>>17280469
Two major events
>The Investiture Controversy
>The Great Interregnum

The first one was more minor, basically it eventually took the church out of the hands of the king and into the Popes with all the war that came with it. Henry IV spent most of his reign crushing rebels and supporters of Papal power rather successfully too but the cat had been let out of the bag and the first major challenge to royal power presented itself. Power in general was still pretty much in the hands of the king and the king alone until the 13th century, while somebody like Barbarossa was less of a zealot in keeping all the dukes under his thumb (although he still cared very much) like Henry IV he was sstill appointing a great deal while refusing to allow feudal inheritence. The next breaking point, and the most important is the Great Interregnum after Frederick II's death. There was no king in Germany for nearly 30 years. It resulted in the complete destruction of royal power, the ruin of royal lands and their patrition into the lands of various princes. By the time an actual king came into power the new HRE all the memes are familar with came into existence. The king was weak and the princes had free reign, which was not the case earlier. Ottonian and Salian kings were the most centralised rulers at the time besides Byzantium.

Something similar almost happened in England after the Anarchy with royal lands dismembered and with powers, prerogatives given over and many new Earls made. However England had Henry II who in the early years of his reign worked through force and military victory over the country to reverse this. Cutting the amount of Earls in half, recovering rights and retaking royal lands. Although it wouldn't be as good as it was under Henry I. Germany never had such a king who could reverse the destructive process so it simply remained and continued to get worse.

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Why did the HRE fail to state-ify like France or England did?