Johann Wilhelm Schirmer - Der Reichenbachfall bei Meiringen -
The Reichenbach Falls (German: Reichenbachfälle) are a waterfall cascade of seven steps on the stream called Rychenbach in the Bernese Oberland region of Switzerland. They drop over a total height of about 250 metres (820 ft). At 110 metres (360 ft), the upper falls, known as the Grand Reichenbach Fall (German: Grosser Reichenbachfall), is by far the tallest segment and one of the highest waterfalls in the Alps, and among the forty highest in Switzerland. The Reichenbach loses 290 metres (950 ft) of height from the top of the falls to the valley floor of the Haslital. Today, a hydroelectric power company harnesses the flow of the Reichenbach Falls during certain times of year, reducing its flows.
In popular literature, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle gave the Grand (or Great) Reichenbach Fall as the location of the final physical altercation between his hero Sherlock Holmes and his greatest foe, the criminal Professor Moriarty, in “The Final Problem”.
Johann Wilhelm Schirmer (5 September 1807 in Jülich – 11 September 1863 in Karlsruhe) was a German landscape artist born in Jülich, within the Prussian Duchy of Jülich.
