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Here you find lots of interesting facts about:
Bavaria and its customs Oktoberfest
Lederhosen & Dirndls King Ludwig II.
Nutcrackers München
Oberammergau
Music Boxes


Cuckoo Clocks

The cuckoo clock is beside the nutcracker, the dirndl and the lederhosen one of the most known items around the world. Every tourist already was standing in front of a cuckoo clock in a Souvenirshop and asked himself "Should I, or should I not?".
The cuckoo clock comes in a lot of different sizes, styles and colours - especially now a days. But if you track back its history, you will find out that the typical cuckoo clock is brown, plays music and most important have this little bird, coming out each half and full hour and makes what the clock is called: "Cuckoo, cuckoo". Its origin lies in a region called the Black forest.

black forrest cuckoo clock
The clocks from the Black Forest have a long tradition, which can be tracked back to the year 1640, when the inhabitants of this area already started building clocks. For sure the first models were only simple hour indicators. But already 100 years later, around 1740, the first cuckoo clock was designed by Anton Ketterer. In the 18. and 19. century traders from the Black Forest travelled to England, Russia and Turkey. Their commodity was everywhere desired. The most valuable Black Forest clock is the "world-time-clock", which was built in 1787. It is located today in the German clock museum in Furtwangen.
Still today the original cuckoo clock from the Black Forest lost nothing from its fascination: Music, little figurines spinning around, equipped with a mechanical clockwork from edges, chains and weights makes it adorns many homes and is a popular gift for special causes. Most of the cuckoo clocks you find at stores are still mostly handmade according to a century-old tradition. All wood carvings are hand-made by master carvers in the Black Forest. The wood-carvings for all models are made individually, but old clocks, original drawings of the first clocks, are still used and modified as patterns for new models. Even the assembly of the clocks is done by hand as you can see on sometimes by the small nails or the small spots of glue.
cuckoo clock erzgebirge
cuckoo clock erzgebirge

The mounting of the carvings is done by hand, the movements, music-boxes and bellows are equally installed by hand into the cuckoo clocks. To guarantee the perfect function of the clocks each one is adjusted and controlled before they are shipped-out to our customers.
The first Black Forest Clocks were produced in the Triberg area in the 18th century. The natural - sounding cuckoo call was made possible, through the use of two different bellows. During the winter months, the farms were snowed-in and the people put their time and imagination to use creating finely handcrafted cuckoo clocks of many styles with rich and varied carvings.

The Black Forest, the place most associated with the production of the cuckoo clocks, is beside the Bavarian forest the largest low mountain range of Germany. It is particularly famous for its expanded forests, valleys and nature-left rivers. Almost each village is air health resort. The Black Forest ranks among the oldest holidays areas. 13000 miles of paths available for hiking correspond almost to the half earth scope.

The "Titisee" is the most beautiful lake of the black forest and frequently visited. Additionally here the traditional handicraft - particularly the carving - are maintained until today. It is frequently visited by holiday-makers and guests, not because of its height of 1493 meters, but for its great tree-free position in the mids of low-green forests.

black forrest cuckoo clock

If you want to know more about cuckoo clocks than feel free to contact us via mail, fax or email.

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