Siegfall

The Siegfall is an artificial waterfall on the Sieg river at Schladern in the municipality of Windeck. It stands where the river once looped north-west for 2.7 kilometres past Burg Windeck. In the 1850s railway builders straightened the Sieg to carry the Deutz–Gießen line, cutting through the loop and leaving most of it dry.

The cut created a 6-metre drop over 84 metres of width. Water now spills over a weir on the left bank and races 200 metres down the rocky channel before rejoining the natural riverbed. A blind arm of the old loop became Höffers Teich between the weir and the railway embankment. A galvanising works, Elmore’s Werke, built a small hydroelectric plant here in the 19th century to power its factory and the village.

The factory later passed to Kabelmetal and then to another owner, but the power station still runs today. The rocky chute below the weir is popular with kayakers, though in 2007 a paddler died after capsizing and being pulled under by a strong eddy. Visitors can walk along the riverbank or watch the water tumble from the railway bridge above.