With a POD after the end of the Ottonian dynasty - that is to say, after the death of Henry II in 1024 - is there a way to have the Holy Roman Empire disintegrate gracefully without balkanizing? My original idea was to have the HRE lose Italy early on and consequently rule as a king of Germany or some such, but it seems quite likely that a sufficiently large German state would refuse to relinquish (or if worse came to worst, attempt to recreate) the HRE title if for no other motive than prestige. Also, the Holy Roman Empire in centuries to come didn't seem to regard the loss of Italian land as sufficient cause for discontinuing claims to Roman heritage, while the decentralized state of the HRE means that a disaster on a scale that caused the sudden loss of Italy might imply a situation where the emperor can no longer control his vassals.
So basically, after Henry II, what would carve up the Holy Roman Empire into as small a group of states possible (yet with none of them large enough to claim or to carry on the HRE mantle)? I'd like to avoid a situation where Germany explodes into its hundreds of constituent realms.