Origins of the Cuckoo Clock

It has come to my attention that Orson Welles was mistaken in his famous quote from "The Third Man" in which he states "In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed ~ but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they have brotherly love, 500 years of democracy and peace and what did the produce? The cuckoo clock.” The cuckoo clock did not originate in Switzerland. It actually originated in Schwarzwald, Germany, which is located in the Black Forest.

The Black Forest is situated in the southwest corner of Germany beside the Bavarian Forest and is the lowest low mountain range of Germany. Until the mid 17th century, sundials and hourglasses were the time keeping devices used in this part of the world. Around 1640 a peddler from the land of Bohmen (today’s Czech Republic) introduced a simple Bohemian clock to the inhabitants of this area. Due to the long, bitter cold Black Forest winters workmen had ample time on their hands to copy the clock, make the tools used to craft it and eventually improve it.

Franz Anton Ketterer, from the Village of Schonwald near Triberg, Germany is attributed to incorporating the cuckoo sound into the Black Forest clock during the mid 1700's. He had been inspired by the technology used at the time in church organs. It is typically a pendulum clock striking the hours using small bellows and whistles that imitate the call of the cuckoo bird and hit on a wire gong. The cuckoo clock developed into beautifully ornate, wood carved time keeping pieces that became coveted items for a bride’s wedding chest. The clocks were sold during the summer months by peddling "clock carriers" throughout Europe, Russia and Turkey.