Black Forest of Germany

The Black Forest is a region in south-west Germany. It was know to be one the largest clock making areas in the world.  It started as local farmers were looking for some indoor work that could be done during the hard winter months. They took up woodworking and woodcarving. Someone had a wooden clock and from that they came up with the idea to start making clocks.

The early clocks had wooden wheels and  frames, the weight that powered it was a stone on a string. The clocks only ran for 12 hours. Later wood wheels were replaced by brass wheels.  A clock maker needed one week to make one simple clock. They progressed to two people making 10 such clocks in a week. As the years went on the business turned into a large enterprise for the area. They did not start out making cuckoo clocks even though that region is famous for them. They still make cuckoo clocks because the consumer is used to the west German quality and are not interested in cheap imitations.  

If you ever get a chance to visit the Black Forest region of Germany, here is a website that gives the history of their clock making. There you can tour clock museums, clock companies, workshops and studios of clock shield painters. http://www.deutscheuhrenstrasse.de/uhrimschwarzwalden.htm 

This is a place I would love to visit and see where it all started by farmers looking for something to do in the winter.