OTTO I

born Nov. 23, 912 died May 7, 973, Memleben, Thuringia byname Otto The Great, German Otto Der Grosse duke of Saxony (as Otto II, 936961), German king (from 936), and Holy Roman emperor (962973), who consolidated the German Reich by his suppression of rebellious vassals and his decisive victory over the Hungarians. His use of the church as a stabilizing influence created a secure empire and stimulated a cultural renaissance. Additional reading Rudolf Koepke and Ernst Duemmler, Jahrbcher der deutschen Geschichte: Kaiser Otto der Grosse (1876; 2nd ed. 1962), a description of the actual events in chronological order and the people involved; Gerd Tellenbach, Otto der Grosse, 912973, in Die grossen Deutschen, new ed., vol. 1, pp. 3551 (1956), a short character sketch; Hermann Aubin, Otto der Grosse und die Erneuerung des abendlndischen Kaisertums im Jahre 962 (1962); and Helmut Beumann and Heinrich Buettner, Das Kaisertum Ottos des Grossen (1963)all assess the historical significance of the renewal of the empire. Very little has been published on Otto I in English. John J. Gallagher, Church and State in Germany Under Otto the Great (1938); and chapters by C.W. Previte-Orton and A.L. Poole in The Cambridge Medieval History, vol. 3 (1964), are of interest.