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.

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 vogtei 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.

[6] 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.

[9] Noteworthy among monks of Ottobeuren are: In 1834 King Ludwig I of Bavaria restored it as a Benedictine priory, dependent on St. Stephen's Abbey, Augsburg.

The priory had care of a large parish and an industrial school of sixty or seventy orphans whom the lay brothers instructed in various trades.

It was the main instrument for 200 years, until 1957 when a third organ was added by G. F. Steinmeyer & Co., renovated and augmented in 2002 by Johannes Klais, making 100 stops available on five manuals (or keyboards).