The dam was built between 1910 and 1913. It is part of the Saalach power plant in Bad Reichenhall, which was built as part of the electrification of the Freilassing–Berchtesgaden railway line. Today, the Deutsche Bahn subsidiary DB Energie GmbH operates the power plant, which is a listed building. From 2004 to 2005, DB Energie built an additional residual hydroelectric power station on the left immediately adjacent to the existing dam structure. Construction began on April 14, 2004; Trial operation was on December 22, 2004 and on February 17, 2005 it was put into operation. A Kaplan turbine with a vertical shaft arrangement and a diameter of 1.1 meters with a head of 13 meters runs in the new hydroelectric power station. The generator has a rated output of 700 kilowatts; this means that five million kilowatt hours of electricity can be generated annually for the railways and around 1,000 residents.
Construction work with missing flood lock and wall
Since the end of 2014, after more than 100 years of operation, the entire dam structure has been completely renovated and rebuilt in parts, since the weir field for the bottom outlet had been leaking for many years and the safe drainage of the current design flood was no longer given. The wall will also be raised as part of the construction work. In 2015, the complete conversion measures should be completed and the lake should be dammed up again. Since the summer of 2016, the lake has been completely filled again and work on the dam wall has been completed.