It was founded in 1003 on the site of a Roman fort by the future Saint Heribert, Archbishop of Cologne, close adviser of Emperor Otto III.

[2] The abbey had extensive properties, but its strategic position by the Rhine exposed it to involvement in fighting, and it was destroyed in the 14th century and again in the 16th.

In World War II it was heavily damaged and only the ground floor and remnants of the Romanesque cellar were preserved.

Today the former abbey accommodates an old people's home run by Caritas.

Notable are the mural paintings by the artist Werner Weber.