a secure empire and stimulated a cultural renaissance.

In his appointment of abbots and bishops, he has bestowed the archbishoprics of Cologne and Mainz to his brothers Bruno and William respectively, rewarded churchmen lavishly, and exacted administrative and military service, thereby keeping the church out of the hands of the nobility.

Because Otto has personally appointed the bishops and abbots, these reforms strengthened his central authority, and the upper ranks of the German church function in some respect as an arm of the imperial bureaucracy.

Conflict over these powerful bishoprics between Otto's successors and the growing power of the Papacy during the Gregorian Reforms would eventually lead in the eleventh century to the Investiture Conflict and the undoing of central authority in Germany.

Having returned to Germany, the Emperor holds a great assembly of his court at Quedlinburg on March 23, 973.

After his death at Memleben on May 7, 973 he is buried next to his first wife Edith of Wessex in the Cathedral of Magdeburg, whose archbishopric he had established in 968.

His eighteen-year-old son by Adelaide of Italy, Otto the Red, succeeds him without challenge to become Roman Emperor Otto II.