It was founded in 764 by Toto, and dedicated to
Alexander of Bergamo, the martyr. Of its early history little is known beyond the fact that Toto, its first abbot, died about 815 and that
Ulrich of Augsburg 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 restoration of the decaying buildings, which was completed along with the addition of a convent for noble women, 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 and .
Conrad of Ottobeuren was abbot from 1193 until his death in 1227. He is 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. Ottobeuren became an
imperial abbey in 1299, but lost this status after the
prince-bishop of Augsburg had become
Vogt of the abbey. These rights were renounced after a court case at the
Reichskammergericht in 1624. Within months of his election in 1710, the new abbot, Rupert Ness (Rupert II, 1710–1740), the son of a master blacksmith, succeeded in solving the centuries-old dispute over jurisdiction by paying 30,000 guldens to the prince-bishop of Augsburg for his renouncing the protection over the abbey, thus allowing Ottobeuren to regain its full status as an independent imperial abbey, although it did not become a member of the Swabian Circle. The
War of the Spanish Succession not being yet over at the time, Rupert arranged to meet Emperor
Charles VI who still occupied Bavaria, as well as
Prince Eugene and the
Duke of Marlborough who were operating in the area. Rupert ushered in the most flourishing period in the history of Ottobeuren, which lasted until its secularization in 1802. In the zenith of its glory, Ottobeuren fell victim to the
German mediatization along with all the other imperial abbeys of the Holy Roman Empire. On 1 December 1802 Ottobeuren was secularized and its territory annexed to Bavaria. At the time, the territory of the imperial abbey covered 266 square kilometers and had about 10,000 inhabitants.
The abbey From 1711–1725, Rupert erected the present monastery, the architectural grandeur of which has merited for it the name of "the Swabian Escorial", attesting to the economic significance of the abbey. It was famous for its book illuminations. The abbey library features stucco ceilings by
Johann Baptist Zimmermann and ceiling paintings by Elias Zobel. In 1737 Rupert also began the building of the present church, completed by his successor, Anselm Erb, in 1766.
Basilica The church was named a
minor basilica by
Pope Pius XI in 1926. ==Monks==