Black Forest Clock Peddlers
The Black Forest is a wooded mountain range in Baden-Wurttemberg, southwestern Germany. It is bordered by the Rhine valley to the west and south. The highest peak is the Feldberg with an elevation of 1,493 meters (4,898 ft). The region is almost rectangular with a length of 200 km (120 mi) and breadth of 60 km (37 mi). Hence it has an area of approximately 12,000 km2 (4,600 sq mi).
It looks quite small, however, from the air.
The main industry is tourism. In addition to the towns and monuments, the Black Forest is crossed by numerous long distance footpaths. The clock peddler is a character that has all but disappeared from our lexicon of memories.
German Cuckoo Clock peddlers in the Black Forest used to carry their wares on a large backpack. After toiling the winter months away in a crowded workshop over his wares, a clock peddler greeted warmer months by wandering over the hills and through storybook forests hundreds of years ago, matching painted dials and interesting animated scenes to the customers’ choice of mechanisms. The cuckoo clock is much older than clock making in the Black Forest. As early as 1650 the coo coo bird with the distinctive call was part of the reference book knowledge recorded in handbooks. It took nearly a century for the cuckoo clock to find its way to the Black Forest, where for many decades it remained a tiny niche product.