Cultural depictions of Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor

Karl Hampe called him "perhaps the most self-contained and strong-willed ruling personality of the entire German Middle Age" and "a full-bodied layman, well versed in sword-play", "with a healthy sense of power, little touched by the world of ideas".

[6][8] According to Johannes Fried, only after World War II, the scholarly depiction of Conrad slowly changed: "It was the remarkable 1992 exhibition "The Salian Reich" that lifted him and his family out of the shadows of the graves in Speyer, into which they had sunken previously in the general German historical consciousness."

[6] Reviewing Wolfram's book, Monnet praised Conrad as the ruler associated with a brilliant moment in the imperial history, and yet also the first who recognized the dangers in his vast collection of three kingdoms and succeeded in bringing the ministeriales into princely and royal administration.

"[10] Egon Boshof comments on Conrad, "Strengthening the royal authority internally and consolidating the reputation of the empire externally were the great achievement of the first Salian emperor, who spent all his power early in restless commitment to the fulfillment of these tasks.

Blumenthal also pointed out some negative aspects like the distribution of abbeys, bishoprics and church property in exchange for territorial and financial gains or the treatment of Aribert of Milan and Burchard of Lyon.