Following Louis' incursions into the Rhineland the previous year, a coalition of nations had formed to resist French hegemony.

In Germany this involved an advance into the territory of France's ally the Electorate of Cologne, while to the west the large field armies of Waldeck and Humières were manoeuvring against each other.

In June 1689 Brandenburg took Kaiserswerth, leaving Bonn as the only major settlement in Cologne not in Allied hands.

On 11 July the Allied commanders Hans Adam von Schöning and Adriaan van Flodroff captured a key fort close to Bonn, and eleven days later the main Allied field army arrived outside Bonn.

On 12 October the defenders surrendered after a very heavy bombardment that left much of Bonn in ruins.