The destruction of the Oberstift, which included Linz, Ahrweiler, and other small towns and villages, occurred in the opening months of the Cologne War, from Christmas Day, 1582 until the end of March, 1583.

Over these few weeks, armies of the competing archbishops of Cologne burned the southernmost villages, cloisters, and small towns.

Under his direction, Jesuits introduced the Counter-Reformation to the north-western German states and under the leadership of his successors, these territories remained a Catholic stronghold until the late eighteenth century.

Salentin von Isenburg and his son in law, Count Arenberg, and the Duke Frederick of Saxe-Lauenburg stood against the supporters of Gebhard Truchsess.

[2] The count Werner von of Reifferscheid, who was the hereditary marshal of the Archdiocese, took command of the Catholic faction's troops.

Reifferscheid overran Bonn and then took the village of Mehlem, from there he went to a powder supply that Karl Truchsess had established in the vicinity of the city, and took it, and then burned the facility.