Schönwald

The B500 Furtwanger Strasse passes through some very pretty countryside and travels through Schönwald, where the cuckoo clock was born. Schönwald was the home of Franz Anton Ketterer who at the beginning of the 18th century thought of combining a clock with bellows. He incorporated a cuckoo carved in wood with a timepiece whose tiny bellows marked the hours with the notes of a cuckoo call. Records show that clocks were manufactured in the Black Forest as early as 1630, but when cuckoo clocks were invented, they became the rage. Today clockmaking remains a considerable industry for the region, and, although factories exist, the production of cuckoo clocks is sometimes still a home business with the whole family working on the intricately carved boxes and painted dials.