The world's largest cuckoo clock in the Black Forest, Germany

Exciting background information

Who Invented the Cuckoo Clock?

The roots of the cuckoo clock:
As early as 1619, Elector August von Sachsen was in possession of a clock with a cuckoo. The exact origin of the cuckoo clock idea is unfortunately not known to this day. In 1650 the production of the cuckoo call by organ pipes in combination with a movable cuckoo figure was mentioned in the manual for music "Musurgia Universalis" and in 1669 the idea of ​​using the cuckoo call as a time announcement was published.

How the cuckoo moved to the Black Forest:
The first cuckoo clocks were built in the Black Forest in the 17th century. It remains unclear who was the lucky first. Franz Ketterer from Schönwald cites a version of contemporary history for the early 1730s as the inventor of the cuckoo clock. Evil tongues claim that he originally wanted a rooster to live in his clock, which should crows every hour. However, this project turned out to be too difficult. The sound of the organ pipes inspired Franz Ketterer and a clear penetrating call with only two tones became the solution. The rooster had to step back, the cuckoo was allowed to move in and the Black Forest cuckoo clock was born. Another version of contemporary history, on the other hand, reports that watch dealers met a Bohemian colleague with wooden cuckoo clocks in 1740 and brought the idea back to their homeland. In 1742 Michael Dilger and Matthäus Hummel are said to have made the first cuckoo clocks in the Black Forest.

How the cuckoo got his house:
The first cuckoo clocks did not have much in common with today's world-famous design. Until the 19th century, the cuckoo was built into a wide variety of clocks. In 1850, after a competition by the director of the Grand Ducal Badische Uhrmacherschule Furtwangen, the so-called Bahnhäusleuhr began to prevail. For this competition, Friedrich Eisenlohr attached a clock face to a station keeper's house and thus also created the basis for today's typical cuckoo clock design in the shape of a house. In the next few years the development of the typical Black Forest cuckoo clock began. In 1862, Johann Baptist Beha from Eisenbach sold cuckoo clocks with weights in the shape of a pine cone for the first time, and lavish carvings to decorate the clocks became popular. Today the cuckoo clock is a world-famous landmark of the Black Forest and just like the Black Forest Bollenhut or the Black Forest cake, it is no longer possible to imagine the region without it.

Good to know

Where can I find the world's widest cuckoo clock?

Another record clock can be viewed just 5 km from Triberg and 9 km from Schonach. She stands in front of the House of Black Forest Clocks, a family-run clock shop in Hornberg. The so-called Hornberger Uhrenspiele were inaugurated in 1995 and are entered in the Guinness Book of Records as the widest cuckoo clock in the world. If you throw a euro into the oversized music box, you bring it to life. The wooden figures begin to dance and the cuckoo also leaves his house on command. 21 moving figures give the widest cuckoo clock its special charm.

Where did the first oversized cuckoo clock come from?

An oversized cuckoo clock was built for the first time in 1946. Not in the Black Forest, however, but in Wiesbaden, as an advertisement in front of a souvenir shop for souvenirs from Germany. This cuckoo clock is not accessible, but it was still the largest cuckoo clock of its time. It can still be viewed today in Burgstrasse in Wiesbaden. From 8 a.m. to 20 p.m. the cuckoo shows up every full and half hour.