Otto I was born on 23 October 912 as the son of Henry, later Henry I, and Matilda. After the death of his father, he was crowned king in Aachen in 936. He continued his father’s policies by expanding the imperial ecclesiastical system and making the clergy the main pillar of his power.

From 936 to 961, he stayed in his favourite City of Magdeburg, which he had given to his first wife Editha as a wedding gift. Here, in 937, he founded a Benedictine monastery in honour of Saint Mauritius with the intention of later turning it into a cathedral, and donated Magdeburg’s St. John’s Church to the monks of this Mauritius monastery (in German: Moritzkloster).
Otto’s wife Editha died in 946 and was buried in the church of the Mauritius Monastery. She left him a daughter named Liudgard and a son named Liudolf. A short time later, he married for the second time: Queen Adelheid. This time too, his wife gave him two children, son Otto (later Otto II) and daughter Mathilde. His two marriages, one to the English princess Editha and the other to Queen Adelheid of Italy, gave Otto’s reign international status.

Otto earned the nickname “the Great” when he defeated the Hungarians at the famous Battle of Lechfeld in 955, thus securing the empire against the enemy from the east. In the same year, Otto ordered the construction of a monumental cathedral, the predecessor of today’s Magdeburg Cathedral, on the site of the Moritzkirche. In 965, he granted the monks of the monastery market, minting and customs rights. Three years later (968), this Magdeburg Mauritius monastery was elevated to an archbishopric by Otto I with papal authorisation and developed into the most powerful of its time on German-speaking soil. In the same year, Otto I also ordered the construction of an imperial palace directly next to the Ottonian cathedral.

Otto I himself was not able to witness the construction of his cathedral, as he was in Italy at the time, where he reached the pinnacle of his power: in 962, Otto became the first German king to be crowned emperor and empress together with Adelheid in Rome. The emperor returned to Germany in 972 and entered his cathedral in Magdeburg on Palm Sunday in 973. This entry into the cathedral was the first and last in his life. His death during an Easter procession in Memleben on 7 May 973 was sudden. Otto the Great’s remains were buried in Magdeburg Cathedral in 973, his heart in Memleben, where he died.

“But on the Tuesday before Pentecost he came to a place called Memleben. The following night, as usual, he rose from his bed at dawn and attended the nightly and morning hymns. He then rested a little. After the mass had been celebrated, he gave to the poor according to his custom, ate a little and rested again on his bed. At midday, however, he came cheerfully out of his chamber and sat down cheerfully at table. When he had paid his respects, he attended vespers. But by the time the Magnificant had been sung, he was already beginning to feel feverish and faint. When the surrounding princes noticed this, they sat him down on an armchair, but as he bowed his head as if he had already passed away, they woke him up again; he requested the sacrament of the body and blood of God, took it and, without a sigh, calmly gave his last breath to the merciful Creator of all things to the sound of the liturgical hymns of death. Then he was taken from here to his bedchamber and, when it was already late, his death was announced to the people.”

(Source: Widukindi, III, c. 75, p. 152 f., lines 17 ff.)