Seewli Project

Anyone traveling from Meiringen in direction of the Grosse Scheidegg discovers in the Reichenbach valley, shortly after the Gasthof Kaltenbrunnen a clearing with several buildings. The property is the remnant of a large project which Franz Otto Junghanns wanted to realize at this place at the beginning of the 20th century. The German industrialist took great pleasure in the Reichenbach valley and intended to build here a stately building, Its dimensions should exceed the ones of most castles and villas in the Bernese Oberland. Renowned architectural offices were commissioned for designs. However, only a small part of the project was realized. Among them was a chalet in traditional block construction, a turbine house and a rectangular pond. There a fountain should shoot into the sky higher than the Jet d'eau in Geneva. However it never happened. Junghanns had bought war bonds towards the end of the World War I which lost their value within short time, so he went bankrupt.